First Class Cooking
Bates Noble (70065.174@COMPUSERVE.COM)
Sun, 1 Dec 1996 19:14:47 EST
The real key to getting plenty of cooking experience for the younger Scouts
is to provide the *opportunity* to cook through the basic structure of
the way your Troop goes camping.
First, have the Patrols do the cooking for themselves. Avoid cooking on the
Troop level. There are a lot of other reasons to do this beyond providing the
individual Scout with the opportunity to do cooking but, for the purposes of
this thread, this'll do.
Second, be sure you are camping plenty of days during the year. Do 12 month
camping. (Yes, Scouts can learn to cook in Cold Weather, too) Go to the
camp-site on Friday...not Saturday. Have two weeks of summer camp as opposed
to one.
At Summer Camp, choose to do "Outpost" cooking instead of standing in line
for food you'll all complain about in the mess-hall. Believe me, I've done it
both ways and avoiding the mess-hall is vastly superior.
Finally. Either have the adult leaders eat on a rotating basis with the
Patrols or set the example by cooking terrific stuff for themselves. Emphasis
on "THEMSELVES!" No bailing the patrol out that burned their food or
"forgot" to go shopping. I am not aware of any reports of Scouts starving to
death on a camp-out because their overly-protective leaders didn't share
their quiche. There are few better places in training Boy Scouts to "let them
fail" than in cooking. The results are immediate and quite safe!
Follow this approach and you won't be worried about how to get "enough
cooking" done to get First Class. Instead, the boys will easily qualify for
the Cooking Merit Badge...all within the basic structure of your Troop's
normal operation.
Bates /IL
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