FOOD

[ordealarrowman]

What to cook has become a huge problem in our patrol. We started with a ramen diet, and have since moved on. We still have a limited menu of good and easy things to make with few pans (hot dogs, grilled cheese, sausage sandwich, etc.). Are their any good suggestions on more food that fits the requirements?

[kbandit]

Get a dutch oven cookbook or outdoor cookbook.

[gwd-scouter]

ordealarrowman - welcome to the forum and good for you for asking how to get your patrol to expand their campout menu. By requirements, I'm assuming you mean the balanced meal part?

 

Fairly easy to get the fruits and veggies in - they don't have to be cooked necessarily. Bananas with breakfast. A bag of apples for snacking? Applesauce with dinner. Veggies? Make a salad. Raw carrots to munch on before dinner is ready. Do your guys put orange juice and milk on the menu?

 

Cooking a stew or similar one-pot meal is an easy cleanup and will incorporate the food groups. Just Google camp food and you'll get ideas. One meal our guys are very fond of is dorrito casserole. It can be cooked either stove top or in a dutch oven. Tomatoes and corn are part of the ingredients. Cheese, too - check off dairy.

 

kbandit's suggestion to get a dutch oven cookbook is spot on. Our guys have finally embraced the dutch oven and use it all the time. Don't have to stand around a stove stirring the pot and so easy to clean!

[evmori]

What kbandit said! Once you learn to cook in a Dutch Oven, you possibilities are unlimited!

[SMT224]

As others have said, the Dutch Over is great - lots of recipes on the the web. It's surprising easy, and you can toss on the fire for most of the cooking, which is fun. Then make a cake in it after dinner! And clean up is not that hard - we fill the Dutch Oven with water after cooking something in it, let it soak for a while, and then scrape clean with an old credit card or similar. If its cold, put back on fire for a few minutes so the cleaning water is a bit warm. Rinse with clean water and oil it so it does not rust. We do not use soap, and our Dutch Ovens get clean with just water and scraping.

 

Here's a one pot meal that is very popular in our Troop: Boil water, cook spaghetti, dump out water, add sauce with meatballs, and serve in large taco shells. Its really good and no dishes (other than the one pot) to clean up. The combination of the crunchy taco shell and spaghetti and meatballs is surprisingly tasty. And of course the name of a dish says so much about those eating it... spaghetti tacos, bloody worms in a basket, or the ever popular, crunchy guts.

 

 

[Stosh]

My boys have mastered baking cheese cake in the Dutch oven. They quit doing cobblers a long time ago, too simple to make. There's no limit as to what can be done in a Dutch oven. If one can make the recipe in the oven or on top of a stove at home, they can make it in the Dutch.

 

Stosh

[Gunny2862]

If you are hauling the trailer or car camping your possibilities are truly unlimited.

 

Recently we have had across the patrols, Sashimi and rice with stir-fried vegetables, Marinated and Pan-Fried Chicken with Saffron rice and peas, Steak based Chili with Twice baked Potatoes.

 

The Adults had NOTHING to do with suggesting, shopping for, cooking and unfortunately eating any of the above - other than samples provided by the respective PL's in a "see what we're eating" kind of way.

The trick is getting the kids interested in making something "interesting".

 

Start by eating separately and making your own "interesting" meals. Roasting (I forget what they're actually called right now) "miniature chicken" over an open fire, baking some potatoes and steaming some corn on the cob at the same time is a good, very visible and smellable start.

 

Back packing and eating well gets a little more complicated but it's largely still doable - just takes more planning.

[Buffalo Skipper]

One of the popular things on our campouts with our patrols is grilled, fried or foil talapia. Fresh seafood is readily available locally, and relatively inexpensive (did you know that 40% of the us fresh seafood catch comes from the Gulf of Mexico?), but there is convenience in the frozen filets. They will cook it with potatoes, rice or even in tacos.

 

But not to short the Dutch ovens. One patrol did a Shephard's pie, with all vegies/pototos from scratch. Great, great dinner! Or if you grill, just go on line for recipes. Another optino is foil dinners--look on the Reynolds wrap site for about 250 foil dinner recipes!

 

Good luck with your patrol's expanded menu.(This message has been edited by Buffalo Skipper)

[Stosh]

Dutch ovens are NOT limited to car/trailer camping! Aluminum Dutch ovens fit nicely in the standard military duffle bag which fits nicely in between the thwarts of a canoe. Nothing better to wake up in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area to the smell of blueberry muffins!!!!

 

These aluminum Dutch ovens work exactly like the cast iron ones but they are cleaned up with regular soap and water. The only fall-back with them is that they can be overheated so watch the fire. Standard amounts of coals are mandatory. The cost runs about $15 more than the cast iron models.

 

For the backpacker, the aluminum mess kit makes an excellent mini-Dutch oven. Just make individual proportions rather than trying to cook for a group. 4 briquettes (or wood equivent) on top, three on the bottom gives a nice 350 degree heat on the inside. The bucket on the inside makes one really nice sized muffin!

 

For many people they double-duty their efforts when they don't need to. Bake-Packer to bake things (oven), mess kit to fry things (stove). The mess kit as Dutch oven works just fine.

 

Experiment, experiment, experiment! It's well worth the effort!

 

Stosh

[resqman]

For the last year, the PLC has choosen a theme for the Saturday evening meal. Mexican, Itailian, Asian, Seafood, etc.

 

Each patrol chooses their menu based around the theme. Patrols have had teriyaki salmon cooked on plank, sauteed shrimp and fried rice, fajitias, etc. All prepared and cooked during the campout with no adult involvement.

 

The first couple of months the menus were basic. Trinket awards were given to the best patrol at each campout as decided by the adults. Intially the adults wandered between the patrols and begged for a sample. As time progressed, patrols began making presentation plates. Patrols happily bring a plate to the adult area for presentation. Points are awarded for presentation, taste, proper cooking, etc. Crunchy rice, raw chicken, too much seasoning are noted. Well arranged and good representation of the food pryamid get noted.

 

The scoring was orginally pretty easy. Usually one patrol was clearly the best. Competition has become stiff and the choosing a winner is often very difficult.

 

During the Seafood theme, one patrol presened Chicken and Corn served in a Coconut shell. C-food. During one of the asian themes, the patrol made chop sticks from bamboo found at the camp site. Patrols have hand rolled sushi. Fresh herbs and spices are ground, chopped, diced, and included.

 

Most of the common ethnic themes have been used. The adults are suggesting new topics like: entree must be cooked in dutch oven, at least one item cooked in box oven, all patrols must use same ingredients, all patrols are given a mystery ingredient to incorporate, utensiless cooking, foil packet cooking, etc.

 

Troop policy is no ramin noodles unless as a side item. It cannot be the main or only item. No pop-tarts. The multi-pack of individual ceral boxes is an easy quick breakfast vs. poptarts.

 

We introduced "Toad in the hole" at the YLT weekend. Next campout every patrol was cooking them. Butter bread. Cut out hole in bread with lid from Pam. Place buttered bread on griddle. Crack egg into hole in bread. When egg firms up, flip and cook opposing side. Bread becomes toast. Egg cooks as well as soaks into bread ala french toast. Can be eaten with hands. No clean up other than griddle and spatula.

[Eagledad]

Foil dinners are an easy one pot meal that each scout can customize for their own taste.

 

Barry

[ordealarrowman]

THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTIONS.

 

our troop recently got a new trailer so I'll check for dutch ovens. The only problem with that is that a patrol the same age group as ours had a DISASTER clean up with a dutch oven. Any tips on cleaning a dutch oven besides SMT224's?

 

We have added bananas to breakfast and it went over well with the other boys.

[gwd-scouter]

Cleaning a dutch oven is easy and STM gave some good tips. I disagree about oiling of the oven after it's used before you store it. To me, it leaves a rancid oil taste in anything that's cooked. Our ovens are cleaned with hot water and a rubber spatula or plastic scrubby used to scrape the sides, rinsed with clean water, dried thoroughly, and put away without oiling. Fifteen years and not a spot of rust yet. Also, remember to never use soap in a cast iron dutch oven! Cast iron is porous and the metal will absorb the taste of the soap.

[Scouter&mom]

How do you get the boys to eat these meals? I would love them, but our boys want spaghetti, foil dinners with hamburger patties, and even hamburger helper. They will eat salad or green beans, but just want venture out. So many of them won't eat anything different ever, even at home. Fish, sushi, roast cornish hens, are all things I can't imagine any of the boys in the troop (other than my son) ever eating. I guess I am lucky, because my son will eat anything and prefers real food to junky convenience food.

 

 

[Stosh]

For those who find their Dutch ovens going rancid over long periods of storage, use beeswax instead of oil. Wax will never go rancid and works just as well as oil. Just warm up the oven, wax it a bit, smear it around and store. If the cover seals over because someone put the cover back on before it cooled, just heat it up again and take the cover off.

 

I have been using beeswax on my long term storage cast iron for years and it works like a charm. Everyday stuff gets oil because it's handy, long term gets wax because it lasts forever.

 

Stosh