Dutch Oven Swiss Steak
Round steak braised slow in ketchup and coals until a cheap cut gives up.
- calories
- 390
- weight
- 7.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 52
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 150 min
- total time
- 165 min
- water
- 250 ml boiled
- 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
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Round steak | 3 lb | cut into portions that fit the oven flat |
|---|---|---|
| Butter | 3 tbsp | |
| Celery | 3 stalks | chopped small |
| Onion | 1 | diced |
| Ketchup | 1/2 cup | |
| Dried parsley | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Water | up to 1 cup | only if the pot dries out |
Method
- Build a coal bed and set the 12-inch Dutch oven over it hot, around 350 to 400 degrees.
- Melt the butter and brown the steak in batches. Do not crowd it. Browning is where the flavor comes from, so give each piece a minute of contact.
- Add the celery, onion, ketchup, parsley, and salt. Stir once to coat the meat.
- Pull most of the coals and rearrange for a simmer, roughly 180 to 200 degrees. Lid on.
- Cook 2 to 2.5 hours. Look in every 20 to 30 minutes, stir, and add a splash of water if the sauce is turning to paste.
- It is done when a fork twists the meat apart without effort. Under two hours it will still fight you.
Round steak is lean and full of connective tissue, which means fast heat turns it into shoe leather. The whole recipe is built around avoiding that. You brown hot for the crust, then drop the temperature to a bare simmer and hold it there for two hours while the collagen breaks down. A Dutch oven under a thin layer of coals is one of the few camp setups that can actually hold a low temperature that long.
The ketchup is doing more than it looks like. Its acid helps soften the meat and its sugar thickens into a sauce as the liquid cooks off. Watch the pot every half hour and add water when it goes pasty, because scorched sauce on cast iron is a long night of scrubbing. This one needs a cooler, so it is a car-camping or basecamp meal, not something you carry.
Packing
Chop the celery and onion at home and bag them with the parsley and salt. The steak and butter ride in the cooler. Ketchup goes in a squeeze bottle, not a glass jar.
Variations
- Swap in chuck or bottom round. Any tough, cheap cut works, and tough is the point.
- A can of diced tomatoes in place of half the ketchup cuts the sweetness.
- Serve over instant mashed potatoes made in a second pot with the leftover boil water.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/swiss_steak-1294.asp