The Boy Scouts of America are a pretty great group to be a part of. They teach young boys the basics of survival. When taken seriously, this training gives boys skills they can bring into their adult lives for not only emergencies, but for everyday use, too.
Cooking is something that must be done even if there’s an emergency going on. Just about every food requires some type of cooking, and during or after a disaster you’ll be cooking everything you eat, so knowing how to cook is pretty important business.
Just like almost every other survival skill, there’s a lot we can learn from the good old BSA, AKA The Boy Scouts of America. From quick measurements to tried-and-true recipes, cooking like a Boy Scout could be the thing that saves you someday down the road.
Quick Measurements, Sans Utensils
Last time I checked, my bug-out bag didn’t have a set of measuring spoons in it, and I’m willing to bet yours doesn’t, either. While these useful kitchen utensils are easy to ignore, being able to cook without knowing how much spice or other ingredients you’re adding to a recipe is a quick way to ruin some much-needed food.
If you’re cooking without anything to measure with, just use this Boy Scout chart and you’ll be just fine:
- One open fistful = 1/2 Cup
- Five-finger pinch = 1 Tablespoon
- Four-finger pinch = 1 Teaspoon
- One-finger pinch with thumb = 1/8 Teaspoon
- One-finger gob of shortening = 1 Tablespoon
- Center of palm = 1 Tablespoon
Along with these, write down some basic standard measures and you’ll be able to measure anything with nothing more than your hand.
- 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon = 1/2 ounce
- 16 tablespoons = 1 cup = 8 ounces
- 2 cups = 1 pint = 16 ounces
- 2 pints = 1 quart = 32 ounces
- 4 quarts = 1 gallon = 8 pounds (128 ounces)
Now, you can measure with some level of certainty without having to carry a full set of kitchen measuring utensils into the wild with you.
Substitutions and Equivalents Make it Easier
When you’re in an emergency or disaster situation, chances are you won’t have any food you want readily available. What’s more, you probably only want to store the bare essentials in your larder so you can maximize how long you can survive from your supplies.
With this idea in mind, knowing some basic substitutions can help you make more from less while using the proper amounts of the replacement food.
Substitutions:
- 8 ounces sour cream = 1 cup of low-fat yogurt
- 1 cup milk = 1/2 cup evaporated milk + 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup buttermilk = 1 cup milk + 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice
- 1 ounce baking chocolate = 3 tablepoon cocoa powder +1 tablespoon oil
- 1 cup fine bread crumbs = 4 slices of bread, or 26 saltines
- 1 tablespoon instant minced onion = 1 small fresh onion
- 1 cup honey = 1 cup molasses
Equivalents:
- 1 pound of butter or shortening = 2 cups
- 1 pound flour = 3 1/2 cups
- 1 pound sugar (brown or granulated) = 2 1/2 cups
- 1 stick of butter = 1/2 cup
There are obviously hundreds more substitutions and equivalents, but this is a great start that can get you pretty far.
Do the Duty Roster
When you’re out in the wild fending for yourself, it can get tricky keeping everyone honest about what job he or she should be doing. To keep things fair and civil, creating a duty roster is the best way to share responsibilities and keep everyone contributing.
The key areas of cooking are:
- Water
- Fire
- Cooking
- Cleaning
- Securing food
With these major areas covered, just about any meal can be made. Laid out in a grid it would look something like this:
Your duty roster can change based on how you want to split up the chores, but with this in mind you can simply set daily expectations. Whether you keep people on the same task for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day or cycle every meal, it’s a visible way to show that everything is fair and to hold everyone accountable.
It’s All About the Menu
Finally, all of this would be for naught unless you had some recipes up your sleeve. What recipes you use specifically are up to you and the supplies you plan on keeping. Try to keep your recipes close to what you eat now, to give a sense of normalcy, but also to avoid any shocks to your system. If you never eat rice and then you try eating it three times every day, bad things are probably going to happen.
A good way to organize your meals is to create a menu for each meal. This keeps you organized and makes planning meals far easier, especially if you just look back at something that already worked for you and do it again. Here’s an example of what the Boy Scouts use:
As you can see, there’s a column for cost here. In a survival situation, this probably won’t matter too much, so you can cut that out. The important column that most people wouldn’t think about is the “equipment” column. This column makes sure you have whatever you need to make the meal available. So if you’re away from camp for a day, you know what to take with you. This is also great if you want to plan meals ahead of an emergency, as you’ll know what equipment needs to be purchased and packed. Depending on the number of people you’re planning for, the amount column can change dramatically, too.
In short, this helps you make sense of a difficult task when you’re trying to survive. By taking after the Boy Scouts and always being prepared, you can make cooking in emergencies as easy as possible.