Recipe Links

Looking for a change in pace in your campout dining experience?  Or perhaps you're looking for new techniques or need to brush up on your Dutch oven cooking?  Then check out some of these other sites.

Silver Spoon Winning Recipes  (top)

The Silver Spoon contest is a patrol cooking contest that we have just started to use to encourage the scouts to explore new culinary adventures while camping.  See the Silver Spoon page for more details.  Below are the winning recipes.  If your troop adopts the Silver Spoon contest or has a similar cooking contest, send me your recipe or the direct link to the recipe on your web site and I'll add it to the list.  Sort of a virtual Silver Spoon recipe book!

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Desert

Backpacking & One Pot Meals  (top)

Breakfast

Lunch & Dinner

Deserts & Drinks

Leaders Favorites  (top)

Boy! do the leaders enjoy to eat on campouts! And they take pride in trying to out-do each other in their culinary expertise, Here are some of the more interesting and tasky concoctions submitted by them.

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Dessert

Recipes (all recipes in Alphnumeric Order)  (top)

Banana Boats,  Polar Bear Patrol, Troop 149, McHenry, IL (top)

Coming soon!

Banana Dummy Cobbler, Leaders Patrol, Troop 149, McHenry, IL (top)
(Source unknown)

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Heat Dutch oven and cover with coals for 15 minutes. Slice bananas lengthwise and set aside. Prepare cake mix, with or without eggs, and set aside. Remove preheated oven from coals and melt butter in the bottom. Add brown sugar and mix well with butter.
Add bananas and sauté for three minutes over fire. Pour cake mixture over bananas. Fold banana-sugar mixture up over cake mixture a few times. Sprinkle with cinnamon and white sugar.
Bake 45-60 minutes until all the batter is solid (note that gooey bananas will cause an inserted toothpick or knife to come out sticky.)
For the first 10-15 minutes use coals on the bottom only. Then add coals to oven top and continue baking until done.

Basque Blackberry Cobbler, Mr Vannerson, Troop 149, McHenry, IL (top)
(from CeeDub's website)

This recipe uses fresh blackberries, but it can be made substituting 2-3 cans of pie filling for the blackberries. Spice up your pie filling cobblers by adding lime or lemon juice and additional spices such as ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, or allspice. These same seasonings can be added to any dump cake to add a little "zing" to your dessert. For an added treat, serve your cobblers and dump cakes with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream!

Ingredients:

For pastry, cut the cream cheese and butter into flour and salt. Form soft dough into ball and chill. Pour berries into 12" Dutch oven and sprinkle with sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and juice. Sprinkle with flour and drip melted butter over the top of fruit. Roll well-chilled pastry dough to about 11" circle. Carefully place the crust over the berries. Use 5-6 briquets under the Dutch oven and load the lid with 25 briquets.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Bean Burritos (top)
(From BSA's Leave No Trace One-Poy Meals web page)

Cook beans according to instructions on the package. Heat tortillas over a flame. Add refried beans and cheese.

Serves: 1

Candied Orange Peels (top)

Ingredients:

Instructions:

1. Cut each orange into sixths, peel & eat inside (yum!)
2. Scrape most of white mebrane off of peel with spoon
3. Put peels in bowl with 4 cups water and 1tbsp. salt, weight down with a plate on top & leave overnight
4. Rinse the next day
5. Submerge peels in pot full of cold water & bring to a boil then drain
6. Repeat step 5 three more times
7. Cut peels into thin strips
8. Put sugar, 1/2 cup water in pan & cook until sugar dissolves
9. Put peels in and slowly heat and stir until peels become translucent. (the outside will be the same color as the white membrane, and they will be curly)
10. WITH TONGS!!!! roll peels in sugar and put out to dry.
11. Eat (taste like orange gumdrops)

Comments: Make these before you leave home. many steps, but pretty easy.

Caribbean Peanut Rice Soup (top)
(from Success Rice home page)

Pre-trip preparation: For each serving, put the following ingredients in a resealable plastic bag:

On the Trail: Pour contents of resealable bag into a 12 oz. insulated plastic mug.

Add: 1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter (stir until peanut butter dissolves). 1 cup boiling water Seal with lid and a double layer of tin foil.

Let set 20 minutes. Stir and enjoy!

SERVES: 2

Couscous You Say (top)
(From BSA's Leave No Trace One-Poy Meals web page)

Bring water to a boil. Add couscous (a quick grain dish available in supermarkets) and soup mix. Cook until water is absorbed and couscous is tender. Variations: Add one beef bouillon cube; add Vienna sausages or pepperoni.

Serves: 1

Devils' Tooth Cheesecake, Mr. Vannerson, Troop 149, McHenry, IL (top)
(I think I picked it up on the Philmont email list)

Ingredients:

Crust:

Mix butter and crumbs and press into a 10-inch Dutch Oven, going up the sides at least 1-inch.

Filling:

Preparation:

Mix first five ingredients (cream cheese, sugar, ricotta, eggs, sour cream) until smooth. Melt chips, butter and whipping cream over low heat until smooth. Add almond flavoring. Pour 1/3 of white mixture into chocolate mixture and mix well. Pour this into crust. Add vanilla to remaining white mixture and carefully pour this over the chocolate layer already in the Dutch oven. This is very dense and takes about 1¼ hours to bake, so be patient. It is done when the top cracks and is firm.

This dessert is great warm, but to true chocoholics, it becomes the ultimate after cooling all night in the cold Idaho mountain air and enjoyed with a cup of morning coffee.

Hudson Bay Bread (top)
(from the Sommers Alumni Association website)

This is a recipe for what the Sommers Canoe Base calls Hudson Bay Bread, or sometimes just Bay Bread. In the 1960's, the Base got the recipe from the Minnesota Outward Bound School, and for several years it was baked at the Barbara Ann Bakery in Ely. At the bakery, it was baked in a convection oven, so it is difficult to get exactly the same effect in a conventional oven. This recipe comes very close. One important technique left out of the Base's official instructions is that rolled oats should be used (not instant oats), and more importantly, they should be ground up. A blender works fine for about a cup at a time, and a food processor would probably work even better. Bay Bread is most excellent as lunchtime fare on canoe trips when you are burning thousands of calories each day. It is convenient, easy to pack, and is a concentrated food source that everyone seems to look forward to on the trail. When you see the ingredients, you will see why it does NOT make a very good "light snack" at home.

Cream together the above ingredients. Gradually add:

Press into cake pan or large sheet pan about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Bake at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes. Do not overcook, as it will get crispy and brittle. Take out of oven and use spatula to press down (keeps it from crumbling). Cut into exactly 3 1/2 inch squares. Package in plastic bags with as many as there are crew members (one each for lunch). If you measured correctly, they should just fit into 1/2 gallon paper milk cartons. They will be protected, easy to pack, and easy to find when you want to grab a quick lunch. Slather with massive quantities of peanut butter and jelly, and wash it down with some Red-Eye, and you will know you ate lunch.

Chuck Rose' Bay Bread Variations

"Here's my versions of Hudson's Bay Bread. I have in various places seen other versions so I doubt it was invented by Outward Bound. Here are two versions of the recipe. I made both many times while working at the canoe base in the 80s."
-- Chuck Rose

Cream all ingredients except oats/nuts. Then add oats/nuts and mix well. Spread into 2 greased cookie sheets about 1/2 inch thich Bake at 360 degrees for about 8 minutes. The mixture puffs up while baking. Roll it down with a rolling pin and bake again until golden brown (about 8 more minutes). Roll down again or it will crumble. Don't overbake. Cut while warm, leave in pans to cool. I prefer the vanilla version.

Marinated Flank Steak, Polar Bear Patrol, Troop 149, McHenry, IL (top)

Coming soon!

Peachy Dutch Oven French Toast. Mr. Salkus, Troop 149, McHenry. IL (top)
(from Scouting Magazine 2001 Great Taste Contest)

Egg mixture ingredients:

Heat a large Dutch oven by covering it with coals for 15 minutes.

Beat the eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Slice the bread and let it soak in the egg mixture.

Remove preheated oven from coals and melt butter in the bottom. Add brown sugar and mix well with butter until caramelized. Put the drained peaches over the caramelized sugar. Place the eggbread mixture on top of the peaches, cover with lid, and return the Dutch oven to the coals.

Bake 45 minutes at about 350 degrees (medium hot coals). (Cooking time is shorter if the temperature is higher, but watch the edges so they don't burn.) For the first 10 minutes, use coals on the bottom only. Then add coals to the oven top and continue baking until done. With the caramel topping, you probably won't even need syrup.

Option: Try substituting 3 pounds sliced bananas for peaches.

Serves 8.

Powdered Milk  (top)
(from the Scouts-L list)

doctor your dried milk by mixing in dried coffee "creamer" at a ratio of:

The result is more like real milk.

Sherpa Tea (top)
(from Netwoods.com Backpacking Food page)

Mix together

At camp, stir 2 to 3 tablespoons of mix into a cup of hot water. Add a dab of margarine.

Thanksgiving on the Trail (top)
(from Success Rice home page)

Ingredients

Directions

At home: Bag each of the above ingredients separately.

In camp: Submerge unopened bag of rice in 4 cups of boiling water. Boil uncovered for 10 minutes. Remove bag from water and drain. Cut open bag and empty contents into an insulated cup. In cooking pot, mix gravy mix according to package directions. Add an additional 1/2 cup of water (for stuffing mix). Cook over medium heat until gravy comes to a boil. Add cooked rice, stuffing-mix, and cooked turkey. Simmer for 2 minutes

Serves: 2

Editor's Note: This is a bit more complicated than other one-pot meals. I suggest you either work with a buddy to split the meal or cut the ingredients in half. Success rice comes in a perforated boiling bag. You may want to plan a menu that uses rice in several meals that don't require the bag, such as the Caribbean Peanut Rice Soup, leaving you with 1/2 bag of rice in the boiling bag for this recipe. It may be possible to save the bags and reuse. I'll ask the manufacture and report back.

Train Wreck (top)
(from Mr. Guy)

New Recipes to Try  (top)

Looking for something new? Here are some interesting recipes we haven't tried yet. Pick one out for your next campout and let us know what you think. Perhaps it'll be the next Silver Spoon Award winner!

Dew Spuds (top)

Cut bacon into small pieces and brown in Dutch oven. Drain and add onion and garlic. Cook until clear. Add potatoes and mushrooms and mix well. Pour in Sprite, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and cook until potatoes are tender. Add parsley and cook another 5 minutes. Just before serving, top with cheese and serve after cheese melts

Green Chili Stew (top)
(from CeeDubs Ethnic & Regional Dutch Oven Cookbook)

Great stove top recipe both in camp and at home. Serve this with warmed tortillas or tortillas chips and make sure there is a bottle of hot pepper sauce for those who might want to add some heat!

Ingredients:

Brown pork cubes in the cooking oil in a 12 inch Dutch oven over low heat. While the meat is browning boil the whole potatoes for five minutes in a separate pot or DO. Let them cool and then cube. Add onion and garlic to the meat as it browns and cook for about five minutes. Then add tomatoes, green chiles, spices, water and simmer with the lid on. Add more water as needed 1/2 cup at a time. The meat should be fork tender in about an hour. Now add the cubed potatoes and simmer for about another thirty minutes. Variations: If fresh oregano, basil, and green chiles are not available, substitute dried equivalents for the herbs and canned equivalent for the chiles. If you use canned tomatoes that already have basil, garlic, and/or oregano, omit those ingredients from the recipe.

Serves six.

Bacon & Cheese potatoes (top)

Take a large baking potato. Core part of the center out. Stuff with cooked bacon bits, cheese, and diced onions if you want. Wrap in foil and bake. Serve with spour cream and chives or scallions

Editor's Note: This one seems almost too easy! Be creative and stuff with our own ideas (like cooked italian sausage & peppers or how about breakfast sausage!)

Crow  (top)

In a large stock pot, place two plucked and gutted crows. Cover with water and add diced carrots, celery, onion, potatoes and split peas. Bring to a boil. Place three large rocks in the pot, and reduce heat. Simmer. The stew is done when the rocks are soft enough to eat. Remove the crows, and eat the rocks!

Editor's Note: I couldn't resist throwing this one in for those who actually ends up reading this page to the end!

External Links  (top)