Last September, I attended , a wild game butchering course hosted by , an all-in-one training and outfitter referral service for people who want to get started hunting. After conservation, the purpose of hunting is to put the healthiest, most sustainable, and ethically harvested meat on your dinner table. So when I got the chance to elevate my butchering and cooking skills to the next level, I jumped at the opportunity.

Whether you鈥檙e hunting, or just want to stretch cheap cuts of meat as far as possible, making your own sausage is an easy way to stock up on healthy, tasty protein. I鈥檝e been making my own at home for the last 15 years or so. Let me show you how.

Why Sausage?

Sausage is a way to make use of excess trim that’s left over when you butcher your own animals. As you separate muscle groups into their component parts, you鈥檒l invariably end up with chunks of good meat that don鈥檛 look good enough to use on their own. Turning those鈥攐r affordable commercial cuts like pork shoulders or beef chuck roast鈥攊nto a form that鈥檚 not just useable, but delicious, ensures that you鈥檙e getting the most out of every last bit of animal you harvested. Plus, you’ll end up with large quantities of great food, no matter your budget.

I wrote about听the lessons I learned about butchering in an article last October. The pronghorn antelope I harvested then produced the off cuts I鈥檓 using today, and I鈥檒l incorporate tips from Outdoor Solutions鈥� throughout this piece.

What Is Sausage, Anyway?

Sausage is simply ground, seasoned meat that鈥檚 ready to cook. You can absolutely stuff that into sheep intestines if you want to create nice links, but even with Chef Albert鈥檚 instruction, I find that process time consuming. I don鈥檛 typically end up eating the casings anyway, so I prefer to make sausage in bulk. Packing it into vacuum bags one pound at a time makes it easy to store in your freezer, quick to defrost, and simple to cook with.

Wild game is much leaner than industrially farmed meat. So while there鈥檚 no need to use extra fat if you鈥檙e turning a pork shoulder into sausage, you鈥檒l want to buy a source of fat for anything you鈥檝e hunted.听I鈥檇 always visited a butcher for frozen piles of pork fat, but not every butcher has those, especially during hunting season. Chef Albert recommends simply using bacon instead鈥攊t鈥檚 cheap, readily available, and works just as well. That鈥檚 what I plan to do from now on.

How to Prepare Your Kitchen to Make Sausage

First, you鈥檒l need to defrost the trim you plan to turn into sausage. Chef Albert cautions against forcing a defrost in warm water, and instead recommends thawing what you plan to use overnight in your fridge. Doing that helps preserve the meat鈥檚 texture, and won鈥檛 turn it gray.

Thirty minutes before you plan to get started, it鈥檚 also a good idea to put all the pieces of your meat grinder (except the motor) into your freezer. Grinding produces heat, which you don鈥檛 want entering your meat until you鈥檙e ready to cook.

For that same reason, you鈥檙e also going to want an ample stash of ice cubes on hand.

Supplies you鈥檒l need:

• A meat grinder
• At least two large mixing bowls
• Ice
• A scale
• A sharp knife
• A large cutting board
• Nitrile gloves
• Defrosted meat, trimmed of silver skin and connective tissue
• 20 percent of the weight of that meat in bacon

You should also decide how you want to season your sausage. Today, I made a simple hot Italian, which I find brings out the natural flavor of venison or antelope, and is versatile in use, working as well in a pasta as it does with eggs.

For each pound of the hot Italian spice blend you鈥檒l need:

• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground fennel seeds
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1/4 cup red wine

If you鈥檙e making large quantities of sausage after, say, harvesting a bull elk or more than one deer, you may find it easier to use bulk quantities of a pre-made spice blend.

You’ve Seasoned Your Meat. What’s Next?

Fit your meat grinder with the plate with the large holes, and start dropping strips of meat through it, interspersing the occasional strip of bacon.

Once that鈥檚 done, you鈥檙e ready to add seasonings to your ground meat and thoroughly mix the sausage meat by hand.

Chef Albert strongly recommends wearing nitrile gloves while handling game meat, especially when grinding. Ground meat is sticky, and will pull in any dirt that may exist in your cuticles and under your nails. You don鈥檛 want that stuff polluting the taste of your meat. But also, you should be washing your hands, regardless!

After that first grind and the hand mix, fit your grinder with the plate with the small holes, and pass the mixture through it again.

If you feel your grinder start to heat up while processing large volumes of meat, Chef Albert recommends dropping a few ice cubes into it.听This cold water will also add moisture to your sausage.

At this point, you can pack the sausage mix into a press and extrude it into casings, or simply vacuum seal the bulk meat one pound at a time.

You’ve Just Made a Mess. Here’s the Easiest Way to Clean Your Kitchen.

You鈥檝e just thrown raw meat all over your kitchen, and into a high-powered mixer. Make sure you leave plenty of time for the mopup. Even after careful trimming, game meat is still going to contain some tendon and fascia, and that tough connective tissue loves to wind itself around the auger inside your grinder. I鈥檝e always carefully picked it apart by hand, but Chef Albert showed me an easier way: simply run ice cubes through the grinder until they come out clean.

Then disassemble all the grinder鈥檚 parts, rinse them off, and run them through the dishwasher or wash them by hand. Take care to thoroughly clean cutting boards, countertops, knives, and of course, your hands.

How Should I Cook My Sausage?

What do you do with your new sausage? I like to taste my game meat, so I听try to incorporate it into as simple a dish as possible.

Here鈥檚 a recipe for a very basic hot Italian sausage pasta. I invited my now-wife to come over and enjoy this for our second date, and the rest is history.

Ingredients:

• One box of good quality pasta. My wife has celiac disease, and we鈥檝e found to make gluten-free noodles with the best texture and flavor. Cook that for one minute shy of what’s recommended on the box.
• Kosher salt
• Freshly cracked black pepper
• One 28-ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes鈥擨 like
• Yellow onion, diced
• Fresh garlic to taste, crushed
• One pound hot Italian game sausage
• Fresh basil
• Parmesan
• A good quality olive oil. I only use , which is produced in Umbria by our friends the Tega family and imported by our buddy David Dellanave.

Directions:

1. In a large dutch oven, heat a good amount of olive oil over medium high heat
2. When oil is shimmering, add sausage and saut茅 until brown and crisp
3. Bring a salted pot of water to boil and cook pasta
4. Add the onion and saut茅 until clear
5. Add the garlic and saut茅 until fragrant
6. Season with salt and pepper
7. Add tomatoes, breaking up with your hands or wooden spoon
8. Bring tomatoes to simmer then reduce heat
9. After 15 minutes, stir and add a pinch of salt
10. After another 15 minutes, add pasta, sausage, parmesan to sauce and serve
11. Top plates with ample amounts of torn basil leaves

Delicious food really is that easy, especially when you鈥檙e working with the best meat possible.

Wes Siler grew up on a horse farm in England. That’s where he learned how the sausage gets made. Wes now writes about important topics like politics and vehicles on , where you can also talk to him about those topics and more.

The post The Beginner鈥檚 Guide to Making Sausage at Home appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

For the last decade, I鈥檝e been brining my Thanksgiving turkeys in champagne. The technique has produced delicious, consistent results from campsites in Big Sur, California, and Baja, Mexico鈥攁nd in everything from frying oil to pellet grills to standard home ovens. To prove champagne’s efficacy in producing a juicy, tender bird, I tested a champagne brine against a typical water-based one.

Last weekend, I drove over to our local supermarket in Bozeman, Montana, and picked up two of their cheapest $2.99-a-pound turkeys, as close in weight to each other as I could find. I wanted to design this experiment I wanted to design this experiment in a way that controlled for as many variables as possible and set up a worst-case scenario, in which the brine would be the only flavor factor in the roasted turkey.

Turkey is a difficult bird to cook. Not only are turkeys large鈥攅ach of the birds I bought was 14 pounds鈥攂ut they also contain both light and dark meat. Tender, more exposed meat in the breast will cook faster than the tougher, tucked-away meat in the legs and thighs, which creates a significant risk of overcooking the white meat while you wait for the dark stuff to come up to temperature. That dries out the breasts and results in the chewy, flavorless bites of turkey we鈥檝e all come to associate with Thanksgiving.

Why Brine a Turkey?

Salt breaks down the proteins in meat, making the texture听more tender. At the same time, a brine can help infuse a bird with flavor, and adding liquids can help keep it moist while cooking.

There are听two main methods of brining a turkey: wet and dry.

A dry brine involves rubbing the outside and cavity of a turkey with kosher salt, dried herbs, and spices. It听draws moisture out of the meat, where it mixes with the salt, which is then transported back into the meat as the moisture is reabsorbed from the surface. Dry brining. produces a crispy skin and takes less effort than a wet brine, but it also struggles to fully infuse all parts of a big turkey with moisture and flavor.

To make a wet brine, dissolve kosher salt in boiling water, along with fresh aromatics like fruit peels, garlic, and herbs. You then submerge the turkey in the liquid at room temperature, and and place it in the refrigerator or outdoors if it’s cold enough for anywhere from 12 to 24 hours. This bath permeates all parts of the meat with salt, breaking down those proteins and infusing flavor throughout the turkey. Pat the bird dry and let it drain, then roast. Don’t worry: lots of this liquid remains present during the cook, adding steam and the additional moisture and flavor it brings to an otherwise dry oven or grill.

How Does Champagne Affect a Turkey?

Brining a turkey in champagne听does three things. Alcohol helps tenderize meat by breaking down collagen. Champagne鈥檚 mild fruit flavors also infuse the meat, pairing well with turkey itself along with the herbs, vegetables, and stuffing you use for seasoning and sides. Plus, the champagne听helps create flavorful drippings you can use to make a better gravy. Finally, champagne is acidic. That acid is yet another tenderizer that leads to a flavorful roast turkey.

There鈥檚 no reason to use anything other than the cheapest champagne you can find. The less subtle flavors and greater acidity will actually work better than the nice stuff. I used Andr茅听Brut simply because, at $7.39 a bottle, it was the most affordable stuff on the shelves at my grocery store. Andr茅 comes from California and not the champagne region of France and cannot technically be called champagne, it does the job just fine.

How Do You Wet Brine a Turkey?

First, make sure you don鈥檛 buy a pre-brined turkey. This should be prominently labeled on the packaging, or is something you should ask your butcher about if you鈥檙e buying a bird straight from a meat counter. The words, 鈥渒osher,鈥� 鈥渆nhanced,鈥� or self-basting,鈥� can also be understood to mean pre-brined.

You can find pre-made brining kits for turkeys which contain measured portions of salts, spices, and herbs that you just add to boiling water. But fresh ingredients are always going to taste better, and making your own brine allows you to to tailor it to your own unique tastes.

The most important step is dissolving salt in water. To do that, you just need to start with a ratio of four parts of water to one part kosher salt. This will give us a base brine to which we can add our champagne or water later. Bring that water to a boil, pour in the salt, let it return to a boil, then turn the heat off and let the solution cool to room temperature. You don鈥檛 want to submerge a bird in hot water; doing so can lead to bacteria growth.

For this taste test, I kept the brine simple. To that base brine, I just added orange and lemon peels, garlic cloves, peppercorns, and some chopped-up sage and bay leafs. Once that鈥檇 cooled, I placed the turkeys in a brining bag, rested them in their foil roasting trays to support the weight and catch any leaks, then poured additional water on one turkey and champagne over the other until each was fully submerged. When you add enough water (or champagne) to fully submerge the turkeys and further dilute your brine, you should end with a salt-to-water ratio of around 1:16.

The only variable here is that one turkey was submerged in brine and water, and the other was submerged in brine and champagne. It took five bottles of champagne to fully submerge one of the turkeys. I simply put the other bird under a cold kitchen sink tap in its brining bag, and didn鈥檛 measure how much water it took to fully cover it.

You can (and should!) add more stuff to your brine. Ingredients from Worcestershire sauce to chicken broth, herbs, and spices are all common, and will all add flavor to your end result. Again, I tried to keep this cook as simple as possible so nothing else was working to mask the effect of the different liquids.

What Cooking Methods Work with a Champagne Brine?

The answer to that is simple: Every method I’ve tried works well with a champagne brine. When I prepare a turkey in camp, I prefer to use a propane-fueled fryer, simply because it鈥檚 the easiest thing to transport and use outdoors. If you鈥檙e frying, just take extra care to fully dry the bird, inside and out, before sticking it in the hot oil. The wet brine should help ensure the turkey is defrosted, and can be transported to a campsite or patio in a small cooler or lidded five-gallon bucket.

At home, I prefer to use a pellet grill due to the controlled level of moisture present in quality wood pellets. But I鈥檝e also cooked champagne-brined turkey on my Big Green Egg using lump charcoal with excellent results.

For this cook, with the goal of testing champagne鈥檚 effectiveness in the worst possible circumstances, I simply used the ovens in my kitchen. I pre-heated both ovens to 350 degrees听Fahrenheit听(without any convection), filled the cavities with wedges of the leftover fruit, brushed a stick of melted butter over the top of each, and baked them until done.

Prior to 2008, the USDA recommended cooking turkeys until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reached 180 degrees Fahrenheit. But that recommendation was updated in 2008 to 165 degrees. That lower temperature should result in a moister bird, but I cooked both turkeys through to 180 degrees to account for a worst-case scenario.

The mad scientist in me was pleased when the probes in both birds registered 180 degrees at the exact same time. That meant both ovens were heating consistently with each other,听an indication that I鈥檇 managed to remove one more variable from the result.

Can a Champagne Brine Really Produce a Juicier Bird?

I pulled the turkeys out of the oven, and rested them on my stove top for 15 minutes before carving. One difference was immediately apparent: the skin on the water-brined bird was noticeably crisper, and more deeply browned. My theory there is that the champagne broke down the skin on its bird that much more. While irrelevant to听flavor, this did represent less than ideal presentation. If oven cooking a champagne-brined bird, it may be a good idea to add some honey to the melted butter before you brush it on the bird, which should help its skin crisp up and look a little darker.

But that one downside disappeared as soon as I sliced into the breasts. There, the water-brined bird displayed noticeably more separation between muscle fibers听and was visibly less juicy. Biting into that water-brined bird took more effort, and the bite contained less flavor.

In contrast, the champagne-brined turkey was visibly juicy, with no separation between muscle fibers. The bite was tender, and was noticeably more听flavorful.

While the dark meat in both birds was similar in appearance, the tenderness and flavor was again far superior on the champagne-brined turkey.

I ended up throwing out the water-brined turkey, but carved and saved the champagne-brined one. I鈥檒l make a turkey sandwich for lunch after finishing this article. Even with such a basic cooking method, in which no additional flavoring from herbs or spices was added, the champagne brine produced a turkey I鈥檇 be happy serving to dinner guests. Its level of tenderness was as good as I expect from better equipment and more elaborate recipes, and its nice, but somewhat bland flavor could have been masked with a good gravy.

Can You Serve a Champagne-Brined Turkey to Children?

As with other cooking methods that include wine, beer, cider, or liquor, the alcohol cooks off with temperature and time. There should be no alcohol content remaining in the final dish.

Can You Taste the Champagne?

Flavor-wise, there were some faint notes of fruitiness in the meat of the champagne-brined turkey that weren鈥檛 present in the water-brined one. But that could be explained as much by the champagne better transporting the flavor of the orange and lemon peels into the juicier meat as it could by anything remaining of the booze. I certainly couldn’t detect any strong flavor of champagne or alcohol.

By spending $37 on champagne, I meaningfully increased the quality of my Thanksgiving turkey鈥攚ithout relying on my preferred cooking methods or added seasoning. Consider a champagne brine as an additional step to your favorite recipe. Paired with a superior cooking method like grilling or frying, a champagne-brine can help elevate your results to new levels.

The post The Secret to a Perfectly Juicy Thanksgiving Turkey? Cheap Champagne. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

What鈥檚 the best way to grill a steak? There鈥檚 no one answer, but to me, there鈥檚 always been a wrong one. I鈥檝e long considered grilling with gas to be heresy, but it occurred to me that I鈥檇 never actually done a back-to-back taste test between gas and charcoal. Earlier this week, with very excited dogs, I fired up my grills and got down to work.

What’s the difference? Temperature, smoke, and convenience. While natural lump charcoal is able to get much hotter than natural gas or propane, and produces delicious wood smoke, it also takes time to light and bring up to temperature, is messy to use, and can be challenging for beginners to precisely control. In comparison, on a gas grill you simply turn dials and push a button to ignite the flame.

The Experiment: How to Grill a Steak

To control for variables as much as possible, I bought four identical choice-grade New York strip steaks. Not the expensive ribeyes I normally cook, they were maybe half-an-inch thick, and not terribly well marbled. Then, I set out to conduct two tests. First, a cook using the most basic methods possible. I wanted to eliminate any flavor difference created by ultra-hot sears, and just experience the difference in flavor, if any, between fuels. Then, I wanted to take advantage of charcoal’s high temperatures to see if the end result really is superior.

Pulling two steaks out of the butcher paper, I liberally coated each in kosher salt, then set them aside to come up to room temperature. According to Bon App茅tit, before cooking results in a more even temperature听and juicier results.

Grilling Steak: Gas Versus Charcoal

I fired up both burners on my patio鈥檚 built-in Viking grill (it came with the house), and let it heat up on full blast for 15 minutes. 550 degrees was the highest achievable temperature, so I inserted my Meater+ wireless thermometer in the steak, and threw it on the grill, being careful to leave the hood open. The wired probe on my Dot thermometer was throwing error codes and needs to be replaced, and the hottest ambient temperature the Meater+ can withstand is 500 degrees. Leaving the hood open may have allowed some heat to escape, but it also allowed me to monitor the steak鈥檚 internal temperature precisely.

When the steak reached 110-degrees internal, I flipped it over, then pulled it off at 125, setting it aside to rest while I heated up my Big Green Egg (BGE). To make things fair, I also set it to 550 degrees, and left the lid open while I followed the same method.

And the Winner Is…

I actually think I overcooked the BGE鈥檚 steak slightly. While resting, the gas steak reached a high temperature of 132. The BGE鈥檚 reached 136. And you can see that in the side-by-side shots, where the gas steak looks a little more evenly pink throughout.

The difference was stark upon tasting. While an unpleasantly sour taste pervaded every bite of the steak grilled on the Viking, the one grilled on natural lump charcoal just tasted like salt, fat, and heat. I鈥檇 have needed dollops of sauce to finish the gas steak, but could have eaten the charcoal one on its own with a reasonable level of enjoyment.

While that natural gas or propane grills burn their fuels without odor, I鈥檝e never found the taste they produce in steaks palatable. I don鈥檛 know if that鈥檚 simply because I prefer the taste of wood-smoke in steak to steak without the smoke, but I do know I can taste a difference.

With the aid of a leaf blower, I鈥檓 able to take my BGE above 1,500 degrees (this is also very dangerous and is best left to experienced grillers). Of course, that鈥檚 only with natural lump charcoal, which contains nothing but carbonized wood, rather than the compacted sawdust briquettes that are filled with chemical additives. You don鈥檛 necessarily need a multi-hundred-dollar Egg to achieve a perfect steak; just burning natural lump in a standard kettle grill will elevate your flavors, while also facilitating higher temperatures.

Would results differ if I used a more elaborate method, and is it possible to hide the flavor of gas? My go-to grilling method for steak听is to do the hottest-possible sear on the front end, rest the steaks for at least 20 minutes, then put them back on at a low temperature to cook through. At home, I use that Big Green Egg for the sear, then rely on the more consistent temperatures of a pellet grill for the slow cook through. But that method often works just as well on lesser equipment.

Don’t Have a Charcoal Grill? Fear Not.

Because butter withstands higher temperatures than olive oil, and also because I was hoping its sweet flavor could mask the sour aftertaste created on the gas grill, I first salted then seared one of the steaks on my 24,000 BTU Viking range burner, using a Staub enameled cast iron pan. With that pre-heated as hot as possible, I melted some butter, then cooked the steak for a minute on each side, before moving it to a cool cutting board to rest.

To sear on the Big Green Egg, I simply point a leaf blower at the intake from a few feet away, then watch the thermometer dial spin around as a wall of flame emerges from the top. 30 seconds on each side produced a very crispy sear on this strip. I also rubbed the steak with a good quality olive oil听first, to seal in moisture.

After allowing both steaks to rest for 20 minutes, I threw them back on their respective grills, with both of those set at 250 degrees, to cook through to 125. Then rested each again for 10 minutes to come up to something north of 130 before slicing. I again think I slightly overdid the steak on the Egg, simply because I鈥檓 not used to cooking such thin pieces of beef.

The Bottom Line: Just Avoid Gas

With this method, the gas grill produced a more predictable result, but the sear was lackluster and the flavor of the gas was not dissipated at all, even with all that butter. The charcoal steak was a little overdone, but a lot more palatable anyways.

I鈥檒l go back to reserving my gas grill for occasional vegetable-only duty during big dinner parties, and keep my meats as far away from gas-fired grills as possible. Still, the dogs didn鈥檛 seem to care which steak they were given. All four disappeared in only a few quick chomps.

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This hearty combo tastes even better in the woods than it does in the diner. Whip it up over a campfire, and you鈥檒l not only impress your buddies鈥搚ou鈥檒l have a no-pot meal with zero cleanup (eat right out of the bag!). The paper won鈥檛 ignite if you make sure it鈥檚 wet before cooking鈥揾ere, bacon grease does the trick鈥揵ut it might smoke a bit. Try it with these two techniques: one for the trailhead, one for the trail.

Car Camping

Ingredients:听 4 thick bacon slices, 2 eggs, 1 brown paper lunch bag

• At home, pack eggs and bacon in a cooler.
• In camp, cook one serving per bag. Place the bacon inside the bag, wiping the insides generously with grease (the more you coat the bag, the better). Crack eggs on top of the bacon. Fold the bag down several times, then poke a three-foot stick (green pine won鈥檛 burn) through it so that the bag hangs at one end.
• Holding the stick鈥檚 other end, suspend the bag over hot coals (not flames), heating all sides evenly until done (seven to 10 minutes).

Backpacking

Ingredients: 4 frozen bacon slices, 2 eggs, 1 brown paper lunch bag

• At home, crack eggs into a bowl and beat. Pour into a Lexan bottle or zip-top bag and freeze. Wrap the bottle or bag with foil, then place in your pack with the bacon. Both will thaw in time for breakfast the next day.
• Cook over your campfire, using the method described above.

Tip: If you鈥檙e in an area where fires are banned but charcoal grills are permitted, these techniques work over those too.

Adapted from , by Richard Wiese ($19, Harper Collins).

Originally published in 2009; updated in January 2022

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Want to have a successful camping trip? Make good food.

But cooking in camp can involve challenges: weather, darkness, unfamiliar equipment, and sanitation can build a barricade between you and a full stomach. And that鈥檚 before you figure in fussy eaters or food allergies. But on a recent 1,000-mile camping trip through Mexico, I think I may have experienced a revelation. Any and all of those problems can be addressed deliciously by a single food: the humble quesadilla.

A camp meal should be easy to make. And to make a quesadilla, all you do is put some cheese on a tortilla, stick that on a hot pan, and flip it once one side is crispy. There’s not even any need for cooking oil, the tortillas should already have enough fat in them to crisp up nicely.

Nor is there need for tools beyond a hot surface to cook on. Counting ounces? Fold up some foil and lay that on a bed of coals. Sure, a spatula, knife, cutting board, bowls, plates, and all that might be nice, but they aren’t necessities. Fingers can flip and press tortillas just fine, so long as you’re careful.

You also need that meal to be nutritious. And while a pile of melted cheese delivered to your mouth via tortilla isn鈥檛 the type of recipe you鈥檙e going to find in most weight-loss diets, it does offer a lot of satisfying calories if those are all you鈥檙e looking for after a long day on the trail.

Add fiber and vitamins in the form of veggies. Just slice up some bell peppers, jalape帽os, and onions ahead of time, season them with some salt, pepper, cumin and garlic powder, then saut茅 them in your pan before you make the quesadillas. No need to clean the pan in between, you鈥檙e just adding more flavor. Add even more protein (and more fiber) cheaply and easily by squeezing a pack of frijoles on top of the melting cheese. Have more time and budget, plus the ability to bring along fresh meat? Grab a lid for your pan, and follow my guaranteed method for cooking tender, safe chicken breasts. Use a packet of pre-made taco seasoning to make things even simpler.

Notice that none of the above ingredients will spill, break, or bruise.

Celiac? Grab corn tortillas. Those tend to be small, so I like to make quesadillas with them by simply laying the tortillas flat in a hot pan, and piling cheese and other ingredients on top, before adding another corn tortilla, pressing down on it to create adhesion, then flipping the whole thing over. Larger flour tortillas can simply be folded in half around the fillings, and two then form a perfect circle inside your pan, doubling your cooking speed.

Cooking for family or friends with mixed tastes? Prep the veggies and protein ahead of time, put them in bowls, and let everyone build their own quesadillas as you go. Vegetarians can squeeze on beans instead of chicken. Vegans can use alternative cheeses. And kids can get a cooking lesson using safe, already cooked-through ingredients.

Build-your-own quesadillas also address the biggest challenge in preparing group meals: timing. Even if the toppings get cold, they鈥檒l warm right back up while the cheese melts and the tortillas crisp. A good camp meal is a warm camp meal. And every quesadilla comes off the pan ready to eat, with everything inside piping hot. Eat as you go.

Add even more flavor by dipping your quesadilla in salsa or sour cream. Experiment with different types of cheese, especially local ones you鈥檝e never tried before. Mix different types of cheese together. Cut up some cilantro. Squeeze a lime on top. Add an avocado.

And quesadillas don鈥檛 just need to be for dinner. Fry bacon, scramble eggs, pile those in with your cheese, and you鈥檝e got a quick, easy, hot breakfast ready to go, even if people wake up at different times.

In the mood for Italian? Use mozzarella cheese instead, and add toppings like sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus or artichoke hearts. With a quesadilla, there鈥檚 no limit to what鈥檚 possible.

But when you’re camping, the nicest thing about a quesadilla isn鈥檛 just that it鈥檚 delicious. It鈥檚 that once all that melted cheese has you feeling fat and happy, there鈥檚 not really any clean up to worry about. Scrape any loose cheese that burned off the pan into your campfire or trash bag, put that pan some place where it won鈥檛 attract critters, then crawl into bed. With all those calories to burn off, you鈥檒l sleep warmer. There鈥檚 no campout that can鈥檛 be improved by the quesadilla.

The post Looking for the Perfect Camping Meal? Consider the Quesadilla. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

This Turkey Day recipe brings the comforts of a holiday home-cooked meal on the trail. Classically-trained chef, avid hiker, and recipe developer, says stuffing is his favorite Thanksgiving side, and making in the great outdoors makes it that much tastier.听听

鈥淲hat I love about this turkey stuffing recipe is it鈥檚 a combination of all the great parts of a Thanksgiving plate, all cooked up in an easy-to-shop-for-and-quick-to-cook trail meal,鈥� Corso says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also easy to prep for one portion, or for your whole trail crew, in any size camping pot.鈥�

Note: While you can use canned chicken in this recipe, Corso loves 听as a vegan option because of the flavor and heartiness. These sausages can be carried in your backpack, unrefrigerated, for two days.

On-the-Trail Turkey Stuffing Bowl

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If you鈥檝e never heard of sweet potato bark, don鈥檛 worry because before we met , an outdoor lifestyle writer and Washington Trail Association Guide Correspondent, we hadn鈥檛 either. Leader lives in the Greater Seattle area in Washington and tackles hikes across the Pacific Northwest. This, of course, requires plenty of on-the-go fuel, like Leader鈥檚 favorite dried sweet potato bark.

The bark is dehydrated sweet potato puree that鈥檚 spread onto parchment paper into thin pieces and sprinkled with spices. It鈥檚 sweet, salty, and highly nutritious. 鈥淎 sweet potato makes a great trail food because it鈥檚 a basic ingredient packed with fiber and vitamins,鈥� Leader says. 鈥淧lus, you can eat it both as bark for a snack or rehydrate it back into hot water for mashed potatoes or soup.鈥�

Leader鈥檚 bark recipe came about when she became fixated on ras el hanout, a North African spice blend. In Arabic, ras el hanout roughly translates to 鈥渉ead of the shop,鈥� because in places like Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia where it鈥檚 regularly sold, this blend is made of the best spices the store has to offer. There鈥檚 no single recipe for the blend, but the most common flavor profile includes cardamom, cumin, coriander, peppercorn, sweet paprika, dried turmeric, and cinnamon. Traditionally, ras el hanout is used for stews and grilled meats, but it can be used for about anything, including sweet potatoes.听

鈥淥nce you make a batch of ras el hanout, you’ll find yourself sprinkling it on everything!鈥� Leader says. 鈥淚 even gave it away as Christmas presents one year.鈥�

Ras El Hanout Sweet Potato Bark

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Sweet potato pie is a Thanksgiving staple, but unluckily for your backcountry Friendsgiving, it doesn鈥檛 travel well unless you鈥檙e a fan of baby food. Instead, sub it out for this ingenious creation from reader Shelli Snyder, which uses a combo of graham crackers, instant sweet potatoes, marshmallows, and fall spices to recreate all the flavor you love in a significantly more hike-friendly package.

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We鈥檇 all like to be organized enough to start a slow cooker in the morning and come back to a home-cooked meal at night. But let鈥檚 be honest: you鈥檙e probably scrambling to get ready for work, sneak in some exercise, or get the kids to school with just enough time to slam a cup of coffee on your way out the door.

But thanks to the Instant Pot, , you can reap many of the same benefits without as听much advanced planning. It鈥檚 an active person鈥檚 godsend. Here are a few easy recipes from the kitchens of professional athletes to let simmer during your afternoon workout.

If You Have 2 Hours: Pulled Pork

Pulled pork is one of Rally Cycling racer favorite picks for a weeknight meal. The 20-year-old loves spending time in the kitchen when he鈥檚 not out riding. 鈥淧ulled pork is great because you can put it in the Instant Pot at 4 p.m. and be ready for dinner soon after,鈥� he says. To make it, simply stick a pork shoulder in the Instant Pot with about an inch of water in the bottom, set it to 鈥渕eat,鈥� and seal. (If you want to add some carbs to your meal, throw in a couple halved potatoes.) When it鈥檚 done, use two forks to shred the now-tender meat. Add barbecue sauce to taste, toss it on a bed of greens, and you鈥檙e ready to go.

Pro Tip: Weekly meal prep makes for even easier Instant Pot dinners. Pre-chop ingredients, combine in a plastic Ziploc, and stash it in the fridge or freezer. To cook, just plop the bag of ingredients into the Instant Pot and press the start button.

If You Have 1 Hour: Tomatillo Avocado Chicken

Chicken cooks quickly and stays moist and tender in a pressure cooker. Cyclocrosser 鈥檚 go-to recipe is simple. 鈥淚 combine a premade tomatillo salsa with a couple slices of avocado (for creaminess), a few chicken breasts, plus whatever vegetables I have in the fridge,鈥� she says. Add water or chicken broth so there鈥檚 about an inch of liquid covering the bottom, then program the pot to the manual setting on high for 15 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally, and set the pot to stay warm when finished so you can do your full workout without dinner getting cold. When you鈥檙e ready to eat, use two forks to shred the chicken. Top it with fresh cilantro and a spritz of fresh lime and enjoy. Serve atop tortilla chips with a bit of melted Monterey Jack cheese for a healthier take on nachos.

Pro Tip: Experiment! 鈥淭he Instant Pot has become one of my favorite ways to make food for the week,鈥� Noble says. 鈥淪ometimes I make specific recipes, or I鈥檒l just throw in whatever鈥檚 in the fridge that needs to be used up and make a ton of delicious food for the week.鈥� (Ellsay is also a fan of the 鈥渆verything but the kitchen sink鈥� stew.)

If You Have 30 Minutes: Rice Bowl

Noble and Ellsay both admit that they primarily use the Instant Pot to make rice in record time. Unlike a rice cooker, the Instant Pot鈥檚 correct ratio of rice to water is 1:1. The pot has a rice setting and will take between five and 25 minutes, depending on the type of rice you鈥檙e cooking. Before a race, Noble likes to top a bowl of rice with almond milk, jam or maple syrup, and almond butter. For a more savory option, add canned black beans, chunks of avocado, and plenty of greens and fresh salsa for a do-it-yourself burrito bowl.

Pro Tip: If you鈥檙e a fan of heartier, more nutrient-dense grains, the Instant Pot reduces the cook time of farro from 20 to 40 minutes on the stovetop to just ten minutes. Pearl barley, which traditionally takes nearly an hour, is done in just 25 minutes.

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Fall is in full swing, and you foodies know what that means. No, not pumpkin spice lattes: It鈥檚 time to start cooking the harvest season鈥檚 bounty up with this apple crisp. The recipe uses simple ingredients including apples, granola (make your own if you want to go all-in) and nuts to create a sweet-and-spiced concoction that is tasty enough for dessert but hearty and wholesome enough to start your day. Tip: Don鈥檛 have a dehydrator? Prop your oven鈥檚 door open and turn it on low.

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