dsi1 wrote:
> On 5/18/2010 10:46 AM, J. Clarke wrote:
>> On 5/18/2010 3:13 PM, dsi1 wrote:
>>> On 5/18/2010 8:28 AM, Andy wrote:
>>>> > wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 5/18/2010 7:17 AM, Andy wrote:
>>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 5/16/2010 2:20 PM, Nomen Nescio wrote:
>>>>>>>> Why call a dutch oven a dutch oven? I'm sure that many other
>>>>>>>> cultures/nations have been using that idea ever since iron was
>>>>>>>> cast.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> "Dutch oven" is just what we happen to call it locally. No doubt
>>>> other
>>>>>>> countries that will call it something else. Holland, for instance.
>>>> I'm
>>>>>>> sure the Chinese don't call what they eat "Chinese food." I've
>>>>>>> always
>>>>>>> wondered what Swedish rats are called in Sweden - I'm guessing
>>>>>>> "Norwegian rats" or "French rats."
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Years ago, I studied mine and figured it was called that because the
>>>>>> shallow dome shape of the cover and miniscule center handle (so to
>>>> least
>>>>>> interfere with the inner contents) could be inverted and something
>>>> else
>>>>>> cooked or warmed up in that at the same time. I had a Dutch door
>>>>>> which
>>>>>> made me think of that.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Andy
>>>>>
>>>>> Well, there's Dutch ovens and then there's Dutch ovens. A real one
>>>> would
>>>>> be shaped so you could load coals on the top lid. Like most people, I
>>>>> don't have a real one. I wonder if the Boy Scouts will still teach
>>>>> cooking with this campfire classic?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> dsi1,
>>>>
>>>> If the scoutmaster is stupid enough to drag a 20 lb. Dutch oven on his
>>>> backpack on a 50-mile trek, he should be stripped of any/all merit
>>>> badges
>>>> and excused of his position!!!
>>>
>>> Ah, it's the new stripped down scouts. :-)
>>
>> 20 pound cooking utensils are fine if you have a pack mule. Most scout
>> troops today don't have that luxury.
>
> This is pretty disappointing. The Dutch oven was always used in those
> old Boy's Life magazine recipes where you'd need baked goods. Sounds
> like you're saying that this was all a big fat lie. Another one bites
> the dust. I guess in the old days (the 60s) they used pack mules.

No, it's not lies. I was a Boy Scout in the forties and fifties and a
scout leader in the sixties and seventies. We carried at least one dutch
oven with us and often two or three. Depended on how many boys from the
troop went on the camp. We seldom hiked anywhere as there was nowhere to
hike. We went in the scout bus and carried all the gear on a rack on the
roof. On the occasions where we had to hike in we toted the dutch
oven(s) in turns. Got to have biscuits to go with your eats.

Even at Philmont, when we hiked the counselors sent the dutch ovens on
ahead either by pack mule or by truck, depended on where we were hiking.
I can only make assumptions as to how it is done today but would bet
even money that it still is the same way, at least with rural troops.

The worse thing the BSA ever did was go to "urban" scouting in the late
sixties, lots of boys dropped out because there was no more camping or
hiking. Everything was geared toward living in the city. Luckily they
wised up and went back to the old methods of scouting.