Photo Caption:
Scouts say the pledge as the flag is raised during the day. (Joanne Rathe)
Headline:
Be prepared — and hungry
Boy Scout Troop 160 holds an annual outdoor cooking event that fires up kids and parents
By Emily Shartin, Globe Correspondent
November 15, 2006
ACTON — On this chilly fall evening, a nearly full moon has just begun to rise through the trees. In a clearing surrounded by campsites, several picnic tables have been arranged in rows and outfitted with glowing lanterns.
Presiding over several pots of vegetables, which are cooking over gas-powered camp stoves, Tad Coburn knows that dinner time is close for the 70 hungry children and adults who are milling about, trying to keep their hands warm with cups of hot cider. All that’s left to check on is the meal’s centerpiece — five 14-pound turkeys that have been cooking all afternoon.
“What’s the turkey status?” Coburn asks. He is told that the meat is ready and being kept warm in a nearby fire pit.
“Outstanding,” he responds.
Coburn is one of the adult coordinators of this outdoor “cookeree,” an annual event hosted by Boy Scout Troop 160 of Lexington. It is a chance for the troop to celebrate the season’s bounty with parents and Cub Scouts, who may one day decide to join the group. The temperature is brisk , but many say they would be here for the meal even if it were snowing or sleeting — as it has in past years.
“You have to remember how much better everything tastes when you eat it outdoors,” says Andy Dixon, an assistant scoutmaster.
Several boys say cooking is a big part of what they learn as scouts. Jeff Gilbert, the troop’s senior patrol leader and a sophomore at Lexington High School, says many scouts show up with no idea where to begin. “They look at a piece of raw meat and they’re just like ‘ What do I do with this?’ ” he says.
Perhaps most important, the cookeree, which was held on conservation land near the Concord-Carlisle line, allows organizers to show off a little back-to-basics ingenuity: All of the food, including the birds and a dozen or so pies, is prepared onsite during the day, and while the group doesn’t exactly cook over a campfire, it doesn’t have Viking ranges either. Several of the turkeys will cook suspended over a fire by chains.
The pies — squash and several fruit varieties — are baked throughout the day in cast-iron Dutch ovens heated with charcoal briquettes. Gerry Abegg, an assistant scoutmaster, estimates that it takes about 28 briquettes — 20 on top and eight underneath — to maintain a temperature of 400 degrees inside the oven, which bakes each pie in an hour or less.
During the afternoon, the boys will help assemble the fruit pies. Earlier in the day, Abegg shakes canned squash with sugar and spices in a Ziploc bag and pours the mixture into a prepared shell, which he gently lowers into an oven. He has used this method, one that many of the boys are familiar with, to make everything from bread to a plum-blueberry upside-down cake.
Across the campsite, Bill Munger, whose son used to be in Troop 160, leads a group in building an unusual pit to roast three turkeys. A long branch is suspended between two tripods, creating what looks like a primitive swing set. Eight columns of charcoal are placed around the bottom of the structure like fence posts, then wrapped in foil to create a large heated pit. The trussed turkeys are hung from chains on the long branch and dangle down into the heat. The troop began using this method several years ago and has stuck with it ever since.
Most of the heavy lifting at the cookaree is done by adults, but the boys help prepare the vegetable side dishes, such as mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots.
Matthew Schwartz, a seventh-grader at Diamond Middle School and a member of Troop 160, warns other boys to keep their fingers out of the way as they peel and chop potatoes. Although he admits he has occasionally nicked his hands with a knife, Schwartz still calls cooking “one of the best parts of scouting.”
Those who don’t know how to cook tend to pick it up quickly on camping trips. “Otherwise, you sort of starve,” Schwartz says.
The turkeys are done in about three hours, and even with no brining or seasoning, the meat is moist with a subtle smoky flavor. (To make sure there is enough for everyone, two other turkeys have been prepared in a gas-powered deep fryer.)
Up the hill, a dozen pies are cooling. As Gilbert gets ready to lead the group in saying grace, Scoutmaster Hank Manz whips up a simple sauce of sugar, water, and cranberries.
The meal is served buffet-style and many of the boys line up for seconds before everyone has had first helpings. Newcomers are impressed by what they have seen. “It’s amazing the way they cooked so many things,” says parent Hilary Rush. Her 10-year-old son Chandler registers his approval between forkfuls.
“It’s really good,” he says.
Gilbert, who learned to cook at home, says he enjoys the practical element of making a meal from scratch. “It’s a lot more satisfying cooking for yourself than getting take-out all the time,” he says. But he admits that this Thanksgiving, he’ll be helping his family cook in more traditional ways.
“I’m not going to go in my back yard and build a fire,” he says.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
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