camp meals

Powdered Egg and Hash Brown Skillet

Dried eggs and dehydrated potatoes, cooked in one pan while the coffee water heats.

calories
620
weight
4.5 oz
cal / oz
138
protein
26 g
serves
1, scales
prep
6 min
cook
10 min
total time
16 min
water
300 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.

  • Breakfast
  • Canister stove
  • Liquid fuel
  • Campfire coals
  • Canoe / raft
  • Car camping
  • Basecamp
  • Backpacking
  • Gluten free
  • Nut free
  • One pot
  • Pre-mix at home
  • Shelf stable
  • Basic

Ingredients

Whole egg powder 3 tbsp mix half again more than the package says
Dehydrated hash brown potatoes 1/2 cup the shelf-stable shredded kind in a carton
Olive oil 1 tbsp in a dropper bottle
Real bacon bits 2 tbsp the dry shelf-stable kind, not refrigerated
Salt and pepper to taste
Ketchup 1 packet optional

Method

  1. Pour the potatoes into your mug or a corner of the pot. Add about 150 ml of boiling water, just enough to cover, and put a lid on it. Five minutes.
  2. While they soak, whisk 3 tbsp of egg powder into 100 ml of cool or lukewarm water in a cup. Let it stand two minutes so the powder fully wets out. Lumps now mean lumps later.
  3. Drain any standing water off the potatoes. Heat the oil in the pot and press the potatoes flat. Leave them alone four or five minutes until the bottom browns.
  4. Turn the heat to its lowest setting. Pour the eggs over the potatoes and stir slowly until they just set. Powdered eggs turn rubbery fast on high heat.
  5. Stir in the bacon bits, salt, and pepper. Eat out of the pot.

Powdered eggs get a bad reputation from the cheap ones. The better whole-egg powders scramble like eggs, with one catch: the package ratios run thin, so mix richer than the label says and you get curds instead of a puddle.

Heat is the other half. Reconstituted egg sets at a lower temperature than fresh and goes to rubber quickly, so the potatoes get the hot pan first and the eggs go in after the flame is turned down. Both the potatoes and the bacon bits are already dry, which means the whole breakfast is shelf-stable and the only cold thing you carry is water.

Packing

Portion egg powder, potatoes, and bacon bits into three small bags per breakfast, or nest them in one quart bag. Egg powder cakes if it gets damp, so keep that bag sealed and away from the pot.

Variations

  • Butter powder in place of the oil if you would rather not carry a bottle of liquid.
  • A flour tortilla turns it into a breakfast burrito, but that drops the gluten-free tag.
  • Dehydrated ground beef, rehydrated with the potatoes, instead of bacon.

https://www.canoetripping.net/threads/breakfast-ideas.28385