Dutch Oven Mushroom Steak Strips
Round steak, a pound of mushrooms, and enough time over coals to make a tough cut behave.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 48
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 9, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 90 min
- total time
- 110 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
| Round steak | 2-3 lb | cut into finger-width strips at home |
|---|---|---|
| Mushrooms | 1 lb | sliced |
| Onions | 2 | diced |
| Butter | 1/4 lb | |
| Flour | 1 cup | |
| Tomato sauce | 8 oz can | |
| Worcestershire sauce | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Pepper | 1/2 tsp |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want a steady bed, not flames.
- Toss the steak strips in the flour until every side is dusted.
- Melt the butter in a 12-inch Dutch oven over coals. Add the meat and turn it for about 5 minutes, until the flour picks up color.
- Add the onions and mushrooms. Cook 5 to 8 minutes, until the onions go from white to clear and the mushrooms give up their water.
- Stir in the tomato sauce, Worcestershire, salt, and pepper. Scrape the bottom so nothing sticks.
- Lid on, and pull most of the coals off the top. Simmer 1 to 1.5 hours. Check every 20 minutes and add a splash of water if it tightens up.
- Serve over rice, noodles, or potatoes cooked in a second pot.
Round steak is cheap because it is tough. The fix is the same one every braise uses: low heat and a long time, until the connective tissue gives up. That is an hour and a half of doing nothing but keeping coals under a lid, which is why this is a basecamp meal and not a trail one.
The flour coating does double duty. It browns on the meat in the butter, and the rest of it dissolves into the tomato sauce and mushroom liquid to make gravy. Skip the dusting and you get thin, watery pan juice instead. Mushrooms release a lot of water in the first ten minutes, so do not add liquid until after they have cooked down.
Packing
Strip and flour-dust the meat at home, then freeze it flat in a bag — it thaws over the first day and keeps the cooler cold. Mushrooms and onions go in a paper bag, not plastic, or they sweat.
Variations
- Half a cup of red wine in place of the water keeps the braise from tasting flat.
- A 10-inch oven takes about two-thirds of everything; same coals, same clock.
- Swap the round steak for a chuck roast cut the same way if that is what the butcher has.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/mushroom_round_steak-1295.asp