Dutch Oven Dump Stew
Cubed steak, canned vegetables, and a box of rice mix, cooked down over coals until the beef gives up.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 18 oz
- cal / oz
- 34
- protein
- 40 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 180 min
- total time
- 200 min
- water
- none
- 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
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Round steak | 1 1/2 to 2 lb | cubed at home, kept in the cooler |
|---|---|---|
| Onion | 1 medium | chopped |
| Vegetable oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Canned whole potatoes | 2 cans | drained |
| Canned peas and carrots | 1 can | drained |
| Canned corn | 1 small can | liquid and all |
| Canned mushrooms | 1 can | drained |
| Canned green beans | 1 small can | drained |
| Beef broth | 1 can (15 oz) | |
| Beef gravy | 1 can (15 oz) | |
| Boxed beef and rice mix with vermicelli | 1 box |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want a long, steady bed, not flames.
- Heat the oil in the dutch oven and brown the cubed steak with the onion. Stop when the onion goes translucent.
- Add every can: potatoes, peas and carrots, corn with its liquid, mushrooms, green beans, broth, and gravy. Stir once.
- Set the lid on and hold a low simmer over coals for two to three hours. Add coals as they burn down and stir every half hour so the bottom does not catch.
- Test the beef. It should pull apart under a spoon. If it fights you, give it longer.
- Thirty minutes out, stir in the rice mix and its seasoning. Keep the lid on until the rice is soft.
- Let it sit off the heat five minutes. It thickens as it cools.
This is a cooler-and-can-crate meal, not a pack meal. The only refrigerated item is the steak, and cubing it at home means it thaws faster and browns evenly in one layer. Everything else comes out of a can, so the water is already in the pot and nothing needs measuring.
The long simmer is the whole point. Round steak is cheap because it is worked muscle, and two to three hours over coals is what turns it from chewy to spoonable. The rice mix goes in last for the same reason the vegetables are canned: it only needs half an hour, and any longer and it turns to paste. The corn goes in undrained because that starchy liquid does most of the thickening.
If you want this in a pack, the canned-roast-beef variation is the way. Fresh beef and a dozen cans do not go up a trail.
Packing
Cube the steak at home and freeze it flat in a bag. It thaws over the first day in the cooler and keeps the ice going. Cans stack in a milk crate. Take a can opener you have actually tested.
Variations
- Swap the round steak for two cans of roast beef and skip the browning. The stew is then fully shelf-stable and cooks in forty minutes.
- A can of diced tomatoes in place of the gravy makes it thinner and brighter.
- Stir in a spoon of Worcestershire or a beef bouillon cube if the broth tastes flat.
https://camprecipes.com/classic-recipes/dump-stew