Camp Cornbread

Instructions

Ingredients

2 cups cornmeal
2 cups all purpose flour
4 eggs
2 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 jalapeño
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup jalapeño Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup creamed corn
¼ cup butter
2 ears charred corn (from the chili recipe)

Method

Place the Dutch oven near to, but not over, the fire to preheat.

Add the dry ingredients (flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt) to a mixing bowl, and mix thoroughly. Cut jalapeño into ¼-inch pieces and cheese into ½-inch cubes. Add combined wet ingredients, i.e. buttermilk, creamed corn and eggs alongside the jalapeños, cheddar and corn kernels to the dry ingredients. Mix until just incorporated.

If you can, dig a shallow hole with the shovel so that you can put some coals into it and place the Dutch oven on top. Layer the lid of the cast iron with coals; you want to create enough heat from the lid that the air heats up and bakes the cornbread.

It’s incredibly difficult to judge how long it’ll take to cook your cornbread and every time you take a peek, you release all that hard earned heat! Your nose is the best timer. You will be able to smell the sweet scent of the corn and then of the bread itself baking. If you start smelling an acrid burnt scent, take a look at the cornbread. If it’s charring, take it off the heat!

I like to take the cornbread out of the skillet and place it on a raised platform, like sticks, so that the air can circulate around it and it can cool down.