1915 Boy Scout Mess Kits and 1925 Recipes! 

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Great video. It answered some of my questions. I crossed from Weblos to Boy Scouts in 1965. Our cook kits were also used as mess kits. Flip the frying pan handle upside down and reattach. In this position the plate and pan can be carried side by side down the chow line. The pot usually carried cold or hot beverages, or soups, stew, or oatmeal. The cloth cover did not have an inner flap. I and others ditched the metal cup for a Thermos top plastic cup instead. The sets in the 1970s were made of thinner metal. We learned quickly that you cook or simmer over coals or cook or bake under coals, and boil over fire. And that it’s easier to adjust the height of the pot or pan, than adjusting the fire or coals. I have two old aluminum sets and use them. The thinner BSA or old commercial sets are just fine for hex tabs or alcohol stoves. But modern knock offs have two glaring problems. They hold less contents and they don’t have a crimp in the ears to catch the pot’s bale. Thereby making it very tippy and unsafe. So you have to make a crimp or diver with pliers. The stainless steel set does better than the new aluminum but suffers from the same two problems. The BSA style cook and mess set is still the best civilian set made in my opinion. I later used the pot and a small non stick frying pan when backpacking, verses using all of the items when camping. What you eat determines what you bring to fix it in. We have gotten away from cooking from scratch for convenience. However not everybody is a backpacker. Maybe the trend will swing back to real cooking outdoors. Like to see some one to bring back some of the old but a little of the new technology, with a wide and flatter 12 oz cup, and 20 oz pot, and non stick pan. Luv you channel.

I suggest you look at a video done by Blackie Thomas on this type of kit. It was originally done in tinned steal around the time of the civil war. The boy scouts adopted it latter in aluminum. He has an interesting point on why the handle can be flipped upside down.

Hey Mr Dyer this is GI Joe Eddie here really enjoyed your video I have three cooking kits myself I will keep watching your videos God bless you and your family take care and I'll keep watching GI Joe Eddie over and out keep the keep the scout stuff coming really enjoyed God bless

1972-11th birthday. Family got me a BSA Fieldbook, individual cook kit, pocketknife, hand ax/sheath knife combination and a Silva compass. I used them to complete various Second Class requirements and still have and use all of them today. I love that equipment and really believe in the self-reliance a Scout develops when getting to do that individual cooking. Thanks for the great video. It brought back great memories.

A fascinating history of a really cool piece of equipment. I have never seen the fry pan with the snap before. Thank you.

Giving a good lesson sir.

Thanks for the history lesson. It was a little hard to hear you with all those cicadas in the background.

I still use mine from the eighties it's a regal. It cooks great. With the right heat, eggs and pancakes slide right out. It's heavy gage. They didn't get cheap till the late ninties when they were made in China. I bake brownies in mine and fry pork chops with gravy. There's no better cook kit

Great video, sure brought back some memories from the days with Troop 81 BSA.

Great video! Thanks for the shout out! I wasn’t aware the milk solidified that way.

That breakfast screams for honey, maple syrup or jam preserves. During the Civil War the CSA often used salt pork or bacon in lieu of the lard. Fry up the meat, add wetter cornmeal to the entire remnants of grease & caramelized/burnt pieces of meat. That makes sluice. Depending on how wet the cornmeal/ meat grease was they’d roll it into a big “noodle” then snake the noodle around their ramrods and hold it over the coals to crisp up. Making a sort of corn dog taste….minus the wiener.

Most excellent video! Thank you so much!

Only use my scout cook kit was cooking meet badge as for rest like you said we used cast iron dutch oven , griddle, and couple metal pot once while used plate, utensils, and cup. Your right did teach much use cooking kit. Burnt first meal

As always Well done!

Am going to try and find a boy scout mess kit! /great for my backpacking trips!

During WW2 aluminium was only available for making aircraft. Even steel was reserved for the war effort as production of cars was halted.

Great video

Didn't cook much eighties cook kit.camping though squad cook but we had cast iron for squad cooking and dutch oven

I know it's completely out of the scope of this video because it's modèrn and contains plastic parts but, purely for information the mess kit formerly issued to the Çzech Army (now on sale wordwide as surplus) is, I believe, the only military kit where the carrying pouch has a pocket for the KFS

As a Scout Leader, I have been looking for a kit to recommend to parents and the modern 'man from Cole' is identical except for the plastic pot lid handle. Is that contemporary version what you refer to as having thinner aluminium (British)?

Hello Mister Dyer. I wonder is you might help me identiify and date a BSA untensil set I have. It is a palm size leather cast with three internal compartments and belt slits on the back. Inside is a folding knife/bottle opener and a folding three prong fork. both the knife and fork are marked Geo Schrade Knife Company along with other markings. In the center slot are two spoons, one marked 1 TSP, the other marked 1 TBSP. The backside of both spoons are stamped JAPAN. The flap has a fleur-de-lis that says BE PREPARED with the outer edge stamped BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA at the top and NATIONAL COUNCIL NEW YORK CITY at the bottom. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you, Bill

Great video! It’s not scout cooking unless something doesn’t go as planned lol honey would go good on the hoe cake.

You speak about oat cakes but I think your cakes are corn.😉 I remember the different types of oat cakes as a boy in England.

Some of the older kits had D rings on them if they didn't have the holes in the handle for using a stick for a handle.

I finally got steel one but missing lid.

Try cooking popcorn on aluminum.

molasses is also good for topping hoecakes

I was a scout

I'll tell you one thing, I wish I had a scout leader like you when I was a kid. You were probably not born then though. We never did anything in Scouts. I had to earn all my badges at home and have my mother verified that I did it and I would get the patches at the meetings. I did all my camping on my own, I didn't have anybody to teach me any of that. Only what I got out of the books. Of course that was the Cub Scouts. When I got the Boy Scouts, the scoutmaster was a pedo who would only work with the boys he was molesting. The rest of us had to sit in his basement looking at boys life magazines and keeping quiet. You know you can season those aluminum pans and they don't stick nearly as bad. Also I think you cooked it too long on the first side which is why it dried out and cracked on top. You cook it to get the first side set and then you flip it. Of course you could also use those pre-mixed packages of cornbread mix just Add Water. Easy fix for aluminum cups or any metal cup, is a lip guard. They're only a couple bucks a piece and snap down on just about any metal canteen cup. They sell them on Amazon. I forgot the name of the brand. Back when I was in junior high in shop, I came up with the idea of making a lip guard out of Bakelite. I thought it was way more clever than making a letter opener. Wish I had patented it. They used to have Bakelite kids you could buy when I was a kid. Wish I thought of it earlier. I have several of these kits I bought off eBay. I don't know if it was a camera angle or what that your pans looked a lot bigger than what I remember some of them being. I'll have to dig them out and look. I've been using a 1918 military mess kit as my frying pan. I keep it seasoned and it has a lot more room for frying things like fish. I haven't tried using my titanium frying pan yet. Force of habit I guess. It's pretty understandable why they didn't want boys drinking coffee or tea back then. Caffeine is a diuretic. Having boys out in the Heat doing projects and Hiking or whatever, it's probably a good idea not to dehydrate them. I seen on RU-vid where some of the scouts are located they actually get to go on pretty awesome hikes into National Forests. Well not in Oklahoma. We have a lot of bugs and most grown-ups didn't want to fool with us. Dads would get involved when it came to the little cars you race down that wooden track. But that was about the extent of their involvement. All of my Cub Scout leaders were mothers. And consisted of sitting in their living room, and if we were lucky we would get cookies and a drink while we socialized. Not exactly the young boy's dream of conquering A wilderness. I was lucky because my grandparents had some land and woods with a creek going through it and I spent the Summers there. It was the 70s so for the most part it was pretty safe, but my parents bought walkie-talkies and I could always call up at the house if I needed something or if they wanted me to come in because we were in a storm warning or something. My mother was hyper paranoid about lightning in the area. Go figure.