Lumberjack Dutch Oven Breakfast Bake
Hash browns, sausage, eggs, and cheddar baked in one cast iron pot over coals.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 58
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 45 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
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Frozen hash browns | 1 lb | thaw in the cooler overnight or they steam instead of brown |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast sausage | 12 oz | cook and crumble at home, chill before packing |
| Eggs | 8 | crack into a leakproof bottle at home if you want to skip the shells |
| Shredded cheddar | 1 cup | |
| Green bell pepper | 1 | dice at home |
| Butter | 2 tbsp | |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/2 tsp |
Method
- Build a bed of coals or burn a fire down. You want about 20 briquettes under the oven and 10 on the lid, or an equivalent bed of hardwood coals.
- Rub the butter around the inside of a 12-inch Dutch oven, bottom and up the sides.
- Spread the thawed hash browns across the bottom in an even layer. Scatter the sausage and diced pepper over them, then half the cheddar.
- Beat the eggs with the salt and pepper in a bowl. Pour them over the layers and let them settle.
- Top with the rest of the cheese, put the lid on, and set the oven over the coals with coals on the lid.
- Bake about 35 minutes. Rotate the oven a quarter turn every 10 minutes and the lid the other way to even out hot spots.
- It is done when the center no longer jiggles. Pull it off the heat and let it sit five minutes before you cut it.
This is a cooler-dependent breakfast, so it belongs at a car campsite or a basecamp and nowhere else. Eggs and cheddar have to stay cold until the moment they go in the pot. The payoff is that one vessel does the work of three pans, and six people get fed at the same time instead of in shifts.
Most of the failures here are moisture failures. Frozen hash browns dumped straight in release water that never cooks off under a lid, and you end up with a wet layer at the bottom. Thaw them and drain them. Cooking the sausage at home does the same job for grease and cuts the camp cook time down to one bake. Coals on the lid matter too — bottom heat alone sets the potatoes long before the eggs in the middle catch up.
Packing
Sausage cooked and crumbled at home, diced pepper, and cheese each go in their own containers in the cooler. Hash browns move from the freezer to the cooler the night before. Bring heatproof gloves and a lid lifter.
Variations
- Swap the fresh pepper for a handful of dried bell pepper and onion soaked in a little water for ten minutes.
- Diced ham or bacon instead of sausage works the same way.
https://camprecipes.com/lumberjack-dutch-oven-breakfast-bake