Delicious Campsite Breakfast Burritos

Any good breakfast burrito, including one consumed while camping, starts with damned good sausage, with lots of fennel and some red pepper flakes to wake it up. I brown this sausage with my first cup of coffee, before any of my companions are awake and bothering me. My favorite version is elk sausage I make myself, but you can always use grocery-store sausage if you must. Jimmy Dean’s Sage sausage is a surprisingly good choice.

Before the sausage is fully browned, I add chopped onions and red pepper. I know the veggies are done when they start to brown on their edges.

Meanwhile, I have water boiling on a second burner not only for my next cup of coffee but for the carton of Hungry Jack Hashbrown Potatoes (accept no substitutes). Make it two cartons if you’re feeding a crew. Maybe three. When the water boils, add it to the taters, close the carton(s) and let that intoxicating starch make its magic.

Besides, it’s time for the eggs. I’ll coarsely mix up a half-dozen or more (depending on the size of the crew), add salt and pepper (my car-camping spice is Cavender’s All Purpose Greek Seasoning) and dump my eggs in the sausage mix. After a minute or two to let the bottom set, I start stirring them around. Now it’s my time for the cheese. Scrimp on cheese at your peril, as it’s the binder not only of the proteins and starches, but of every memory you have or will ever have of campout burritos. If you don’t use pepper jack, you’re not really camping. Either way, it’s time to warm up the tortillas.

Only amateurs don’t have aluminum foil in their cook box. If I’m packing burritos for a morning hike, each one gets its own aluminum foil wrap. If it’s a campsite breakfast, I use the foil only as a staging area. By now I have the coffee fully on and I’m clanging everything in sight to wake up my lazy companions.

The whole thing comes together when I ladle a generous amount of potatoes inside the tortilla, heap on an irresponsible amount of egg-and-sausage mix and then maybe slosh some salsa on the mess. Never let your buddies make their own burritos. You earned the right to add or subtract quantities depending on your mood and how much money they lifted from you during the previous night’s poker game.

If you’re packing for the high country, skip the salsa and potatoes, but add an extra dose of cheese. Everyone will remember that when you’re buffeted by the lashing winds at the summit.

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