From an off topic post I made to one of @Beckdawrek’s post…
I am an amateur baker. I have baked bread in ovens - electric, coal and wood-fire. I’ve baked bread in a tin can inside the coals of a bonfire. I’ve baked in a solar oven. I’ve baked by burying my bread underneath a fire. I have made flatbread using a flat (hah!) rock above a fire.
I do sourdough mostly at home - but the extreme breads usually need to be yeast based.
It has become perfornative to a certain extent, because on day four of a five day hike, that fresh bread smell … and then taste is incredible.
I prepack mixed ingriedients so all I need is water and heat.
Anyone else as nuts as I am? And can share recipes?
I am envious and simultaneously scared of your mastery of bread-making!
Seriously, I’ve baked bread in a cast iron dutchy, both in a traditional oven as a heat concentrator, and over a campfire. I’ve made naan bread from scratch, using a cast iron skillet lacking a traditional tandoor. I’ve made bagels and pretzels at home, using various lye alternatives. But none of that reaches the ankles of what you’ve mentioned.
Then again, we’re stay-at-home types, and when we do travel, we try to take in the local food rather than cook on site as it were.
Same here. I love cooking. Baking has never been my thing but I have mastered a few recipes (like cookies). Mostly though, it is just more work than I have mustered to nail down.
My sister took up bread making, as many did, during COVID. Never worked out well. Maybe not bad but nothing great either.
When the world falls back to the Stone Age (soon looking like) those bread skills will be in high demand.
@scudsucker On your backpacking trips, do you use a jet boil type stove? If yes, please describe how you bake the bread?
Or do you bake around the fire?
Here’s a method for you used by Tibetan nomads. Typically, nomads have a summer camp and a winter camp. Inside the yurt or hut, it is bare earth. In the center, there is a fire pit. The fire pit doesn’t get cleaned out, so ash builds up. The fire is for cooking and heating.
So, I’m sitting in a yurt in Tibet in the winter camp. There was me and about 10 Tibetans. One of them began to mix a 100% rye dough that was pretty dry. Made into a 10" diameter round shape that was 1/2" or 3/4" thick. Raked away some of the fire/burning coals, shoved that dough round into the ashes, then raked the fire back on top. It took a while to bake, I wasn’t timing it and it was 35 years ago, but guess 30-45 minute bake time. At some point, raked the coals off that part of the fire pit and pulled out the bread. knocked it against the rocks that formed the fire ring. The inside was steaming hot. Served with yak butter. One of the best things I’ve ever eaten, and a magical experience.
I’ve tried a gas stove but it uses too much gas, so I do it in or under a fire (under is best, bury it and make a fire on top - but you need to have a lot of faith in the timing…)
One handy tip for bread in a dutch oven on a fire - because inevitably the bottom of the pot will be hotter, and may burn the bread - is to place a smaller pot inside containg the dough. First add some gravel or sand so that the two are not in direct contact. Then put the smaller pan on top. Now we have a “real” oven, with hot air circulating. This also means you can throw in some water for steaming, which really helps the crust.
My dutchie has decent stubby feet to help keep it off the coals a bit, and a nice raised lip on the lid to allow for coals to be stacked on top. Not that I’ve used it on a wood fire in over a decade, but it did a decent job lo those many years ago and got pretty even heating. A more-than-you-think-you-need layer of cornmeal on the bottom or a sheet of parchment paper was a help to prevent overly dark bottoms though. Something we still do for overnight rise white/wheat blend crusty boules we bake in the dutchie inside our conventional oven.
Our family had a heirloom recipe for potato pudding with currants and a tot of the creature. It called for the batter to be spooned into muslin bags that were suspended inside a stock pot whose pool of boiling water had to be continuously replenished from a simmering kettle. A major PITA, and yet another example of the traditional Irish penchant for suffering.
Somewhat alleviated by replacing the bags with recycled tin cans, which could sit on a tray in water deep enough for the full duration. But still too much effort and the recipe it long lost.
I haven’t done much bread making, but I tried this recipe, and it was delicious:
Must make it again some time; I just struggle being organised enough to start early.
Mostly what I have attempted is flatbreads, because you don’t have to plan in advance and start early enough to allow a rise. You also don’t need an oven, which would probably be a bonus when camping. These have mostly turned out so-so, I only made them because I didn’t have any appropriate bread products in the house.
I’ve also made paratha, which were pretty damn tasty. TBF they are more pastries than breads. It was a fair amount of work, but definitely worth doing. Can’t remember which recipe we used unfortunately. I think I used the dough from one recipe and the rolling technique from another - the spiral ones turned out best.
I wouldn’t take this backpacking , but the Lodge 3-legged camp stove is pretty awesome and works well for bread. It’s basically what most parties on the Oregon Trail used.
You can just rake over some coals and put some coals on the lid to make an oven. Can also be buried. Comes with a Lodge cookbook. And there are websites dedicated to using these.
I’m in awe of anyone who can consistently bake a good sourdough loaf! I can do it, but it’s a lot of fussing, time consuming and not always a reliable result.
I do bake lots of bread and have tried my hand at most types of loaves. I’m dedicated enough that I make my own bread “cradles”:
So yes, I suppose I’m rather into to bread baking. I do like the artisan no-knead recipes that use a covered Dutch oven when I don’t wish to fuss. Not much over campfires, though.
Careful, there’s been a long held culinary field of thought that all “food-onna-stick” options are superior. Of course, it has dangerous overlaps with “all food should also be deep-fried” faction. Combining them all leads to temporary joy (which is not to be dismissed!) but many digestive regrets, along with the need for a vast increase in belly/hip/butt based regrets if followed to the logical conclusion.
Plus, it’s obvious () that a pretzel-dog would be superior!
, but the 
) that a pretzel-dog would be superior!