Back Burner Dinner

Posted by Donna:

This recipe has been around for many, many years. It will usually be listed as Hobo Dinner. I've fixed the Hobo Dinner many times when you wrap everything in foil---then bake it in the oven. I had to drum up a lot of nerve to make this when I saw that you don't discard the bacon grease. I don't do grease!!!!!! However, since you dilute it with water, I decided to go ahead a make it. The taste is wonderful. This version of the Hobo Dinner was in one of my mother's old cookbooks that was printed in 1986 by the Harmon County Extension Homemakers Council. Everyone was still cooking in grease back then.

There are no measurements--which really you don't need them. I did two patties and four pieces of bacon since I was feeding two people.

Back Burner Dinner

Bacon strips

Ground beef patties

Potatoes, sliced

Carrots, sliced

Onions, sliced

Green bell peppers, sliced

Salt (to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

In an 8 - 10 inch skillet, very lightly brown a layer of bacon strips. Do not drain. (Eek!!!!! This really killed me not to do this.) Put a layer of ground beef patties, a layer of sliced potatoes, a layer of sliced carrots, a layer of sliced or chopped onions and green peppers, salting and peppering as you go. Add enough hot water to just cover the top layer. Put a lid over it and set it on the "back burner" and simmer for at least one hour.

You don't have to use the back burner, as you know. I used my front burner; but it makes sense to use the back one while you prepare another sidedish, if desired. I did simmer mine for exactly one hour. Forty-five minutes would have been fine for mine.

Everything will be cooked to the very, very soft stage. The flavor of the watered down bacon grease is wonderful. You can taste the right amount of bacon seasoning in all the ingredients. I felt like I needed to go walk about five miles to get that grease out of my system. I will definitely make this again----after I have my cholesterol checked and see that it is within normal limits.

I knew Larry would like it because of the peppers and onions. I love the old cookbooks. Those cooks knew what was good and knew how to cook.