Omlets in a Bag

[CNYScouter]

From the left hand menu click the Ziploc FAQ and then click the tab Ziploc Brand Bags.

 

 

7. Can I boil in Ziploc Brand bags?

 

No. Ziploc Brand bags are not designed to withstand the extreme heat of boiling.

 

You may need to scroll down to find this.

[LongHaul]

Thanks CNYScouter that's what I needed. As an Okpik staffer I really push retort cooking and the use of Zip loc type bags. I will pass this info along to those in my district. As an aside why do we assume that because the S.C.Johnson Co. says that Zip Loc bags are not designed to withstand the heat of boiling that it means there is toxicity involved? My experience is that too many bags are put into the pot at a time and those making contact with the pot itself melt loosing their contents. My rational is if I can "steam" in this bag (212 degrees)then I can boil in them (212 degrees) just don't put them in contact with the pot itself which gets hotter. I have a large "spaghetti" pot that utilizes an inner basket and the bags have never burst or melted. We also have a double layer window screen insert that accomplishes the same thing except you can't just lift the heated bags out in the basket. My cautions are along the lines of what Eamonn raises, food temperature. Make sure the food is cooked, I advise every patrol to have an instant read thermometer in their patrol box for this type of cooking and to test each individually cooked portion. Food poisoning can defiantly spoil the outing.

LongHaul

[Stosh]

Hmmm, one has a pot of water, eggs, cheese, onions that kids don't like anyway and plastic bags.

 

Toss the eggs in the water in the shell. Hard boil them, drag them out hand 1 or 2 to the kid along with some string cheese and he'll be happy. Not only that one doesn't have a stupid plastic bag to add to the landfill.

 

Otherwise toss in a paper bag, do on the fire and burn the bag when done. Still no stupid plastic bag to add to the landfill.

 

Toss in the mess kit having done up the bacon, make scrambled, add cheese, onions, etc. fry for about 5-10 minutes, stirring if one wishes, eat, wipe out the frypan, sterilize over the fire, cool off and ... yep, you got it, no stupid plastic bag to add to the landfill.

 

With leave no trace, wouldn't it be rather productive to teach methods of cooking that don't add stuff to landfills? Can't afford a messkit? Take a tin can, poke holes, put on a bale handle fasten to backpack. With this little instrument one can make oatmeal, boiled eggs, coffee, hot chocolate, etc. for breakfast, minute-rice, veggies, potatoes for lunch, and a multitude of other things for supper. Different sized cans produce nested sets and a #10 can can hold the whole shebang and double as a stove besides. If the can gets wrecked, make a new one. Total cost of one's mess kit? $0 When one is done with the can, it can be recycled.

 

Stosh

 

 

 

 

[LongHaul]

Your right Stosh but when it's 0 degrees outside cooking eggs in a paper bag is tough. The mess kit is out unless you dragged along a stove for each scout and the means to wash all the dirty dishes. Hard cooked eggs go over as well as caster oil in my troop but boiled in a baggie with veggies ( the only time I've seen the patrol run out of veggies) works very well on Sunday morning and the clean up is almost nothing. AS for Okpik the object is not to cook and clean but to still eat well so you make it at home and heat and eat on the campout.

LongHaul

[ironrosefarms]

One suggestion, don't put the cheese in the bag until the egg is fully cooked. By doing this it will be far easier to make sure the egg is fully cooked, simply squish the bag and break up the egg, if it is runny put it back in, if it is solid you are more apt to be sure it is done. After you verify it is done add your cheese and bon appetite!

[Stosh]

The selection of menu items is important when contemplating the temperature and type of activity. Boiling water to make omelets in a bag at zero degrees will be interesting because by morning all your eggs will be rock solid anyway. A stove isn't needed for every scout to use a messkit, they can cook over a patrol fire. Second Class requirement #2g indicates that all scouts should be able to handle that. If it's zero degrees out, there should be plenty of snow to wipe out your messkit and a few minutes over the fire will sanitize it completely. I've been using that method of cleaning with my cast iron cookware for years and it comes up clean every time. It'll work for stainless steel and aluminum as well. I steer my kids away from plastic because food borne pathegens do so much better in the scratches of plastic.

 

It usually doesn't take much brainstorming to come up with creative ideas on how to cook well in camp with least amount of trouble and the maximum amount of food safety.

 

Okpik may not feel cooking and cleaning in harsh conditions is important and for the most part the boys probably won't starve to death on a weekend outing, but I teach my boys to cook and eat well in all kinds of weather conditions in a variety of different settings using many different kinds of purchased and homemade utinsils. This diversity of skills allows the boys to be self-sufficient in any and all situations. I have eaten at Dutchoven feasts and I have eaten the meager rations of a Philmont trek. Needless to say, the food offered at each of those activities varied quite a bit. So I'd agree with you, eggs in a paper bag won't do well at zero degrees, but hung over an open fire in a tin can would do just fine. When you're done, use your official jackknife to cut the bottom out, push in, flatten and pack out to be recycled with no cleanup necessary.

[LongHaul]

Stosh,

Being from Wisconsin I think youd understand the concept of keeping your food from freezing by putting them in a cooler with a few hand warmers. In the 60s we used rocks heated at the night camp fire or used a hard case for the eggs and kept them in our sleeping bag. Also at 0 degrees if you are using utensils you can heat in the fire, knife, spoon, fork, plate, cup, bowl, you must like eating cold food. Dutch ovens at 0 degrees require a good deal of fuel because the cast iron cools on the sides so fast. Hanging anything over an open fire in 0 degree weather again would require large amounts of fuel. We dont have large quantities of wood available on site at our camps and transporting wood has become restricted. Eating well does not mean cooking from scratch on site. Also, particularly when doing an Okpik type campout, cooking and cleaning are not why we camp. Good food available quickly and with minimal clean up leaves the day for the winter activities we planned. I dont recommend retort as a normal method but it has its places.

LongHaul

 

[Stosh]

I guess we didn't go to such great lengths to try and maintain our menu items. If they would get hurt by freezing, i.e. raw eggs, we just didn't take them. As far as fuel goes, the winter program at Spearhead in Wisconsin... no hot food until supper and then it's a can of Dinty Moore heated up in boiling water which boils for at least a hour before it's hot enough to serve and nothing ever gets eaten hot anyway no matter what one has for eating utinsels. I usually take a plastic thermal cup along that I don't bother to clean because I don't plan on a second meal in it, otherwise a tin cup serves as cooking and eating and cleans up quickly and safely.

 

As far as cold weather cooking, the amounts of fuel used to heat big items is a problem as you have said. But cooking in a messkit requires far less fuel than trying to maintain a #12 Dutch oven. Cooking small quantities separately doesn't take as much fuel nor time as cooking one big large item.

 

And as you have indicated, if other activities are a higher priority than eating well, then that's important as well. Everyone has priorities and everyone has to make choices. I for one don't always have the opportunity to eat prize winning meals on every outing, but I have figured out eating well even if circumstances are against me.

 

There's always a better mousetrap out there, I just haven't found it yet. :^)

 

Stosh

[SSScout]

I guess I've always been suspect of the "too easy". There's always a 'cost'. Extra weight, poor nutrition, extra trash (carry in, carry out), pollution, "leave a trace". Now possible toxic left overs? Leaching plastizicers? Shades OF Bhopal? Mercury in swordfish? Tuna?

 

Well, I still fall back on the traditional. If you don't wish to carry in the cast iron pan and the Coleman stove ( J.C. Higgins in my case)... Site search "Courageous Cookery" and let the complaints begin...

[LongHaul]

SSScouter, My only objection to what we used to call the "one pot wonder method" (wonder if this is worth it) is that you have to eat each course seperate. Another Variation commonly suggested by "high adventure" staffers is cook everything together as a glopp. I like to eat and believe it should be fun. If you like glopp or don't mind one course at a time great. I do favor scrapping the pot as well as possible and then boiling water for instant tea or the like because hydration is usually something that must be monitored, at least with my troop.

LongHaul

[MacyM]

It sounds like a neat idea, as long as you can keep the sides fo the pot from getting to hot, it should be OK.

 

What my son's troop did was to put the pot on a metal sheet, so that the flames from their stove wouldn't heat up the side of their pots.

 

Never had a bag break using that method.

[Gold Winger]

Glop is good if you are tired and hungry. At Philmont we had some interesting meals consiting of things like chili with ramen noodels and green beans. I was tired and hungry and it was good.

 

There is a time for good eats and a time for just eating.

[yelruh]

I only microwave in glass, so doing eggs in a bag a couple times a year doesn't bother me at all.

 

Then again, that way I don't get any shells, which when I've had scrambled eggs someone else has made, I've gotten a number of times.

 

[bowhunt120]

www.snopes.com...for all things that smell like horse-hockey!

 

http://snopes.com/medical/toxins/cookplastic.asp

[SSScout]

I think next to religion, food elicits just about the most discussion.

 

Yep, I've heard of glop cooking. All goes in the same mouth, right?

 

When I want to gross out my family, I tell them (again!) the story of the surgery on my jaw of some years ago. I had to have my jaws WIRED SHUT for 3 months. Only a half inch gap for food and drink. No chewing. I used a blender to pre-masticate my sustinance. I drank my thanksgiving dinner. A little milk, mashed potatoes, turkey, gravy, "puree", and yum. Thanksgiving milk shake.

Make the cheeseburger, lettuce and tomatoe, ketchup, cut into small pieces, into the blender, a cup of ice tea, let 'er rip. sip and gulp.

 

Bon Apetit.

 

So?