From: Johnlebl@aol.com
Date: Fri Feb 07 2003 - 12:18:59 CST
<<Although this is an interesting thread, it really doesn't have too much to
do with Philmont - or even most backpacking cooking(except for folks like
John L.). The closest a crew might come to actually cooking something is if
they opt for the Chuck Wagon breakfast (at Ponil???) or the Chuck Wagon
dinners (various camps) or Mexican food at Abreu. And that is assuming there
isn't a fire ban.
Most of the time its "heat, pour, wait and serve". Of course for some crew
members boiling water *is* a significant challenge!
;>) Happy Trails, Roy Fisher>>
Thanks for the compliment Roy!
I've never had a fire ban slow down my cooking. Stoves work just fine.
As Roy suggests, cooking at Philmont in general consists of 1) Heating water
2) adding "foodstuff" to the hot water 3) stirring until "reconstituted" 4)
eating it 5) cleaning the pot.
Sometimes you have to return to a boil after adding the "foodstuff" and
sometimes you might want to simmer it a while. However, it's all edible by
just adding hot water and eating the stuff.
During the rest of my backpacking pursuits while not at Philmont I prefer
"cooking" in small groups. Even with all the "add hot water and eat"
specialty backpacking food available, I still prefer putting together my own
meals.
The way I do it is in the same style as Colin Fletcher writes in his early
works such as "The Thousand Mile Summer" and "A Man Walks Through Time".
Those are classic works I suggest you read.
That is just my preference and style. It allows ME to be the judge of what I
eat and how I combine it and season it rather than a mid management rising
star at Richmoor trying to rise to the next corporate level........read that
make more money.
Freeze dried stuff is inherently expensive. Philmont uses just enough of it
to give the crew members a taste of it and the experience of using it, but
not so much as to jack the price of a trek into the clouds.
Freeze dried whole kernel corn and green peas are classics and you get the
chance to use both.
Philmont does a pretty good job of putting together the meals with one
glaring exception and I am proud to report they are working on that problem
right now. That problem is the abundance of cheap calories in the form of
sugar rather than more complex carbohydrates.
Lets just say that old habits dies slowly, but thank goodness they do die.
I am a firm believer in taking something from home to cook on the PhilTrail
for at least one evening meal. I am also a firm believer in giving the crew
members an opportunity to learn and grow in that ability.
In your preparation for the trek, try guiding the crew into developing one
meal they put together from grocery store items that is light, easy to
prepare and needs no refrigeration. They can take it with pride to cook on
the last evening their
Ranger is with them for an old fashioned "home cooked meal". What better way
to say thank you than to show a Ranger from Philadelphia how Southern
Californians put together trail food.
There is no rule carved in stone that says when backpacking you can't do any
real cooking.
Others can do what they want, but I've been on too many Scouting outings when
they sat in a parking lot waiting for MacDonalds to open up so they could get
something to eat. Something just rubs me the wrong way about that.
If you want your Scouts to benefit from Scouting and be able to achieve
worthwhile goals in life, then serving them Poptarts for breakfast isn't
going to get it.
On this list we discuss and discuss and discuss what equipment to take and
the best stove and the latest maps, but what needs the most work is skills
and technique. With those, one can do with the most basic of gear.
Like most things the solution is NOT throwing more money at a problem.
Now let me address pots. Philmont furnished pot are more than adequate. No,
they don't clean themselves or fold up compactly, but they work and work
well.
On those cold, wet days that you WILL GET while on the PhilTrail there is
something nice about one pot cooking. Each campsite has a fire pit/ring and
setting the stove in that hole in the ground with the pot sunk below ground
level makes heatign a lot of water with a little stove go a lot faster.
There is only room for one stove in the fire pit, so if you want to use
smaller pots, then you have to have more stove/pot setups to get the job
done.
I got a good chuckle out of Cooper Wrights comment on his recent post. He
advocated not using smaller pots (2 qt) because of the number of pots it took
to get the job done and the difficulty in cleaning those many pots. I agree.
Then he described how they normally used three pots to cook in and one to
heat the water. That's four pots.
I guess we took the "fewer pots" to heart a little more than that. Last
summer our crew used the standard issue Philmont pots and we only used two
pots for every meal except one when we dirtied the third pot. On most of the
meals, one of the two pots only contained hot water.
Whenever Floyd of Georgia fine tunes his "cooking in turkey bags" to the
point where it does not require a pot at all, then I'm be sold on that method
and will switch to it. Until then, I'll stick to the pots.
Echoing Cooper's statement, the more pots you dirty, the longer you will be
cleaning pots into the night by flashlight.
John LeBlanc
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