Welcome back, food nerds! Not too long ago a representative from Sam’s Club contacted me about reviewing Emeril Legasse’s 12″ Cast Iron Skillet. With the cooler months upon us, I figured this would be the perfect time to put together some inspired campfire recipes for DnD (or other fantasy tabletop RPGs like Pathfinder and Dragon Age) players who may want to make a camping trip out of their game night. I leave it up to your adventuring party to decide whether a campground or your backyard is a fitting site for some dice, dragons, and dinner.
Note: The links to the RPG sourcebooks, ingredients, and kitchen equipment (excluding the skillet) are Amazon affiliate links that I do receive a referral fee for should you choose to purchase them.
While I did receive this skillet for free, my opinions are my own. And they sent me not only one, but TWO skillets — one for me, and one to give away to you folks (US residents only)! Sure you can scroll to the bottom to this post to enter. However, as with any campaign, the rewards are greater when you take the time to explore the whole map. That’s why I will offer extra entries if you can answer a couple questions about this post.
As a bonus, as I am aware that you may not be able to access this site while cooking outdoors, I included downloadable, printable recipe cards under each section.
Of course, if you’re just here for the food (I don’t judge), feel free skip to:
- An Orcish Treat of Raided Delights
- A Halfling’s Second Breakfast
- Travel Bread for the Large and Small
- A Vegan-Friendly Elvish Feast
- Fare for the Distinguished Human
Emeril’s Bam-Skillet of Notch-Kicking +1
I admit I don’t have that many ranks in cast iron cooking. I’m a novice, at best. So keep that in mind that I am reviewing my new weapon of meal construction from an initiate’s perspective.
The skillet is rather sizable – twelve-inch diameter and three inches deep – perfect for stews and soups if you don’t want to drag a dutch oven along on your pack mule. That said, a lid would be a nice addition. It doesn’t include one, so I ended up using a baking sheet, instead. The price point, averaging at $30 – though currently $16 and some change on Sam’s Club’s website and under $15 in the store – is good for adventurers who want to try their hand with cast iron without investing too much GP.
The handle angles up and away nicely – which is great for cooking on a campfire as you don’t have to get your hands too close to the flames. The package also includes silicon handle covers which work well for when you have the pan on the stovetop. They don’t work well with direct flame, though. So plan to leave them off when cooking on the campfire, and use silicone oven mitts like this Darth Vader one to handle the pan.
One of the reasons why I chose to do this review was that the skillet is pre-seasoned. When I received it, though, it’s texture was pretty rough and did not work well with the scrambled eggs I cooked up. I would recommend doing another round of seasoning on this pan before use or opting to cook up the other oil-heavy recipes first and let the food do the work. Also, make sure to look up some information on cast iron care for cleaning up between recipes.
Within the Guildhalls of Sam…
The agent of Sam’s also sent me a gift card to enter their halls and see how I may benefit from membership. The layout is standard to most other big-box retailers. In comparison, the prices at Sam’s tend to a bit lower than Costco on the pre-packaged, brand-name wares.
While I was initially disappointed with the variety of fresh produce and gourmet cheese, I realized that a good adventurer is resourceful. I found almost all the fresh vegetables I needed (hello ginormous bag of asparagus) for the dishes I had in mind. And I also found a more than satisfying substitution for the cheese I initially wanted. I mean, this ball of Edam cheese could also double as a makeshift shotput in case of a random monster encounter, right?
I was impressed with the proteins they had available, though. I saw quite a few different cuts of beef (only place I’ve ever found a tomahawk cut) as well a whole variety of sausages. Sam’s is also the first place I’ve found low-priced pork belly outside of HMart. This place is the barbecue and grill warrior’s dream. I don’t know if I’m going to convert to Sam’s quite yet, but that pork belly is being rather convincing.
Campfire Recipes for DnD Game Groups
Now that you have your weapon of meal construction available, I think it’s time we get to the recipes, don’t you? I found most of my information on the food from Power Score’s post: “Dungeons & Dragons – The Great List of Food and Drinks.” I also had a little help from my fans, who were more than happy to flood me with comments of what they wanted to eat while taking down the denizens of the Monster Manual.
Before you make any of these on your next trip, keep this in mind: prepping your ingredients before you go makes cooking while gaming so much easier. So here’s the packing/prepping order before you set foot out your door:
- Bake the biscuits and hard tack before you go and store in ziplock bags.
- Slice your vegetables and proteins, and pre-measure your dry goods. Keep them in separate bags.
- Organize the ingredient bags by the recipe.
- Keep your proteins in your freezer after prepping them until right before you leave for the campsite to allow them to thaw safely over time as they sit in your cooler.
- Use ice packs and make sure your cooler has a good seal on the lid.
- Read up on any camping safe storage and ingredient disposal tips to prevent your campsite from being raided by bears, bugbears, or owlbears.
orc
An Orcish Treat of Raided Delights
For this recipe, I wanted to use items that would make sense for an Orc to find on his travels. And by find, I mean probably procured by smashing up some level 0 commoner’s storeroom while laughing maniacally. I told you I found pork belly at Sam’s Club, right? That’s exactly what I used, frying it in its fat to get the edges nice and crispy.
For the gravy feel free to use whichever beer you like, though aim for something with big flavor. I happened to have Sam Adams’ Oktoberfest at the time, though I say aim for dark, red, or brown ales to fit a medieval setting.
Serve this up with some Lard Bread, which I’ve also included a recipe for below.
Orcish Fried Chunks with Beer & Mushroom Gravy
Serves 4-6
Equipment: Firepit with raised grill or stovetop, 12″ cast iron skillet, silicone oven mitts, grilling tongs, grilling spatula
Ingredients:
- 2.5 lbs pork belly sliced into 1″ chunks
- 2 cups sliced button mushrooms
- 4 tablespoons flour
- 12 oz. room-temperature beer
- canola or vegetable oil
- 1 beef bouillon cube
- garlic powder
- black pepper
- kosher salt
Instructions:
- Pat the pork belly chunks dry with paper towels then liberally season them with kosher salt, black pepper, garlic powder. Place your skillet on a grill over a fire and let sit about 2 or 3 minutes to get hot. Pour a thin layer of canola oil and let heat for 30 seconds to a minute.
- Add the pork belly chunks and let cook and render, turning them with the tongs when they sear and release from the skillet. Remove the chunks when they have cooked through on all sides and set aside.
- Pour half of the rendered fat out of the skillet and into a heat-safe container, then place the skillet back on the fire to heat up again.
- Add the mushrooms to the skillet and cook until softened. Stir in the flour until it forms a bubbling paste with the fat and mushrooms.
- Pour in the beer and add the beef bouillon cube. Simmer to reduce, stirring until thickened.
- Remove the skillet from the fire to cool. Stir the pork into the gravy and season with kosher salt. Let cool at least 5 minutes before serving with lard biscuits.
Download the 8.5″x11″ recipe card here.
halfling
A Halfling’s Second Breakfast
I can’t claim complete credit for coming up with this one. One of my Facebook followers, Sam G. suggested something from a Reddit post he had found:
“Honeytack ‘Hardtack’ honey cakes, beef sausage, pork sausage mini links, mini whole wheat toast, cranberry-cheddar cheese mini-wedge, mini pickles, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, “travel cake” muesli with raisins, golden prunes, honey, eggs, and cream.”
While I know that hobbit/halfling is rarely simple in his choice of far (as evidenced above) I thought I would at least lighten your load of perishable items by making a skillet of mini sausages and scrambled eggs with cheese and dried cranberries. I originally wanted to use Wensleydale, but opted for a big, wax-covered ball of Edam, instead because it can handle travel a little easier. Edam is a mild, Dutch cheese with a little bit of nuttiness. If you’re unable to find it, I would suggest using a mild cheddar in its place.
Serve this breakfast up with some Pumpkin Seed Honeytack, for which I’ve also included a recipe below.
Halfling's Second Breakfast Skillet
Serves 4-6
Equipment: Firepit with raised grill or stovetop, 12″ cast iron skillet, silicone oven mitts, grilling tongs, grilling spatula.
Ingredients:
- 2 dozen breakfast sausage links
- 12 eggs, beaten
- 1 1/2 cup shredded Edam cheese
- large pinch kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- fresh herbs like oregano or sage
- vegetable or canola oil
Instructions:
- Place your skillet on a grill over a fire and let sit about 2 or 3 minutes to get hot.
- While the skillet heats up, mix the eggs, cranberries, cheese, salt, and pepper together in a mixing bowl. Set aside
- Pour in enough canola oil to coat the bottom (about a tablespoon). Carefully add the sausages with tongs when the oil begins to shimmer. Brown on both sides until cooked through. Remove the sausages with tongs and set aside.
- Add another layer of oil into the skillet if you are low and heat until it shimmers. Pour in the eggs and shift the skillet on the grill (or lower the heat on the stovetop) so that the fire heats it indirectly. Stir and fold the eggs slowly until they cook through.
- Remove the skillet from heat and garnish the eggs with fresh herbs before serving with sausages and honey hardtack.
Download the 8.5″x11″ recipe card here.
bread
Travel Bread for the Large and Small
Any good adventurer knows to pack provisions that can stand up to traveling for long periods of time. That’s why I’ve included a bonus recipe for you to bake up before you leave home. For those who would like something basic that goes with everything, these are lard-based biscuits (hardtack, not sweets). You can find snowcap lard at most grocery stores, though I’ve also included an affiliate link if your merchant is lacking. Vegetable shortening can also work if you are vegan or vegetarian.
If you’d like something that goes along with your halfling’s second breakfast, just add honey and pumpkin seeds.
Orcish Lard Bread & Halfling Honey Hardtack
Makes 27, 3-inch biscuits
Equipment: Oven, mixing bowl, pastry cutter, rolling pin, 3″ biscuit cutter, baking sheets, pastry brush (for hardtack)
Ingredients:
- 6 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 3/4 cup snowcap lard
- 1/4 cup milk
For honey hardtack:
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup honey
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 450° F.
- Whisk together all the dry ingredients except the pumpkin seeds into a mixing bowl so that it is all incorporated.
- Cut the cold lard into the flour. If you have a pastry blender, use a rocking motion with the blender, and tap it against the side to release the mix from the blades. You can also use a pair of kitchen shears or two butter knives in a scissor-like motion to cut the fat into the dry ingredients. Blend until the mix resembles breadcrumbs.
- Stir in the milk with a spatula, turning the mixture and pressing until it absorbs the liquid and forms a dough that pulls away from the side of the bowl.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 3-5 times or until smooth.
- Roll the dough until it is 1/2″ thick. Lightly flour the edges of the biscuit cutter and cut out rounds of dough. Place rounds on an ungreased baking sheet. Press the leftover trimmings together and repeat the process until you run out.
- For Lard Bread: Bake the rounds in the oven 8-10 minutes until the hardtack is golden. Cool 5 minutes before serving, or place in a bowl and cover with a clean dishcloth to keep warm.
- For Honey Hardtack: Brush on a layer of honey onto each biscuit and add a few pumpkin seeds after the first 6 minutes of baking. Let bake another 2 to 4 minutes before removing and brushing on another layer of honey.
Note:
While you should bake these before your trip, they are best served warm. Heat them up on the fire by wrapping however many you’d like in a double-layered packet of tinfoil, and place it on the grill for a few minutes.
Download the 8.5″x11″ recipe card here.
elves
A Vegan-Friendly Elvish Feast
For this dish, I went off the information Ed Greenwood (creator of the Forgotten Realms series) said about the elvish diet:
“Elven cuisine is more sophisticated than human, though it uses almost no non-forest ingredients, so if you have to improvise, look at some of the dishes whipped up on, say, IRON CHEF and think of “forest-friendly equivalent ways” of making some of them.”
Popular ingredients include leeks, ferns, nuts, mushrooms, and greenspear. Unfamiliar with the last item? It’s the term used for asparagus. They love the stuff, apparently. So for this recipe, I decided to keep the traveling elf in mind and avoid any products that they couldn’t forage, make, or carry easily. The most noted ingredients in this stew are leeks, asparagus, and almond milk. I’ve also included an affiliate link for vegan boullion cubes to save you the trouble of making stock ahead of time
Elvish Vegan Greenspear and Leek Stew
Equipment: Firepit with raised grill or stovetop, 12″ cast iron skillet, silicone oven mitts, long grilling spatula
Ingredients:
- 2 large leeks, white and light green parts sliced into half moons
- 2 dozen asparagus spears, diagonally sliced into 1″ pieces
- 2 vegan vegetable bouillon cubes
- 4 tablespoons flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 cups room-temperature water
- 2 cups room-temperature almond milk
- vegetable or canola oil
- kosher salt
Instructions:
- Place your skillet on a grill over a fire and let sit about 2 or 3 minutes to get hot. Pour in enough canola oil to coat the bottom (about 2 tablespoons).
- When the oil begins to shimmer, add the sliced leeks and stir lightly while cooking a minute to two until slightly softened. Add the asparagus and cook for a minute.
- Stir in the flour and sugar into the pan and coat the vegetables, adding more oil if you need to.
- Pour in the water slowly to deglaze, and add the bouillon cubes to let simmer 3-4 minutes. Stir in the almond milk and simmer another 5-6 minutes, stirring intermittently to thicken before removing the pan from the fire.
- Cool at least 5 minutes before garnishing with fresh herbs and serving in bowls with bread for sopping.
Download the 8.5″x11″ recipe card here.
human
Fare for the Distinguished Human
Finally, what camping trip is complete without some kind of beef cooked up on the fire? Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition tends to group food by lifestyle quality and expense – mostly for taverns, but this also works for travel rations. I found the following dish: Braised Beef with Ginger & Pear under the list for a Wealthy lifestyle. The great thing about this recipe, though? It’s rather inexpensive to make per serving. I managed to find beef stew meat for roughly $4.18/pound. Other than that, most of these ingredients other than the pears, oregano, and ginger purée should already be in your pantry.
Seems basic, I know. But the flavor is anything but. To give you an idea of how good it was, it didn’t even make it inside for my Game of Thrones’ Potluck that evening. Feel free to serve this up with the lard bread or hardtack, though I would just suggest finding yourself a nice big loaf of crusty bread from the Sam’s Club Bakery.
Braised Beef with Ginger & Pear
Serves 4-6
Equipment: Firepit with raised grill or stovetop, 12″ cast iron skillet, silicone oven mitts, grilling tongs, long grilling spatula, baking sheet or 12″ cast iron skillet lid.
Ingredients:
- 3.5 lbs beef stew meat
- 3 pears, cored and sliced into eighths
- 1 tablespoon ginger purée
- 3 cups of room-temperature water
- 2 beef bouillon cubes
- flour
- fresh oregano and sage
- kosher salt
Instructions
- Place your skillet on a grill over a fire and let sit about 2 or 3 minutes to get hot.
- While the skillet heats, season the beef liberally with kosher salt and roll in a mixing bowl with flour to coat.
- Pour enough canola oil into the skillet to coat the bottom (about 2 tablespoons). Add the beef with tongs and brown the pieces on all sides.
- Break the bouillon cubes into pieces and scatter it and the puréed ginger onto the beef. Carefully add the pears then pour in enough water to come up halfway up the meat.
- Cover the skillet with a baking sheet or cast iron lid and let cook 45 minutes to an hour, until the liquid has cooked mostly off.
- Remove the skillet from the fire and let cool at least 5 minutes before garnishing with the herbs and serving.
Download the 8.5″x11″ recipe card here.
The Giveaway
Thank you for making it this far! Like I said, Sam’s Club sent me an extra skillet to give away to you folks. Unfortunately, I can only send it to residents of the USA to avoid astronomical shipping and customs costs. If you’re interested in still giving this skillet a try whether or not you win, you can find it on Sam’s Club’s website, or on Amazon.
You can sign up for a chance to win this skillet below. Notice that I do offer advantage to your roll should you choose any of the extra entry options. The contest ends at 11:59 PM EST on 10/02/2017. May the odds be in your favor!
I tend to love Palladium .. specifically RIFTS. Why have a SDC character when you can go MDC?
But my love of loves will always be Atlanta Interactive Theatre, when a character would walk into a room and people would have to do Rötschreck because she incited such rage. Rest in Power Cassandra Blackfeather of Clan Tremere.
My favorite character was one I had in high school. He was a dwarven priest of the god of war. I wanted to be a healer, but still be able to help the team out in combat. Because the god’s symbol was a battle axe, I was able to wield it. After a few years, he got up high enough in level, and crafted his own spell, that quickly spread across the disciples, Create Beer. With a wave of his hand, any tankard that his god deemed worthy, would be filled to the rim with the most delicious beer the world had ever seen. He was great at parties.
My group is currently working our way through Arcanis. I have this Holy Champion character devoted to her deity with an overdeveloped moral sense and a hate of slavery. Her Holy Champion nature gives her a ton of health and armor, a decent amount of straight up damage, and assorted spells that can be used for healing and increasing damage. She travels with several not-so-moral mercenaries and rogues, none of which are her religion, so it’s a fun group. Our quest that night involved following these priests of a little-known religion and making sure they don’t do something stupid, like resurrecting a certain dead soul. So we help them find their lost temple, barely survive a fight against plant beings that are resistant or immune to nearly everything (I am not exaggerating), and enter the temple to go find the well of souls.
My Holy Champion character refused to participate in the heathen ritual the priests were coaching us in. As a result, she was not properly purified when encountering said heathen god, and was cursed with paranoia. Permanently. Or at least until her party members can forcefully have her insanity removed from her…which she won’t go along with it because she’s certain they’re plotting against her.
The other party members all gained temporary insanity – the armourless sorceror became masochistic and determined to serve on the front lines, the shaman was unquenchably thirsty (next to a river of boiling water), the druid/gnome/thing started talking to rocks, the human warrior (only other moral character) decided to start committing random evil acts… all of which contributed to Isabela Val’Holryn’s certainty that her party members and the NPCs were conspiring and trying to kill her.
Mind, my character is smart enough to know she can’t take on her entire party and survive, so she was planning on attacking them after the party escaped from an ambush of invisible spirit spiders. Plan was to heal herself, and then use Smite Heretic to roll excessive amounts of damage. She was even plotting which party members she should take out first based on the spells they had left.
And then she got caught by the sorcerer’s fireball. And fell unconscious. And then took additional burning damage as the invisible webs from said invisible spiders burned around her.
She ultimately survived the night (barely), but remains convinced that her party members are plotting against her…which they are, since they need to figure out how to get her un-cursed.
I just about died reading this account. I would personally love it if she remained that way (quirky characters are so much fun to play) or if her paranoia turned out to be an asset in the campaign’s future. Thank you for telling your story. I had a lot of fun reading it.
Favorite character was a wood elf rogue who was a bit of a ditz but had some talent when it came to acquiring shiny things for herself. She shared the name of my first character in that campaign, because the first got killed in the first encounter before she told anyone her name.
These recipes are wonderfully creative. And they sound delicious.
I play a Pathfinder game every other sunday afternoon. My character is an Aasimar Cleric named Dryas. It is the DM’s own setting, he used to do a podcast of our games called Demons and Dragons but I think he stopped recently due to hassle. Anyways, the other players keep dropping out and making new characters to the point where it is essentially the Dryas story. He uses his extremely high diplomacy to talk his way out of most fights. He has a personal golem. The town his group started has a small army of golems, for protection, mostly alchemical and iron.
These recipes look great and I appreciate all the prep you’ve done to make taking these meals on a camping trip easier. My husband looked over my shoulder when I was reading and said “boy that looks good” and I agree!
Thank you! It tasted pretty amazing. The braised beef never made it inside. I will also say the Greenspear stew tastes incredible on top of mashed potatoes.
I used to play D&D with my son. It was quality time spent with him and great memories.