RE: [Philmont]: cooking at Philmont

Chris wrote:
> 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.

Mixing and dividing the ingredients isn't as difficult as it sounds. First
off, you are mostly dealing with two-person meals, so it is only a matter of
pairing up with another person and splitting the packets in half. You are
not trying to mix six packages together then split it 12 ways.

Some ingredients are packaged separately and therefore don't require mixing,
just split each package. For the ones that have multiple contents in a
single package (and therefore require mixing to assure even distribution)
just dump the package in one person's bowl, mix it up, and pour half into
your buddies bowl. We did not have a problem with spilling or blowing. Add
water to your own dry mix and wait for it to rehydrate. Afterward all you
have is your bowl to clean up. We used bowls, not mugs.

This method also allows fine-tuning to individual taste. You can use the
amount of water you want for the consistency you like. You can let it
rehydrate as long as you like. You are not subject to the cook's
preferences.

I do not recall meals being dragged out by this method. Maybe we didn't
have that many multi-course meals. I can't recall. We used this method for
many meals, but not all of them. One day we had a 4-man Turkey Tetrazini
and decided the cooking bag method would be best for that.

It was our ranger that showed us the individual rehydrate method. I was
skeptical at first, but it seemed to work out well, at least for us.

  -- Jeff

------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey W. Knoll
Grand Canyon Council
Phoenix, AZ
'02 627 H1
'04 610 D

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Received on Wed Apr 23 17:58:20 2003