Hot and Sweet Dutch Oven Sausage
Polish sausage braised in brown sugar, mustard, and cayenne until the liquid turns into glaze.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 56
- protein
- 24 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 60 min
- total time
- 70 min
- water
- 240 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
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Polish sausage | 4 lbs | already cooked; cut into 2-inch lengths |
|---|---|---|
| Onions | 2, sliced | |
| Brown sugar | 2 cups | packed |
| Spicy brown mustard | 1/2 cup | |
| Garlic | 4 cloves, minced | 1 tbsp granulated garlic works |
| Water | 1 cup | |
| Ground cayenne | 1/2 tsp | start here, add more at the end |
Method
- Build a coal bed and burn a chimney of briquettes down to grey. You need 23 for a 12-inch oven.
- Lay the sausage and sliced onions in the cold dutch oven.
- Stir the sugar, mustard, garlic, water, and cayenne together in a bowl or a lidded jar until the sugar is wet through. Pour it over the sausage and turn everything once.
- Set the oven on 9 coals and put 14 on the lid. That is roughly 350°F.
- Cook 60 minutes. Lift the lid and stir every 15 minutes, and spin the oven a quarter turn each time so it does not scorch on one side.
- It is done when the liquid has pulled together into a syrup that coats the sausage. If it is still thin, pull the lid and give it another ten minutes on the bottom coals alone.
This is a braise that turns into a glaze. The cup of water keeps the sugar from burning for the first half hour while the onions release their own liquid, and then the whole thing reduces down to something thick enough to cling. Stirring every fifteen minutes is not optional. Sugar on a bare cast iron bottom over coals will scorch, and once it does the whole pot tastes like it.
The sausage is already cooked, so the hour is about the sauce, not the meat. That means it holds well and reheats fine over the same coals the next morning. It stays in the car-camp column because four pounds of sausage needs a cooler. Nothing else here does — the sugar, mustard, garlic, and cayenne premix is shelf-stable and can sit in the food box all season.
Packing
Mix the sugar, mustard, garlic, and cayenne into a screw-top jar at home. It travels as one thing and it does not need cold. Sausage and onions ride in the cooler.
Variations
- Add a quart of cubed potatoes and a can of drained corn at the start for a one-pot meal that feeds twelve.
- Cut the sugar to one cup if you want the mustard forward instead of the glaze.
- Kielbasa, andouille, or any smoked link works. Raw sausage does not; it needs a browning step first.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/hot_and_sweet_sausage-1778.asp