RE: [Philmont]: cooking at Philmont

I'd have to agree with the previous poster who mentioned the unevenness
of the dinners as far as ingredients. Most of the dinners are made up of
dehydrated meats, vegetables and the like but also include powdered
ingredients such as the spices, flour, milk products and other things. I
can see no way you could equally divide these ingredients. Even cooking
the meal in one pot does not assure somebody won't get a "flavor burst"
of clumped up spices! Furthermore, the more you mess with the food as
far a dividing amongst 12 cups, the more the chance for a spill on the
ground which would be a bear hazard. And you will still need a decent
sized pot to boil the wash water.

As far as a leisurely meal, that can have its merits but often at
Philmont, depending on your trek number, you will want to get meal time
done with. There may be a staff camp program such as a campfire with
songs, etc. that you want to attend. Weather may be an issue and I doubt
many would want to sit around for an hour or 2 waiting for each course
as a rainstorm pours on you. And you may just be break-bone tired and
want to eat and get some sleep. I see many meals at Philmont as a
necessity to refuel the body and build some teamwork, plain and simple.

On my last trek we took our own pots. I purchased them at a Wal-Mart and
they were cheap and very light. I got two 4qt.s for boiling water and
one 8 qt for the actual mixing of the food and the boiling water and any
simmering as it comes together. As soon as the meal was in the 8 qt we
re-boiled water in our 4 qts for the wash up. Worked fine and as "The
Philmont Advisor's Guide" points out, water is boiled more efficiently
in 4 qt pots as less fuel is used and the water boils faster then in one
8 qt pot. Because we took our own, when we returned to base camp there
were no pots to scour and turn in and I actually just pitched them in a
trash can. Had there been a can for recycling aluminum I would have put
them there. We also took our own cooking tools, 2 plastic type large
spoons and 1 plastic like spatula. Again, we went light and had no
pre-turn in clean up.

YOF

Chris in Houston

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Received on Wed Apr 23 08:01:13 2003