Sausage Skillet Dutch Baby
Egg batter poured over browned sausage and baked in a skillet on coals. Breakfast that holds together.
- calories
- 480
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 87
- protein
- 24 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 40 min
- water
- 180 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.
- Breakfast
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Dutch oven
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp | |
|---|---|---|
| Whole egg powder | 6 tbsp | reconstitutes to 5 eggs |
| Powdered whole milk | 3 tbsp | |
| Water | 180 ml | for the batter, cold is fine |
| Bulk sausage | 4 oz | shelf-stable summer sausage or chorizo, chopped, works if you have no cooler |
| Vegetable oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried mushrooms | 1/2 oz | soaked 10 minutes and drained |
| Dried vegetables | 1/2 cup | broccoli, kale, or peas; soak with the mushrooms |
| Sun-dried tomatoes or dried red pepper | 1/4 cup | chopped |
| Hard grating cheese | 1/2 cup | parmesan or aged cheddar |
| Dried herbs | 2 tsp | thyme, parsley, rosemary |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Hot sauce | 1/4 tsp |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want steady heat, not flame.
- Soak the dried mushrooms and vegetables in a cup of water for 10 minutes. Drain.
- Whisk the flour, egg powder, milk powder, herbs, salt, and hot sauce with 180 ml of water until smooth. Let it sit while the sausage cooks.
- Set a 10-inch cast iron skillet or a shallow dutch oven over the coals. Add the oil, then the sausage. Break it up and cook until browned, about 5 minutes.
- Add the drained vegetables, mushrooms, tomatoes, and pepper. Cook 3 more minutes to drive off water. Wet vegetables make a soggy middle.
- Pour the batter over everything and scatter the cheese on top. Do not stir.
- Cover with a lid and shovel a layer of coals onto it. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the center is set and no longer wobbles.
- Pull the coals off, lift the lid away from your face, and cut it in wedges in the pan.
A dutch baby is flour, egg, and milk baked until it sets around whatever is already in the pan. That structure survives the trip to camp better than it has any right to. Powdered egg and powdered milk rehydrate into a batter that behaves close enough to the fresh version, and the pan does the rest.
The two things that go wrong are heat and water. Coals underneath and coals on the lid give you top and bottom heat, which is what makes the batter set instead of steaming into scrambled paste. And rehydrated vegetables carry a lot of water, so cook them down in the sausage fat before the batter goes in. Skip that and the middle never firms up.
Packing
Flour, egg powder, milk powder, herbs, and salt go in one bag as a single batter mix. Dried vegetables and mushrooms in a second. Cheese and sausage ride separately, in the cooler if you have one.
Variations
- A foil packet of chicken instead of sausage cooks the same way and is leaner.
- No lid and no coals on top: cook it covered with foil over low coals and give it another 10 minutes.
- Skip the cheese and use another tablespoon of oil if the cheese will not survive the trip.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/savory-sausage-dutch-baby