camp meals

Sausage and Cabbage Foil Bake

Sausage, red cabbage, apple, and potatoes in a foil packet over coals.

calories
620
weight
11 oz
cal / oz
56
protein
22 g
serves
4, scales
prep
15 min
cook
30 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.

  • Dinner
  • Campfire coals
  • Grill grate
  • Car camping
  • Basecamp
  • Canoe / raft
  • Gluten free
  • Dairy free
  • Nut free
  • Foil packet
  • Grab and go
  • Needs a cooler
  • Basic

Ingredients

Smoked pork sausage 1 lb 5 oz fully cooked, so it only needs heating through
Red cabbage half a small head cut into chunks at home
Apples 2 firm ones, sliced thick
Shallots 8 halved lengthwise
Small potatoes 14 oz halved if bigger than a golf ball
Olive oil 2 tbsp
Salt and pepper to taste
Dried parsley 2 tsp fresh flat-leaf if you have a cooler

Method

  1. Build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want steady heat, not flames.
  2. Lay out two long sheets of heavy-duty foil, crossed. Pile the potatoes, cabbage, shallots, and apple in the middle.
  3. Pour the oil over, season with salt and pepper, and toss with your hands. Fold the foil into a sealed packet with a little air inside.
  4. Set the packet on the coals or a grate. Twenty minutes, turning once.
  5. Open the packet, add the sausage cut into thick pieces, reseal, and give it another ten minutes until the potatoes give to a knife and the sausage is hot through.
  6. Open it on a flat rock or the tailgate, scatter the parsley, and eat out of the foil.

This started as an oven tray bake. Foil over coals does the same job: the packet traps steam, so the cabbage and shallots collapse while the potatoes cook through without drying out. The apple mostly dissolves into the cabbage and takes the edge off it.

The sausage goes in late on purpose. It is already cooked, so thirty minutes of heat only renders the fat out and leaves you with dry casings. Ten minutes is enough to warm it and let the fat run into the vegetables, which is where the flavor ends up. Cut everything at home; a cutting board is the one piece of gear you will regret carrying.

Packing

Cut the vegetables and apple at home and pack them in one bag in the cooler. Sausage stays sealed until it goes in. Oil in a small bottle, salt and pepper and parsley in a film can.

Variations

  • Swap the sausage for a shelf-stable summer sausage and you can leave the cooler at home.
  • A splash of cider vinegar over the cabbage at the end cuts the fat.
  • Sweet potato in place of half the potatoes cooks in the same time.

https://www.matprat.no/oppskrifter/familien/tray-bake-med-medisterpolse