Greetings Scouts,
Meal planning for campouts should be fun. Especially when you can look forward to a week-end of cool activities in the outdoors and finish with well prepared, tasty dinner. It’s a time when you can hang out with your patrol, work and eat together.
The challenge, of course, is what to cook? Unless your hobby is cooking and you spend your free time perusing through cookbooks and experimenting in the kitchen, coming up with a tasty and healthy meal is not always that easy.
And don’t think your parents have it any easier. Just like you they want to do a good job, but it’s harder for them because they have experience and they should know what to do … oh, the pressure!
Thankfully, some people have taken the time to collect recipes and make them available on the internet. But, there are a few things to consider. The biggest one, of course, is preparing as much as you can ahead of time. The less work you have on the camping trip, the faster your meals are done and the less chance you have of running into a problem, such as forgetting to bring a key ingredient. If it’s your first time, try making the meal at home. The second time around it will seem so much easier and you will look like a seasoned scout.
Regular Campouts
We usually have the trailer with us and can use our patrol boxes to pretty much cook a meal the way it’s done at home. We can cook things on a stove or use hot coals and a dutch oven. You do need to think about temperatures and how well food will keep. Coolers help, but it can get tough in very hot weather. When we stay indoors on winter campouts, cooking might be different as well, depending on the available facilities and the outside weather conditions.
Here are a few places on the web you can visit to find some good recipes and helpful tips:
http://www.macscouter.com/cooking/
http://www.dutchovendude.com/dutch-oven-recipes.asp
Backpacking Meals
The key word here is minimalist. You only have access to the bare essentials. Think about it: a small cooking stove, a pan, water and your ingredients. On extended trips and with weight as a key consideration, freeze dried food is always an option. Just add boiling water, stir, wait a few minutes and you’re set. However, if you are after the cooking merit badge, you may need to actually prepare something.
These websites show how to make excellent meals on backpacking trips:
http://www.onepanwonders.com/index.html
http://www.backpackingchef.com
http://www.dirtygourmet.com/category/recipes-by-activity/backpacking
Don’t forget that the people at your local outdoor shop are often big campers or backpackers, have lots of experience and are always willing to give helpful advice.
Have fun.
Filip Everaert
Troop 344 