Steamed Venison Dumplings, Camp Kitchen Version
Ground venison, chives, and store-bought wrappers folded at a picnic table and steamed over the stove.
- calories
- 390
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 56
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 30 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 50 min
- water
- 700 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
- Snack
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Ground venison | 1 lb | keep it cold in the cooler until you fold |
|---|---|---|
| Garlic chives | 2/3 cup, diced | scallion greens work if chives are hard to find |
| Fresh ginger | 1 tsp, minced fine | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Ground white pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Chicken stock or water | 1/3 cup | bouillon powder and water is fine |
| Soy sauce | 2 tbsp | |
| Rice wine vinegar | 1 tbsp | |
| Canola oil | 1 1/2 tbsp | |
| Sesame oil | 1 1/2 tbsp | |
| Round Chinese dumpling wrappers | 1 package | about 40 to 50 wrappers |
| Soy or teriyaki sauce | for dipping |
Method
- Put the venison, chives, and ginger in your largest pot or a mixing bowl.
- In a cup, stir together the sesame oil, canola oil, vinegar, soy sauce, stock, salt, and white pepper.
- Pour the liquid over the meat and mix hard with a spoon or your hand until it turns sticky and holds together. That stickiness is what keeps the filling from crumbling.
- Hold a wrapper flat in your palm. Wet the rim with a finger dipped in water, drop in about a rounded teaspoon of filling, fold in half, and pinch the edge shut end to end. Underfill rather than overfill; a blown seam dumps meat into the water.
- Put 700 ml of water in the pot, set the steamer basket above the waterline, and bring it to a boil on the stove.
- Oil the basket or line it with parchment, load the dumplings so they do not touch, and steam covered for 20 minutes. Work in batches and top up the water if the pot runs dry.
- Check one: the wrapper should be translucent and the filling firm all the way through. Dip in soy or teriyaki and eat hot.
This is the one recipe here that asks for a cooler, a table, and half an hour of hands. It belongs to car camping, the first night of a basecamp, or a hunt camp working through a fresh deer. Nothing about it packs down to a freezer bag.
Venison is lean enough to go dry and crumbly on its own, so the liquid does the heavy lifting: stock, soy, vinegar, and two oils beaten into the meat until it turns tacky. That emulsion is the fat and moisture the animal does not carry. Steaming keeps it there, which is why this method is more forgiving over a camp stove than frying. Fold the filling at home and freeze it flat and the only camp work left is pinching wrappers.
Packing
Mix the filling at home, seal it in a zip bag, and freeze it flat. It thaws over the drive and keeps the cooler cold on the way in. Wrappers stay sealed in their sleeve and go in the cooler too. Carry the dipping sauce in a small squeeze bottle.
Variations
- Ground elk, beef, or pork shoulder all work at the same ratio.
- Boil the dumplings instead if you have no steamer basket: five minutes in hard-boiling water, then scoop them out.
- A spoonful of chili crisp stirred into the dipping sauce.
- Leftover filling, browned loose in a pan and spooned over instant rice, is a second dinner.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/steamed-venison-dumplings-recipe