3. Cooking

Cooking! What a fun hobby, but in the context of this requirement, it's long and tough to do... though probably not as bad as wilderness survival will be. Well anyway, this was a rather time consuming one.

The first requirement was completed as our crew prepared to staff camporee. While they wanted to feed us anyway, I chose to cook the meals for us all. It was rather elaborate, with omelets, silver turtles, and various other interesting things to toss over fire. I ended up cooking for about 12 or 13, and never did bother to collect the rest of the money I was owed... Definitely an interesting experience - and a lot of planning involved, with food costs and meal costs per person. I would do it again, but maybe put in a better system for obtaining payment. The second part of the requirement was done with the first by simply using coals and a stove while making the meals.


While the demonstration of food safety was done every opportunity to cook, a bit of explaining what went into the planning would help.
Simply put, the way to accomplish safe food handling anywhere is to keep hot things hot, and cold things cold, while keeping raw meat away from everything. But in the interest of writing a lot and taking up a large amount of room, I will summarize the points of the USDA's website.

Firstly, avoid the danger zone (between 40°F and 140°F) because that's when bacteria multiply and can reach dangerous levels after 2 hours. Keeping things hot is difficult, so strive for cold. Pack things with a cold source; ice or frozen foods. And once the trip is finished, discard any perishable food in a cooler if there is no longer any ice in it.

Second, cleanliness! Cross contamination is a serious concern, as it could lead to some awful diseases. Keep raw meat from touching any other foods, and thoroughly wash any utensils that may have handled it. If no soap and water is available, bring it with you! And simple 1 tbs. bleach to 1 gallon water solution is a very effective sanitizer.


The fourth requirement is to show competency with a backpacking stove, which I just so happened to have obtained for the purpose. As most backpacking meals consist of boiling water and applying to a freeze-dried package, I decided to do exactly that with a package of green beans.

The set up was exactly how it would be while backpacking. 

After this picture it reached a full boil.

After pouring it in, I let it rest.

Once they're ready...

They tasted like they'd just been picked.

The next requirement was to prepare a meal without utensils with the four basic food groups. After some searching, I took this to mean meat, vegetable, dairy, and bread. So just looking at that, the food object that came to mind was a cheeseburger (or a hotdog, which in retrospect would have been so much easier). Cooking this without utensils wasn't difficult but it was a challenge indeed. The meat was mixed by hand, and moving them was as easy as touching hot meat, with the help from lifting it slightly with a stick (does that count?).

Mixed and formed by hand with a special mix of spices! =)

Tossed on the grill.

Flipped by hand with aid from a stick.

Incorporating the diary.

And the bread.

And the vegetables.

Yay finished product!

By now you have to be asking yourself, "Self? How long can this post be! It's going on forever and there doesn't seem to be an ending point." Well for you I'd just like to say, welcome to my world! I've been working on this since March! And it was a rather long requirement. But finally we reach the last requirement and celebrate as I did; we'll finish it!

The final requirement demands us to cook a bread, entree, and dessert in a dutch oven. There was a celebration of scouting skills called the, aptly named, Scout Fair last April. Our Crew did a dutch oven demonstration. We had pizza, cookies, and cornbread. Lots, and lots of cornbread. now, not to brag or anything, but we did win a silver spoon for our fantastic cornbread. The ingredients came from Walmart; in fact it was for the most part from a package with water (except for the cornbread, which was made from scratch). After some difficulty getting the coals started, we finally got the hang of it and entered (to borrow something I learned recently at NYLT) the performing stage. We churned out food for the kiddos and judges, our covered pavilion blew away, it was a blast. And a perfect way to end our cooking requirement post. (Though the last three requirements were done last... just to be clear.) See y'all after orienteering this weekend!