Bushcraft Cooking: Bear Creek Gumbo

Bushcraft Cooking: Bear Creek Gumbo

(Available at Kroger $4.50)

Now that we have covered how to build a tripod (Link to the Instructions HERE), Build a Pot Hanger (Link to the Instructions HERE) and where to obtain a Cheap Bomb Proof Bush Pot (Link to the Instructions HERE) its time to jump into our cooking series. I chose the Bear Creek Gumbo Soup Mix as the starter meal as it is one of my favorites and can easily feed 4-6 people. Like I stated above it is available from Kroger for $4.50 with sales tax in my area and is well worth it for the portion you get. I usually turn one bag into four portioned bags instead of making the whole bag at once (something to think about for those solo bushcrafters out there). The thing I like most about gumbo is its adaptability, you can add any thing you catch, trap or shoot and it will still taste amazing! For this batch of gumbo I added one package of rice (boil in a bag variety), a little bit of trout just to add a little flavor and a little salt and pepper.

 1) Front of the gumbo package

2) Reverse of the package along with directions which are pretty simply: Bring 8 cups of water to a roaring boil, wisk in soup mix and simmer for 20 minutes

3) I added one package of boil in a bag rice just to add a little extra stick to the ribs factor to the meal and I also am a fan of thicker soups instead of bothy soups

4) Soup mix after I added the the boil in a bag rice

 5) I allowed the soup to then cook for about 45 minutes just so it could cook down a little bit to fit my needs of a thicker soup.

 6) Soup after adding trout

7) A little better view of how the soup looks once cooked prior to adding trout

I would highly recommend adding this soup mix to your bush pot as it provide a great calories to size ratio and also is one of the best tasting and adaptable of the soup mixes I have found!