Field porridge over a fire: recipes, how to cook, cooking tips

Field porridge over a fire does not lose its significance in our time. This universal dish, in which almost anything is put, is very popular among tourists, hunters and fishermen. It is very convenient to cook it on a camping trip in a pot: you don’t need to prepare different dishes, all the products feel great in one dish, which combines both the soup and the second one.

There is no single recipe for porridge over a fire, although the main ingredients remain the same - cereals (usually millet), lard and onions. It is also customary to add potatoes to field porridge.

Classic version

For field porridge you need a lot of products:

potatoes – 0.5 kg;
water - one liter;
millet – 1.5 cups;
pork lard – 200 grams;
onion – 300 grams;
dried herbs;
sweet bell pepper – 1 piece;
Bay leaf;
bitter red pepper - to taste;
hops-suneli – ½ teaspoon;
salt.

Preparation:

Wash and soak the millet in advance so that it cooks faster. When soaked, its cooking time will be the same as that of potatoes.
Light a fire, place a tripod over it and hang a pot.
Cut the lard into pieces and place in a pot to melt and form cracklings.
Add finely chopped onion, sweet pepper, spices to the pot with lard and fry.
Pour in water and add millet so that the water completely covers the contents of the pot. Cook with constant stirring until boiling.
Once it boils, add the diced potatoes. If necessary, add water to cover the contents of the pot. Cover the dish with a lid and cook until the potatoes and millet are fully cooked. Periodically lift the lid and stir.

As soon as the potatoes and millet are ready, you can remove them from the heat.

Readiness is determined by taking samples. It is impossible to say the exact cooking time; it depends on the heat of the fire and the volume of the pot.

Millet porridge with liver.

Required: 1.5 cups of millet cereal, 4 cups of water, salt, 100 g of minced liver, pepper, salt. Place millet cereal in boiling salted water and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pre-prepare minced liver. To do this, rinse and fill the liver with water. Salt the resulting mass and cook over low heat for about 2 hours. Cool the finished liver and pass through a meat grinder. Fry finely chopped onion and add minced liver, as well as oil, salt and pepper. Fry it all for 10 minutes. Mix minced liver with buckwheat porridge and place in a warm place for 10–15 minutes.

Soldatskaya

Ingredients:

millet – 2 cups;
onions – 3 pieces;
lard – 150 grams;
potatoes – 0.5 kg;
chicken eggs – 5 pieces;
salt.

Place pieces of lard into a frying pan. When it melts, add finely chopped onion and fry until golden brown. Remove the pan from the heat to allow the frying to cool. Hang a cauldron over the fire, pour water into it and add salt. When the water boils, add the diced potatoes and washed millet and cook until tender. Break the raw eggs into the cooled roast and stir. Combine with the porridge when it is almost ready and keep on fire for another 5 minutes.

Soldier's porridge over a campfire is often prepared using buckwheat.

Porridge with wheat flakes.

Required: 2 tbsp. l. wheat flakes, 1 apple, 1 tbsp. l. butter, 2 cups milk, salt and sugar. Pour wheat flakes into a kettle with cold milk. Stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a boil over low heat and cook for 3-5 minutes. Peel the apple, cut into four parts, then cut into thin slices or small cubes.

Then add the crushed apple, salt and sugar to the wheat flakes in a saucepan. Add the butter and lightly beat the porridge with a fork (preferably until smooth). After this, place the porridge on the coals for 5 minutes. You can eat porridge both hot and cold.

Based on materials from the book Picnic Dishes. Kolosova S.

Cossack kulesh

Ingredients:

millet – 200 grams;
potatoes - 10 tubers;
pork lard – 150 grams;
pork stew – 1 can;
onions – 5 small onions;
salt;
greenery;
spices.

Pour water into a pot, add onions and chopped potatoes (whole potatoes if small), hang over the fire and bring to a boil. As soon as it boils, add the washed millet, add salt and continue cooking. When the potatoes and onions are soft, take out a few potatoes and onions, mash them and put them back into the pot.

At the end, add the stew, mix everything and add spices and herbs

How to cook field porridge over a fire

Field porridge is a hearty meal cooked in the field over an open fire, something between a thick stew and thin porridge.
Another name for it is kulesh. It was common in the southern Russian regions, known as Cossack porridge. In addition to cereals, usually millet, it included onions and lard. Field porridge over a fire does not lose its significance in our time. This universal dish, in which almost anything is put, is very popular among tourists, hunters and fishermen. It is very convenient to cook it on a camping trip in a pot: you don’t need to prepare different dishes, all the products feel great in one dish, which combines both the soup and the second one.

Pearl barley

This porridge perfectly restores strength, so it is ideal as a hiking meal.

Ingredients:

How to stew potatoes and meat in a cauldron

pearl barley – 0.8 kg;
onion – 2 medium onions;
stew - 2 cans;
garlic – 3 cloves;
carrots – 2 pieces;
cold water – 3 liters;
butter - by eye.

Preparation:

Wash the pearl barley and pour it into a dry frying pan, fry until golden brown. This will speed up the cooking of the porridge.
When the cereal is ready, pour it into a kettle or cauldron and fill it with water. Cook covered until boiling.
In a frying pan, fry chopped onions, carrots, garlic along with stew and spices. When the porridge boils, add the frying mixture to it, stir and cook until the liquid has completely evaporated.

Remove from heat, let sit and spread with butter.

Field buckwheat porridge

Buckwheat is quite a nutritious and healthy product. Field porridge prepared from this cereal is nutritious and has a unique taste.

Prepare a dish from the following ingredients:

250 grams of buckwheat;
one large carrot;
can of stew;
large onion;
salt;
water;
Bay leaf.

The process of preparing field porridge from buckwheat has its own characteristics:

Peel the carrots and cut into not too thick strips, and the onion into cubes.
Open a can of stewed meat and remove the top layer of fat, which is placed on the bottom of a pot heated over a fire.
Onions and carrots are fried in well-melted fat from the stew until tender.
Stew is added on top and fried until the moisture has completely evaporated.
Buckwheat is poured into the pot and filled with water, which is first brought to a boil in a separate container.
Salt is added and all products are mixed well.
The porridge is cooked over a fire until the cereal is completely cooked.

Field buckwheat porridge with stewed meat

At the very end, the dish is seasoned with finely chopped herbs. Parsley or dill are often used for this purpose.

From rice with meat

Proper field porridge is cooked over a fire. This is exactly the most delicious, thanks to the smoke of the fire and an excellent appetite in the fresh air. If you wish, you can cook it at home.

Another version of field porridge is rice with pork. Pork can be replaced with beef if desired.

Ingredients:

round rice – 0.8 kg;
boiling water – 4 liters;
vegetable oil – 1 tablespoon;
carrots – 3 pieces;
pork – 1 kilogram;
bay leaf – 3 pieces;
ground black pepper;
salt.

Preparation:

Wash the meat thoroughly, wipe it with a napkin and cut into small pieces of arbitrary shape.
Cut the onion into half rings, carrots into strips. Rinse the rice thoroughly.
Heat a pot or cauldron, pour vegetable oil into it and add onions. Fry over moderate heat for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. After this, put the pieces of meat into the pot, add salt and pepper and pour 1.5 liters of boiling water. Bring to a boil and cook covered over low heat for about 2 hours. If necessary, add another liter of water.
Place the carrots and bay onions in the pot and cook for an hour and a half, adding water if necessary. Take out the bay leaf, take a sample, add salt and pepper if necessary.
Place the rice in the pot, add boiling water so that it is 5 cm higher than the food. Now cook over low heat for about 40 minutes, remembering to stir.
Remove the pot from the fire. The liquid should not completely boil away; it should cover the grounds by 1 centimeter.
Wrap the pot and leave for two hours.

Hot stewed porridge can be placed in bowls

Millet porridge with meat.

Required: 2 cups of millet cereal, 4.5 cups of water, 50 g of butter, salt, 100–150 g of pork, 1 small onion. Pour the washed cereal into boiling salted water and cook for 5-7 minutes. Meanwhile, cut the meat into small slices and fry each slice over an open fire (on a stick). Then add the oil and the meat prepared in this way, as well as the peeled and chopped onion. Cook the porridge, tightly closing the lid, for another 20 minutes, then put it on the coals for 15 minutes, after adding butter to the porridge.

Secrets of field porridge

Cooking camp food is different from cooking at home.

A few secrets of delicious porridge over an open fire:

To speed up the process, before heading out into nature, pour boiling water over the cereal in a thermos so that it steams. Upon arrival, you only need to cook it for 10 minutes. If you are planning an overnight trip, you can pour the cereal in a pot overnight and wrap it in something warm.
Cooking outdoors over a fire will require more water than at home on a stove. You can take 3-4 glasses of water per glass of cereal. Pre-steamed porridge requires less water.
The cereal should be placed in already boiled water and cooked, stirring constantly. If the cereal has been steamed, there is no need to stir it, but just wait until it boils.
The water must be salted in advance.
The pot must be hung strictly above the flame so that the porridge cooks evenly.

Field porridge is not as difficult to prepare as it might seem at first glance. The main thing is to follow the basic rules and approach the matter with soul.

Cooking features

Here are a few secrets of cooking porridge over a fire.

Preparing cereals

To speed up the process, you should prepare the main ingredient in advance. Before going on a hike, you need to pour the cereal into a thermos and fill it with hot water. Thanks to this, it will steam, and you can then cook it over a fire in just 10 minutes.

Important! If you are planning an overnight trip, it is recommended to place the cereal in a pot overnight, add hot water and carefully wrap it in something warm.

Water use

Anyone who is going to cook porridge over a fire should remember that this will require a lot of water. One glass of cereal will need to be filled with three or even four glasses of water. But this volume can be reduced if you steam the porridge in advance.

Laying cereals

First you need to wait until the water in the pot over the fire boils. And only then can you pour in the cereal. If the cereal was previously steamed, then all that remains is to wait until the porridge boils without doing anything. If you use unsteamed cereal, you will have to stir constantly.

How to salt?

When preparing kulesh, it is important to remember the need to salt it. Salt is added to the water immediately, even before adding the cereal.

How to place the pot?

How to cook milk porridge?

If you are preparing milk porridge, the cereal must first be boiled in plain water. There it should be brought to half-ready. And only then can you add milk. The only exception is semolina.

How to cook soldier's porridge?

The legendary army porridge is prepared from several varieties of cereal with the addition of stewed meat or involves the use of only pearl barley, buckwheat or millet, which are available.

It is preferable to prepare the frying of lard, vegetables and stew in a separate pan.
In a cauldron or saucepan with a thick bottom, cook the cereal until soft and cooked.
Transfer the dressing with the stew into a container with porridge, mix and leave under the lid to simmer and evaporate for several minutes.
In the original, soldier's field porridge is cooked over a fire, but if conditions do not allow you to get out into nature, you can cook the iconic dish at home on the stove or using a slow cooker.

Soldier's buckwheat porridge - recipe

Army buckwheat porridge with stewed meat is prepared simply and quickly. For the most rich taste of the dish, the grains should first be fried in a dry frying pan until cracking with continuous stirring, making sure that the grains do not burn. Herbs and garlic are optional ingredients and can be added as desired.

Ingredients:

buckwheat – 1 glass;
onion – 1 pc.;
stew - 1 can;
garlic – 3 cloves;
greens – 0.5 bunch;
water – 1-1.5 glasses;
salt.

Preparation:

Onions are fried in fat from the stew.
Add the stew, let the broth dissolve, add buckwheat.
Pour in water, add salt to taste, and cook the dish until the cereal is soft.
Ready soldier's porridge is seasoned with herbs and garlic and heated for 4 minutes.

Soldier's millet porridge - recipe

Soldier's porridge, the recipe for which will be presented next using millet and stew, is a version of the legendary dish that became iconic after the Great Patriotic War. In this version, the dish is usually cooked outdoors on the occasion of Victory Day on May 9, but even on the stove the result will be very worthy.

Ingredients:

millet – 1 cup;
potatoes – 3 pcs.;
onion – 1 pc.;
carrots – 0.5 pcs.;
stew - 1 can;
eggs – 3 pcs.;
green onions, dill and parsley - 0.5 bunch each;
butter – 100 g;
water – 1 l;
salt.

Preparation:

Place the stew and potatoes into boiling water and cook for 10-15 minutes.
Add carrots and millet, cook with stirring until the cereal is softened.
Stir eggs in a glass of broth.
Throw in the chopped onion, pour in the egg mixture while stirring, and boil for 5 minutes.
Add chopped herbs and heat the dish for another 5 minutes.
Before serving, soldier's millet porridge is flavored with oil.