Cub Scout Cooking

[Beccachap]

On 1/28/2020 at 2:14 PM, Jackdaws said:

Webelos should be creating their own menus.   Its required for Cast Iron Chef.

You can break down meal planning by the ranks.  That way everyone has a role.   Logistically this may create some issues.  Depends on the size of your pack.   As mentioned above, dietary restrictions are a challenge.  My son has a nut allergy so PB& J are a no no.  But my son knows he must be careful.   We have had youth with dairy issues and families with the religious restrictions.  Baked beans were almost always on the menu, we had a family of Seventh-Day Adventist and could not have pork.   We would make a separate pot of beans to accommodate their needs.   Or they would tell us to not worry about it a head of time. 

 

Webelos Adventure: Cast Iron Chef Complete Requirements 1 and 2 below. Requirement 3 is optional. Plan a menu for a balanced meal for your den or family. Determine the budget for the meal. If possible, shop for the items on your menu. Stay within your budget. Prepare a balanced meal for your den or family. If possible, use one of these methods for preparation of part of the meal: camp stove, Dutch oven, box oven, solar oven, open campfire, or charcoal grill. Demonstrate an understanding of food safety practices while preparing the meal. Use tinder, kindling, and fuel wood to demonstrate how to build a fire in an appropriate outdoor location. If circumstances permit and there is no local restriction on fires, show how to safely light the fire, under the supervision of an adult. After allowing the fire to burn safely, safely extinguish the flames with minimal impact to the fire site

I disagree with this interpretation.

Step 1, Webelos must plan a menu for a balanced meal, budget, shop, etc. They can do this in a den meeting with planning, then the next den meeting at a store with pencil/paper/calculator. 

Step 2 does not say that to prepare a balanced meal, you must use the menu from #1. Any meal preparation that uses camp stove, dutch oven, etc, if possible, should count.

That said, going about it in a simple 1, 2, 3 step process and Webs delivering a meal would be great. We don't do it that way in our Pack. But any ambitious Den Leader who declares that is the way forward is always welcome to go that route.

[Beccachap]

On 1/28/2020 at 12:00 AM, 5thGenTexan said:

No!  Not cooking Cub Scouts.  Cooking for Cub Scouts.  😆

On family campouts do you plan a meal and cook it and at least make them try it, then have PB&J or something waiting in the wings just in case.  By waiting in the wings, I mean have it on hand, but don't tell anyone about it unless a Scout just wont eat what is cooked?

 

My plan for this month is to cook a dutch oven chicken spaghetti that I sampled at a UoS class.  Its really filling and will be a good hot meal for the end of the day.

Every campout we use the same meal plan with small variations, but no, we don't make anyone try anything. We require everyone to buy it as part of registration, but no one has to eat it (everyone eats it though). We charge 3$ for age 0-4, 10$ for ages 5+. They get Sat breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack dinner, dessert, and Sunday breakfast. We have a small bin for Friday night late arrivers/families in disarray to do DIY PB&J, bananas, and graham crackers for dinner, because with family camping there is always greater potential for chaos and there is nothing worse than having a crew of hangry children running about at 10pm because things went sideways. 

We've found tremendous buy in from kids to try foods when they help cook and prepare. Peer pressure is magnificent too for kids to want to try new foods. There's nothing like sitting with a pile of kids all diving into their burritos and watching a new kid reevaluate their plate with a plain tortilla and a teaspoon of shredded cheese on it. Usually, they get up and go back through the line and add a few more 'exotic' items like tortilla chips and a little chicken. But if they starve, that's ok. We follow with a dessert that very few kids turn down so they get calories in them. I could care less about our Pack's general nutrition intake on a campout. I figure we offer what we offer, and anything that doesn't work out is between the parent and child to sort out. If the child is older and camping with other children / no parent, then they figure it out for themselves. They may ask for 4 poptart packs Sunday morning, but we roll with it. 

By repeating the same meal plan the Cubs grow more confident with each return to a meal/assignment. We have a handful of Cubs who infuse themselves with serving/preparing at every single meal, despite not being assigned. There is always some way they can contribute. 

That said, I design each meal to be a la carte. Burritos are not premade, but ingredients are set out and you make your own like in line at Chipotle. Using that design I almost never hear a vegetarian or a gluten free camper cite difficulty. 

Your dutch oven chicken spaghetti meal sounds intriguing. Perhaps you could share the recipe here? I think that's a great way to introduce meal plan elements to Cub Scout camping. Our community was mostly built through shared meals, so I can't endorse it enough. All Scouts (wolf and older) and parental types have assignments to run it. Through meal plan participation friendship and trust have been fostered throughout the Pack.

Edited February 17, 2020 by Beccachap
added age for prep

[5thGenTexan]

This is something I picked up in a UoS class.  I went through the tasting line twice    It really is a good hot meal that is going to be filling

The best part about this is... you can prepare the noodles at home so they are ready to go.  Maybe most importantly, you can use canned chicken or I am going to use pulled rotissiere chicken from Sams.  No raw meat in camp.

The recipe calls for at least part of a can of Rotel tomatoes.  I am not sure how kids are going to react to a lot of Rotel.

Anyway... here is its.

[Beccachap]

12 minutes ago, 5thGenTexan said:

The best part about this is... you can prepare the noodles at home so they are ready to go.  Maybe most importantly, you can use canned chicken or I am going to use pulled rotissiere chicken from Sams.  No raw meat in camp.

Oh, I love a casserole. Tastes like childhood. This looks yum.

I think the rotel will be no problem at all, unless you opt for the spicy variety. One thought - if you pull the chicken you may have larger chunks of meat which can be problematic for little ones. You may want to take extra care to ensure all meat is pulled or cut very small for safety. But going rotisserie Sam's chicken is genius. 

One question, what size dutch oven?

[NDW5332]

20 minutes ago, Beccachap said:

That said, I design each meal to be a la carte. Burritos are not premade, but ingredients are set out and you make your own like in line at Chipotle. Using that design I almost never hear a vegetarian or a gluten free camper cite difficulty.

Then you are very, very lucky and have done a very good job managing all of the food and utensils to prevent cross contamination.

Having lots of experience on both the Pack and Troop level dealing with several food allergies (peanut/tree nut, gluten, dairy) I've seen more often than not it leads to very picky eaters.  In my son's case (peanut/tree nut), the Troop we're in now has been exceptionally helpful, and was one of the reasons we chose it.  In the Troop, he's been integral to menu planning on the campouts he's participated in and that's been a huge help.  It also helps that there's a maturity in the older Scouts that is generally more respectful and understanding of the allergy, and that there are other Scouts that have allergies as well.

In Cub Scouts, we had great support from the other leaders in the Pack, and they really did their best to help, but the allergies were looked on as no big deal by the other parents that would "help" from time to time and it became an issue.  There was no concern over cross-contamination and meals were a free for all.  The "peer pressure" to try new foods often backfired and made kids feel more excluded. The Bear Picnic Basket elective was usually problematic because GORP was almost always made by well-intentioned, but misinformed families because the allergy Cubs couldn't eat it and the Cubs that brought it would get offended they didn't.  Day camp wasn't a problem because everyone usually brought their own, but the chow line at family camp was a big issue.  They would try to have the Cubs with allergies go first through the line, to minimize cross contamination and to get first shot at the allergy friendly entrees, but this would lead to hard feelings (why do they go first!?!). Then the rest of the kids would eat the rest of the allergy friendly food and someone inevitably got left out.  I leave that on the management from Council. 

[Beccachap]

2 hours ago, NDW5332 said:

Then you are very, very lucky and have done a very good job managing all of the food and utensils to prevent cross contamination.

I'm always nervous about meals and cross contamination. We have no peanut allergies, I'm relieved to say, because I'd just be breaking out in panic attacks about having a child at risk at a campout 24/7. Even if we eradicate peanuts from our meal plan, other families show up with what they show up with, and kids are kids (messy & dirty especially camping). I'd have to have a leap of faith that the parents were managing it, but we'd adapt as best we could to accomadate. We have food service gloves and an actual bucket of serving utensils to try and keep that down, but then we have children and distracted adults serving so... 

Ugh. I just don't know what I'd do. I think if I was a mother of a child with severe allergies I would write my pack off entirely. We're just too large, too chaotic, too many moving parts. But if a parent is zen enough to embrace us and prepared enough, then we could give it a shot. 

[SSScout]

Whatever happened to "Clamp Pies", made in "Pie Irons"?

Dessert:  buttered bread, canned (or home made) apple, cherry or peach filling.

Lunch:  Ham and cheese , rye bread.

Breakfast:  French Toast,  eggy bread and maple syrup and bacon bits. 

Dinner?  

https://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/g4609/pie-iron-recipes/

[yknot]

Those are a kid favorite however hard to do with a group since you have to have a lot of them. Better for a den or patrol camp out. We've got about six between our various families and they are fun to pull out for smaller groups. 

 You can do anything in them. Spray Pam is the easiest way to use along with some butter. Lots of pam, egg, sausage, and cheese and even that gluten free scout is happy. 

[IndyScouter]

13 minutes ago, SSScout said:

Whatever happened to "Clamp Pies", made in "Pie Irons"?

Dessert:  buttered bread, canned (or home made) apple, cherry or peach filling.

Lunch:  Ham and cheese , rye bread.

Breakfast:  French Toast,  eggy bread and maple syrup and bacon bits. 

Dinner?  

https://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/g4609/pie-iron-recipes/

Hmmm...loved those pie irons meals.  We used them all the time at our cub scout summer day camp.  We did the apple/cherry pies the first year.  I think we switched to grilled cheese the second year.  The third year we went to a local mall pretzel company(Aunt Annies) and asked them for their recipe for pretzels.  They were more than willing to give us their secret and we had pretzels with cheese sauce that year.  Very popular with all age groups.  I like your breakfast idea.  Why is my nose smelling maple syrup????  😊

[5thGenTexan]

1 hour ago, SSScout said:

Whatever happened to "Clamp Pies", made in "Pie Irons"?

Dessert:  buttered bread, canned (or home made) apple, cherry or peach filling.

Lunch:  Ham and cheese , rye bread.

Breakfast:  French Toast,  eggy bread and maple syrup and bacon bits. 

Dinner?  

https://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/g4609/pie-iron-recipes/

We did those on our family camping trips.  I have too many people and not enough $$$ for cooking in the pie irons.

[qwazse]

Our pie irons are not standing the tests of time that our frying pans and Dutch ovens are.

Better to teach Cubs about durable kitchen tools.

[5thGenTexan]

Breakfast:  Sausage, Scrambled Eggs, Hashbrows all prepared on steel griddle

Dinner: Chicken Spaghetti as outlined above.  Cooked on grate over coals

Dessert:  Peach / Apricot Cobbler in DO.

 

 

[5thGenTexan]

For Webelos and Cast Iron Chef...

After we get past hot dogs, candy, pizza, etc that they suggest...  What is a suggestion was planted for chicken quessadillas?

 

Pre-cooked fajita chicken 

Bag cheese

Tortilla

They can put their own quesadilla together and then "cook" it on the griddle.  

 

[TAHAWK]

Cardboard oven pizza, cookies, cheesy tortilla chips!

 

[Bouv]

We tend to keep it pretty basic on our overnighters.  Our Webelos and AOL's will help with the cooking but we tend to do hot dogs, grilled cheese, chips or baked beans, etc.  Since we usually need to leave early in the morning, we keep it to bagels and bananas for breakfast.  Knowing my son, I always have a meal, like a pb&j sandwich (he likes hot dogs...not the kind the pack gets, because they are donated).