Cambridgeskip 658 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 (edited) So last night we had an inter patrol cook off. The brief was simple. 50 minutes to produce 2 courses from a country of their choice. At one end of the scale we had some quite impressive classic French cuisine from Kestrels. Steamed asparagus wrapped in parma ham and a ham gillet. And then we had Hawks.... who chose USA. And seriously, I'm not sure what they make of you chaps given their desert... photo attached. They called it chocolate heaven. They melted chocolate, poured in a load of jelly sweets, let it solidify and topped with sherbert flying saucers. Is this a recognised dish from your national cuisine?!?! It tasted pretty good though! Edited January 27, 2017 by Cambridgeskip Link to post Share on other sites
Cambridgeskip 658 Posted January 27, 2017 Author Share Posted January 27, 2017 Work computer doesn't like the uploader, will try from home this evening! Link to post Share on other sites
Tampa Turtle 1011 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 We do a Cooking Campout every year. Usually the rules change. We done surprise ingredients, various means of cooking, etc. Being a judge can be tough as we are in the field some of the boys hygiene practices are suspect. One year all 6 patrols made pancakes that had (at least) bacon and chocolate in them. As a judge I have had to eat a lot of under cooked rice and pasta. If a patrol has a 'foodie; in it then there can be some excellent results! One year there was an excellent garlic shrimp on a bed of angel hair pasta with a cheese platter. Mostly we get variations of dutch oven stews, jambalayas, and mac and cheese. The winning patrol for dessert this year were the first years and it was very simple: a thin slice of Gala apple topped with a portion of canned pineapple topped with a square of milk chocolate. Not cooked, just assembled. It was really good! I had a hard time convincing other adults to try it because it just seemed too easy. Another patrol tried it and it went into the regular rotation. Link to post Share on other sites
CalicoPenn 729 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 I'd say they got the chocolate bit right but I'm just not sure of the presentation. What kind of jelly sweets are we talking about? Jelly Babies? That's more of a UK Dr. Who thing (in fact, one major manufacturer of jelly babies won't let online sellers ship them to the US). Jelly Beans? We only obsess about them at Easter - they may have been President Reagan's favorite snack but again chocolate is still U.S. America's favorite sweet. Gummi Bears? Yeah, that's more of a German thing, I think. Now let's talk Sherbet. Sherbet in the UK and in the US refers to two entirely different things. In the UK, my understanding is that it's some kind of fizzy confectionary powder that can be used to make things like flying saucers. In the US, sherbet is a frozen desert, something like a sorbet or Italian ice but made with milk fat - kind of a cross between ice cream and sorbets. But I think we can safely say they got the chocolate bit right - the top 5 favorite deserts in the US, in ascending order, are Ice Cream (and 3 of the top 10 flavors have chocolate in them), Brownies (essentially a dense, thin chocolate cake), Chocolate Chip Cookies (not surprising - it was originally created here in the US and so is considered as American as baseball and apple pie), Chocolate Cake (seeing the pattern yet?) and the #1 favorite dessert - fudge - and most fudge has a base flavor of chocolate. Is "Chocolate Heaven" a part of our national cuisine? No - but it would probably be welcomed here with open arms (though it might need a new name - in the US, chocolate heaven is more of a state of mind or being). Link to post Share on other sites
qwazse 4342 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 @@CalicoPenn is over-thinking this. Props to the Cambridge hawks! .... They melted chocolate, ... Is this a recognised dish from your national cuisine?!?! That's about it. Think fondue concentrated, and you've tapped into the typical Yank's dessert palate. Our pastor offered to judge a contest for the best salad and best dessert at our church picnic. My daughter, age 9 at the time, decided to cover both bases with dark-chocolate-covered baby tomatoes and carrots. She won the dessert category hands down. Next week, in front of the congregation, she was awarded the biggest bar of baker's chocolate she had ever seen. Link to post Share on other sites
NJCubScouter 1389 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Sorry to stray from the subject of chocolate, but your troop (or whatever the terminology is) has a Hawks patrol and a Kestrels patrol? Do you also have the Eagles and the Vultures? Link to post Share on other sites
Cambridgeskip 658 Posted January 27, 2017 Author Share Posted January 27, 2017 The jelly sweets were basically a load of haribo and by sherbert yes, i do mean the fizzy white powder. You can see it among these piccies Patrol names.... yes we also have Eagles, and Owls and Kingfishers. Patrols here tend to have an existence beyond their immediate members, essentially mini troops. While some troops operate the way you work in most cases you join a troop and join, by one means or another, an existing patrol and as members move onto explorers new members join to replace them. Most commonly patrols are named after animals. We are a bit unusual as a troop in having a theme. I don't know where it started from but as long as anyone can remember we've had bird names. One of my ASLs is 74, he's been with us since he was a scout and it was birds then and birds now, it just stuck. Two years ago the troop got so big we span off a second troop within the group. The new troop decided they wanted a theme as well and went for big cats. So now we have two troops, 12th Cambridge Raptors and 12th Cambridge Wildcats (who have Jaguars, Pumas, Panthers and Leopards) Link to post Share on other sites
MattR 2659 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Chocolate and too sweet? I hate to say it but that sounds American. Our scouts really like cooking competitions and they come up with some really good stuff. They've recently been comparable to the adults. Part of that is some of the adults that used to have way too much fun (someone brought a smoker once) have aged out and the newer adults just don't cook. As soon as the competition is over the scouts go back to the usual nasty junk they do over and over and over, until the next competition. In other words, cooking just to enjoy good food? Nope. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
NJCubScouter 1389 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Interesting about the patrol names. Of course, the kingfisher is not a raptor, but they were running out of raptors. I can understand not wanting to be the Vulture patrol. Link to post Share on other sites
qwazse 4342 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 ... I can understand not wanting to be the Vulture patrol. There is nothing ignoble about vultures. Lacking them, eagles will scavenge the carrion. (Hunting is typically the second option for golden eagles.) Link to post Share on other sites
perdidochas 658 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 So last night we had an inter patrol cook off. The brief was simple. 50 minutes to produce 2 courses from a country of their choice. At one end of the scale we had some quite impressive classic French cuisine from Kestrels. Steamed asparagus wrapped in parma ham and a ham gillet. And then we had Hawks.... who chose USA. And seriously, I'm not sure what they make of you chaps given their desert... photo attached. They called it chocolate heaven. They melted chocolate, poured in a load of jelly sweets, let it solidify and topped with sherbert flying saucers. Is this a recognised dish from your national cuisine?!?! It tasted pretty good though! I ;'ve never heard of it, or anything like it. A traditional American dessert would be apple pie, or for scouts, a dutch oven cobbler. Link to post Share on other sites
Cambridgeskip 658 Posted January 27, 2017 Author Share Posted January 27, 2017 I ;'ve never heard of it, or anything like it. A traditional American dessert would be apple pie, or for scouts, a dutch oven cobbler. Thought it would be something like that. They made burgers from scratch for the main course as well Interesting about the patrol names. Of course, the kingfisher is not a raptor, but they were running out of raptors. I can understand not wanting to be the Vulture patrol. Kingfishers patrol existed before we named the troop. I did suggest they think about their patrol name, Falcons, Kites etc but they were quite happy with Kingfishers so it stayed. Link to post Share on other sites
SSScout 1615 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Fried ice cream,, baked Alaska, "Death by Chocolate", deep fried Oreo Cookies, Yeah, I'd say we had a pattern there, even a defined 'Murkun cuisine. Camb, you can go to any county fair here in Merlin (that's dialect for "Maryland") and find fried ANYTHING (pickles, Snickers bars, hotdogs wrapped in cornpone, cashews.....) and I would venture that there is your "American" folk cuisine.... Now, I would get argument from SWMBO. The epitome of MARYLAND cuisine must be the Blue Crab of the Chesapeake Bay, steamed with a smattering of Old Bay Spice. Chocolate, after all, did come from South America. Link to post Share on other sites
David CO 1783 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 (edited) Haribo and sherbert are definitely not iconic ingredients of American cuisine. Is it a recognized American dish? No. However, if the scouts meant to emphasize the point that the USA is a melting pot of various cultures from all over the world, I would have to give them points for creativity. Edited January 27, 2017 by David CO Link to post Share on other sites
Stosh 3452 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Chocolate Chip Cheese Cake is always a sure winner. The Toll House Cookie is another name for chocolate chip cookie. Link to post Share on other sites
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