Pork and Apple Skillet with Bourbon
Freeze-dried pork, dried apple rings, and a shot of bourbon in one skillet at camp.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 104
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 400 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
- Campfire coals
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried pork | 6 oz dry | cooked and diced; freeze-dried chicken works the same way |
|---|---|---|
| Dried apple rings | 2 oz | unsweetened, torn into strips |
| Dried sliced onion | 1/3 cup | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1 1/4 tsp | divided |
| Black pepper | 1 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Ghee or shelf-stable butter powder | 2 tbsp | butter powder if the day is hot |
| Brown sugar | 2 tbsp | divided |
| Bourbon | 1 oz | a flask pour |
| Dried rubbed sage | 1 tsp |
Method
- Pour 300 ml of boiled water over the pork in a lidded container. Let it sit 10 minutes while you set up. Drain off whatever it did not take up and keep that liquid.
- Cover the apple rings and onion with 100 ml of hot water in a mug. Five minutes is enough. They should bend, not turn to mush.
- Heat the oil in the skillet over the fire or a stove on medium. Toss the pork with garlic powder, 1 teaspoon of salt, and the pepper, then brown it hard for three or four minutes. Move it to a bowl.
- Drop the ghee in, add the drained onion and apples with 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar, and cook until the edges go dark. Six to eight minutes.
- Pull the pan off the heat before you add the bourbon. Set it back on, scrape the bottom, and let it cook down by half.
- Return the pork with the reserved soaking liquid, the rest of the sugar and salt, and the sage. Simmer until it coats the pork, about three minutes.
The original is a cast iron skillet dish that finishes in a 350-degree oven, which does not exist at a campsite. Freeze-dried pork replaces the tenderloin, so the whole thing stays on one burner and the meat is already cooked before it hits the pan. Rehydrating it separately matters: dropped in dry it will pull the liquid out of the sauce and go stringy.
Dried apple rings behave better here than fresh ones. They hold their shape in the sugar and fat instead of collapsing, and the soaking water goes back into the pan so nothing is thrown away. The bourbon is not decoration. It lifts the browned bits off the bottom of the skillet, which is where the flavor is, and the alcohol cooks off in under a minute. Add it off the heat over a campfire or it will flare.
Packing
Pork in its own bag. Apples, onion, sugar, sage, garlic, salt, and pepper premixed in a second bag. Bourbon in a small steel flask, oil in a dropper bottle, ghee in a screw-top jar.
Variations
- Skip the bourbon and use 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar plus a splash of water. It still deglazes and it still cuts the sugar.
- Stir in a cup of instant mashed potato flakes at the end and it becomes a one-pot meal instead of a main.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/skillet-seared-pork-medallions-with-apples-and-bourbon