Pot Roast Skillet, Rehydrated
Freeze-dried beef, carrots, and potato flakes rebuilt into a one-pot roast dinner.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- 600 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
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Winter / snow
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried cooked beef | 2 oz | shredded or diced; jerky works if you chop it fine |
|---|---|---|
| Dehydrated carrot slices | 1/4 cup | |
| Instant mashed potato flakes | 1/2 cup | |
| Dried potato dices or hash browns | 1/4 cup | optional, for something to chew on |
| Onion soup mix | 2 tbsp | dried onion, beef bouillon, onion powder, celery seed, paprika |
| Mushroom gravy base | 3 tbsp | dried mushroom powder, milk powder, cornstarch, salt, pepper, garlic powder |
| Olive oil or ghee | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt | a pinch | the mixes are salty already; taste first |
Method
- Put the beef, carrots, potato dices, and onion soup mix in the pot with 600 ml of water. Bring it to a boil.
- Simmer 8 to 10 minutes with the lid on. The carrots decide when it is done, not the beef.
- Take it off the heat. Whisk in the gravy base and let it sit a minute to thicken.
- Stir in the potato flakes a spoonful at a time until it holds a spoon upright.
- Add the oil, stir, and check the salt before you add any.
A slow cooker roast is four hours of collagen breaking down. You cannot carry that, so this rebuilds the result from the other end: freeze-dried cooked beef is already tender, and the two soup mixes supply everything a canned condensed soup was doing — salt, onion, mushroom, thickener. No fridge, no can, no cream.
Order matters more than technique. Carrots need the longest boil, so they go in first with the beef and take the full simmer. The gravy base and potato flakes are both starch, and starch dumped into boiling water seizes into lumps. Off the heat, whisked in stages, it turns into gravy instead. The oil at the end is calories the original got from a fatty chuck cut; without it this eats thin.
Packing
Two bags. Beef, carrots, dried potato, and onion mix go together as the simmer bag. Gravy base and potato flakes go in the second bag, since both are thickeners and should not hit the water early. Oil rides in a dropper bottle.
Variations
- Skip the freeze-dried beef and use a foil pouch of roast beef or a shelf-stable chicken packet, added at the end.
- Leave out the milk powder in the gravy base for a dairy-free version. It will be thinner and browner.
- At a basecamp with fuel to spare, simmer 20 minutes and cut the potato flakes in half for a stew rather than a mash.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/classic-slow-cooker-pot-roast