Field Cooking

[Beavah]

Yah, in the much-resurrected Patrol Boxes thread, a whole mess of different posters made comments about how patrol boxes/large propane stoves/etc. were necessary to do "real" cookin' - anything more than boiling water and rehydrating a meal.

 

I'm left wonderin' if this is what a lot of people are doin' when they're backpackin'? Nothing but rewarmed turd or freeze-dried cardboard meals? No wonder a lot of troops don't backpack!

 

I've done quite a bit of backpackin' and an awful lot of canoe camping with lightweight gear. Can't say I've ever eaten just-boil or freeze dried food. To my mind, this is a skill every adult scouter and every First Class Scout should have, eh? You really can prepare any meal you would find at any reasonable restaurant on a lightweight camp stove. In our colder climes yeh even have natural refrigeration for part of da year. Yah, OK, maybe I'm just a touch skeptical of Kudu's Beef Wellington while backpackin', but that's pretty froofy food anyway, eh? Yeh can do it, but why would yeh want to? Now, a lightly grilled or poached fresh coho salmon, mind, is a different story!

 

Is this a bigger issue than I thought? Somethin' that we should address in trainin' or a supplementary module - how to's of LNT field cookery? I reckon it is one of da shortcomings of the BSA Fieldbook and Handbook, though both recommend lightweight gear.

 

What have other folks seen or experienced?

 

[Eagle1982]

I'm a food snob and prefer to eat well while car camping, backpacking or at home (my belly shows I eat well - to that end, for backpacking, I will often dehydrate good leftovers to make into a fine stew or other meal. Dehydrated taco meat, pulled pork or shredded chicken can be used in a ton of recipes, and provide real meat instead of small meat like chunks of whatever.

 

Eggs last longer than many people realize. Lots of countries don't refrigerate eggs. You can coat eggs with vasoline to make them last longer. I've carried cream cheese, hummus, regular cheese for long weekends, in July and August, without any spoilage.

 

I think though, that people go the super simple route for a few reasons.

(1) Boil and go is faster, and uses less fuel than needing to simmer a pot for a long time.

(2) Often, fancier meals require way more cleanup, forcing the use of more fuel.

(3) Using LNT principles, what do you do with your wash water and the food bits? If you pack out, some people are squeemish on that.

 

[John-in-KC]

I think part of it is people in general are far more squeamish about fresh food preservation than we ever used to be.

 

OTOH, salt fish, salt pork, salt beef, and salt-cured ham were all staples in the larder a century ago.

 

I remember reading the outdoors books of Townsen Whelen and Brad Angier, written back in the 50s. Even at that date, it was still possible to routinely go out into backcountry and plan your trip to shoot and eat fresh game for a meal a day.

 

I'll have to think more about where we are now, and how field cookery can be done well ... especially in high summer. Right now, though, heck, in my neck of the woods, you could take steaks in your backpack if you're willing to carry the weight! Daytime highs are about where my refrigerator runs

[Gunny2862]

John you really need to get that fridge looked at.

 

I am VERY interested in this topic. As has been previously discussed I am working with a Troop that gets VERY weird about not pulling the trailer - much more car camping and freaks out about backpacking.

We are backpacking this month - yes - November in Missouri and I am already getting a hard time about "How are we going to feed the boys?", "How will you keep things fresh?", "How will you cook with those little tiny stoves?", "Don't let my baby near one of those explosions waiting to happen!" Amazingly no one is asking about what we will do if an ice storm rolls in - and yes, I have a plan.

 

Most of my experience is with "no-cook" or "rehydrate and eat" aka "boil and go" meals, and Gorp for on the trail snacking. I cognitively know that eggs are going to be okay for 3-4 days but haven't yet broken out and brought them for a weekend. I know about rehydrating powdered milk to make ingredients for "Hamburger Helper" type meals, but haven't done it yet.

I have dehydrated foods before but haven't in a long time and don't own a dehydrator now and am loathe to use the home oven to do it.

 

Yes, a module on back country cooking would be great for a supplementary course.

 

But let's also address all of the current cooking modalities, fire, liquid fuel stoves (self contained and separate fuel bottle), and the gas canister stoves(MSR Pocket Rocket) and try to stay current with the new items coming out, i.e. Jetboil, etc., and not just focus on the single method the presenter prefers.

 

Recipes anyone?

[Buffalo Skipper]

I think Eagle1982 made some good observations, and I concur about the clean up. We choose our meals to create the least amount of waste, and for ease of clean-up. Our troop does mostly 2 backpack trips a year--a warm up hike (15-20 miles) in December and a long hike (20-30 miles) in January. Last December, we had daily temps in the low 80s, and though that did not affect our choice of food, we never take fresh meat.

 

We do not allow packaged, freeze-dried, backpack meals at all. We have found them to be lacking in carbs, high in sodium and generally a poor choice, health wise (look at the back of a freeze dried meal--usually it is under 400 calories!). Just how "homemade" our meals are may be subject to some debate, but we feel we do well.

 

Breakfast usually consists of oatmeal or grits. Lunch is often a cup of soup with canned meat added. Dinner is somewhat more elaborate, but usually involves bag-packaged tuna or chicken with a ready made noodle casserole mix. I am working on introducing a little variety and creativity into our meals.

 

Last year, for the adults, I made a more "elaborate" meal, combining chicken with cous-cous, powdered milk, powdered cream of chicken soup mix, freeze dried peas and carrots, and some simple spices (I prepard it in advance, mixing it all together in a bag and only the meat was separate). It boiled up in 5 minutes and was quite tasty. I also tried a different breakfast with a mashed potato mix, adding powdered cheese and real bacon bits. One $.99 bag gave 2 adults nearly 2 cups of carbs with some protein. If you go this route, I will strongly recomend the Idahoan Yukon Gold mix. It is 10x as good as any other instant potato (even of the same brand), needs no butter and mixes with only water--very good stuff! Also, we usually take along some fresh fruit and nuts, in addition to gorp.

 

I am already working out this year's (adult) menus, and we will have a cook off at a meeting for the patrols to decide on which meals they want to take with them.

 

---warning--food hazard---

If you are looking on the internet for an light weight, high nutrition supplement, avoid---I repeat--AVOID---Ultra Joe's Moose Goo (and the subsequent recipe for Mookies). I would not feed this to my worst enemy. It may be a nutritious mix, high carb speciality, but it is the most vile tasting stuff you ever put in your mouth!

(sorry Joe, I hope you are not a Scouter)

[eisely]

LNT principles also impact on cooking practices in other ways. One thing we used to do when I was a scout was "bread on a stick". All this requires is a little bisquick in a ziplock bag, an open fire, and a green thin piece of wood. That third item is the hard part. We would usually cut some small saplings or pieces off of a bush, clean off the bark, taste the bare wood by licking it, and put the dough on the stick. Somehow I don't think my trekking pole would do well for this use.

[Frank17]

Our troop relies heavily on our "serious backpackers" (The ones who backpack apart from scouting) to guide the scouts on menu planning. The general recommendation is to go heavy for the first day and light after that. What that means if we pack in fresh fruits and veges and frozen fresh meat for the first day's meals, and then switch to freeze dried or condensed on-pot meals after that. It gives the scouts some variety in their diet and they do not get sick of beef jerkey stew quite so fast.

 

On longer trips, such as 7-10 day hikes, it all becomes lighweight meals (even some MREs) and we also try to do some trail rustling in the form of fresh fish. It also adds to the variety.

[AnneinMpls]

My kiddo and I broke in our new JetBoil GCS following a winter orienteering meet: everybody else was racing to get into their warm cars. Woody and I made a snow table, set up the JetBoil to boil some water. Water was boilign by the time we'd opened the can of tuna and the bag of ramen. Also through in either broccoli or peas..cant remember now.

Fabulous!

Started to eat while the Jetboil made us some very nice hot cocoa.

We were eating within 5 minutes of unlocking the car doors. Could not believe how easy!

Anne in Mpls

[Stosh]

When one thinks in myopic linear terms, it is often very difficult to come up with good field cooking. In a microwave world, it is so easy to think in terms of boil water and rehydrate supper when backpacking. Ever think in terms of how much weight could I carry if I didn't take a tent? If I didn't take the back pack stove would I starve? If I only heated rather than cooked, could I use solar instead of fuel? "It's so hot out today that a body can fry an egg on the sidewalk!" Well, people, it's true. Once one gets to think in multiple terms rather than just, "What's for dinner?" some creative things can happen.

 

Stosh

[Gold Winger]

For my part, when I'm tired and hungry, I just want calories. As long as it doesn't taste or smell like dung or vomit, I'm okay. Might even eat it then. Heck, dogs eat both dung and vomit and we know what picky eaters they are.

 

 

[Kudu]

"Yah, OK, maybe I'm just a touch skeptical of Kudu's Beef Wellington while backpackin'"

 

You mean the backpacking ovens? I haven't used one yet myself. The cooks prepared different baked bread foods for a couple dozen people. I believe the temperature was in the upper teens.

 

My point in the parent thread is that when used for "plop camping," you can cook anything on a lightweight backpacking stove that you can cook on a monster propane-tree stove, as long as each Patrol has a couple lightweight stoves with simmer capability. The idea is to get the weight down so that you can spread the Patrols apart, but that does not rule out coolers and fresh food when you use lightweight stoves for car camping.

 

Of course you must be careful not to try to balance big pots of food or boiling water on a tiny stove. I usually recommend a lightweight folding grill for that, but I prefer flat stones when they are available.

 

As far as backpacking goes, I like Gretchen Mchugh's Hungry Hiker's Book of Good Cooking I don't recall if she mentions Beef Wellington, but her recipes are excellent. Her idea of dehydrating lean ground beef and then adding it to other foods in the field was new to me. When I am lazy I just combine the re-hydrated ground beef with a package of Hamburger Helper

 

You can find used copies of her book for as little as 56 cents at the following URL:

 

http://tinyurl.com/6oeftr

 

Note to Gunny2862: A mention in a church bulletin about Scouts, cooking and the need for food dehydrators usually renders us a few donations from people with unloved food dehydrators in their attics.

 

Another really good source of dehydrator backpacking recipes is Lipsmakin' Backpackin' by Tim and Christine Conners. WARNING: Their Appalachian Trail Jerky is highly addictive. You may remember that Christine asked for Scout recipes here a while back, and their resulting book The Scout's Outdoor Cookbook is also available at the following URL:

 

http://tinyurl.com/58ho8l

 

Appalachian Trail Jerky from "Lipsmakin' Backpackin'" by Tim and Christine Conners

 

2 pounds flank steak

 

Marinade:

 

1/3 cup teriyaki sauce

2 tablespoons liquid smoke

1/4 cup low-salt soy sauce

2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

2 teaspoons pepper

2 teaspoons crushed red pepper

2 tablespoons brown sugar

 

Total weight: 12 ounces

Weight per serving: 1 ounce

Total servings: 12

 

At home:

 

Trim fat from steak and slice with grain into 1/4 X 1 1/2 inch strips. Combine

marinade ingredients in a bowl. Add beef strips and stir, making sure sauce covers

meat. Cover with plastic and marinate overnight. The next day, place meat strips

flat on two large cookie sheets. Bake in a 150 degree oven for about 10 to 12 hours.

Pack in a sealed container or bag.

 

Note: I multiply all of the marinade ingredients (except the pepper and red pepper) by three so that i can submerge the meat

[Stosh]

One does not need heat to dehydrate food, all they need to do is remove the moisture. Paper furnace filters, a box fan and a couple of bungy cords and one has a majorly cheap food dehydrator. Been using it for years and works just fine. Just need a little more time, but the food is not cooked, it's dehydrated.

 

Stosh

[Gunny2862]

Stosh and Kudu!, Thanks!