The original recipe for small game Brunswick stew probably originated somewhere along the east coast during the early 1700s.

Use this basic small game stew recipe to experiment with different meats and vegetables.

by Leon Pantenburg

Over the years, this basic recipe has evolved due to personal preferences and availability of vegetables. This version is one of my favorites, and you can use virtually any small game animal as the main ingredient.

This dish is particularly good when made in a Dutch oven outdoors over a campfire. Serve with biscuits or cornbread.

Brunswick Stew

1 rabbit or squirrel (You can substitute a chicken, if need be.)
1 onion
1 large can of tomatoes
1 clove of garlic
celery
carrots
salt and pepper
spices to taste
Optional: Sherry, soy sauce, Worcester sauce
Potatoes or other vegetables can be added as the cook sees fit. Old Bay seafood seasoning can help provide a great taste.

Preparation:

Add Crisco or shortening to a hot skillet with a lid and braise the meat. Sear it quickly.

After the meat is browned, reduce heat to medium and splash the meat with Worcester sauce. Cover for a moment, then and open and splash with soy sauce, and ½ cup of Sherry. Keep the meat moving inside the oven by shaking it.

Dice one stalk of celery, and add to meat. Remove pan from heat source and allow to sit for 10 minutes. If using a skillet, move all the contents to a Dutch oven and add diced onion and garlic and water to cover.

Simmer on low until the meat falls off the bones. Remove bones and dice meat. Return to oven. Add tomatoes and diced carrots. Simmer stew until carrots are just done.

For more popular survival recipes, click here to my associated blog: Off-Grid Cooking

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The hunting season is over. I bet you have some small packages of game meat that you’re not sure what to do with. Here is the answer….a wild game pie.

by Blake Miller

I made several pies yesterday and “re-learned” a few lessons.

• It takes time to put this together, several hours.
• You have to use current jelly – no kidding – and it’s sometimes hard to find at the grocery store. Don’t over do it with the jelly.
• Yep, you can use several meats in one pie. Yesterday I combined duck, chucker, chicken and lamb.
• I used a better quality pastry shell and it is worth the expense. The cheaper pie shells were OK but that is about it.
• Corning Ware single serving/individual casserole dishes (about six inches in diameter) worked nicely.
• If you are going to take the time to cook one batch, you might as well cook three, or four or five…..you’re in the kitchen, make the most of your time.

Game pie should have a tasty crust (fussfreeflavors.com photo)

So here is the rest of the story:

This truly outstanding recipe came from the November ,1996, Food and Drink section from Sports Afield. I paraphrase the following from the article: 

“Back in the Elizabethan era, meat pies were created to be the most impressive and lavish of all dishes…Game pies were a way to celebrate the extraordinary variety of birds and animals…The best pies always have more than one kind of game bird or animal baked in them. This recipe is adapted from one served at the Kings Arms Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg.” 

When without game, use chicken, turkey or tender beef cuts.

Salt and pepper 1/2 pound (each of cubed venison, duck breast, wild boar or rabbit loin.

Dust with flower then brown in a skillet over medium-high heat in 4 Tbsp of vegetable oil. Remove from skillet.

Saute two slices bacon that have been cut into 1 inch pieces. Remove them from the pan.

Melt 2 Tbsp of butter in the skillet and add 2 diced carrots, 1 diced celery, 10 diced mushrooms and 1/2 cup of blanched pearl onions. Saute for 3 minutes then remove from the skillet.

Lower the heat, stir in 4 Tbsp of flour and cook for 2 minutes while stirring. Raise the heat to medium and add 2 cups of game stock or beef stock….bring to a boil then simmer for 2 minutes.

Return the meats and vegetables to the skillet; add 1 bay leaf and 2 Tbsp of currant jelly (don’t scrimp here). Cover the pan and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.

Add the mixture to a large casserole dish and top with pastry dough, brush with a wash of 1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp of water, cut several vents in the top to allow steam to escape. Place on a pan/sheet and cook at 400 degrees  for 35 to 40 minutes, until the crust is brown. Or, freeze the oven ready pie for serving later.

Blake Miller has made a career out of staying found and knowing where he is at all times. His formal navigation training began when he joined the U.S. Navy in 1973. He served as an officer aboard several Navy ships over his

Blake Miller

twenty-year career; many of those tours included the duty of Navigator. Blake began working with satellite navigation systems at sea in 1976, culminating with the then-new satellite positioning systems aboard the Battleship WISCONSIN in early 1990.

In 1998 Blake started Outdoor Quest, a business dedicated to backcountry navigation and wilderness survival. Blake has taught classes to wild land firefighters, state agency staffs, Search and Rescue team members, hunters, hikers, skiers, fishermen and equestrians. He regularly teaches classes through the Community Education programs at Central Oregon (Bend) and Chemeketa (Salem, OR) Community Colleges.

As a volunteer, Blake teaches navigation and survival classes to students in the local school districts, and conservation groups. He is a member of a Search and Rescue team.

If you have any questions about land navigation or wilderness survival, you can contact Blake through SurvivalCommonSense.com@gmail.com, or you can go to his website.

Contact Information:

Website: www.outdoorquest.biz

Blog: outdoorquest.blogspot.com

Phone: 541-280-0573

Email: outdrquest@aol.com

To hear the Blake Miller interview about choosing a magnetic compass and GPS on SurvivalCommonSense.com Radio, click here.

For more navigation information, click here

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The theme this week for the SurvivalCommonSense.com Email Update is food: all sorts of survival food, from hardtack to corn meal mush.

You can check out the latest stories by clicking here.

Better yet, sign up for the free weekly update, and you’ll get the latest survival information delivered to you.

Camping during a disaster can be challenging. This Civil War photo shows how a soldier's family lived in camp. (Library of Congress photo)

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One reader wondered why hot, tasty food is categorized as a survival item on SurvivalCommonSense.com, and why I claim recipes are a survival tool. Well – that’s a really good question! So here is a story from World War II about food and its affect on morale.

American tank at Bastogne. (US Army photo)

by Leon Pantenburg

I am a history nerd, particularly fascinated by World War II. That  historical aspect is embedded in my psyche: When I was growing up, it seemed as if every adult male I knew was a WWII veteran.

In my immediate family, my Dad was an infantry captain in both the European and Pacific theaters; my Uncle John Lynch, US Coast Guard, drove landing craft on Iwo Jima and Okinawa; Uncle Harold Lindeman was an MP in the European theater; and Uncle Fredrick Wirth served in the Aleutions.

To my frustration, none of these men ever talked about their service!

In 2003, I wrote “Vanishing Heroes,” a special edition tribute to World War II veterans that published in the
Bend, OR, “Bulletin” on Veterans Day. I was privileged to interview a variety of  service members from all branches and who served in every theater.

For me, the Battle of the Bulge has always been particularly fascinating. (To read more about that battle, click here.) On Dec. 16, 1944, the Germans launched a surprise winter offensive through the Ardennes Forest that caught the Allies completely by surprise. One of the keys to the battle was in the town of Bastogne, Belguim. Whoever controlled Bastogne controlled the roads needed for further penetration of Allied lines.

My uncle Fred was in Bastogne during the entire siege, which  lasted from Dec. 20 through Dec. 27. The besieged American forces were relieved by elements of General George Patton’s Third Army, which included my dad. Despite my pestering, neither ever talked about that battle.

The World War II memorial at Bastogne today.

So interviewing Corporal Francis C.  Buck, (Headquarters Company, First Battalion, 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division), was an incredible privilege!

Buck made four combat jumps with the 82nd, which included drops at Sicily, Salerno, D Day and Operation Market Garden.

He had been wounded at the La Fiere Bridge on D-Day (To read more about the La Fiere battle, click here). After he recovered, Buck ended up being one of the reinforcements rushed to Bastogne to prop up the disintegrating American lines. When it came to survival gear, the troops were not prepared at all.

What food they had was cold, canned rations, with no way to heat them. They didn’t dare make a fire, and the soldiers had to tough out the long, frigid nights.

To quote from “Vanishing Heroes”:

“The only jump we made during the Battle of the Bulge was from the back of a truck,” Buck said. “We didn’t have any equipment and very little ammunition. No gloves and no winter clothes, just jump boots. We put up a tent and each of us had a blanket.”

Buck and his comrades set up a defensive line, and Buck periodically would take off his boots and massage his feet to keep them from freezing.

“I used my boots for a pillow,” Buck said. “I woke up to two inches of new snow.”

The Germans attacked at dawn, and Buck went on to describe the intensity of the fighting that day.

“So what was the worst part?” I asked. (Before the words were out, I regretted them. Talk about insensitive!)

Buck thought a few moments.

“It’s tough – really tough – to fight in snow and cold. We didn’t stay warm, and my feet froze. One man shot himself in the foot to get off the line,” Buck said. “But the hardest part is the cold, frozen chow.”

Buck saw my raised eyebrows and  elaborated.

Reinforcements enter Bastogne on Dec. 27, 1944 (US Army photo)

“Sometimes, the only thing you have to look forward to is a hot meal,” he said. “The day may have gone to hell, but if you think there’s  a hot meal coming, that may be the high point. It gives you something familiar in a really bad situation.”

In one instance, during a brutal  artillery barrage, Buck said he was crouched in the bottom of his foxhole, “scared to death and shaking from more than the cold.”

“It was funny, what comes to mind,” he said, chuckling. “I remember thinking how good a cup of hot coffee would taste.”

“Vanishing Heroes”  went on to win the 2004 National Journalism Award from the American Legion and numerous other local and regional awards.

Napoleon said an army “marches on its stomach.” And the interview with Buck re-enforced what I had learned from several other “Vanishing Hero” participants: Hot, tasty food is vital to helping maintain a survival mindset, be it in a battle or a wilderness emergency!

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Survival food is sustenance that can be made easily during a survival or emergency situation using mainly simple, long-term storage food items, cooked outdoors, using off-the-grid methods.

by Leon Pantenburg

The sun rose over the Civil War encampment, and the smell of smoke and cooking food started to fill the air as the re-enactors began making breakfast.

John Nerness, my canoeing partner, and I were on our way home to Vicksburg, MS, from a canoe trip through the Okeefenokee Swamp on the Florida/Georgia border. We decided to take a detour to Andersonville, GA, to visit the site of the infamous Civil War prison.

To my delight, a re-enactment was going on that weekend, complete with authentic encampments and living history demonstrations. We decided to hang around and see the event.

Camp life was difficult during the Civil War, and a quick meal was important! (Library of Congress photo)

Always interested in historic food, I stopped by one of the campfires where a re-enactor was cooking corn meal mush in a skillet.

He decided to fry it. His only cooking utensils were a spoon and a knife, a large metal cup and a small cast iron skillet. He had a small cloth bag of cornmeal, some hardtack and an apple. Those were his rations for that day.

Corn meal mush is one of the most traditional frontier foods imaginable.  Cornmeal was relatively easy to find and cheap. If a traveler could carry cornmeal and a skillet, and could build a fire, then mush was a fast meal.

Mush can be eaten as a porridge or cereal in a bowl, or it can be chilled, sliced and fried in a skillet. The leftovers, along with an extra biscuit,  were the traditional trail food for a noon-time stop.

This recipe, from Jan LeBaron’s cookbook “Jan’s Fabulous Storage Foods Recipes” shows a quick, easy way to make corn meal mush from storage foods.

Corn  Meal Mush Breakfast

1 c coarse ground corn meal

1 tsp salt

4 c milk, made from your powdered milk.

Stir cornmeal in 1/2 c cold water. Heat milk to boiling and add the salt and ground corn meal. Mix well and lower the heat. Continue cooking over low heat about 20-25 minutes.

Serve with hot butter, sugar and extra milk. When cool and firm, slice, coat with a little seasoned flour, salt, pepper or any other seasoning you like and brown in a hot skillet with some oil and serve with any dish.

For more survival recipes and cooking tips, check out these blogs: Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes, Survival Pantry, and Survival Recipes and Off-Grid Cooking

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Survival food is sustenance that can be made easily during a survival or emergency situation using mainly simple, long-term storage food items, cooked outdoors, using off-the-grid methods.

by Leon Pantenburg

During one the last conversations I had several months ago with the late Jan LeBaron, Jan mentioned that a great holiday recipe is fudge made out of pinto beans.

Use your pinto beans to make fudge!

I was naturally intrigued at the idea of making fudge from beans, so we chatted a little. We decided the fudge, from “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes” would be a great food selection around Christmas time.

In addition to being tasty, this recipe is healthy, the beans supply a shot of protein and the final product lends itself to preparedness recruiting. Take a plate of these brownies over to a non-prepper neighbor. When they marvel at the unique taste, point out that the brownies are good for you, and are made completely out of storage food.

And if that doesn’t get the conversation rolling, mention that the main ingredient is pinto beans!

This is also another good way to use and integrate your storage foods  into your normal diet.

Speaking of useful Christmas gifts, you can’t beat a copy of “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes,” by Jan LeBaron. It has become my go-to book for cooking anything with storage foods. It also cuts down on my family’s grocery bill, since we can now use our storage foods more easily for a variety of dishes. I never imagined there was so much gourmet potential in all those Number 10 cans and white buckets!

Pinto Bean Fudge

1 c cooked soft pinto beans (drained and mashed)

1/4 c milk (made from your powdered milk)

1 Tbs vanilla

2/3 c baker’s cocoa

1/4 c water

6 Tbs butter ( You can use fresh or canned butter)

5 c powdered suger (I substituted evaporated cane sugar, and it worked out fine.)

Nuts, chopped (optional)

In a large bowl, stir beans and milk together, adding enough milk to make the mixture resemble mashed potatoes; stir in the vanilla. Add chocolate and butter and stir in bean mixture, 1/4 c water, stir until nice and smooth. Gradually stir in sugar, knead with hands to get it well blended.

Spread into lightly buttered 9-inch baking dish or form into 1-1/2-inch rolls. Chill for one to two hours.

For more survival recipes and cooking tips, check out these blogs: Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes, Survival Pantry, and Survival Recipes and Off-Grid Cooking

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Survival food is sustenance that can be made easily during a survival or emergency situation using mainly simple, long-term storage food items, cooked outdoors, using off-the-grid methods.

by Leon Pantenburg

One of the most important components of your survival food storage might be sauces, gravies and flavoring mixes.

Tacos are easy to make and the seasoning can cover or disguise less-than-desirable meats.

It doesn’t matter how creative you are, or how much expertise you have in preparing food. If all you have to work with is storage foods, there is a real potential for diet monotony setting in.

Seasonings that can be used to spice up meat may be particularly useful. During an emergency, you may end up with a less-than-choice piece of meat to cook. (Think roadkill.)

Or you have a piece of meat that is tough and rank-smelling, such as might come from an adult boar hog, or a bull. One way to deal with this scenario could be to grind or finely-chop the meat,  simmer it until tender, and  then add taco seasonings.

This recipe, from Jan LeBaron’s “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes,” use food storage ingredients to create a tasty, handy taco mix that can be made ahead of time, and used as needed.

Taco Seasoning Mix

2 tsp onions, chopped dehydrated

1 tsp garlic, granules, dried

1 tsp oregano, crushed, dried

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1/2 tsp cornstarch

1/2 tsp crushed red peppers, dried

1 tsp salt

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin, ground, dried

Mix together, store in airtight container, use to make tacos, taco soup, chili add to burritos.

For more survival recipes and cooking tips, check out these blogs: Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes, Survival Pantry, and Survival Recipes and Off-Grid Cooking

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Survival food is sustenance that can be made easily during a survival or emergency situation using mainly simple, long-term storage food items, cooked outdoors, using off-the-grid methods.

Black bean dip is tasty and easy to make. (pinchmysalt.com photo)

by Leon Pantenburg

The holiday season  is a great time to promote the idea of preparedness. In every group there is someone who thinks nothing about buying fire and life insurance, making sure the spare tire is properly inflated, or investing in long-term retirement funds.

These same people may look at your food “hoarding” as bizarre.

I have a neighbor  like that, and you probably know somebody with that mindset.

But one way to chip away at that wall of resistance is to prove the practicality. The holiday season is a good time to expose the non-converted to the preparedness world. Give a prepper/survivalist gift they will use and appreciate. Bake some tasty cookies or a cake using your storage foods to take next door.

Or, take this bean dip (From “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes,” by Jan LeBaron) to a party and casually mention it was made with storage foods.

It could start a conversation and make a difference later!

Quick, Easy Bean Dip

 This can be made using a variety of beans: pinto, black or kidney.

2 cups bean flour, grind into a fine flour

1 Tbs taco seasoning

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp garlic granules

Grind dried beans into a fine flour using your grain mill. In a medium pan, bring to a boil 4 cups of water, add bean flour to the water and lower the temperature to a simmer. Add spices, stirring while the beans cook. (If you don’t let the bean flour to cook for a few minutes, it will taste “raw.”) Keep cooking for about 5 minutes, adding additional water if necessary. You may serve with freeze-dried grated cheese, chips, vegetables, crackers, crispy pita bread, or use to fill a tortilla for a burrito.

For more survival recipes and cooking tips, check out these blogs: Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes, Survival Pantry, and Survival Recipes and Off-Grid Cooking

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Survival food is sustenance that can be made easily during a survival or emergency situation using mainly simple, long-term storage food items, cooked outdoors, using off-the-grid methods.

Pasta Alfredo

 by Leon Pantenburg

One of the aspects of preparedness that constantly amazes me is the potential taste of the storage food.

Get the right recipe, and you’ll find all sorts of combinations that can turn those long term staples into delicious meals.

Gravies and sauces are right at the top of the survival recipes list in importance. The right topping can take pasta, rice, potatoes etc and make them into a brand new taste sensation.

This recipe, from “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes,” by Jan LeBaron, is a great choice for quick, delicious pasta meal.

Feathery Light Alfredo Sauce

2 Tbs chicken broth

2 tsp granulated garlic

1/2 c parmesan cheese, dried

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2 c white cream soup base

4 c water

1/8 tsp black pepper

2 Tbs Italian seasoning, dried

In medium pan, bring water to a boil, add chicken broth, garlic granules, lower heat to a medium boil, slowly whisk in a white cream soup base, add pepper and Italian seasoning.

As mixture starts to thicken, slowly add most of parmesan cheese, reserve a small amount to sprinkle over top.

Serve Alfredo sauce over the top of your favorite pasta, add any meat or vegetables and top with additional parmesan.

A family favorite  is to rehydrate broccoli and chicken and toss with pasta before adding Alfredo sauce then add additional Alfredo.

For more survival recipes and cooking tips, check out these blogs: Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes, Survival Pantry, and Survival Recipes and Off-Grid Cooking

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Survival food is sustenance that can be made easily during a survival or emergency situation using mainly simple, long-term storage food items, cooked outdoors, using off-the-grid methods.

by Leon Pantenburg

White bean soup has always been a favorite of mine, and my mom made  it regularly during the winter months in Iowa. As comfort food goes, this is right at the top for me – all you need to add is some sort of fresh bread or cornbread.

Comfort food!

But when I moved to a new job in Washington D.C. years ago, I found there was another white bean soup tradition at the capital.  A version of this classic bean soup has been served in the U.S. Senate dining room since 1901.  That became a favorite lunch dish when I was in that neighborhood, even during the hot summer months.

This recipe from “Jan’s Fabulous Food Storage Recipes” allows you to concoct a tasty version of this old favorite using your storage foods. It will go great on a cold, snowy night!

Healthy White Bean Soup

2 c small white beans or great northern beans                                                    Shop Amazon’s Black Friday Week

2 c ham, diced, freeze dried or hamTVP

1 c carrots, diced, dehydrated

1/2 c celery, diced, dehydrated

2 tsp garlic granules 1/4 c onions, chopped dehydrated

3 Tbs parsley, diced

1 c tomatoes, freeze dried (or 1/2 c tomato flakes, dehydrated)

1 tsp rosemary, thyme, dry mustard

1 bay leaf

3 Tbs chicken soup base

1/8 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 c potato dices, dehydrated

1 tsp thyme, dried

Soak beans overnight for faster cooking results. Rinse and add fresh water. In a large pot, add 6 cups water, and bring beans to a boil, then lower heat to a medium boil and cook for two hours, until beans start to get quite tender. Add carrots, celery, onions, potatoes and now add all the spices.

Stir and continue cooking until vegetables are tender. Add tomatoes, simmer for another five minutes, taste. Add more salt and pepper to taste if needed. Serve with warm bread or cornbread.

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