One-Fire Sausage, Beans, and Skillet Cornbread
Three dishes off a single fire pit: grate on top, pot on the coals, cornbread baked against the heat.
- calories
- 760
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 69
- protein
- 28 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 60 min
- water
- 200 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Shelf-stable smoked sausage | 1.5 lb | vacuum-packed kielbasa or summer sausage, no cooler needed |
|---|---|---|
| Canned pinto or navy beans | 2 cans, 15 oz each | do not drain |
| Tomato paste | 3 tbsp | tube travels better than a can |
| Brown sugar | 2 tbsp | |
| Mustard powder | 1 tsp | |
| Dried onion flakes | 2 tbsp | |
| Cornmeal | 1 cup | |
| All-purpose flour | 3/4 cup | |
| Baking powder | 2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1 tsp total | divided between the beans and the batter |
| Cooking oil | 4 tbsp | some for the batter, some for the pan |
Method
- Burn seasoned hardwood down until you have a deep bed of coals. A flaming fire will scorch the sausage and leave the beans cold.
- Rake a shallow layer of coals to one side and set the grate over it. Lay the sausage on the grate whole, turning every few minutes until it is blistered and hot through, about 12 minutes. Pull it off and cut into coins.
- Set a pot directly on the coal bed. Dump in both cans of beans with their liquid, the tomato paste, brown sugar, mustard powder, onion flakes, and half the salt. Stir and let it bubble down for 15 minutes, moving it off the hottest coals if it starts to catch.
- Mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and remaining salt with 200 ml of cold water and 2 tbsp oil. Stir just until there are no dry pockets left.
- Oil a skillet or a shallow pan, pour in the batter, and prop it at an angle facing the fire, or set it on the grate with coals shoveled onto the lid. Bake 20 to 25 minutes. It is done when a twig comes out clean.
- Stir the sausage coins into the beans off the heat. Cut the cornbread in the pan and serve straight out of it.
This is basecamp cooking, not stove cooking. One fire pit does three jobs at once if you manage the coals instead of the flames: the grate takes direct radiant heat, the pot sits down in the coal bed where the heat is steady, and the cornbread bakes off reflected heat at the edge. Nothing here needs to happen at the same time, which is the point. Stagger the three and one person can run all of it.
Everything on the list keeps without a cooler. Vacuum-packed cured sausage and canned beans are the shelf-stable stand-ins for fresh meat and a long soak, and the cornbread uses water and oil instead of milk and butter so there is nothing to spoil in the bin. The bean liquid is doing real work — drain it and you lose the starch that thickens the pot.
Packing
Premix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt in one bag at home, and the tomato paste, sugar, mustard, and onion in a small jar. Cans and sausage are the heavy part and ride in the bin.
Variations
- Swap the sausage for a can of chicken and a spoonful of smoked paprika if you want it lighter.
- A splash of vinegar in the beans at the end cuts the sugar.
https://survivalsherpa.wordpress.com/2016/07/06/campfire-cooking-grill-cook-and-bake-on-one-fire-pit