A Hearty Meal

   I traded for a Dutch oven from the second hand store in Henryetta and discovered a whole new way of burning things. The first thing I tried to cook in it were biskets because all the books about mountain men all said that was one of the main things they made. I guess always being close to starving to death and short on supplies was motivator for learning how to cook because there was no mention of any burnt or otherwise ruined meals in any of the books I saw.

Here is one of the meals that I was finally able to get cooked correctly with a not to bad flavor.

One roast, three to four pounds. I used deer meat for this one although hog works well also.

A dozen Jerusalem artichokes cleaned and quartered (cat tail roots will work if you do this in the spring when the plants are young and the heads are still firm.

A half a hand full of Black Mustard greens

A hand full of Dock

A dozen wild onions

Half a dozen wild garlic bulbs

Salt

Enough water to cover three quarters of the roast.

Cat tail stems (In season) cut the first five or six inches above the root, remove the outer and chop the stems like you would celery.

Ten inch Dutch oven

You'll want to start with a good sized bed of hot coals off to one side of the campfire (oak or hickory make the best coals). Add all the ingredients to the pot, cover and set in the coals. Cover the lid with at least an inch or more of hot coals. You will need to cook this for most of a day (at least 6 hours, depending on the fire). Keep the fire built up to the side and scrape new coals around and on top of the oven as needed. Be sure and check the water adding more as needed to keep it from boiling dry (my first mistake).

The roast will be ready to serve when it's tender enough to pull apart with a couple of forks.