Dutch Oven Meatloaf and Potatoes
A pound and a half of ground beef pressed flat, buried under sliced potatoes and canned soup, then baked over coals.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 12 oz
- cal / oz
- 43
- protein
- 30 g
- serves
- 8
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 60 min
- total time
- 80 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
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Ground beef | 1 1/2 lb | |
|---|---|---|
| Hot pork sausage | 1/2 lb | bulk, not links |
| Dry bread crumbs | 1 cup | |
| Milk | 3/4 cup | shelf-stable boxed milk works and saves cooler space |
| Egg | 1 | |
| Oregano | 1/2 tsp | |
| Basil | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dry mustard | 1/2 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Cooking oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Potatoes | 4 medium | |
| Canned vegetable soup | two 15 oz cans | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste | for the potato layer |
Method
- Get a chimney of charcoal going, or burn a fire down to coals. You want roughly 350F in the oven, which is about 8 briquettes under a 12-inch and 16 on the lid.
- Mix the beef, sausage, bread crumbs, milk, egg, oregano, basil, dry mustard, and pepper in a large bowl. Use your hands. Work it until it holds together like dough and no dry crumbs are left.
- Pour the oil into the dutch oven and wipe it around the bottom and up the sides. Oil your hands with what is left.
- Press the meat into an even layer across the bottom. Even matters more than pretty; a thick spot will still be raw when the rest is done.
- Peel the potatoes and slice them thin, about an eighth of an inch. Lay them over the meat in overlapping rows and salt and pepper them.
- Pour both cans of soup over the potatoes so the liquid covers them. Lid on.
- Bake about an hour with most of the coals on the lid. Refresh the coals at the half hour. It is done when a knife slides through the potatoes with no resistance and the meat has pulled away from the sides.
- Let it sit ten minutes off the heat before you cut it. Scoop straight down so each plate gets both layers.
This is a meatloaf and a side dish stacked in the same pot, which is the whole point of a dutch oven. The meat renders fat and the soup runs down through the potatoes, so the potatoes braise instead of drying out and the loaf never sits in its own grease.
Coal placement is the part people get wrong. Most of the heat belongs on the lid; too much underneath scorches the meat layer long before the potatoes give up. Slice the potatoes thin and even, because an hour is exactly enough time for eighth-inch slices and not nearly enough for quarter-inch ones. Boxed shelf-stable milk swaps in for fresh with no difference once it is in the mix.
Packing
The meat mix can be kneaded at home, bagged flat, and frozen. It thaws in the cooler over the drive and doubles as an ice block. Potatoes ride loose in the food bin. Bring a can opener.
Variations
- Sweet potatoes in place of white ones cook in the same hour and hold their shape better.
- Cream of mushroom instead of vegetable soup makes it richer and cuts the liquid.
- No sausage on hand: use all beef and add a teaspoon of red pepper flakes for the heat you lost.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/hot_dish-2439.asp