Fall Frolic 2016 (Frolic Stew Recipe)
The Plainsmen Black Powder Club had there Fall Frolic and it was a great time. We had 4 lodges set up on the Hudson Bay Fur Trade Post. The weather on Friday was a bit dreary and the weatherman had predicted showers for Saturday.
Digger, my Dad, and I showed up Friday afternoon to put up our lodge. It wasn't raining before we got there but God soon decided I needed to get cleaned up. It rained for most of the time that we put up the lodge and Dad and I got well doused. I can assure you I smelled fall fresh after the shower. The night, though, cleared up and we shared a few libations with Pete, Zee and Hoot. Zee cooked chili, which was perfect for the evening.
The rain predicted the next day never showed up, at least not at the trade post. It misted a little, some might call it a sprinkle. I was told later in parts of Fargo it rained heavily that night.
We had a great shoot, but muzzle-loading wasn't the only activity. We had archery, hawk, and baking going on. Hoot spent the afternoon baking pies over the fire. They were delicious. We also had stew (the recipe, as it is, is below) and apple crisp. The apple crisp was put together by my daughters and baked in a cast iron dutch oven.
One of the things that I love about events like this is the act of stepping back in time. We can have a day without technology creeping into our lives. My girls brought a friend with to share the day and not once did I hear, "Can I play on my tablet now?" or "I'm bored." We did have a minor explosion but that is to be expected when kids are running constantly. I live with technology in my daily life, and don't get me wrong, it has it's uses, but it is also nice to step away. Get out to a forest, take a snapshot of what our forefathers did, how they lived. It gives us an glimpse of what we are truly capable of.
Fall Frolic Stew
The way I cook is usually without a recipe, everything is customized to the cook. We started with a large stewpot, Zee supplied this and about a gallon of broth (cooked from the bones of a cow). I then added 3 pounds of Chuck Roast. The Chuck roast had been placed in a bag with 1/4 cup of Corn Starch, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper. Well coat the meat in the corn starch mixture. Then I was given a fresh Deer roast from my brother. He had gotten his Deer, with a bow, a couple days before. The roast weighed about 2 lbs. I also got about 3 or 4 lbs of Deer meat from another club member so we were up to about 8 or 9 lbs of meat. Then I added about 26 lbs of vegetables. We had potatoes, carrots, celery, peppers (all sweet, I like heat but I wanted everyone to enjoy the stew), onions. The potatoes and carrots came fresh from our garden, the peppers were donated from my Dad's neighbor. The amount of each vegetable is the cooks choice. I added a couple of bay leaves to the mixture. Then I also added two quarts of tomato sauce, this was from our garden too. It cooked from about 10:30 until 3:30. We cooked it with the cover on until it came to a boil then removed the cover for about 1 hour. This really depends on if you like the stew thicker or with more broth. I have my approximation of ingredients below. Make sure you taste as it is cooking to determine if you need to add any salt, pepper, or any other spice such as hot pepper flakes.
1 gallon broth (homemade is better)
8 lbs meat (wild game is better, coated with mixture of corn starch)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup corn starch
8 lbs potatoes
5 lbs carrots
2 lbs celery (I would have added more but that was all I had at home)
3 lbs onions (I used sweet yellow onions, but any will do)
2 quarts tomato sauce
3 or 4 bay leaves (mine were large so if they are small add more)
Salt, pepper to taste
Cook until meat is tender and potatoes easily fall apart, try not to stir too much or you may break apart the meat and potatoes.