The simplist form of this is to simply 'twist' some doe around a green sapling branch. And roast the doe over the fire.
You could try some variations on a twist mixture ... e.g. sugar and cinnamon in the dough should be quite tasty. I've never tried it myself (just thought of the idea ) but I will next camp.
Talking about twists, one of my Cubs has his with a few drops of ... Tabasco sauce !
Kebabs are good - I buy the bamboo skewers. You can put all sorts of stuff on them. Steak, onions, peach, potato and kiwi fruit is not bad and it will get the kids' attention.
Best wishes,
Ian Ford
AGSL 25th Greenwich Scout Group
Boy Scout trainer, Channel District BSA
London UK
....Cooking on open fires is one of those things that really gets a youngster into Scouting. (I should know, twenty odd years later and I'm still hooked, where would a camp be without a campfire). Anyhow we took two packs up to our local Scout campsite last Tuesday and cooked Kebabs (Sausage, mushrooms, pinapple etc), on long metal skewers. (We wrapped the ends of the skewers in damp cloth so the lads hands didn't get too hot). Using a hot-dog bun to put their cooked (cremated) kebeb in stopped any hot skewers causing any problems. (We chose metal skewers so that the heat cooked the food on the inside as well as the blackened, charred outside)... Happy Backwoods cooking,
Shaky, (acsl, 1st Heworth Oaks Cub Scout Pack, York)
Another technique is to get a large tin can, cut air holes in the botton and put it in the embers. Then you can fry eggs on the " hot plate " using slices of grapefruit skins as egg rings.
Best wishes,
Ian Ford
AGSL 25th Greenwich Scout Group
Boy Scout trainer, Channel District BSA
London UK
Cooking an egg in an orange. This one is easy. Give everyone an egg and an orange. Cut of the top of the orange. Empty the orange with a spoon so that the egg can be placed in the empty shell. Put back the part of the orange you cut off and place it in a (small) fire. The egg will be boiled in the juice off the orange!
Edwin van der Elst
Prinses Irene Groep 45, Rotterdam
We have found that making "silver turtles" does a great job of keeping interest and it is also a very easy, assembly line type preparation that works well with a larger group of young scouts.
Take a double piece of aluminum foil, put a hamburger pattie on it, a little bit of butter or margerine, and any or all of the following ingreadients which the scouts all make and cut up together: carrots, potatoes (thinly sliced so they will cook fast), onions, and anything else you can think of. The boys all cut up the vegatables and we line everything up on foil and they go down the line and put anything on that they want. When they are done, the foils are wrapped and sealed and then placed on the fire. The boys need to watch just where theirs was placed. The fire should not be a high flaming fire, but more like coals - in fact bar-b-que coals work nicely too. Within 10-15 minutes, you can start pulling them off the fire (don't forget something to pull them off with) and the scouts can eat it right out of the foil. Works well with us. Let me know how it goes with you! cheers!
Al Davis, Cubmaster, Pack 18, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Foil pack meals are good. American Scouts call them Hobo Dinners. Just potatoes, mince, onions and whatever else you want. Again, you can try various spices and stuff. I found that about 1/3 of my Cubs like really spicy food. As an alternative you can buy diced bacon ( I get mine in Sainsbury's) and use that instead of mince. It's a bit more expensive, but you don't need a lot to give some flavour.
Last w/end Cub Camp we did jacket potatoes in foil with cheese. Again you can vary this by adding bacon etc.
Best wishes,
Ian Ford
AGSL 25th Greenwich Scout Group
Boy Scout trainer, Channel District BSA
London UK
Roast a marshmello on a green stick (or long clothes hanger). When done, make a sanwitch of the marshmello, two graham crackers and a piece of a chocolate bar.
Split the bannana down the middle and pack the middle with chocolate buttons before wrapping in foil and putting into the embers..Everything goes nice and chocolatey and goey.
Shaky, (acsl, 1st Heworth Oaks Cub Scout Pack, York)
Cut hot dogs in quarters, length wise 1/3 of the way from each end. This leaves a solid center to put on a stick or hot dog fork. Cook over open fire (the spider's legs will curl), serve on a _hamburg bun_! Cubs love'em.
Celery covered with peanut butter and topped with raisens.... Great appetizer.
Check the Girl Scout cook books for more creative ideas. GSA has more _fun_concocsions. BSA tends to go for the complex meals.
YIS Ken Hawks
Scouts find this one so filling they say they don't need bacon or sausages to go with it. For each person, you need 4 slices bread, 2 eggs, and 1/2 cup milk. Beat eggs and milk and add cinnamon to flavour. Dunk bread in mixture, but don't soak too long. Fry in buttered pan until golden brown. Top with margarine, pineapple pieces, frozen strawberries. or commercial whipped cream. Serve with hot orange juice (made from crystals) or milk.
For each person, you need: 2 eggs, 2 English muffins, 2 slices ham. Toast the muffins. Fry eggs and ham and make a sandwich. If you like, save one muffin to eat with jam. The Scouts generally eat an orange along with this. Sometimes they prefer tinned fruit (peaches and fruit cocktail are favourites).
Drain tinned fruit and use it to top dry cereal. Add milk. Accompany with orange juice.
Each Scout eats two sandwiches. For each sandwich, you need two slices bacon or ham and
two slices mozzarella or swiss processed cheese. Spread sour cream and tomato paste on
bread and sprinkle on a little oregano to flavour. Fry bacon or ham and put it between two
slices prepared bread. Butter the outside of the bread, fry, and eat.
Grilled ham and cheese sandwiches are also popular with the Scouts, and they often
accompany them with a Japanese noodle soup and a side dish of fresh carrots.
The 130th Duggan Scouts love this one, perhaps because it's easy to cook and clean up. They generally eat two or three big tacos each. Fry ground beef with some taco sauce to spice. Put into taco shells. Top with shredded lettuce, grated cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes, and more taco sauce. Some patrols also bring along sour cream to add to the dish, and most have buns or bread as well as lots of juice on the menu.
The Scouts enjoy all varieties of kebobs and generally serve the meal with instant rice
or fire-baked potatoes. Among the popular items to skewer are cubes of beef, green
peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes and pineapple rings.
For a bit of a change, they might try Burger Bobs, a recipe Scouter Hazel Hallgren, Red
Deer, Alta., shared with the Leader. String skewers alternately with medium sized
meatballs, egg tomatoes, pineapple chunks, and pork sausage pieces. Brush meatballs with
oil or melted butter, and grill.
Grilled steak, with steak sauce rather than herbs and spices, is by far Alberta's most popular supper. To go with it, the Scouts generally bake potatoes and roast corn-on-the-cob in the fire. If it isn't cob corn season, they use boil-in-the-bag precooked veggies. A few patrols add a salad to the menu, although it's usually only lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers without dressing or spices.
Other 130th Duggan favourites include fried chicken (the guys use shake and bake and usually have corn and instant rice or baked potatoes with it), hamburgers, chili on buns (Sloppy Joes), and spaghetti. For something a little different, perhaps they'll add a couple of Scouter Hallgren's hamburger variations to their repertoire. To make super juicy burgers, add 1/3 cup applesauce for each 500 g meat. Season and cook as usual. Or try Smokey Burgers. Mix grated smoke-flavoured cheese with the ground beef and other seasonings before forming patties and cooking as usual.
To top off all of these offerings and your next outdoors meal, try Scouter Hallgren's Jamaica Bananas. Put ripe, unpeeled bananas into the ashes of a good fire and roast until skin is black (about half an hour). Rake out, split peel down the centre, and sprinkle fruit with sugar and lemon juice. Eat with spoon or fingers.
