Troop Menu Planning

[cheffy]

OGO, I''m on your side. it makes the patrols think outside the box/usual meals. We do a hugh event like this once a year. My only recommedation is that the patrols know ahead of time what the mandatory ingredients are a few weeks before hand. That will give them time to research recipes and eliminate the DOOOOh factor.

In the world of professional cooking, this is called a mystery basket competition. Everyone gets the same ingredients and has 20 min to write a 4 course menu and 3 hrs to prepare it.

We also do a one day basic cooking skills campout. it''s eliminated burnt bacon.

 

OGO, PM me if you want more details on our Battle Chefs campout.

[anarchist]

OGO

you moved the goal post and changed the tune...

"exicute"...a simple typo...but in the future I''ll steer clear of your threads.

Anarchist

[PeteM]

OGO,

Sounds like your troop is scout led, good for you in allowing your scouts to try different things, even though they might not work, or are part of the "norm", what ever that is.

Let us know how the cook off program works out and what other activities your troop did on that campout, and who won the cooking contest.

 

Good luck and don''t let "them" get you down.

 

Pete

 

added on edit: don't be so picky about spelling errors. Thomas Jefferson used to say that he "has nothing but utter contempt for those that think that there is only one way to spell something".(This message has been edited by PeteM)

[Lisabob]

I think this could be a fun idea to do once in a while. OGO, keeping in mind that "feedback is a gift," it sounds like you''ve gotten some good ideas here, and to summarize:

 

1) Nothing wrong with doing this on rare occasion, as long as it doesn''t become standard.

2) Make sure you aren''t robbing a boy of his chance to fulfill his rank requirements for advancement, and that the PLC has considered this point. (As an aside, this has happened in my son''s troop frequently and I''m really irritated about it too - especially because despite the top-down intervention, boys seem to get their cooking sign offs anyway, which I do NOT like. But, I''m also not in a position to fight that fight right now and I''m hopeful our new SM will fix this going forward.)

3) PLCs aren''t always thinking about the "patrol method" and might need reminders of why this is so important.

4) Some skill instruction on cooking technique and menu planning sounds like it might be in order, too. Hard to think "outside the box" when the boys are barely capable of boiling water, you know?

5) A question - is it mainly the younger, or older guys who are going for the ramen noodles and cold cereal? In the former, it is likely lack of skill and knowledge. In the latter, it could be lack of skill and/or plain old laziness. The solutions are different.

 

Have fun with it and tell us how it turns out!

 

 

[highcountry]

For a years (before I became SM) the boys made pretty lame meal plans. They were mostly balanced buyt lots of convenience stuff, canned soup, hot dogs, bad spagetti and canned stew, mac and cheese etc. The adult leaders bagan to prepare their own meals and it did not take long for the scouts to look and see how good we had it and to become a bit more ambitious about their own meal plans.

 

We do cooking contests when tehy are part of Camporee or Klondike but ussually only one entry for the troop. Whomever ahs a great recipe to fit the theme goes with it, there are normally a zillion activities at these events and the boys are doing those and not all cooking by patrols, only so much time.

 

We are currently trying to infuse more troop traditions into our operations and one tradition are some popular recipes, one boy has a great cherry/chocolate dutch oven cobbler that will be a part of most campouts. Other things to follow as recipes stand out that the boys feel should be included.

 

We genrally let the boys plan meals for trips but we have the frequent problem of not getting response from the boys eitehr by email or particiaption at camp planning meetings. When this occurs, we make some calls and get concensus around a workable menu plan.

 

We take advantage of opportunities to allow boys to get their meal and cooking requirements for road to fist class advancement needs. The boys have not expressed a desire to cook as patrols which works well as some patrols have 4 or more attend and sometimes other patrols only have one attenddee. More seperate menus means more work on shopping and grocery lists too.

 

What we have gravitate towards, is each patrol attending prepares a part of the meal....they get to show patrol pride in trying to do a great job and they can focus on preparing just one item per meal. We want to try and have the patrols all cook as the cleaning and amnagement of their chuck boxes is something they earn points for and learn responsibility about. A dinner plan might have patrol #1 Prepare a sald, Patrol 2 prepares Peppers and onions in Marinara, patrol 3 prepares Pasta and Garlic Bread While patrol 4 makes a dutch oven dessert. It works as a nice blend of patrol and troop cooking, each patrol cooked as a patrol contributing to the troop dinner they all sit down to.

[Lisabob]

"A dinner plan might have patrol #1 Prepare a sald, Patrol 2 prepares Peppers and onions in Marinara, patrol 3 prepares Pasta and Garlic Bread While patrol 4 makes a dutch oven dessert. It works as a nice blend of patrol and troop cooking, each patrol cooked as a patrol contributing to the troop dinner they all sit down to. "

 

highcountry, I''m not saying you can''t do this or something like that, but please be aware that this approach to meals, if taken regularly, does not allow a boy to fulfill the cooking requirements for 2nd/1st class ranks.

 

My son''s troop has done this in the past. It irks me because the less conscientious folks will sign off on the cooking requirements anyway, but it cheats the boys of really learning and demonstrating the skills in question (cooking a part of a meal is quite different from planning, prepping, and cooking an entire meal, let alone serving as chief cook for the patrol for the whole weekend). Additionally, if one is not careful, it can promote the "advancement as mere check-offs" mentality that mistakes the means for the end.

 

 

[PeteM]

It sounds like they use it when they are going to be having poor participation on an outing, and rather than revamping the troop into other patrols, they would use this method.

 

I can''t see it as a permanent solution, but something to use once in a while, since you really need do need to be concerned about rank stuff.

 

As OGO said, this is a better alternative to summer camp dining hall cooking.

 

You could also use this idea for a "family" type outing, where the Scouts can show off to their parents different cooking skills in a shorter amount of time.

 

This sounds like a progressive dinner where you have one section of the meal prepared at one location, then drive to another location for the next course.

 

Another method of getting out of the box.

 

[highcountry]

Our troop instructor keeps tabs on what boys need cooking requirements in road to first class. When we have a couple needing these requirements we shift our meal plan on campouts to support the advancement need. We also have occasional Day Camps in nearby state parks or national forest areas, the middle of the event is of course lunch and this is specifically intended to support the road to first class cooking requirements.

On camp outs where we have say 18 scouts, 3-6 from each of 4 patrols teh other format works best. Each patrol takes pride in planning and preparing their part of the meal as a patrol. As long as there are none or maybe only one or two scouts needing road to first class cooking this works great. We also like to avoid having to have grocery shopping for 4 entirely different shopping trips, grocery bills and reciepts for the treasurer to have to deal with.