Covid Cooking

[5thGenTexan]

Our Council camps are opening back up but we are being directing to think of single serve type meals.  I am not sure how to do single serve prepackaged on a Scout camping trip.  Any ideas that might work?

I wouldnt normally go this route, but was thinking about walking tacos maybe.  It just comes down to one person spooning up meat into thier Fritos.  Or have people prepare their foil pack dinners and home and we take them all together in the ice chest till we are ready to cook.

[yknot]

All those ideas require a degree of interaction. I would have everyone pack their own MRE type meals that only need hot water to rehydrate. You can buy expensive ones but there are also plenty of things that work at the supermarket and are all light to pack and carry -- oatmeal cups, ramen cups, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, pasta mixes, etc. A lot of carbs but makes it workable for a couple of meals. 

[yknot]

Also, keep in mind this virus likes colder. dryer temps so freezing, frozen or cold is not good. Anything communal needs to be cooked. 

[BAJ]

32 minutes ago, yknot said:

I would have everyone pack their own MRE type meals that only need hot water to rehydrate.

Prepping food individually is definitely an option (@Treflienne mentioned their troop is doing that in my thread about my project, and some other troops in my area are doing it as well) though it is logistically complicated.

Agree on “just add hot water” options, though there would still be a need to make sure one person was doing the pouring to avoid everyone touching the same pouring container getting their own water.

Our troop definitely settled on the foil meals option early.  We didn’t do it scout by scout bringing theirs from home since we still wanted to try to do something as much like patrol cooking as we could. But the foil pack approach limits risk of cross contamination since once it has been in the fire for a while it is well sterilized, and then the only person touching it between cooking and eating can be the scout who is consuming it.

For something that has cold ingredients (eg a scout in our troop did burritos with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, etc.), the scout cook prepped the cold ingredient packs beforehand in reusable plastic containers.  Each scout in the patrol got a prepped foil pack with the hot ingredients that went into the fire, and then assembled their own burrito with their cooked hot ingredients and their personal pack.  Did the same thing for s’mores — assembled in a reusable plastic container 4 marshmallows, graham crackers and a chocolate bar, and each scout got one afterwards.  

For the lunch (which in our case was a trail lunch associated with the 15 mile bike ride for camping MB), the scout took sandwich orders and prepped everyone made to order lunches.

An equivalent for breakfast was the “assemble your own zip-lock bag omelet” were all the ingredients they wanted go into a ziplock with egg mixture and get cooked in boiling water.  Then they come out with tongs that essentially disinfected in the boiling water and go straight to the scout consuming them.  Though there are a lot of simple prepackaged stuff that could work for breakfasts.

That “pre portioning” actually worked much better than the next campout where the next scout cook didn’t do as much prep.  Even though initially there was decent adherence to the one cook handing things out to limit contact, that broke down relatively quickly when there was an open bag of marshmallows sitting there.  

I have on my list doing some more prospecting around scout and outdoor cookbooks for more recipes and cooking options that are COVID friendly... but I am guessing the basic theme is things that can be pre-portioned before cooking (and there is a practical way to do individual cooking under camping conditions) and other options where contact can be minimized.

The next best option down for risk reduction seems like it is what is in most of the checklists for restarting scouting — having a cook that does good infection control while cooking (masked, gloves, attentive to minimizing the potential for respiratory droplets) and serves up individual portions that scouts pick up one at a time to not have a cluster of people gathering around the food others will eat. 

 

 

[qwazse]

My scouts are nuts over walking tacos. It’s definitely a winner, Cubs would love it. I’m sure something with a troop is also feasible.
 

Or, teach each patrol (pod) to cook its own meals and use proper infection control.

Inspect every surface thoroughly for cleanliness. Have them clean again.

These boys are returning home to moms who are worn thin. They need help. If they do not learn to keep surfaces clean, it will increase the odds that their household will become a cluster outbreak.

Prepared for Life.

[yknot]

33 minutes ago, BAJ said:

Prepping food individually is definitely an option (@Treflienne mentioned their troop is doing that in my thread about my project, and some other troops in my area are doing it as well) though it is logistically complicated.

Agree on “just add hot water” options, though there would still be a need to make sure one person was doing the pouring to avoid everyone touching the same pouring container getting their own water.

Our troop definitely settled on the foil meals option early.  We didn’t do it scout by scout bringing theirs from home since we still wanted to try to do something as much like patrol cooking as we could. But the foil pack approach limits risk of cross contamination since once it has been in the fire for a while it is well sterilized, and then the only person touching it between cooking and eating can be the scout who is consuming it.

For something that has cold ingredients (eg a scout in our troop did burritos with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, etc.), the scout cook prepped the cold ingredient packs beforehand in reusable plastic containers.  Each scout in the patrol got a prepped foil pack with the hot ingredients that went into the fire, and then assembled their own burrito with their cooked hot ingredients and their personal pack.  Did the same thing for s’mores — assembled in a reusable plastic container 4 marshmallows, graham crackers and a chocolate bar, and each scout got one afterwards.  

For the lunch (which in our case was a trail lunch associated with the 15 mile bike ride for camping MB), the scout took sandwich orders and prepped everyone made to order lunches.

An equivalent for breakfast was the “assemble your own zip-lock bag omelet” were all the ingredients they wanted go into a ziplock with egg mixture and get cooked in boiling water.  Then they come out with tongs that essentially disinfected in the boiling water and go straight to the scout consuming them.  Though there are a lot of simple prepackaged stuff that could work for breakfasts.

That “pre portioning” actually worked much better than the next campout where the next scout cook didn’t do as much prep.  Even though initially there was decent adherence to the one cook handing things out to limit contact, that broke down relatively quickly when there was an open bag of marshmallows sitting there.  

I have on my list doing some more prospecting around scout and outdoor cookbooks for more recipes and cooking options that are COVID friendly... but I am guessing the basic theme is things that can be pre-portioned before cooking (and there is a practical way to do individual cooking under camping conditions) and other options where contact can be minimized.

The next best option down for risk reduction seems like it is what is in most of the checklists for restarting scouting — having a cook that does good infection control while cooking (masked, gloves, attentive to minimizing the potential for respiratory droplets) and serves up individual portions that scouts pick up one at a time to not have a cluster of people gathering around the food others will eat. 

 

 

I kinda disagree. I think for now in this Covid world, you've got to avoid any kind of nonessential interaction. If you are talking about an industrial kitchen where someone who is trained and is cooking meals that can be individually accessed via social distancing, that's one thing. But if you are talking about a camp out or camping situation that is more in the rough, which is what I think the IP was talking about, you need to keep everyone and all their meal components separate. You cannot, for example, have a communal ice chest to store foil packed meals. Even if cooking will ultimately kill pathogens that could be eaten, multiple people still have to access the chest to put the wrapped meals in and take them out which all represent possible points of contagion. Bear and wildlife issues make personal coolers a problem. 

Ziploc bags are not safe to boil re manufacturer specs. 

There is no problem with personal hot water. All you need is a tin cup on a grate. Or you have one person pour hot water into each cup.  

 

 

4 minutes ago, qwazse said:

My scouts are nuts over walking tacos. It’s definitely a winner, Cubs would love it. I’m sure something with a troop is also feasible.
 

Or, teach each patrol (pod) to cook its own meals and use proper infection control.

Inspect every surface thoroughly for cleanliness. Have them clean again.

These boys are returning home to moms who are worn thin. They need help. If they do not learn to keep surfaces clean, it will increase the odds that their household will become a cluster outbreak.

Prepared for Life.

It's not just about keeping surfaces clean it's about keeping them apart and minimizing points of contact. 

[qwazse]

10 hours ago, yknot said:

... It's not just about keeping surfaces clean it's about keeping them apart and minimizing points of contact. 

Setting patrols 100 yards from one another addresses the points of contact.

But, kids will sit on the same log and swap MRE’s. So, we’re back to teaching them to wash their hands, wipe down the package and set it in the sun for a spell.

Does your house have individually wrapped meals? Mine with three essential employees does not. Keeping up with the cleaning for all of these adults is maddening (my daughter is basically trying to run herd over me, Mrs Q, and Son #2) ... I can only imagine the challenges of a working parent with a couple of active kids.
The question boils down to how to teach scouts practices that will help them take care of their families.

So, how would you all handle washing up utensils?