cooking over coals - swiss steak and mushroom sauce

This recipe was modified from "Let's Cook Dutch"; I spruced it up to make it less primitive.

It's very similar to this recipe I tried a few days ago.

The recipe was swiss steak with mushroom sauce. It called for round steak; I used chuck.

This time I used a real camp oven, and I don't regret it. The rigged up camp oven worked, but using the right tool for the job is always easier.

The recipe did not specify a temperature, so I used 350. According to the coal chart, that's 24 coals for a 12 inch oven: 16 on top, and 8 on bottom.

First I had to brown the meat, though, so I started out with 18 coals* on bottom.

*18 was a just rough estimate. If I needed to boil before simmering, I'd need 32 coals.

Melted butter in the pot, browned the meat. Added fresh whole mushrooms and cut up red potatoes*.

*If I had boiled the potatoes separately, it would have reduced cooking time.

Then covered, and transferred coals until there was 16 on top, 8 on bottom.

Took one can cream of mushroom soup, added 1 cup of milk, mixed, poured it in.

Added black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, seasoned salt, minced garlic.

Left to cook for an hour and a half, rotating the pot clockwise 1/4 turn every 15 minutes, and the lid counterclockwise 1/4 turn.

I like that when cooking with coals, you can leave it and go do other things. Not so with a propane burner-- you should not leave those unattended.

Seasoned salt made it perfect.