RE: [Philmont] - Cooking at Philmont

> Simply adding the hot water to the product might make it edible,
> but will not always bring it to its ideal quality level. Example:
> Adding hot water to rice will still give a crunchy rice product. It
> takes steam or hot water a period of time to bring rice to the quality
> level you want.

Actually, I was very surprised at how well this work. If I had anything
that was crunchy, it was my own fault. Mixing your own bowl allowed for
better mixing of the ingredients....no more lumps, spice pockets, etc. In
general, we'd put the water in and mix it with our spoon. You'd let it set,
mix, set, mix. At times you'd add more water (we got better at the amount
as time went on). You might sample it to see if it was ready yet, etc.
You'd continue this until the food was the consistency YOU wanted, or until
you were too hungry to wait any longer.

>
> It appears to me that concept is not going to work for all the menu
> choices at Philmont. Products that instructions include "add boiling
> and serve" should work fine but products that instructions include
> terminology such as "simmer or boil " for a period of time are not
> going to give the same quality results using this new approach.

I don't remember any simmer or boil meals. Everything was add water and let
set. Actually, I think we had one dinner that was more complicated, but we
chose to eat something else. As mentioned, there was plenty of food. Our
crew also survived well on oatmeal, and picked up extras as we went along.
I think we had oatmeal for one dinner instead of what was on the menu.

>
> Example: Macaroni & cheese- adding hot water to the noodles and
> then mixing in the sauce with the noodles is going to give you
> crunchy macaroni & cheese.

I remember mac & cheese, but I think we just mixed it all together. I
remember it being quite nice, and not crunchy as long as you had the
patience to let it hydrate.

>
> I must admit I find this thread of discussion very interesting since it
> covers both my passions of "Food & Scouting". For those new
> listserve members who not familiar with my previous posts over the
> years I am the advisor that has chef's hats for it's crew cooks on
> the trail. So if you are on the trail in 2004 ( we are 616-A1-A4) and
> you see a crew with chef's hats on cooking dinner come on over
> and visit.

Yes, knowing your background it'd be nice to have you try out the technique
and let us know what you think. I also think you'd have many comments about
the menu, and I hope they "fix" it a bit in coming years.

Also, a note to all suggesting names.......I still reiterate that this isn't
a "cup" or "mug" technique. Most of us don't carry cups/mugs that are big
enough (though I usually use my cup for oatmeal). This technique should use
a bowl. The bowl is also easier to scrape out every last bit to make
cleanup easier (lick it out if you must -- I usually go through a couple of
rounds of water or bug juice worked around with the spoon and it's
essentially done). Yes, you could carry a large enough cup/mug and not
carry a bowl at all, but for me, I'd get tired of trying to clean it. Also,
some posts implied that you needed something insulated. Not so. A Lexan
bowl works fine. As for the big bowl to "cook" in, I think you'd get a less
satisfactory mixing of ingredients and it wouldn't hydrate as well.

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Received on Sat Apr 26 00:51:31 2003