HELLO THE FIRE!

[Mink]

Gee, I never heard of burying beans! Meats, yes, but beans??
I love white beans, but make my chili with pinto, real tomoatos instead of the sauce and Mexican spices, mexican oregano, cumin, chili powder and lots of garlic. I also put jalapenos in my cornbread and to add flavor, grease the pan with bacon drippings....then 5 minutes before it's ready, I slather real butter on top (helps the browning)

The evaporated milk in our household is what Mom found on sale so we got all three, Bordens, PET and Carnation. All three brands are better than generic store brand. Indeed, one cannot find Bordens anymore except the sweetened.

beans are yummy!! ;D

[subdjoe]

Ah! I see your confusion. Yeah, baked beans are traditionally cooked in the ground. Check out the links here: www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=t&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4RNWN_enUS241US242&q=bean+hole+bean+recipe

And REAL chili doesn't have beans in it.

The only proper grease for a pan of cornbread is bacon fat. Best if you chop up the bacon and render it out as you're mixing up the batter, maybe saute some onion in it too, then dump most of the fat along with the bacon and onions into the batter. Then dump the batter into the hot skillet or dutch oven.
If there is any left the next morning, cut it into cubes or just crumble it, cut up some salt pork and brown it, saute some onion and celery in the fat along with the pork, add the cornbread, then pour in some chicken broth. Stir to keep it from scorching. It's done when the liquid is all absorbed.

[Mink]

Speaking of REAL chili!! The best I've ever had other than Grandma's of course, was first at the Chili Bowl, a little truck stop that used to be on Old Redwood Hwy, where the new Kaiser bldg. is. The chef with the chili recipe is now at Singletree in Healdsburg. It is to die for. They put this chili on many dishes-thank goodness the chili is still in the county.

My Mom is from Texas and her & Grandma's chili recipe is exceptional too. I hadn't tried white chili (white beans) until a few years ago at a chili contest. Just thinking about it makes me drool~

[subdjoe]

Here is a recepie I submitted for a cookbook that was put together on one of the shooting forums I frequent.

A DISH OF ODDIMENTS OF MEATS, WELL SEASONED WITH A SUFFICENCY OF OF SAVORY SPICES, AND MESSED FORTH WITH INDIAN BREAD, USEFUL FOR FEEDING A NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHEN THERE IS NOT A SUFFICENT QUANTITY OF ANY ONE MEAT TO MAKE A MEAL

Or Spicy Meat Stew, if ya wanna short name……

Get your fire going and stoke it good so
you will have a decent amount of coals to work with.
Might as well hang your kettle over this
to start getting water hot, too.

While the fire is burning down, cut up your meat -
beef, pork, chicken, lamb, whatever -
in about 3/8" dice and dredge it in seasoned flour.

Cut up an onion or two and crush & paste some garlic
(crush it with a knife, sprinkle it with salt,
and use you knife to smear it into a paste).

By now you should have enough coals to work with,
so pull some out of the fire -
enough to make a bed about the size of your dutch oven
(12" works good), but leave a space about
4 or 5 inches in the center clear of coals.

Set your oven over the coals. Add some grease of some sort -
oil, shortening, bacon grease, and get your onions going.
When they are soft, but not brown, add the meat.

Stir it about some.

Add powdered cumin, ground black pepper,
a little ground coriander,
chili powder, and a little each of hot, sweet, bittersweet,
and smoked paprika, and a touch of chipotle chili powder.

Stir it around some.

Check and adjust seasoning.

Add a little chicken stock, stir. Put the lid on
and put a ring of coals around the rim of the lid.
Set a slightly smaller oven (10") on top of that to start heating up, throw some chopped bacon into that one.

Have the lid for the 2nd oven sitting on something clean
and put some coals on top of it so it will get hot.

While it is heating take about 3 cups of cornmeal,
one cup of flour, some salt, a little baking powder,
a little baking soda, and mix them together.

Add one beaten egg and about 2 cups of buttermilk -
if you don't have buttermilk you can use
2 cups regular milk clabbered
with about 2 or 3 Tbs of cider vinegar.
Mix this up into a batter.
Make sure that the bacon in the 2nd oven
has rendered out a lot of the fat
(you don't HAVE to use bacon, you can use
Crisco, butter, oil, but you need some hot fat).

Swirl the oven so the grease coats the bottom
and at least an inch up the sides.
Pour in the batter and put the lid on.
About every 10 minutes,
give the oven a quarter turn clockwise
and the lid a quarter turn
counter-clockwise, this helps even out hot spots.

Cornbread should be done in 30 to 40 minutes.
And the meat will be done about the same time as the cornbread.
At some point about half way through cooking the cornbread,
you will want to check on the meat.

If there is too much liquid you can either thicken it up with
some couscous, roux, or cornstarch, or set up more coals
to put the cornbread on, add some coals under
the meat and let the sauce reduce with the lid off.

Towards the end of the cooking, your water should be boiling
so you can make your coffee. Use your favorite method.

Turn the cornbread out of the oven,
cut it for serving, butter it if you want.
I like to crumble it in the bottom of my bowl
and mess out the meat on top of it.
And have a chunk of it on the side
with honey or molasses for dessert.

N.B. you will need to check your coals from time to time during
the cooking to make sure you keep your heat.

If you have cornbread left over, split it in half
the next morning and fry it up in the fat from the bacon
or sausage that you cooked for breakfast.

Good way to do biscuits, too.

[Mink]

Interesting! I do almost the same with my cornbread/chili beans.

I crumble my cornbread and poor chili beans on top.

Sounds like you have fun subdjoe at your campfires. I saw something similar on Paula Dean. She puts coals on top of the dutch oven at the campfire. That Indian bread you made reference to, is that fry bread??

[subdjoe]

Mink, "indian bread" is an old name for cornbread.

Dutch oven cooking usually requires coals on top as well as underneath. And you want more heat on the top (usually) than on the bottom. And you want to rotate the pot and the lid a quarter turn every 10 or 15 min. to help keep the heat even.

Yes, I do have fun at the fire. As long as I have some help with the wood and carrying water. The carrying 2 buckets of water 300 yards, when no one else can figure out that the buckets don't fill themselves, gets old fast - 4 times before noon kind of ticked me off. There is something about cooking over a fire, sitting with friends, sipping camp coffee that is invigorating.

[Mink]

Well, I love exercise so I'll help with the water and the wood!!

I never knew cornbread was called Indian bread, thanks

[subdjoe]

<takes a long sip of coffee> Kind of quite in here. Nice sunrise though.

[Mink]

Ahhh, nice & warm by the fire subdjoe! Thanks for keeping it warm!!

[subdjoe]

No problem, Mink. I enjoy a morning fire. And some coffee. Grab a cup.

[Mink]

Looks like we'll have to adjourn indoors soon with this rain, heh? or, what does a camper do??

[subdjoe]

Inside? Why? Put up a fly, build a fire under it. No big deal.
Make sure your boots are greased, pull out your slicker, life is good.

Makes coffee taste better, too.