Outdoor Cooking: Mountain Man Stew

Outdoor Cooking: Mountain Man Stew

This is one of my favorite dishes to make outdoors or indoors whatever the case may be and it is 100% adaptable to whatever you have on-hand. Essentially all you need is vegetables of your choice, a meat of your choice, seasonings and some Aluminum Foil. I usually stick with the standard vegetables of potatoes, onions and carrots with beef, venison, Bear, pork, or chicken as my meat of choice. Hamburger 70% lean seems to work the best for me as the extra grease will infuse into the vegetables while they cook giving the entire meal a unique flavor profile that is all its own. 

Shopping/Packing List: 1 large onion, Potatoes to suit amount of people to feed (5lbs will feed roughly 4 people with good portions), 1 bag of baby carrots and 2+ lbs of meat depending on how liberal you would like to be with said meat (the cheap hamburger logs work well and if you freeze it and throw it into the bush pot it should be ready to use around dinner time after a long day hunting, hiking or on the trap line). 

So without further delay....... How you make one of the simplest and most delicious outdoor meals available.

1) Peal your potatoes and throw them in your bush pot (that you just took all of your supplies out of) and cover with clean water to keep the potatoes fresh.

2) Clean and chop your onion and place in a container or divvy it up into the various aluminum containers (I prefer to have potatoes as my base layer as I think they taste better if they get a little darker).

3) Clean and slice your carrots (if you like them softer) or leave them whole if you prefer a crisper carrot.

4) Throw all of the vegetables into your foil (I always use the potatoes as a base layer and it seems to work well). NOTE if you don't like a little crunch to your potatoes spray the Aluminum foil with Pam or coat with olive oil liberally.

5) Throw a liberal portion of meat on the top of your selected vegetables.

6) Season to taste (I use a large amount of the following: Natures Seasoning, Montreal Steak Seasoning, Hot Sauce and I also put a small line of olive oil on each side of the vegetables for a little extra flavor.

7) Seal your aluminum foil and mark with a magic marker with the name of the person that seasoned it (since not everyone can stand 1/4 bottle of hot sauce).

8) Cook for 30 minutes on hot coals, a grill (on medium) or an oven (on 500)

9) After 30 minutes check the largest container to determine how much longer the other containers need to cook. Once your fork can stab a potato and it is soft you are ready to eat (I leave mine on for another 15-20 minutes as I like a little crunch to my potatoes. The finished product should look like this. 

10) Grab an eating utensil and scrap dinner into your favorite container or eat it straight from your aluminum foil.

As always there are hundreds of variations to this dish and how to prepare it, so get out there and experiment with your outdoor dinner......I mean if your are going to practice your survival skills you may as well practice your outdoor cooking skills with all of those fires your are building :)

I look forward to your comments and suggestions!  Stay Safe Out There!