Cooking while Camping: Hunter's Stew

This past week, I brought Ken along on a family camping trip. It was the first time he met several members of my rather large family and I think he was intent on impressing them with his cooking prowess. The trip went very well and my relatives became fond of both Ken and his cooking. Phew.

I plan to post pictures of a few of our different meals and thought I would begin with his Hunter's Stew. This is a dish that he first learned to make as a boy scout and has been making while camping ever since. It is simple and an easy dish for any camper to make. Ken was also able to tantalize the taste buds of my sometimes picky nieces by having them watch as he assembled the food, and then allowing them to pick what went into their own foil packets.

This Hunter's Stew was made with lamb purchased from Nea-Agora Packing Co in Chicago. Ironically, when I went to search for a link to their web page (they don't have one), this review came up. It was written by a friend of ours about a previous outing to Wisconsin when we pit-roasted a lamb. Small world.

In any case, Ken seasoned the meat with a bit of salt and pepper and then browned it on a stove (which is not a necessary step if you're really roughing it).


We then cut up some potatoes, carrots, and onions and put them in a tin foil packet with some rosemary and thyme. Ken added a little flour (corn starch would also work), sealed the packets up, and threw them on the fire.


Over a wood fire, the packets should cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. We cooked our food over a charcoal fire and it took about 50 minutes.



After we pulled the packets from the fire we let them cool for a minute, poured them out on plates, and ate them. It was a very satisfying meal and the kids loved it.