Patrol cook and chef kits now

[Double Eagle]

With all the recent talk about woodbadge indoors and whether units are using the patrol method, I was thinking about what patrols are using now for cook and chef kits.  They are not offered for sale within the BSA.  Philmont uses two large cooking pots for cooking, but what are your scouts using in lieu of availability of the cook and chef kits?  I was never one for the aluminum mess kits that burnt food, wing nuts fell off and lost, and the bean pot always spilled.  What are your patrols using for patrol cooking?   

[elitts]

I'm trying to switch our patrols over to the "Ingenio Stackable Cookware".  It's a little thicker on the bottom than the super thin aluminum or steel so the kids don't burn stuff quite as much.  Plus the interchangeable handles are awesome.

https://www.amazon.com/Tefal-L2009542-Ingenio-Essential-Piece/dp/B07KY9CQYY/ref=asc_df_B07KY9CQYY/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=241997753661&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6931541859676559564&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9017487&hvtargid=pla-659339224554&psc=1

[SubSM]

We have totes with random old pots and pans. Each patrol has a mixture of cooking gear. Nothing fancy. 

 

Mike

[fred8033]

What !!!   When did BSA ditch the aluminum trail cook pots/pans set?  Wow ...  I never noticed.   It's like losing a long lost relative that you never really liked that much but that you were sure would live on forever.

We use plastic totes.  Each patrol has one assigned (or did).  Each kit has a hard plastic covered packing instruction sheet.  That sheet has lasted 10+ years now.  Very rigid ... as long as no one uses it as a cutting board.   ... We are down now to six cook kits and one bin of extra supplies.  We had two more bins of spare parts but we recently "purged" junk from the trailer to clean it up.  

Each kit has BSA's old aluminum stack-able set of pots with two fry pans.  A rectangle non-stick fry pan.  A cutting board.  Three wash basins.  Strainer.  Set of utensils.  Measuring cup.  Two gallon pitcher.  (or gallon ... I always look up the size).  

My favorite part of our cook kits is any scout can carry it and I can carry it with one hand.  

Edited July 30, 2019 by fred8033

[MattR]

Plastic tote. Steel pan (Lodge?). Cast iron griddle (Cheapo at walmart). A big light weight pot for boiling water-ish type foods.  A little pot. Metal utensils. Strainer. Wash tubs.

I think that's most of it. That's all they use, anyway.

We got away from anything with a non stick coating other than patina from cooking stuff with fats.

[Eagledad]

6 minutes ago, MattR said:

Plastic tote. Steel pan (Lodge?). Cast iron griddle (Cheapo at walmart). A big light weight pot for boiling water-ish type foods.  A little pot. Metal utensils. Strainer. Wash tubs.

I think that's most of it. That's all they use, anyway.

We got away from anything with a non stick coating other than patina from cooking stuff with fats.

Oh! That's what that taste is called.

Barry

[MattR]

1 minute ago, Eagledad said:

Oh! That's what that taste is called.

Barry

If it has a taste then it's gone rancid.   Start over.

My grandmother, who was known for many things other than her cooking, loved to make fruit cake in an old cast iron skillet. It always had this funky flavor that nobody liked and everyone joked about. She passed some 30 years ago. About 10 years ago I had a cast iron dutch oven that started getting that same flavor. Aha! I suddenly knew what it was. (It was too much oil left in it for too long) I put it in the oven on the clean cycle, smoked up the house, and started over with seasoning it. It still works.

[Saltface]

55 minutes ago, MattR said:

If it has a taste then it's gone rancid.   Start over.

My grandmother, who was known for many things other than her cooking, loved to make fruit cake in an old cast iron skillet. It always had this funky flavor that nobody liked and everyone joked about. She passed some 30 years ago. About 10 years ago I had a cast iron dutch oven that started getting that same flavor. Aha! I suddenly knew what it was. (It was too much oil left in it for too long) I put it in the oven on the clean cycle, smoked up the house, and started over with seasoning it. It still works.

Always use the grill! I like to use a wire cup brush to make sure I get everything off when re-seasoning.

[Eagle94-A1]

Looks like the Scout SHop is selling this now https://www.scoutshop.org/gsi-glacier-stainless-steel-troop-cookset.html

 

[Eagle69]

I totally agree on the worthlessness of the skillet with the Trail Chef Kit and the cups weren't much good for anything but a measuring cup, however the rest of the kit was quite handy in my opinion.  We has cast iron skillets for cooking.

[TAHAWK]

On 8/1/2019 at 4:59 PM, Eagledad said:

Oh! That's what that taste is called.

Barry

The coating of burned-on grease used to be called "seasoning."  Somewhat non-stick.  😁

[TAHAWK]

On 8/23/2019 at 8:54 PM, Eagle69 said:

I totally agree on the worthlessness of the skillet with the Trail Chef Kit and the cups weren't much good for anything but a measuring cup, however the rest of the kit was quite handy in my opinion.  We has cast iron skillets for cooking.

The aluminum skillet on the Trail Chef Cook kit was as good as any relatively thin aluminum skillet.  Taught to cook on coals, it worked fine.  BSA had them made thinner and thinner towards the end, so they were less good.

The individual "mess kit" was too thin for all but the most careful user,  but no worse for cooking than the GI steel mess kit.  i replaced my BSA mess kit with a GI mess kit after the first Scout campout.

The mess kit pot once had a detente that locked the bail, preventing spilling.  As competence declined at BSA, the detente went away, and it was Spill City.

[qwazse]

When I was a teen, my brother let me order an aluminum mess-kit from an AmWay catalogue that he got as a years-of-service award at work. It was one of the first kits to roll out with a Teflon-coated pan. Heavy gauge. Still in service. The only thing that I lost from it was the pair of lightweight tongs that was used to lift pots and doubled as pan handles ... small loss in the age of potholders that actually resist heat.

It served my patrol, then my family, then my adult leaders, pretty well on most campouts. Because the pans don't have slots/mounts for handles, etc ... they clean up easily.

The only thing that I still need to configure for it is a soft spatula that stows easily with the Teflon pan.