New cooking requirements?

[perdidochas]

Yes but I was thinking with less talk and more show

1. Explain the importance of washing your hands including how often. Show how to properly wash your hands in the kitchen and in the field. List the diseases that may spread from improper washing and their symptoms. How should bathroom trips, runny noses, and sneezing be managed (No snot in the pot!)

2. Show how to properly clean and store pots, pans, utensils, water containers. If you use cast iron cookware, show how to clean and season it.

3. Explain common injuries such as burns and knife cuts and show how to treat those injuries.

4. How do you keep food safe and determine if it is not? (Add a lot of detail here on checking temperature, bulging containers, freshness dates, cleaning vegetables, cross contamination, etc.) What illnesses can occur from the improper storage, cooking, and serving of food. How do you recognize and treat?

 

My $0.02

There are field signs for temperature. No need for a thermometer while cooking. I've used these for the 25 years I've cooked on my own. The only time I've had food poisoning is from eating an egg salad sandwich that had been left out on a courtesy table.

 

For example, with chicken, you can tell temperature by the color of the juices coming out. You can also tell the temperature that the meat has reached by how it feels when poked by a fork. The same with most cuts of meat.

 

I basically agree with BD, it verges on paranoid.

[RememberSchiff]

?? I think we agree that checking temperature is important. I did not mention a particular method. I have not used a thermometer except at home with oven and microwave. If that makes me paranoid, okay.

[perdidochas]

I actually use a thermometer when I'm slow-cooking meats on the grill. I'm not as sure of the field tests.

[Basementdweller]

?? I think we agree that checking temperature is important. I did not mention a particular method. I have not used a thermometer except at home with oven and microwave. If that makes me paranoid, okay.

I cook my thanksgiving turkey to temp in the oven using a thermometer, but not for fear of bacteria, but I really hate dry turkey.

[koolaidman]

The backpacking meals do not have to be done on a actual backpacking trip' date=' just using the methods. [/quote']

 

This makes it consistent with Camping Merit Badge, which is designed to get Cub Scout survivors to Eagle without ever walking into the woods with packs on their backs.

Don't forget the dutch oven table so you don't have to lean over to turn your lid.

[Builder]

I agree with skeptic, it never should have been removed in the first place. I was there when it happened, too. I earned Cooking MB, got the badge with the silver thread around it, then a few months later it wasn't required anymore. But while I think it should be on the required list, I think something else should have been removed. But I don't want to divert the thread with a discussion of what that should have been. Though I guess it has already been diverted; the question was, what the requirements are.

Heh. Like you I had to earn Cooking as a "required" badge right before "the change". Unfortunately, by the time it was awarded to me they had run out of the silver border version. My sash has a green border Cooking MB sewn on it....

[Basementdweller]

I actually use a thermometer when I'm slow-cooking meats on the grill. I'm not as sure of the field tests.

When I use my smoker to do pork butts, I check doneness by how the bone moves in the meat......

 

I use flex on my ribs, and firmness on my brisket..... Hard for something not to be done when you cook it from 8 hours or more at 200 degrees.

 

Not a thermometer

[Scouter99]

?? I think we agree that checking temperature is important. I did not mention a particular method. I have not used a thermometer except at home with oven and microwave. If that makes me paranoid, okay.

Had an adult sit a plate full of rare chicken on the table last year; I would've appreciated the objectiveness of a thermometer. Ate a lot of bread that night.

[King Ding Dong]

Yes but I was thinking with less talk and more show

1. Explain the importance of washing your hands including how often. Show how to properly wash your hands in the kitchen and in the field. List the diseases that may spread from improper washing and their symptoms. How should bathroom trips, runny noses, and sneezing be managed (No snot in the pot!)

2. Show how to properly clean and store pots, pans, utensils, water containers. If you use cast iron cookware, show how to clean and season it.

3. Explain common injuries such as burns and knife cuts and show how to treat those injuries.

4. How do you keep food safe and determine if it is not? (Add a lot of detail here on checking temperature, bulging containers, freshness dates, cleaning vegetables, cross contamination, etc.) What illnesses can occur from the improper storage, cooking, and serving of food. How do you recognize and treat?

 

My $0.02

I disagree those are reliable indicators. How many scouts can really use these field tests with any degree of reliability ?

[King Ding Dong]

I actually use a thermometer when I'm slow-cooking meats on the grill. I'm not as sure of the field tests.

Agree with you BD on smoking. You are way past the danger zone with BBQ. But I don't want to cook my steaks, chicken or brats one degree past what is necessary. Just like you don't like dry turkey.

 

Ever smoked one ? Last year I used apple. Might try pecan this year.

[Twocubdad]

I actually use a thermometer when I'm slow-cooking meats on the grill. I'm not as sure of the field tests.

ALRIGHT! To which forum do we we spin the thread on smokers? Not that crazy about smoked turkey and chicken, KDD. The little bit of smoke isn't worth the time it takes. But I still have a couple pounds of 'cue in the freezer from the last round of butts I smoked. Excellent. And let me tell you about the Nova Scotia-style salmon I made back in the spring. Oy!

 

What smokers do you guys use? Semi, sorta staying on topic, I use 3-4 digital thermometers in both the meat and cabinet. Of course that to keep the temp from getting too high, not to ensure minimums.

[King Ding Dong]

I actually use a thermometer when I'm slow-cooking meats on the grill. I'm not as sure of the field tests.

Once the kids came along just don't have time to babysit wood or charcoal. Have a Bradley analog modified with an extra 500w element. Custom Auber PID digital dual probe controller. Elcheapo hood set up in my garage and dryer vent out the window. Love to cold smoke steaks for an hour of oak before grilling. The Jim Beam oak is real good.

 

The trick with chicken or turkey is to cut way back on the smoke time and use apple.

 

Yeah we should start a new thread in open discussion.

 

I really want to expand into salmon. Love to hear your advise.

[Basementdweller]

I actually use a thermometer when I'm slow-cooking meats on the grill. I'm not as sure of the field tests.

I cooked competition Q a couple of times. I disagree with KCB standards and why in the world am I spending $1,000 on meat and then $500 to enter a contest...

 

here is my pit.....old school. I like a nice mix of oak and hickory.... old school

 

http://www.langbbqsmokers.com/lang60/lang60_deluxe.html

 

I have smoked most poultry, waterfoul, upland game and most 4 legged critters from north america.