A Watched Pot Never Boils

In 1964, the Boy Scout Troop sponsored by Union First Ward did go to Camp Steiner. Dad was the Scoutmaster; I think it was his last year.

We had made our reservations early. We didn't want to go back to Camp Bear Lake!

Dad had recently been initiated by his brother Carl in the mysteries of Dutch oven cooking, and chicken deep fried in the Dutch oven had become a favourite at the Rees household. Friday night at camp our dinner menu was Dutch oven chicken.

Knowing the amount of wood that it would take, and the amount of time that we needed, we started the fire in the early afternoon to let it burn down to a deep bed of coals. The fire burned down; I could hardly wait!

Dad put the Dutch oven down in the bed of coals, and arranged the tripod over it. He used the asbestos gloves to take the lid off the pot and added the Wesson cooking oil. Back went the lid, and coals were heaped on top of the pot.

We waited what seemed like enough time to get the oil to correct temperature. We scraped the coals off the lid, removed it and looked in. The oil had not come to the nice rolling boil we expected. Oh, well. Perhaps a bit more time.

We repeated the process. Nope.

And repeated the process. Still nope.

By this time, the Sun had set behind the peaks and it was getting dark. Dad built up the fire over the pot. We settled in to wait. We were all getting hungry.

When the fire had burned down, we got out our flashlights because we couldn't see into the pot any other way. Imagine our disappointment when the lid was removed and the oil still wasn't boiling!

We decided to go ahead anyway. (There wasn't anything else to do!) The chicken was breaded and season and placed into the oil. Back went the lid. On went the coals. We waited again.

Finally, we scraped back the coals, removed the lid, and dipped the chicken from the oil. It tasted good, but to this day, I wonder if it was totally cooked.

This was one watched pot that never did come to a boil!