Tough Elk Pot Stew
Ground elk dried at home, rehydrated with green chile and onion soup base until it stops fighting back.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 46 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
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Ground elk, cooked and dehydrated | 3 oz dry | lean grind only; fat goes rancid in the bag |
|---|---|---|
| Dehydrated potato dices | 1/2 cup | |
| Dried carrot slices | 1/4 cup | |
| French onion soup mix | 1 packet | |
| Dried green chiles | 2 tbsp | canned chiles, drained and dried at home |
| Chipotle powder | 1/4 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | added at camp, not at home |
| Instant potato flakes | 2 tbsp | for thickening |
Method
- Dump the meat, potato dices, carrots, chiles, soup mix, and chipotle into the pot with 600 ml of water. Let it sit ten minutes off the stove if you have time. It cuts the fuel burn.
- Bring it to a boil, then hold it at the lowest flame that keeps bubbles moving. Twelve minutes.
- Check a potato dice. If it still has a hard center, add a splash of water and give it another three minutes.
- Kill the heat. Stir in the oil, then the potato flakes, until it thickens to stew.
- Lid on, five minutes. The meat keeps softening while it sits.
Elk that came off the animal tough stays tough under fast heat. The fix at home is a long wet braise, which is not something you do on a canister stove. So the braise happens before the trip: cook the grind down, then dry it. Grinding solves the chew problem outright, and drying it in a thin sheet means the pieces are small enough to take water back in twelve minutes instead of an hour.
The onion soup packet is doing double duty as salt and body. Green chile and chipotle are there because lean game reads flat without something sharp against it. Potato flakes at the end pull the whole thing together into a stew instead of meat sitting in broth. Skip the oil and you lose about 120 calories and most of the mouthfeel; dried lean elk brings almost no fat of its own.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one freezer bag at home. Oil rides in a dropper bottle. Dehydrate the meat in a thin layer and break up the clumps before bagging or the center never rehydrates.
Variations
- Swap in ground venison or lean ground beef. Same drying, same timing.
- A tablespoon of tomato powder deepens it and helps the broth cling.
- No stove: cold-soak is not an option here. Dried meat needs heat.
https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/elk-meat-question.207053