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Beef Stew with Biscuits and
Chocolate Pudding

This French style stew is loosely based on a recipe from The Joy of Cooking. The original recipe calls for cloves rather than allspice, but I have chosen the latter spice because it is similar in flavor, yet less pungent and therefore easier to measure. This stew is not a meal unto itself, as it only totals 880 calories. Therefore, this menu calls for biscuits baked in the Outback Oven and chocolate pudding for dessert. The foods in this meal are very low in fiber, so the menu includes 4 servings of Metamucil fiber supplement.

At home

The Potatoes will reconstitute faster if you slice them rather than cube them. Pick potatoes that are light for their size, as these have a better texture. Slice them ¼ inch thick and up to ¾ inch across. Boil for 3–5 minutes, just until the color changes. You don’t want them to get too soft. Put the slices on the dehydrator tray without letting them overlap. Set the temperature to 145 degrees Fahrenheit for the first 2 hours, and then reduce it to 135 degrees for the remainder of the drying time. The Potatoes will be hard, brittle, and somewhat translucent when they’re properly dried.

Carrots are a tricky vegetable to dehydrate properly. Some batches reconstitute to lightly cooked perfection after soaking in hot water for 20 minutes and don’t require further simmering. Other batches need over 20 minutes of simmering and are still kind of tough after that. Most vegetables should only be half-cooked before being put in the dehydrator, but for best results carrots should be almost completely cooked. Another consideration is that carrots are more vulnerable to being over-dried than most vegetables, so you should monitor them closely while they’re in the dehydrator.

Slice the Carrots ¼ inch thick and steam for 5 minutes. You may wish to pre-treat the carrots after steaming by dipping them for 1 minute into a solution of 2 teaspoons Cornstarch in 1 cup Water. Place on the dehydrator tray without the pieces overlapping and dry according to the same temperature instructions as the Potatoes. The Carrots will shrink considerably and be very tough and leathery when done.

Package the Potatoes, Carrots, Onion Flakes, and Garlic Flakes in the same Zip-Loc bag. Outgassing from fresh onions is bad for fresh potatoes, so if you’re going on a multi-week trip you might want to think about packaging these two vegetables separately. Package the Sweet Paprika, Black Pepper, and Allspice in a suitable small container.

The next step is to combine the Clarified Butter and the Flour into what the French call a roux. It’s important to use clarified butter because it has better keeping qualities than regular butter. Clarified butter is a common food in India and Pakistan, where it’s called Ghee. You can get it for a reasonable price at Indian and Pakistani markets. Melt the Clarified Butter in a small pan and stir in the flour. You want to gently cook the flour until it’s a golden color. This should take about 10 minutes over a very low flame. Some people like to cook the roux until it’s brown, but if you do that it loses about half of its thickening power, so you have to double it. Package the roux in a tiny Nalgene jar. If you don’t precook the flour in this manner the gravy may have an unpleasant undertone of raw starch.

The quality of your Beef Stock Paste is very important. Be sure to get a premium grade in which the first ingredient is Beef Meat, rather than the ordinary stuff in which the first ingredient is salt. This can be found in 1 pound jars that make 5 gallons of broth at some, but not all, restaurant supply stores. I get mine at Smart & Final. There’s also a brand called Better Than Bullion that you can buy over the Internet or at Trader Joe’s and other gourmet food stores. Unfortunately, these products contain corn and whey protein, so if you’re allergic these foods—as some of my backpacking companions are—there really isn’t a suitable product that I can recommend.

The Biscuits will rise faster at high altitude, so you may need to add some extra flour and water in order to dilute the baking powder in the Biscuit Mix. The instruction manual for the Outback Oven tells how much extra to add at any given altitude. The figure of 5 Tablespoons is for an altitude of 10,000 feet. This should work just fine anywhere between 8000 and 12,000 feet. You add 1 extra Tablespoon of water for every extra Tablespoon of flour.

Combine the Biscuit Mix and extra flour if needed. Put the mixture in a Zip-Loc bag and include instructions for how much water to add at baking time. That will be ¾ cup + 1 Tablespoon for each Tablespoon of flour.

Full cream instant milk powder imported from Australia and New Zealand can be found in Indian and Pakistani grocery stores. Package the milk powder with the glucose polymer powder in the same bag. Glucose polymer powder is water soluble complex carbohydrates, and it helps balance the fat and protein content of this meal. It can be found in nutritional supplement stores. I once tried mixing milk powder into instant pudding powder so I’d only have to add water in camp, but the pudding didn’t set. Reconstitute the milk separately, then add it to the pudding mix.

The foods in this meal are very low in fiber, so I’ve included 4 servings of Metamucil fiber supplement to bring things into balance. Metamucil comes in a variety of forms: unflavored beverage powder, orange flavored beverage powder, sugar-free orange flavored beverage powder, apple or cinnamon flavored wafers, and capsules. All versions provide 3 grams of fiber per serving and some have additional nutritional value.

In camp

The Biscuits

The Biscuits will need to cool for a while after they’ve finished baking, so we’ll discuss their preparation first. You would be well advised to practice with the Outback Oven on the stove in your kitchen at home, in order to get a feel for how it works.

Empty the Biscuit Mix into your cook pot and make a hole in the middle. Pour in ¾ cup of water, plus an extra Tablespoon for each extra Tablespoon of Flour. Stir with a fork until blended and then for another 30 seconds. It will be simpler to bake the dough as a loaf, but feel free to pack the baking pan with smaller pieces if you wish.

Once you’ve put the Outback Oven on the stove, it will be a total of about 45 minutes before it’s time to turn off the heat. This includes pre-heating—which will take longer if it’s cold—plus about 25–30 minutes of baking time. You would be well advised to read further information about working with the Outback Oven before using it.

You can test the Biscuits for doneness by sticking a clean knife into them. If the knife comes out clean, it’s time to turn off the heat and let the Biscuits cool.

The Stew

Put the Potatoes, Carrots, Onion Flakes, and Garlic Flakes along with the freeze-dried Beef in a 500 ml Nalgene Lexan jar. Pour in boiling water to cover and leave to sit for at least half an hour. Empty into the cooking pot, add enough water to cover, and simmer for 20 minutes or until the Potatoes and Carrots are tender. Add the Spices and the Beef Stock Paste now. The Beef Stock Paste tends to stick to itself, so put it in a measuring cup and mash it up in a little bit of water at a time before adding it to the pot.

Dissolve the Roux in a little bit of cold water so that it won’t clump up when added to the simmering stew. Slowly pour the diluted Roux into the pot while stirring continuously. Be sure to have someone hold the pot steady while you stir, as backpacking stoves are sometimes known to tip over. Keep on stirring the stew until it stops thickening. Cover and simmer for five minutes to finish cooking the roux and to let the flavors to blend. Taste for adequate saltiness and serve.

The Pudding

Mix Milk Powder and Glucose Polymer Powder with 1 cup water and mix well. Then add enough water to make up a total of 2 cups Milk. Mix Milk with Instant Chocolate Pudding Mix and beat for a few minutes with a fork.

Total calories: 2454
Fat grams Carb grams Protein grams Fiber grams Sugar grams
92 339 101 33 126
Fat calories Carb calories Protein calories   Sugar ÷ Carbs
830 1222 402 41%
Percentage of total calories  
34% 50% 16%
Nutritional values for Beef Stew with Biscuits and Chocolate Pudding

The nutritional values for this menu assume the use of 5 tablespoons extra flour in the biscuits for high altitude. If you want to make any changes to this menu, I suggest that you download it as an Excel spreadsheet so you can recalculate the nutritional values.

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