Dutch Oven Cornbread
A side dish baked in a pie tin inside a 12-inch dutch oven, with powdered milk standing in for the fresh stuff.
- calories
- 330
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 94
- protein
- 5 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 30 min
- water
- 240 ml cold
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Corn meal | 1 cup | |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 2 cups | |
| Baking powder | 3 tsp | |
| Sugar | 1/2 cup | |
| Shortening | 1/2 cup | solid vegetable shortening keeps at ambient temperature |
| Powdered whole milk | 1/4 cup | reconstituted with 1 cup water; replaces fresh milk |
| Powdered whole egg | 2 tbsp | plus 3 tbsp water; a fresh egg works if you have a cooler |
| Water | about 1 1/4 cups total |
Method
- Build a fire down to coals, or light 25 charcoal briquettes. You want 350°F in a 12-inch dutch oven: roughly 8 coals underneath and 17 on the lid.
- Stir the corn meal, flour, baking powder, sugar, and both powders together in a bowl or a gallon bag.
- Cut or rub in the shortening until the dry mix looks like coarse crumbs. Cold shortening is easier to work with than warm.
- Add water a few tablespoons at a time, stirring, until it comes together as a thick batter. Stop as soon as it does. Overmixing makes it tough.
- Grease an aluminum pie tin, pour the batter in, and set the tin inside the dutch oven.
- Lid on, coals on top. Bake about 20 minutes. A twig or toothpick pushed into the middle should come out dry.
- Rotate the oven and the lid a third turn every 8 minutes or so if your coals are uneven.
Baking at camp fails in two places: the heat and the wet ingredients. The pie tin solves the first. It lifts the batter off the cast iron floor, so the bottom sets instead of scorching while the top is still raw, and the tin comes out with the bread in it and leaves the oven nearly clean.
The milk and egg are powdered here because neither survives a warm day in a pack. Rehydrated, they behave close enough — the baking powder does the lifting, not the egg. Shortening instead of butter is the same logic: it sits on a shelf at 90°F and it coats the flour, which is what keeps the crumb short rather than bready.
Packing
Combine everything dry — corn meal, flour, baking powder, sugar, milk powder, egg powder — in one gallon bag at home. Shortening rides in a screw-top jar. The pie tin nests inside the dutch oven with the bag in it.
Variations
- Halve the sugar and stir in a small can of drained green chiles for a savory version alongside chili.
- In a 10-inch oven, use about two-thirds of everything and keep the same time and temperature.
- No pie tin: grease the oven directly and add 5 minutes, but expect a darker bottom crust.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/cornbread-1344.asp