Foil-Wrapped Breakfast Sandwiches for the Cooler
Egg, meat, and cheese on an English muffin, built at home and reheated in the coals.
- calories
- 390
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 87
- protein
- 21 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 23 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.
- Breakfast
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- Foil packet
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Eggs | 12 | |
|---|---|---|
| Powdered whole milk, reconstituted | 1/2 cup | regular milk if you are still in the kitchen |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Ground black pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Cooked sausage patties, bacon, ham, or Canadian bacon | 12 portions | fully cooked, then chilled |
| English muffins | 12 | split |
| Cheddar | 12 slices |
Method
- At home: whisk the eggs with the milk, salt, and pepper and pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350°F for 18 to 22 minutes, until the center is just barely set. Pull them early. They cook again at camp.
- Cool the sheet completely, then cut it into twelve squares.
- Build each sandwich: muffin bottom, egg square, cheese, meat, muffin top. Wrap each one tight in foil.
- Freeze them solid, then pack them into the cooler frozen. They double as ice for the first day.
- At camp: set a wrapped sandwich on a grill grate over a low fire, or on the edge of the coals. Six to eight minutes, flipping once.
- Open a corner to check. If the cheese has run, it is done. If the center is still cold, rewrap and give it two more minutes off the direct heat.
This is a kitchen recipe that survives the trip because of the foil. Each sandwich is its own sealed packet, so it goes from cooler to coals without a pan, a plate, or a spatula, and the only cleanup is a ball of foil in the trash bag.
The underbaked eggs are the part worth getting right. Fully set eggs come out of the fire rubbery, since the reheat is a second cook. Pull the pan while the middle still looks slightly loose and it lands correctly at camp. Powdered milk stands in for fresh in the egg mix, which matters only if you are batching these somewhere without a fridge.
Packing
Wrapped sandwiches go in one gallon freezer bag at the bottom of the cooler, under everything else. Frozen solid they hold four days in a well-packed cooler and two in a bad one.
Variations
- Swap the cheddar for pepper jack and add a folded slice of green chile before wrapping.
- Bagel thins or sandwich thins work if muffins are what your store is out of.
- Skip the meat and double the egg square. Same wrap, same fire, one less thing to keep cold.
https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/freezer-breakfast-sandwiches