How to Cook Outdoors With Cooking Utensils for Boy Scouts

Boy Scouts must demonstrate knowledge in certain areas to earn merit badges. A few of the requirements for a camping merit badge involve cooking in the outdoors. Boy Scouts who want this badge must be able to explain safety for outdoor cooking equipment and fuel, discuss pros and cons of this cooking equipment, plan a camp menu and execute three of the meals in that menu. The cooking merit badge requires Scouts to know which utensils he needs to complete a camp menu. Therefore, they must know how to cook using cooking utensils in the outdoors. Does this Spark an idea?

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Lightweight stove
Spatula, meat fork, tongs or trail made utensils

Instructions

- 1
  
  Plan the camp menu following the badge requirements. Decipher which of the cooking utensils available are necessary to execute the meals needed to complete the badge. For example, a one-pot dinner -- which is a cooking badge requirement -- such as beef stew, would require the use of a knife with which to cut the ingredients and a spoon with which to stir the stew.
- 2
  
  Make cooking utensils using items such as rocks, shells and sticks, if necessary. The Boy Scouts of America used to require that Scouts learn to cook without utensils or use items in the woods. It is still a tradition, though not a requirement, so Scouts may have to make utensils with the guidance of a merit badge counselor. Make a cooking spoon with materials like sea shells, turtle shells and sticks.
- 3
  
  Prepare the food on your menu and the cooking surface you must use to complete the requirement. For the beef stew one-pot meal, for example, put all of the ingredients in a pot over a fire or a lightweight cooking stove and stir occasionally until the vegetables are soft.
- 4
  
  Use the utensils that best suit the foods in the meal. For example, a pair of tongs will work well to flip meat, but they will not do well flipping an egg. Use your best judgment and your initial meal plans to earn the badge.

Tips & Warnings

Plan your meals with your cooking knowledge and abilities in mind. Do not plan a meal that you may have trouble cooking.
Do not use utensils or cooking methods that are not listed in the Boy Scouts handbook.