,^^^^,., 4 I "^Camp Cookery By HORACE KEPHART- Author of Camping and Woodcraft, The Hunting Rifle, etc. Illustrated With Pen Drawings of Camp Utensils, ' Outfits, etc. MCMX OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY NEW YORK ^-ra 4, J ^ y ^J^ Copyright, 1910, by OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY Entered at Stationer's Hall, London, Eng. All rights reserved ©C1.A265079 1^ (Dedication) TO MISTRESS BOB Who taught me some clever expedients of backwoods cookery that are lost arts wherever the old forest has been leveled. FOREWORD. The less a man carries in his pack, the more he must carry in his head. A camper cannot go by recipe alone. It is best for him to carry sound general principles in his head, and recipes in his pocket. The simpler the outfit, the more skill it takes to manage it, and the more pleasure one gets in his achievements. , CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE Foreword vii I Provisions 1 II Utensils 18 III Fires 28 IV Dressing and Keeping Game and Fish 36 V Meat 49 VI Game 65 VII Fish and Shellfish 82 VIII Cured Meats, etc.— Eggs 93 IX Breadstuff s and Cereals 102 X Vegetables. — Soups 121 XI Beverages and Desserts 135 Appendix 144 CAMP COOKERY A TABLE. FOR READY REFERENCE IN CHOOSING WHAT TO COOK. All recipes in this book are here grouped under Quick, Medium, or Slow, according to the time they take. Everything under Quick can be pre- pared in less than 25 minutes, and so is specially suitable for breakfast or luncheon. The table also shows at a glance what recipes call for milk, butter, or eggs, and what do not. The following abbreviations are used: E = Eggs required (whole or desiccated). B = Butter required. M ==■ Milk required (may be evaporated or powdered). E*= Eggs desirable, but may be omitted. J3*=: Butter desirable, but other fat may be substituted. M*= Milk desirable, but water may be sub- stituted. f = Made over from previously boiled ma- terial. > Quick. {Under 25 minutes.) Fresh Meat, Game. Page Broiled meat, game, B.* 52 Fried meat, game 50 Kabobs 54 Brains, fried 66 Liver, fried 66 Milt, broiled 66 Venison sausages 67 Small birds, roasted. B.* 79 Frog legs, broiled or fried. B.* 89 Fish. Fish, fried 82 xi xii A TABLE. Page Fish, broiled. B* 83 Fish, skewered 83 Shellfish. Oysters, stewed. B, M..* 90 Oysters, fried. E 91 Oysters, scalloped. B 91 Oysters, saut6. B 91 Cured Meat. Bacon, broiled, fried, toasted 92 Salt pork, broiled or fried 94 Ham, boiled or fried 95 Bacon, or ham, and eggs. E 92 Pork fritters 94 Pork sausages 95 Slumgullion 96 Dried beef, creamed. M, B.* 96 Cured or Canned Fish. Smoked herring, toasted 98 Smoked herring, fried. B.* 98 Sprats 98 Salmon, creamed. M 98 Salmon, scalloped. B, 31 98 Salmon on toast. B, E, M 98 Sardines, fried. B* E.* 99 Eggs. Eggs, poached (fresh). B.* 101 Eggs, boiled (fresh) 101 Eggs, fried (fresh) 99 Eggs, scrambled (fresh or desiccated). B.* 99 Omelets (fresh or desiccated) . B.* 100 Bread. Biscuit loaf 105 Biscuits 106 Dropped biscuits 107 Breakfast rolls. B, E, M 107 Unleavened bread 109 French toast. E 114 Milk toast. B, M 115 IfRice muffins. E, M 120 Pancakes, etc. Flapjacks, plain 113 Egg pancakes. E 113 Snow pancakes 113 UMixed cakes 114 Corn batter cakes. E* M.* c 114 A TABLE. xiii Page Buckwheat cakes. E,* M.* 114 "Gritted" bread 112 Fried quoits 115 Fritters. B*E,M* 115 Dumplings. M* 117 Porridge, etc. IFFried mush 118 HFried grits, rice 130 Rolled oats 119 Breakfast cereals 120 Vegetables. Potatoes, fried 124 Potatoes, stewed. B, M 124 UPotatoes, mashed. B* M 123 ^Potatoes, lyonnaise 124 Potato cakes. E* M.* 123 HSweet potatoes, fried 125 Potatoes and onions, hashed 125 Green corn, roasted. B.* 127 Greens, boiled (some kinds). B.* 127 Mushrooms. B 129 Canned tomatoes, stewed. B.* 129 Canned corn, stewed. B,* M.* 130 Soups. Condensed soups 133 Tomato Soup. B, M 132 Beverages, Coffee 135 Tea 135 Chocolate. M 136 Gravies. Braising gravy 55 Frying gravy 61 Broiling gravy. B.* 52 Boiling gravy. B 62 Roasting gravy 62 Beef extract gravy 62 Cream gravy. B, M 63 Rabbit gravy 70 Bacon gravy, thin 94 Pork gravy, thick. M.* 94 Roux 62 Sauces. Barbecue sauce. B.* 55 Mustard sauce. B 63 xiv A TABLE. Pag« Venison sauce. B 63 Broiled venison sauce. B 63 Giblet sauce. B* M* 76 Celery sauce. B, M 80 Cranberry sauce 80 Curry sauce. B, M* 80 Butter sauce. B 86 White sauce. B, M 87 Lemon sauce. B, M 87 India sauce. B, M 87 Sweet sauce. B 143 Brandy sauce. B 143 Fruit sauce 143 Salad dressing 128 Medium. {25 to 4^ minutes.) Fresh Meat, Game. Small mammals, roasted 53, 73 Heart, braised 66 Liver, roasted 66 Game pot pie. B* 67 Curry of game. B* 69 Game pie 69 Small game, barbecued 69 Small game, fricasseed 75 Duck, roasted or baked 78 Grouse, roasted 79 Game birds, boiled 77 Fish. Fish, baked 85 Fish, boiled. B 86 Fish, roasted. B.* 84 Fish, planked. B.* 84 Fish, steamed 85 Fish Chowder. B* 31* 87 Fish cakes. E 88 Fish roe 89 Eel, stewed. M 89 Shellfish, etc. Clams, baked. B 91 Clam chowder. M 92 Crayfish, boiled 90 Cured Meats, Bacon and liver 92 Pork and hardtack 95 A TABLE. XV Page Corned beef hash , 96 Canned meat stew 96 Cured Fish. Salt fish, broiled 97 Codfish balls. B* 97 Bread. Army bread 107 Johnny cake 110 Corn dodgers 110 Ash cake Ill .Corn bread. B, E, M Ill Corn batter bread. E, M Ill Snow bread ■:. Ill Cereals, etc. Rice, boiled .* 119 Rice, curried 120 Risotto 120 Grits, boiled 120 Macaroni, boiled 117 Vegetables. Desiccated vegetables 121 Potatoes, boiled 122 Potatoes, steamed 123 Potatoes, baked 123 Sweet potatoes, boiled 125 Green corn, boiled 127 Greens, boiled (some kinds). B.* 128 Desserts. Pie. B.* ,. 139 Doughnuts. E, M 140 Snits und Knepp. B, E.* 140 Fruit cobbler. B 141 Fruit pudding. B 141 Cottage pudding. B, E, M 142 Sauces. Tomato sauce. B 117 Slow. {Over 45 minutes.) Fresh Meat, Game. Roasted meat, big game 53 Braised meat, big game 55 Baked meat, big game 55 Boiled meat, big game 58 xvi A TABLE. Page Stewed meat, big game 59 Steamed meat, big game 60 Barbecued meat, big game 55 Kidneys, stewed 66 Marrow bones, boiled 66 Moose muffle, boiled 67 Tongue, boiled 67 Turkey, goose, roasted 76, 77 Turkey, boiled 77 Jambolaya 68 Brunswick stew. B 68 Turtle, boiled 90 Cured Meat. Lobscouse 96 Bacon, salt pork, ham, boiled 93-95 Cured Fish. Salt fish, boiled 97 Codfish, stewed 97 Codfish hash 97 Bread. Sour-dough bread 108 Salt-rising bread 108 Lungwort bread 109 Porridge, etc. Corn mush 118 Polenta 119 Macaroni, with cheese. B 118 Macaroni, baked. B, M 118 Vegetables. Beans, boiled 125 Beans, baked 126 Onions, boiled. B* M* 136 Green corn, baked 127 Greens, boiled (some kinds). B* 127 Soups from raw materials. B* 130 Desserts. Dried fruit, stewed 135 Jelly from dried fruit 137 Rice pudding. E* M 141 Batter pudding. B, E, M 142 Plum duff 142 Snow pudding 141 Camp Cookery CHAPTER I. PROVISIONS. THE knack of camp outfitting consists in getting the best kit in the least weight and bulk. Wise campers prefer to go light, doing without most of the appliances of do- mestic life. It follows that camp cookery is an art distinct from the cuisine of kitchens. A com- mon cook-book is of no use in the woods; for it is always calling for things we have not, and does not tell what to do with the things we have. For example, I am to make a side trip of sev- eral days from the main camp. Going alone, and without pack horse or canoe, I must cut down my equipment to the last practicable ounce. There will be neither time nor utensils for baking on the way. So I must have bread for the journey, and it must be wholesome bread, extra nourishing for its bulk, palatable, fit to eat cold, and of a kind that will not dry out nor mould. I have no ma- terials but flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, and water. Where shall I find the recipe? Not in a 2 CAMP COOKERY. domestic cook-book. Yet the trick is easy, when one knows how. Light outfitting, as regards food, is mainly a question of how much water we are willing to carry in our rations. For instance, canned peaches are 88 per cent, water. Can one afford to carry so much water from home when there is better water at camp ? What, then, is best to substitute for the peaches? Let us see. — An average can of peaches weighs 2^ lbs. Evaporated apples are only 26 per cent, water, and sugar has none at all. A pound of the ap- ples and a pound of sugar cost three-fourths as much as the peaches, weigh a fifth less, are a little bulkier, but pack better on the trail. In camp, let the apples be stewed soft in plenty of water, and used as sauce. There is left a quart of hot juice. Into it put the pound of sugar. Boil, without stir- ring or skimming, until the juice gets syrupy, and pour into a vessel to cool. Result: somewhat more than a pint of as good jelly as can be made from fresh apples themselves. The sauce and the jelly will go much farther than a can of peaches, and there is more variety. The following table is suggestive: More than % Water. Fresh milk, fruit, vegetables (except potatoes). Canned soups, tomatoes, peaches, pears, etc. More than y^ Water. Fresh beef, veal, mutton, poultry, eggs, potatoes. Canned corn, baked beans, pineapple. Evaporated milk (unsweetened). More than % Water, Fresh bread, rolls, pork chops. Potted chicken, etc. Cheese. Canned blackberries. PROVISIONS. $ Less than y^ Water. Dried apples, apricots, peaches, primes. Fruit jelly. Less than % Water. Salt pork (fat). Dried fish. Butter. Desiccated eggs. Concentrated soups. Powdered milk. Wheat flour, corn meal, etc. Macaroni. Rice, oatmeal, hominy, etc. Dried beans, split peas. Dehydrated vegetables. Dried dates, figs, raisins. Orange marmalade. Sugar. Chocolate. Nuts. Nut butter. Although this table is good in its way, it is not a fair measure of the relative value of foods. Even the solid part of some foodstuffs contains a good deal of refuse (fresh potatoes 20 per cent.), while others have none. Beans, rice, nuts, cheese, are highly concentrated foods, but rice is easy to digest, beans rather difficult, nuts more so (unless in the form of nut butter), and cheese should be used sparingly. Then there is the personal fac- tor: "What's one man's meat is another man's poison." Variety is quite as welcome at the camp board as anywhere else — in fact more so, for it is harder to get. Do not leave out the few little condi- ments wherewith you can vary the taste of com- mon articles and serve a new sauce or gravy or pudding now and then. Nothing pays better for its transportation than good brands of desiccated eggs and evaporated or powdered milk. Cooked in combination with other things, they add vastly to the number and savor of your dishes. There is an old school of campers who affect to scorn such, things. "We take nothing with us," they say, "but pork, flour, baking powder, salt, 4 CAMP COOKERY. sugar, and coffee — our guns and rods furnish us variety." This sounds sturdy, but there is a deal of humbug in it. A spell of bad weather may de- feat the best of hunters and fishermen. Even granting that luck is good, the kill is likely to be of one kind at a time. With only the six articles named, nobody can serve the same game in a va- riety of ways. ' >Now, consider a moment. How would you like to sit down to nothing but fried chicken and biscuit, three times a day? Chicken everlastingly fried in pork grease — and, if you tire of that, well, eat fried "sow-belly," and sop your bread in the grease! It is just the same with trout or bass as it is with chicken; the same with pheasant or duck, rabbit or squirrel or bear. The only kind of wild meat that civilized man can relish for three consecutive meals, served in the same fashion, is venison of the deer family. Go pre- pared to lend variety to your menu. Food that palls is bad food — worse in camp than anywhere else, for you can't escape to a restaurant. Variety of rations does not mean adding to the load. It means substituting three 5 lb. parcels for one 15 lb. parcel, and no more. Let us consider the material of field rations, item by item: Bread. — It may be well to carry enough yeast bread for two or three days. It helps out until the game country is reached and camp routine is established. Hardtack (pilot bread, ship bis- cuit) is a last resort, and can be recommended only for such trips or cruises as do not permit baking. It is a cracker prepared without salt or grease, and kiln-dried to a chip, so as to keep well. He who can cat it without grumbling may be said to have filed his teeth. PROVISIONS. 5 Flour. — The plain kind is best. The self-rais- ing is easily ruined by moisture, and will not do for thickening, dredging, etc. Corn Meal. — Some like yellow, some prefer white. In either case it is much the best when freshly ground. A welcome change from hot wheat bread or biscuit, and can be served variously as johnny cake, pancakes, or mush. Useful to roll fish in, before frying. Rolled Oats. — This, and other breakfast cereals, according to taste, and only for variety sake. Nu- tritive value low, in proportion to bulk. Rice. — Deserves a higher place as an all-round food than our people generally give it. Beats all other cereals in sustaining power plus digestibility. Can be cooked in many ways, and all of them are easy. Combines well with almost anything else, and so lends variety. Packs well and keeps well. Macaroni. — Nutritious, but bulky. Good in soups and stews. Break it into inch pieces and pack so that insects cannot get at it. Baking Powder. — Get the best, made with pure cream of tartar. It costs more than the alum pow- ders, and does not go so far, bulk for bulk; but it is much kinder to the stomach. Baking soda will probably not be wanted, as it requires butter- milk in baking, except for sour-dough. Occa- sionally needed for other purposes. Salt Pork {alias middlings, sides, bellies. Old Ned, et al.). — Commendable or accursed, according to how it is used. Takes the place of lard and butter on very light marching trips. Nothing quite equals it in baking beans. Savory in some boiled dishes. When fried, as a piece de resistance, it successfully resists most people's gastric juices. 6 CAMP COOKERY. and is iiatiseous to many. Purchasable at most frontier camps. Breakfast Bacon. — Better for most jjurposes than salt pork. Seldom obtainable outside of towns. Get the boneless, in 5 to 8 lb. flitches. That which is sliced and canned is a poor substi- tute either in flavor or wholesomeness. Smoked Ham.-^SmaW ones generally are tough and too salty. Hard to keep in warm or damp weather; moulds easily, and is attractive to blow- flies. It is best to get both bacon and ham un- wrapped, and sew them up in cheesecloth yourself ; theii you are sure they were not mouldy to start with. Dried Beef. — Cuts from large hams are best. Of limited use in pick-up meals. A notori- ous thirst-breeder. Not comparable to "jerked" beef, which, unfortunately, is not in the market.* Canned Meats and Poultry of all descriptions are quite unfit for steady diet. Devilled or potted ham, chicken, tongue, sausage, and the like, are endurable at picnics, and valuable in emergencies, as when a hard storm makes outdoor cooking im- possible. Canned corned beef makes a passable hash. Extract of Beef. — Liebig's is useful in adding flavor to gravy or soup, and may be needed in case of illness. Canned Fish. — -Not so objectionable as canned tneat, because preserved in oil. Salmon, sardines, mackerel, can be worked into palatable dishes for hasty meals now and then. Go light. *For the process of jerking venison or beef, see my Camping and Woodcraft, p. 222. I have found that it succeeds even in the wet climate of the Southern Ap- palachians. (See also page 45.) PROVISIONS. 7 Smoked Fish. — Shredded codfish, for fish-balls, and smoked halibut, sprats, boneless herring, are portable and keep well. Enough for one or two meals of each may be relished. Prepared Soups,- — If liquid soups can be carried at all, take none but the very best brands that you can purchase. Concentrated (dry) soups, when of good quality, are a great help in time of trouble. Choose by trying samples before you leave home. They are kept by some camp outfitters, and by se- lect groceries in the large cities. Erbswurst (a sort of pea-meal sausage used in the German army) is a pretty good emergency ration to carry when you hunt alone. Any good camp outfitter has it in stock or will order it for you. Desiccated Eggs. — Baker's egg is a perfect substitute for fresh eggs in bake stuffs, and makes excellent omelets or scrambled eggs. A 1 lb. can, equal to about four dozen fresh eggs, meas- ures 6x3x3 inches. It costs less than storage eggs, and the contents will never spoil if kept dry. The powder must soak about an hour in cold or lukewarm water before Using. It may be put to soak overnight, or in a can or bottle of water when on the march. Thanks to this invention, the camp flapjack need no longer be a culinary horror. I have tried other desiccated eggs, "made in Germany," which Were uneatable by themselves, nor did they improve any dish that I tested them in.* *0n general principles I object to naming firms or brands; but when a good thing is not generally pro- curable in average stores, there would be no use in men- tioning it without telling the reader where to get it. Out-of-town readers should get such catalogues as those of Montgomery Ward, Chicago; John Wanamaker, New York; Abercrombie & Fitch, New York. 8 CAMP COOKERY. Butter. — For ordinary trips it suffices to pack butter firmly into pry-up tin cans which have been sterilized by thorough scalding and then cooled in a perfectly clean place. Keep it in a spring or in cold running water (hung in a net^ or weighted with a rock) whenever you can. When traveling, wrap the cold can in a towel or other insulating material. Butter will keep fresh a long time if melted and gently boiled for a while, skimming off the scum as it rises, until the butter is as clear as oil, and then canning it. One-third less of this clarified butter equals the quantity of ordinary butter called for in any recipe. Nut butter may be used as a substitute on bread. Cheese. — According to taste, and only for occa- sional use. A small bottle of grated Parmesan for macaroni, etc. Lard. — The amount will depend upon whether you use much lard in baking, and whether you fry with it or with bacon grease, oil, or butter. Olive oil is superior as a friture, especially for fish, but more expensive and more bothersome to carry. Milk. — Sweetened condensed milk (the "salve" of the lumber jacks) is an abomination. The dif- ferent brands of plain evaporated milk vary much in quality. Choose by actual test. The five cent cans are most convenient. Two varieties of powdered milk (skimmed and whole, respectively) may be procured. The kind called "Trucream" makes four quarts of rich milk to the pound, by dissolving in water. Potatoes. — If you can carry fresh ones, choose those with small eyes and of uniform medium size, pyen if you have to buy a bushel to sort out 9 peck. PROVISIONS. 9 Rice and grits are good substitutes when going light. Onions. — A few fresh ones can be carried any- where. Almost indispensable for seasoning soups, stews, etc. Carrots. — A few of these, also, for soups and stews, if transportation permits. Dehydrated (desiccated) Vegetables. — To my taste they are "rather poor fodder." On hard trips I prefer rice, grits, beans, and split peas. Beans. — A prime factor in cold weather camp- ing. Take a long time to cook ("soak all day and cook all night" is the rule). Cannot be cooked done at altitudes of five thousand feet and upward:^ Large varieties cook quickest, but the small white navy beans are best for baking. Pick them over before packing, as there is much waste. Split Peas. — Used chiefly in making a thick, nourishing soup. Canned Vegetables. — Very heavy and bulky for their fighting value. Very toothsome in the woods. Tomatoes are a good corrective of a meat diet. A few cans of baked beans (without tomato sauce) will be handy in bad weather. The three-quarter pound cans are convenient for emergency rations. Canned Fruit. — Blackberries and pineapple go farthest. Cranberries for the bird season. Others are too watery. Preserved Fruit. — The commissaries of the British army were wise when they gave jam an honorable place in Tommy Atkins' field ration. Yes: jam for soldiers in time of war. So many ounces of it, substituted, mind you, for so many ounces of the porky, porky, porky, that has ne'er a streak of lean." So, a little currant jelly with 10 CAMP COOKERY. your duck or venison is worth breaking all rules for. Orange marmalade goes far. Such conserves can be repacked by the buyer in pry-up cans that have been sterilized as recommended under the heading Butter. Evaporated Fruit. — Dried apples and apricots are best, owing to their tartness. Prunes are rather bulky. Raisins go far, and are useful in puddings. Dates help out an emergency ration, and so do figs, which also are very good stewed or in pudding. Nuts. — Shelled nuts pay well for their trans- portation. Peanut butter is more easily digested, and makes a good emergency food. Sugar. — Granulated. Take plenty, especially if you are short of other sweets. Men in the open soon get to craving sweets, because sugar is stored- up energy. The ''substitute" variously known as saccharin, saxin, crystallose, is no substitute at all, save in mere sweetening power, and even this has been grossly exaggerated. The catalogues say "one ounce equals in sweetening power one ton of su- gar." The real ratio is one ounce to eighteen pounds of sugar. This drug, which is derived from coal tar, has decided medicinal qualities and injures normal health if persistently taken. It has none of the nutritive value of sugar. Syrup. — A capital addition to pancakes, fried mush, etc. Useful in cookery (baked beans, cakes, etc.). Most maple syrup is adulterated. Be sure of your brands. Coffee. — The best coffee can only be made from freshly roasted berries. Have it roasted and ground the day before you start, and put up in PROVISIONS. 11 air-tight canisters. Take plenty; it will lose strength rapidly in the moist air of the woods. Tea, — A much better pick-me-up than coffee or liquor, and more portable. English Breakfast suits most tastes. Chocolate. — Very sustaining, as well as a good beverage. A quarter-pound cake carried in the pocket will pull a man through a hard day's wan- dering. Acids. — The best way to carry vinegar is in one of the stone "pottles" that Holland gin comes in. If you carry pickles, let them be sour ones. Lemons are almost essential for hot- weather trips. A fair substitute is citric acid in crystals (any drugstore). Condiments. — Salt is best carried in a wooden box. The amount used in cooking and at table is small, but if pelts are to be preserved or game shipped out, considerably more will be needed. White pepper is better than black. Some cay- enne or chili should also be taken. Worcestershire sauce and tomato catchup (if genuine) are worth carrying when practicable; also mustard. Pressed sage for stuffings, celery seed for soups, nutmeg and cloves (whole), perhaps ginger, cin- namon, and curry powder, wil-l be needed. Finally, a half pint of brandy, religiously re- served for brandy sauce, is worth its weight. ^ A ration list showing how much food of each kind is required, per man and per week, cannot be figured out satisfactorily unless one knows where the party is going, at what season of the year, how the stuff is to be carried, whether there is to be good chance of game or fish, and something about r^ CAMP COOKERY. the men's personal tastes. However, the follow- ing table, based upon my own experience and al- lowing for many contingencies, may at least be useful as showing how to go about it. The table gives four distinct estimates of food required by four men in two weeks, graded ac- cording as they travel light or heavy, in warm weather or in cold. The quantities will suffice without counting on game or fish. The difference between "light" and "heavy" is chiefly due to fresh potatoes and canned goods. It will be noticed that the cold-weather ration that I give is more liberal than that for warm weather, and that the addition is mostly in fatty and oily foods. A man who eats little fat meat when living in the city will find that when he travels hard in cold weather and sleeps in the open air his system will demand more fatty food. The experience of travelers in the far North bears out the results of scientific analysis, that foods con- taining fats and oils are more nutritious and heat- producing than any others. But a steady diet of bread and bacon is likely to breed scurvy; so a supply of vegetables and fruits should be added. Men living in the open also develop a craving for sweets that is out of all proportion to what they experience in town. This is a normal demand, for sugar is stored-up energy. I have allowed liberally for this, and also for the increased con- sumption of coffee and tea that is the rule (owing somewhat to the fact that they lose strength from exposure to the air). The table is chiefly valuable as showing the proper ratios of the meat, the bread, and the veg- etable and fruit components. Under each of these headings the items can be varied a great deal, ac- PROVISIONS. 13 cording to taste, but the aggregate of each com- ponent should be about as stated. RATION LISTS, FOUR MEN, TWO WEEKS. (56 RATIONS.) LIGHT. HE A VY. Meats, etc. Summer. Winter. Summer. Winter. Salt pork 10 lbs. 10 lbs. Bacon 12 lbs. 13 10 lbs. 10 Ham 5 5 5 5 Dried beef or fish.. 3 3 3 3 Canned meats 4 4 Canned fish 4 4 Beef extract y. V2 V2 V2 Concentrated soups. 3 2 9 3 Desiccated eggs 3 2 2 2 Butter 6 6 6 6 Cheese 2 2 Lard 3 3 3 3 Powdered milk .... Sy^ 3 14 or Evaporated (38 smaU cans) 13^2 131/2 Lbs 37 47 54 64 LIGHT. HE A VY. Bread, etc. . Summer. Winter. Summer. Winter. Fresh bread 5 lbs. 5 lbs. Wheat flour 34 lbs. 34 lbs. 30 30 Corn meal 5 10 5 10 Rice 5 5 5 5 Rolled oats 3 3 2 2 Grits 2 3 2 2 Macaroni 1 1 1 1 Baking powder IVs IV3 1 1 Lbs 40ya 451/3 41 46 Vegetables. Potatoes (fresh).... 30 (^ bu.) 30 Onions (fresh) .... 5 5 5 5 Carrots (fresh) .... 5 5 Tomatoes (canned). 10 (4 cans) 10 Dehydrated vege- tables 4 4 Beans 4 6 4 6 Split peas 2 3 3 2 Canned baked beans. 3 3 3 3 Lbs 18 30 59 61 14 CAMP COOKERY. Beverages. Coffee (roasted, ground) 4 4 4 4 Tea 1 1 1 1 Chocolate (unsweet- ened) 1 1 1 1 Lbs 6 6 6 6 LIGHT. HEAVY. Sweets. Summer. Winter. Summer. Winter. Sugar (granulated) . 8 10 5 5 Syrup 3(iqt.) 6 Jelly, jam, marma- lade 5 5 Lbs 8 10 13 16 Acids. Vinegar 1 1 Pickles 3 2 Lemons 4 (2 doz.) Citric acid (c. p., cryst.) 1/4 ¥4 __ ___ Lbs Vi 1/4 T 3 Fruits, etc. Evaporated apples, apricots 3 3 3 3 Raisins, dates, figs.. 2 2 2 2 Canned blackberries, cranberries, pine- apple 24 (12 cans) 24 Shelled nuts, or nut butter 2 2 2 2 Lbs 7 7 31 31 PROVISIONS. 15 Condiments. Salt (if allowing for curing skins, etc., take 10 lbs.) 2 2 3 3 Pepper (white) .... 1 oz. 1 oz. 1 oz. 1 oz. Cayenne or chili... 1 oz. 1 oz. 1 oz. 1 oz. Worcestershire sauce. 1 bot. 1 bot. Olive oil 1 bot. 1 bot. Tomato catchup 1 bot. 1 bot. Brandy % pint. i/g pint. Mustard 1 bot. 1 bot. Sage, celery seed, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, curry powder . . . x x x x Lbs 214 21/4 6 6 LIGHT. HEAVY. Summer. Winter. Summer. Winter. Total lbs 119 138 317 233 Per m-an, per day 31/8 21/2 37/8 41/8 Meat of any kind will quickly mould or spoil if packed in tins from which air is not exhausted. Put pork^ bacon_, or ham in loose cheesecloth bags that can be hung up in camp, and pack them in parchment paper for transit ; so also cheese. Flour, meal, cereals, vegetables, and dried fruits go in stout bags. Ordinary flour sacks are too weak, and wet through too easily. Salt, as it draws moisture, is best carried in a wooden box or screwr top wooden mailing tubes ; butter, coffee, tea, su- gar, jam, etc., in pry-up tin cans. Camp outfitters supply small bags and tins of various sizes that stow in waterproof provision bags, and it saves trouble to buy them ready-made. Label every- thing plainly. One of the handiest things in a camper's kit is surgeon's rubber adhesive plaster. This can be purchased at any drugstore. A ten-yard spool •^ 16 CAMP COOKERY. each of the one-inch and two-inch widths will be useful in a hundred ways. This plaster is waterproof and air-tight. It will stick to any dry surface (wood, metal, glass, cloth, leather, or skin), and will stay there until purposely re- moved; yet it can be peeled off and reapplied many times. As an instantaneous mender of rents and stopper of holes or cracks it has no equal. One of the most bothersome things in shifting camp is to secure opened cans and bottles from spilling. Surgeon's plaster does the trick in a twinkling. Put a little square of it over each hole in the milk can that you opened for break- fast, and there will be no leakage. To hold a cork in a bottle, stick a narrow strip of the plaster over the cork and down opposite sides of the bot- tle's neck. To protect the bottle from breaking, run a strip around it at top and one at bottom. The caps of baking powder cans or similar tins can be secured to the bodies in the same way. With a broad strip you can seal a box or chest water-tight, stop a leak in a canoe, or mend a broken rod, a paddle, a gunstock, or even an axe- handle (first nailing it). A chest or cupboard can be extemporized from any packing box, in a jiffy, by cleating the top and using surgeon's plaster for hinges. Camp chests are very convenient when it is practicable to carry them; but they should be small, weighing not over fifty or sixty pounds each when packed, so that one man can easily handle them unassisted. If they are specially made, Cot- tonwood is the best material (if thoroughly sea- soned boards can be had — otherwise it warps abominably). It is the strongest and toughest PROVISIONS. 17 wood for its weight that we have, and will not splinter. For the ends and lids of small chests, ^-inch stuff is thick enough, and ^-inch for the sides, bottoms, and trays. The bottom should have a pair of ^-inch cleats for risers and the top a similar jDair to keep it from warping, unless the chests are to go on pack animals. Strap-hinges and hasp, a brass padlock and broad leather end- straps (not drop-handles) should be provided, and the chest painted. The best size is 24x18x9 inches, this being con- venient for canoes and pack-saddles. A pine gro- cery box of this size, with %-inch ends and ^-inch sides, top, and bottom, weighs only 10 pounds, and will answer the purpose very well. Screw a wooden handle on each end, say 5x2 inches, with a hand-hold gouged out of the un- der side. Check off every article in the outfit as it is stowed, and keep the inventory for future refer- ence. Then note what is left over at the end of the trip. This will help in outfitting for the next season. CHAPTER IL UTENSILS. A PARTY going into fixed camp, within wagon call of the railroad, can carry a sheet-steel stove. A good pattern is the Klondike stove shown in the illustration. Its best feature is the size of the fire-box, which takes in wood twenty-eight inches long and thick enough to keep an all-night fire, the stove being closed air- tight. The top of the Klondike, 14x30 inches, is free for utensils; the oven, above it, takes a 10x14 pan for baking or roasting. Oven, legs, and pipe stow inside the body of the stove, leaving space for a 12xl3x9%-inch galvanized box that holds cooking utensils for four persons and can be used in camp as a dish-pan or as a vermin-proof box for provisions. When packed for transportation, the stove measures 30x11x12 inches, and weighs 29 pounds (complete with box and utensils, 43^ pounds). In rough country, especially if camp is to be shifted frequently, a stove is out of the reckoning. If pack animals are taken, or the trip is by canoe, without long and difficult j^ortages, it pays to take along either a folding grate or a pair of fire irons. Various patterns of grates are shown in outfitters' catalogues. I have used one called the Gem which is satisfactory of its kind. It weighs 334 pounds, is 16x28 inches when set up, and folds into a package 1^x19 inches. 18 UTENSILS. 19 A lighter grate is Sackett's camp broiler, 9x14 inches. The legs do not lock in place, and hence are of little use on stony or mushy ground. I re- move them, and so have a good grate and broiler weighing only one pound, yet big enough to sup- port a frying pan and coffee pot when laid across a couple of logs or rocks. Klondike Camp Stove. Fire "irons" are simply two pieces of flat steel 24x1 ^x^ inches, weighing 2^/2 pounds, which are used like the broiler named above. If a mule steps on one of them, it (mule or iron) can quickly be hammered back into correct form. On light marching trips no support for the uten- sils will be carried. Rocks or logs will take their 20 CAMP COOKERY. place. There may be a little more spilling and swearing, but less tired backs. It is commonly agreed that four is the ideal number for a camping party, at least among hunt- ers and fishermen. Certainly no larger number should attempt their own cooking. Utensils and table ware for such a party, going light, should include: a large frying-pan (more serviceable than two small ones) ; a pan to mix dough in and wash dishes (common milk pan) ; a stout, seamless, cov- ered pot for boiling or stewing meat, baking beans. Sackett's Broiler. etc.; a medium pot or pail for hot water (always wanted, substitute for tea kettle) ; a smaller one for cereals, vegetables, fruit ; and either a coffee pot low enough to nest in the latter, or a covered pail in its place. There should be six plates (two for serving) and four each of cups, knives, forks, teaspoons, tablespoons. This is about as little as the party can well get along with. It will be bothersome to bake bread for four in the frying-pan. Add a reflector or common sheet- UTENSILS. «1 steel "roaster and baker/' if practicable. A wire broiler, a tea percolator, and a corkscrew and can opener will nest with this set. If the cook wears no sheath knife a butcher knife is essential. Two dish towels (one to be divided into clouts) and a couple of yards of cheesecloth for straining and to hang meat in should be taken. The common utensils of the shops will not nest. They are all spouts and handles, bail ears and cover knobs. Still, a good deal can be done by substitution. Covered pails do all the work of sauce pans and kettles, and are better all round, for they can either be set upon the coals or hung above the fire; besides, you can carry water in Gem Folding Grate. them, and their covers keep heat in and ashes out. All such vessels should be low and broad; then they will boil quickly and pack well. Good proportions are: 3 quarts diameter 63^ in. x 514 in. height. ' " " 71/, " X534 - 81/0 " xGVg " 91/4 " X 71/2 « CAMP COOKERY. Bail ears should project as little as possible. Lids should have fold-down rings instead of knobs. If the bails interfere with nesting, substitute light chains. Ordinary coffee pots are too tall and slender. The best form is what is known as a coffee boiler (see illustration), which nests inside a com- paratively small pail, boils quickly, has a bail, um^ CooKiKG Kit for Six. Nesting in space 11x12% inches, and weighing I714 lbs. and is fitted with a solid spout that will not melt off. A similar article of tin is known as a "miner's coffee pot." When compact nesting is aimed at, discard the coffee pot in favor of a lidded pail. It has the advantage that no aroma escapes through a spout. Use a percolator of aluminum (cylindrical, not egg-shaped) that is large enough for both coffee and tea, and remove its wings. Tin cups that nest inside the coffee pot have the lower part of the handle free. Get the IjE^- pint size (5x2^ in.). Small cups and small plates are a nuisance in camp. Tin is not nice to drink hot fluids from: it makes tea "taste." Alumi- num is worse, for it blisters the unwary mouth. I UTENSILS. 29 carry my own cup at my belt or in my pouch, for it is wanted ten times a day. It is of white enam- eled ware. If every man does this, there will be no trouble about cups nesting. Plates, too, should be of enameled ware, for it is so much easier to clean than tin or aluminum. Let them be deep and generous (9^-inch soup plates, nesting in the frying pan). The frying-pan handle is a perennial problem. The best form of detachable handle that I know of is Darling's. A stick can be inserted in it, for long-distance frying, by those who do not know that frying should never be done over a fierce fire, nor that a few coals raked to one side do the trick. Few camp cooking kits include a baker, al- though it is almost essential for comfortable life in the woods. The most portable form is the fold- ing reflector sold by most outfitters. It is similar to those that our great-grandmothers used to bake biscuit in, before a hearth fire. The top slants like a shed roof, and the bottom like another shed roof turned upside down, the bread pan being in the middle. The slanting top and bottom reflect heat downward upon the top of the baking and upward against its bottom, so that bread, for in- stance, bakes evenly all around. A prime advantage of this cunning utensil is that baking can proceed immediately when the fire is kindled, without waiting for the wood to burn down to coals, and without danger of burning the dough. Fish, flesh, and fowl can be roasted to a turn in this contrivance. It has several better points than an oven, chief of which is its porta- bility, as it folds flat; but it is inferior for corn bread, army bread, etc., and impossible for pot- yoasts or braising. 24» CAMP COOKERY. The best size of reflector for two men is 12x 12x8 inches, the pan of which holds just a dozen biscuits. For four men, a good size is 16x18x8. These sizes are the height, width, and depth, re- spectively, when the oven is open for use. When folded it is only about an inch thick. The 8x12 size weighs 2 pounds, with bake pan; the 8x18 size, 2^ pounds. A canvas carrying case, which is needed, for the baker is frail, adds another pound. A wire broiler packs inside the reflector; it is not necessary for broiling meat, but it is handy for the purpose, and especially for broiling fish. The old-fashioned Dutch oven of cast iron is too heavy for any but wagon parties, and by them is usually discarded for a camp stove. A much cheaper utensil than the reflector, and one that can be used like a Dutch oven, with coals underneath and on top, is the sheet-steel baker or roaster designed for use in stove ovens. With the two sections nesting, it is quite portable. The 15x10x7 size weighs, with bake pan, about 414 pounds. A good-sized water pail is a great convenience in camp. The best form of all is a galvanized pail with bail ears set below the rim and a tight cover fitting outside the top. It is strong enough to go on a pack saddle, and is an excellent container for perishables. In a canoe it is much handier and more reliable than the japanned bread box so often used as a provision chest. With a broad strip of surgeon's plaster around the rim it is per- fectly water-tight and the cover cannot come off. Don't be bluffed by its name: it is called a gar- bage can. Men who have neither time nor inclination to UTENSILS. 25 1. Coffee Boiler. 2. Miner's Coffee Pot. 3. Percolator. 4. Miner's Cup. 5. Baker. 6. Water Bucket, 7. Reflector. 8. Frying Pan. 26 CAMP COOKERY. rummage the stores for "calamities" that will nest would do well to pay extra for outfits already kitted by camp outfitters. Using one outfitter's sets for illustration, we are offered: Set for. Size, nested. In "Armorsteel." In"Aluminol." Two persons ... 9^^ x 8% in. 6% lbs. $4.00 6% lbs. $9.85 Four persons ...10 xlliiin. 12 lbs. 6.25 10"% lbs. 16.60 Six persons 11 x 12^8 in. 17 1/2 lbs. 8.50 17 14 lbs. 26.50 Eight persons . .11 x 12 78 in. 19 1^ lbs. 9.40 18% lbs. 30.00 In the four-men and eight-men sets the coffee pots will be found rather stingy. An 8x18 fold- ing reflector, broiler, canvas case, butcher knife, cooking spoon, and percolator would add exactly 4 pounds weight and $6.40 to the price. "Aluminol" is an aluminum alloy that is tougher and more durable than the common aluminum of the shops. The latter is too soft and too easily bent or dented, and it Mdll not stand dry heat. Aluminum frying pans are worthless: food sticks to them and burns. "Armorsteel" utensils are made from strong steel stamped in one solid piece, and doubly tinned. Ordinary tinware is much lighter and cheaper than either of these, but here its merits end. It will not stand rough handling*, rusts easily, is hard to clean when greasy, and its soldered joints are always treacherous. Enameled ware is the easiest of all to keep clean. It is the best material to cook fruit in. Its tendency to chip and flake in cold weather can be tamed by warming gradually, at such times, be- fore exposing to fierce heat. It is not much heav- ier than any other ware that is strong enough for outdoor service. ]\Ien who must travel with very light equip- UTENSILS. 27 ment should cut out all but the absolutely essential utensils, and have them strong enough for hard service. Ideal outfitting is to have what we want, when we want it, and never to be bothered with anything else. CHAPTER III. FIRES. THE success of outdoor cookery depends largely upon how the fire is built and how it is managed. A camper is known by his fire. It is quite impossible to prepare a good meal over a higgledy-piggledy heap of smoking chunks, a fierce blaze, or a great bed of coals that will warp iron and melt everything else. For a noonday lunch, or any other quick meal, when you have only to boil coffee and fry some- thing, a large fire is not wanted. Drive a forked stake in the ground, lay a green stick across it, slanting upward from the ground, and weight the lower end with a rock or peg it down with an inverted crotch. The slanting stick should have the stub of a twig left at its upper end to hold the pot bail in place, and should be set at such an angle that the pot swings about two feet clear of the ground. Then gather a small armful of sound, dry twigs from the size of a lead pencil to that of your finger. Take no twig that lies flat on the ground, for such are generally damp or rotten. Choose hardwood, if there is any, for it lasts well. Select three of your best sticks for kindling. Shave each of them almost through, for half its length, leaving lower end of shavings attached to the stick, one under the other. Stand these in a 28 FIRES. 29 tripod, under the hanging pot, with their curls down. Around them build a conical wigwam of the other sticks, standing each on end and slant- ing to a common center. Leave free air spaces be- tween the sticks. Fire requires air, and plenty of it, and it burns best when it has something to climb up on; hence the wigwam construction. Now touch off the shaved sticks, and in a mo- ment you will have a small blast furnace under the pot. This will get up steam in a hurry. Meantime get two bed-sticks, five or six inches thick, to support the frying pan. The firewood will all drop to embers soon after the pot boils. Toss out the smoking butts, leaving only clear, glowing coals. Put your bed-sticks on either side, parallel and level. Set the pan on them, and fry away. So, in fifteen or twenty minutes from the time you drove your stake, the meal will be cooked. A man acting without system or forethought, in even so simple a matter as this, can waste an hour in pottering over smoky mulch, or blister- ing himself before a bonfire, and it will be an ill mess of half-burned stuff that he serves in the end. When making a "one-night stand," start a small cooking fire the moment you stop for camping and put your kettle on. Then you will have coals and boiling water ready when you begin cooking, and the rest is easy. For baking in a reflector, or roasting a joint, a high fire is best, with a backing to throw the heat forward. Sticks three feet long can be leaned against a big log or a sheer-faced rock, and the kindling started under them. Often a good bed of coals is wanted. The 30 CAMP COOKERY. camp-fire generally supplies these, but sometimes they are needed in a hurry, soon after camp is pitched. To get them, take sound hardwood, either green or dead, and split it into sticks of uniform thickness (say lj4-irich face). Lay down two bed-sticks, cross these near the ends with two others, and so on up until you have a pen a foot high. Start a fire in this pen. Then cover it with a Yayev of parallel sticks laid an inch apart. Cross this with a similar layer at right angles, and so upward for another foot. The free draft will ma,ke a roaring fire, and all will burn down to coals together. The thick bark of hemlock, and of hardwoods generally, will soon yield coals for ordinary cooking. To keep coals a long time, cover them with ashes, or with bark which will soon burn to ashes. In wet weather a bed of coals can be shielded by slanting broad strips of green bark over it and overlapping them at the edges. In windy weather build your fire in a trench. Camp-fires, as distinguished from cooking-fires, are usually built by laying down two short, thick logs five or six feet apart, for bed-sticks, crossing these with two parallel logs about a foot apart, and firing with small poles between them. Such a fire is generally too hot for good cooking, and it blazes or smokes too much. Cook in front of it, or to one side, with coals raked from under the forestick. . . When staying several days in one place, build a separate cooking-fire. It saves trouble in the end. On a level spot near the camp-fire set up two 'stout forked stakes about five feet apart and four feet to the crotches. Across them lay a green stick (lug-pole) somewhat thicker than a broom- FIRES. 31 stick. Now cut three or four green crotches from branches, drive a nail in the small end of each, invert the crotches, and hang them on the lug- pole to suspend kettles from. These pot-hooks are to be of different lengths so that the kettle can be adjusted to different heights above the fire, first for hard boiling, and then for simmering. If kettles were hung from the lug-pole itself, this adjustment could not be made, and you would have to dismount the whole business in order to get one kettle off. Then get two tliick, flat rocks and bed them under the lug-pole to support your fire-irons or the frying pan itself. A pair of green logs will do if there are no rocks handy. There is much in knowing how to select fuel. As a rule, hardwoods make good, slow-burning fuel that produces lasting coals, while softwoods make a quick, hot fire that soon dies to useless ashes. The following , woods will scarcely burn at all when they are green: asjDen (large-toothed), black ash, balsam, box elder, buckeye, hemlock, pitch pine, sassafras, sourwood, sycamore, tamarack, tupelo (sour gum), water oak, poplar (tulip), and service berry. Butternut, chestnut, red oak, red maple, and persimmon burn very slowly in a green state. Such woods are good for backlogs, hand- junks, or andirons, and for side-logs in a cooking- fire that is to be used continuously. Yellow birch and white ash, on the contrary, are better for a camp-fire when green than when they are sea- soned. It may be said, in general, that green wood burns best in winter, when the sap is down. Trees that grow on high, dry ground burn better than those of the same species that stand in moist 32 CAMP COOKERY. soil. Chestnut cut on the summits of the southern Appalachians burns freely^ even when green, and the mountain beech burns as ardently as birch. Arbor-vitae (Northern "white cedar") and chest- nut burn to dead coals that do not communicate flame. They, as well as box elder, red cedar, hemlock, sassafras, tulip, balsam, tamarack, and spruce, make a great crackling and snapping in the fire. All of the soft pines, too, are prone to pop. Certain hardwoods, such as sugar maple, beech, white oak, and sometimes hickory, must be watched for a time after the fire is started, because the- embers that they shoot out are long-lived, and hence more dangerous than those of softwoods; but they are splendid fuel, for all that. The following woods are very hard to split: Blue ash, box elder, buckeye, cherry, white elm, winged elm, sour gum, hemlock (generally), liquidambar (sweet gum), honey locust, sugar ma- ple, sycamore, tupelo. Some woods, however, that are stubborn when seasoned are readily split when green, such as hickory, beech, dogwood, su- gar maple, birch, and slippery elm. Firewoods that split easily are: Hackberry, red oak, basket oak, white oak, ash, and white birch. Best of all Northern firewoods is hickory, green or dry. It makes a hot fire, but lasts a long time, burning down to a bed of hard coals that keep up an even, generous heat for hours. Hick- ory, by the way, is distinctly an American tree; no other region on earth produces it. The live oak of the South is most excellent fuel. Follow- ing the hickory, in fuel value, are the chestnut oak, overcup, post and basket oaks, pecan, the hornbeams (ironwoods), and dogwood. The lat- FIRES. ;ss ter burns finally to a beautiful white ash that is characteristic; apple wood does the same. Black birch also ranks here; it has the advantage of "doing its own blowing/' as a Carolina moun- taineer said to me_, meaning that the oil in the birch assists its combustion so that the wood needs no coaxing. All of the birches are good fuel^ ranking in about this order: black_, yellow, red^ paper, and white. Sugar maple was the fa- vorite fuel of our old-time hunters and surveyors, because it ignites easily, burns with a clear, steady flame, and leaves good coals. Locust is a good, lasting fuel; it is easy to cut, and, when green, splits fairly well; the thick bark takes fire readily, and the wood then burns slowly, with little flame, leaving pretty good coals ; hence it is good for night- wood. Mulberry has similar qualities. The best of the oaks for fuel, especially when green, is white oak; it also splits very readily. The scarlet and willow oaks are among the poorest of the hardwoods for fuel. Cherry makes only fair fuel. White elm is poor stuff, but slippery elm is better. In some respects white ash is the best of green woods for campers' fuel. It is easily cut and split, is lighter to tote than most other hard- woods, and is of so dry a nature that even the green wood catches fire readily. It burns with clear flame, and lasts longer than any other free- burning wood of its weight. Most of the softwoods are good only for kin- dling, or for quick cooking-fires. Liquidambar, magnolia, poplar (tulip), catalpa, red cedar, and willow are poor fuel. Seasoned chestnut and pop- lar make a hot fire, but crackle and leave no coals. Balsam fir, basswood, and the white and S4 CAMP COOKERY. loblolly pines make quick fires but are soon spent. The gray (Labrador) j^ine is considered good fuel in the far North, where hardwoods are scarce. Seasoned tamarack is fairly good. Spruce is poor fuel, although, being resinous, it kindles easily and makes a good blaze for "branding up" a fire. Pitch pine, which is the most inflammable of all woods when dry and "fat," will scarcely burn at all in a green state. Sycamore and buckeye, when thoroughly seasoned, are good fuel, but will not split. Alder burns readily and gives out con- siderable heat, but is not lasting. The wood of the large-toothed aspen will not burn when green, yet when dry it burns freely, does not crackle, lasts well, and leaves good coals. The best green softwoods for fuel are white birch, paper birch, soft maple, cottonwood, and quaking aspen. As a rule, the timber growing along the mar- gins of large streams is softwood. Hence drift- wood is generally a poor mainstay, unless there is plenty of it on the spot. The best kindling is fat pine, or the bark of the paper birch. Fat pine is found in the stumps and butt cuts of pine trees that died on the stump. The resin has collected there and dried. This wood is usually easy to split. Pine knots are the tough, heavy, resinous stubs of limbs that are found on dead pine trees. They, as well as fat pine, are almost imperishable, and those stick- ing out of old rotten logs are as good as any. The knots of balsam fir are similarly used. Hem- lock knots are worthless and will ruin an axe. The thick bark of hemlock, and of hardwoods generally, is good to make glowing coals in a hurry. In a hardwood forest the best kindling, sure to FIRES. 35 be dry underneath the bark in all weathers, is procured by snaj)ping off the small dead branches, or stubs of branches, that are left on the trunks of medium-sized trees. Do not pick up twigs from the ground, but choose those, among the downwood, that are held up free from the ground. Where a tree is found that has been shivered by lightning, or one that has broken off without uprooting^ good splinters of dry wood will be found. In every laurel thicket there is plenty of dead laurel, and, since it is of sprangling growth, most of the branches will be free from the ground and snap- dry. They ignite readily and give out intense heat. It is a good test of one's resourcefulness to make a fire out of doors in rainy weather. The best way to go about it depends upon local con- ditions. Dry fuel and a place to build the fire can often be found under big uptilted logs, shelv- ing rocks, and similar natural shelters, or in the core of an old stump. In default of these, look for a dead softwood tree that leans to the south. The wood and bark on the under side will be dry — chop some off, split it fine, and build your fire under the shelter of the trunk. To light a match in the wind, face the wind. Cup your hands, with their backs toward the wind, and hold the match with its head pointing to- ward the rear of the cup — i. e., toward the wind. Remove the right hand just long enough to strike the match on something very close by; then in- stantly resume the former position. The flame will run up the match stick, instead of being blown away from it, and so will have something to feed on. Never leave a fire, or even a spark, behind you. Put it out. CHAPTER IV. DRESSING AND KEEPING GAME AND FISH. IT is not necessary to hang a deer np to skin and butcher it; but that is the more cleanly way. One man, unassisted, can hang a pretty heavy animal in the following way: Drag it headforemost to a sapling that is just limber enough to bend near the ground when you climb it. Cut three poles, ten or twelve feet long, with crotches near the ends. Climb the sapling and trim oif the top, leaving the stub of one stout branch near the top. Tie your belt into a loop around the deer's antlers or throat. Bend the sapling down until you can slip the loop over the end of the sapling. The latter, acting as a spring- pole, will lift part of the deer's weight. Then place the crotches of the poles under the fork of the sapling, the butts of the poles radiating out- ward, thus forming a tripod. Push first on one pole, then on another, and so raise the carcass free from the ground. If you do not intend to butcher the deer imme- diately, raise it up out of reach of roving dogs and "varmints," and put a smudge under it of rotten wood, well banked with stones and earth so that it cannot blow around and set the woods afire. The smudge will help to keep away blow-flies and birds of prey, and will guide you back to the place. 36 DRESSING GAME. 37 It is common practice to hang deer by gambrels with the head down; but^ when hung head up, the animal is easier to skin, easier to butcher, drains better, and does not drip blood and juices over the neck and head, which you may want to have mounted for a trophy. Dried blood is very hard to remove from hair or fur. If the skin is stripped oif from rear to head it will be hard to grain. The more common way of skinning a deer, when the head is not wanted for mounting, is to hang it up by one hind leg and begin skinning at the hock, peeling the legs, then the body, and finally the neck, then removing the head with skin on (for baking in a hole), after which the carcass is swung by both legs and is eviscerated. If this is a buck, you may wish to save the head for mounting. For this, the skin of the whole neck must be preserved, clear back to the shoul- ders. Cleanse away any blood that may have is- sued from the nose aVid inouth and stuff some dry moss, or other absorbent, in the beast's mouth. Open your jackknife, insert the point, edge up, where the neck joins the back, and cut the skin in a circle around the base of the neck, running from the withers down over the front of the shoul- der-blade to the brisket or point of the breast on each side. Do not skin the head at present — you may not have time for that. Insert the point of the knife tlirough the skin over the paunch, and, following the middle line of the chest, slit upward to meet the cut around the neck. Then reverse, and continue the slit backward to the end of the tail, being careful not to perforate the walls of the belly. Then slit along the inside of each leg from the hoof to the belly-slit. If you wish to 3S CAMP COOKERY. Fig. 7.- — The Use Your place to Knife. From Forest and Stream. save the feet for mountings be particular to rip the skin in a straight line up the under side of the leg, starting by inserting the point of the knife be- tween the heel-pads. Now comes a nice tricky that of severino: shanks. Nearly every in- experienced person starts too high. Study the ac- companying illustrations of these joints^ noting where the arrow points^, which is the place to use your knife. In a deer the joint is about an inch and a half below the hock on the hind leg, and an inch below the knee on the fore leg. Cut square across through skin and muscles, in front, and similarly behind; then, with a quick pull backward against your knee, snap the shank off. The joint of the fore leg is broken in a similar manner, excepting that it is snapped forward. Having stripped the vertebrae from the tail, now peel the skin off the whole animal, from the shoul- ders downward, assisting with your closed fist, and, where necessary, with the knife; but wher- ever the knife is used be careful to scrape the skin as clean as you can, without cutting it, for every adhering bit of fat, flesh, or membrane must be thoroughly removed before the skin is ready for tanning, and that is easier to do now than after it dries. The whole operation of skinning is much easier while the animal is still warm than after the body has become cold. To skin a frozen animal is a desperately mean job. I have known 1 DRESSING GAME. 39 four old hunters to work nearly a whole after- noon in skinning a frozen bear. The skin of the body and limbs having been re- moved, stretch it out flat, hair side down, along- side of you to receive portions of the meat as it is butchered. Now take up your knife, insert its point alongside the breastbone, and cut through the false ribs to the point of the sternum. In a young animal this is easy; but in an old one the ribs have ossified, and you must search for the soft points of union between the ribs and the ster- num, which are rather hard to find. Here your knife's temper, and perhaps your own, will be put to the test. The most trifling-looking pocket hatchet would do the trick in a jiffy. Open the abdominal cavity, taking care not to rupture anything, and prop the chest open a few inches with a stick, or by merely pulling the ribs away from each other. Cut the diaphragm free at both sides and at the back. (It is the mem- brane that separates the organs of the chest from those of the abdomen.) Everything now is free from the body except at the throat and anus. Reach in and take in your grasp all the vessels that run up into the neck. With knife in the other hand, cut them across from above downward, tak- ing care that you do not cut yourself. Now pull away gradually, helping a little here and there with the knife until all the contents of the visceral cavity lie at your feet, save the lower end of the rectum, which is still attached. With a hatchet, if you had one, you would now split the pelvis. The thing can be done with a large knife, if the animal is not too old, by finding the soft suture at the highest part of the bone and rocking the knife- edge on it. But you may not be able to accom- '40 CAMP COOKERY. plish this just now. So reach in with the jack- knife, cut carefully around the rectum and urinary organs, keeping as close to the bone as possible, and free ever^'^thing from the cavity. If water is near, wash out the abdominal cavity and let it drain. To remove the head; flay back the skin for sev- eral inches at base of neck, cut through flesh, etc., to the backbone. Search along this till you find the flat joint between the faces of two vertebrae, separate these as far as you can; then twist the attached part of the body round and round, until it breaks off.* In butchering, save the liver, heart, brain, milt (spleen), kidneys, and the caul fat. The caul is the fold of membrane loaded with fat that covers most of the intestines. In removing the liver you need not bother about a gall-bladder, for a deer has none. Many a tenderfoot has been tricked into looking for it. If one is in a hurry, and is not particular about the hide, he can do his butchering on the ground. In that case, lay the animal on sloping ground, with its head uphill; or bend its back over a log or rock; or turn it on its back with its head twisted around and wedged under one side. In butchering an elk or moose that has antlers, first remove the head. Then turn the body on its back and prop it in position with a couple of three-foot stakes sharpened at both ends, a hole being dug for a moose's withers. Sometimes only the haunches, sirloins, and tongue are saved, these being cut away without skinning or gutting the carcass. *Dircctions how to skin a head for mounting are given in my Camping and Woodcraft, Chap. XIX, DRESSING GAME. 41 Bears are skinned on the ground^ beginning the incisions at the feet and leaving the scalp^ or skin of the whole head_, attached. It is quite a task to flesh the pelts, as they are fatty and greasy. All of the caul fat should be saved for rendering into bear's oil, which is much better and wholesomer than lard. The brain, liver, and milt are good eating. If a hide is to be preserved for some time in a green state, use nothing on it but salt. Spread it out flat, hair side down, stretch the legs, flanks, etc., and rub all parts thoroughly with salt, par- ticular pains being taken to leave no little fold untreated. A moose-hide will take ten or even fifteen pounds of salt. As soon as the salting is done, fold in the legs and roll the hide up. When a deer has merely been eviscerated and is hung up to be skinned, and cut up at a more convenient season, prop open the abdominal cavity with a stick, so that it may dry out quickly. If the weather is warm enough at any hour of the day for flies to come out, keep a smudge going under the carcass. It takes flies but a few minutes to raise Ned with venison. If blows are discov- ered on the meat, remove them, looking especially at all folds and nicks in the meat, and around the bones, for the blows work into such places very quickly. So long as they have not bored into the flesh they do it no harm. It may be said here that even smoked bacon is not immune from blows, and it should not be hung up without a cheesecloth cover. The fly that blows meats is the same that starts "skippers" in cheese. Hornaday gives the following rule, in his Nat- ural History, for computing the live weight of 42 CAMP COOKERY. deer from the dressed weight: Add four ciphers to the dressed weight in pounds, and divide by 78,612; the quotient will be the live weight in pounds. Now for what Shakespeare calls "small deer": I must take issue with Nessmuk on the art of skinning a squirrel. He says: "Chop off head, tail, and feet with the hatchet; cut the skin on the back crosswise, and, inserting the two middle fingers, pull the skin off in two parts (iiead and tail). Clean and cut the squirrel in halves, leav- ing two ribs on the hind quarters." The objec- tion is that, in this case, jou throw away the best part of the squirrel, the cheek meat and brain being its special tid-bits. A better way is this: Sever the tail from be- low, holding your left forefinger close in behind it, and cutting through the vertebrae close up to the body, leaving only the hide on the top side. Then turn the squirrel over and cut a slit down along each ham. Put your foot on the tail, hold the rear end of the squirrel in your hand, and pull, stripping the skin off to the fore legs. Peel the skin from the hind legs, and cut off the feet. Then cut off the fore feet. Skin to the neck; assist here a little with the knife; then skin to the ears; cut off the butts of the ears ; then skin till the blue of the eyeballs shows, and cut ; then to the nose till the teeth show, and cut it off. Thus you get no hair on the meat, and the whole thing is done in less than a minute. Turkeys, geese, ducks, and grouse are usually dry picked. If this could be done while the bodies were still warm, it would be no job at all; but after they are cold it generally results in a good deal of laceration of the skin — so much so DRESSING GAME. 43 that sometimes the disgusted operator gives up and skins the whole bird. It would be better to scald them first, like chickens. In dry picking, hang the bird up by one leg, pluck first the pinions and tail feathers; then the small feathers from shanks and inside of thighs ; then the others. Grasp only a few feathers at a time between finger and thumb, as close to the skin as possible, and pull quickly toward the head. Then pick out all pin-feathers and quills. Singe the down off quickly, so as not to give an oily appearance to the skin. Ordi- narily the down can be removed from a duck's breast by grasping the bird by the neck and giv- ing one sweep of the open hand down one side of the body and then one down the other. In pluck- ing geese or ducks some use finely powdered resin to remove the pin-feathers. The bird is plucked dry, then rubbed all over with the resin, dipped in and out of boiling water seven or eight times, and then the pin-feathers and down are easily rubbed off. To draw a bird: cut off the head, and the legs at the first joint. Make a lengthwise slit on back at base of neck and sever neck bone close to body, also the membrane which holds the wind- pipe. Make a lengthwise incision from breast- bone to (and around) the vent, so you can easily draw the insides, which must be done carefully, so as not to rupture the gall-bladder. The idea that ducks and other game birds should hang until they smell badly is monstrous. If you want to know where such tastes originated, read the annals of medieval sieges. A small trout is easily cleaned by tearing out the gills with thumb and forefinger and drawing the inside out with them. In a large trout the '44> CAMP COOKERY. gills should be cut free from the lower jaw and back of head^ and a slit cut along the under side from head to fin; the inside is then drawn out by the gills^ leaving the fish clean within. To scale a fish: grasp it by the head, and, using a knife that is not over-keen, scale first one side and then the other, with swift, steady sweeps to- ward you. The scales below the gills, and those near the fins, are removed by moving the point of the knife crosswise to the fish's length. Next place the knife just below the belly fin and with a slant stroke cut off this, the side fins, and the head, all in one piece. Then remove the back fin, and the spines beneath it, by making a deep incision on each side of the fin and pulling the latter out. The ventral part is removed in the same way. Open the fish, wash it in cold water, scrape off the slime, and then wipe it dry with a clean cloth or towel. Large fish, for broiling, should be split open along the back and the spine removed. Some fish, such as yellow perch, are better skinned than scaled. Grasp the fish firmly, belly down. Cut across the nape of the neck, run the point of the knife along the back to the tail, and on each side of the back fin. Remove the fin by catching lower end between thumb and knife blade and pulling smartly upward toward the head. Skin each side by, seizing between thumb and knife the flap of skin at nape and jerking outward and downward; then the rest, by grasping skin as near the vent as possible and tearing quickly down to the tail, bring away the anal fin. Remove the head and the entrails will come with it. Trout and pickerel should be scraped free of slime. To skin a bullhead: cut off the ends of the DRESSING GAME. 45 spines, slit the skin behind and around the head, and then from this point along tlie Lack to the tail, cutting around the back iin. Then peel the two corners of the skin well down, sever the back- bone, and, holding to the corners of the skin with one hand, pull the fish's body free from the skin with the other. To skin an eel: nail it up by the tail at a con- venient height, or impale it thus on the sharpened end of a little stake ; cut through the skin, around the body, just forward of the tail, work its edges loose, then pull, stripping off the skin entire. If preferred, the skin can be scalded. Venison keeps a long time without curing, if the climate is cool and dry. To cure a deer's • ham, hang it up by the shank, divide the muscles just above the hock, and insert a handful of dry salt. The meat of the deer tribe gets more tender and better flavored the longer it is hung up. In warm weather dust flour all over a haunch or sad- dle of venison, sew it up in a loose bag of cheese- cloth, and hang it in a shady place where there is a current of air. It will keep sweet for several weeks, if there is no crevice in the bag through which insects can penetrate. Ordinarily it is best not to salt meat, for salt draws the juices. Bear meat, however, requires much salt to cure it — more than any other game animal. Hornaday recommends the following recipe for curing veni- son: — The proportions of the mixture I use are: Salt 3 lbs., Allspice 4 table-spoonfuls, Black Pepper ... 5 " " all thoroughly mixed. Take a ham of deer, elk, or mountain sheep, or fall- killed mountain goat, and as soon as possible after 46 CAMP COOKERY. killing, dissect the thigh, muscle by muscle. Any one can learn to do this by following up with the knife the natural divisions between the muscles. With big game like elk, some of the muscles of the thigh are so thick they require to be split in two. A piece of meat should not exceed five inches in thickness. Skin off all enveloping membranes, so that the curative powder will come in direct contact with the raw, moist flesh. The flesh must be sufficiently fresh and moist that the pre- servative will readily adhere to it. The best size for pieces of meat to be cured by this process is not over a foot long, by six or eight inches wide and four inches thick. When each piece has been neatly and skilfully pre- pared rub the powder upon every part of the sur- face, and let the mixture adhere as much as it will. Then hang up each piece of meat, by a string through a hole in the smaller end, and let it dry in the wind. If the sun is hot, keep the meat in the shade; but in the North the sun helps the process. Never let the meat get wet. If the weather is rainy for a long period, hang your meat-rack where it will get heat from the camp- fire, but no more smoke than is unavoidable, and cover it at night with a piece of canvas. Meat thus prepared is not at its best for eating until it is about a month old; then slice it thin. After that no sportsman, or hunter, or trapper can get enough of it. . . . No; this is not "jerked" meat. It is many times bet- ter. It is always eaten uncooked, and as a concen- trated, stimulating food for men in the wilds it is val- uable. (Hornaday. Camp-fires in the Canadian Rockies, 301- 203.) It is a curious fact that blow-flies work close to the ground_, and will seldom meddle with meat that is hung more than ten feet above the grpund. Game or fish suspended at a height of twenty feet will be immune from "blows." To keep fish that must be carried some distance, in hot weather: clean them as soon as you can after they are caught^ and tcipe them dry. Then rub a little salt along their backbones, but nowhere else. Do not pile them touching each other, but DRESSING GAME. 47 between layers of cheesecloth^ nettles, or basswood leaves. To keep fish in camp: scale, clean, and behead them; then string them by a cord through their tails and hang them, head down, in a shady, dry, breezy place. Never use fish that have been ly- ing in the sun or that have begun to soften. Ptomaine poisoning works in a mysterious but ef- fectual way. To dry fish for future use: split them along the back, remove the backbones and entrails, salt the fish, and hang them up on a frame over a smudge until they are well smoked. Or, make a trough by hewing out a softwood log, place the split fish in this, and cover them with a weak brine for one or two nights. Make a conical bark tepee on a tripod, suspend the fish in it, and dry and smoke them over a small fire for three days and nights. To ship rabbits, squirrels, etc. : do not skin them, but remove the entrails, wipe the insides perfectly dry, wrap in paper, and pack them back down. Never pack birds or fish in straw or grass with- out ice, for in damp or warm weather this will heat or sweat them. Do not let them freeze, as they will quickly spoil after thawing. Food in a bird's crop soon sours; the crop should be re- moved. To preserve birds in warm weather for ship- ment: draw them, wash the inside perfectly clean, dry thoroughly, and then take pieces of charcoal from the fireplace, wrap them in a thin rag, and fill the abdominal cavity with this. Also fill the bill, ears, eyes, and anal opening with powdered charcoal, to keep off flies and prevent putrefac- tion. Reject all pieces of charcoal tliat are only 48 CAMP COOKERY. half-burnt or have the odor of creosote. Birds stuffed in this way will keep sweet for a week in hot weather. If you pack birds or fish in ice, wrap them first in many thicknesses of paper or grass, so that no ice can touch them. CHAPTER V. MEAT. THE main secrets of good meals in camp are to have a proper fire, good materials, and then to imprison in each dish, at the out- set, its natural juice and characteristic flavor. To season fresh camp dishes as a French chef would is a blunder of the first magnitude. The raw materials used in city cuisine are often of inferior quality, from keeping in cold storage or with chemical preservatives ; so their insipidity must be corrected by spices, herbs, and sauces to make them eatable. In cheap restaurants and boarding houses, where the chef's skill is lacking, "all things taste alike" from having been penned up together in a refrigerator and cooked in a fetid atmosphere. In my chapter on Provisions I advised that a few condiments be taken along, but these are mostly for seasoning left-overs or for desserts — not for fresh meat, unless we have but one kind, to the surfeiting point. In the woods our fish is freshly caught, our game has hung out of doors, and the water and air used in cooking (most im- portant factors) are sweet and pure. Such viands need no masking. The only seasoning required is with pepper and salt, to be used sparingly, and not added (except in soups and stews) until the 49 50 CAMP COOKERY. dish is nearly or quite done. Remember this: salt draws the juices. The juices of meats and fish are their most palatable and nutritious ingredients. We extract them purposely in making soups^ stews, and gravies, but in so doing we ruin the meat itself. Any fish, flesh, or fowl that is fit to be eaten for the good meat's sake should be cooked succulent, by first coagulating the outside (searing in a bright flame or in a very hot pan, or plunging into smok- ing hot grease or furiouslj^^ boiling water) and then removing farther from the fire to cook grad- ually till done. The first process, which is quickly performed, is "the surprise." It sets the juices, and, in the case of frying, seals the fish or meat in a grease-proof envelope so that it will not be- come sodden but will dry crisp when drained. The horrors of the frying-pan that has been unskill- fully wielded are too well known. Let us camp- ers, to whom the frying-pan is an almost indis- pensable utensil, set a good example to our grease- afflicted country by using it according to the code of health and epicurean taste. Meat, game, and fish may be fried, broiled, roasted, baked, boiled, stewed, or steamed. Frying and broiling are the quickest processes; roasting, baking, and boiling take an hour or two; a stew of meat and vegetables, to be good, takes half a day, and so does soup prepared from the raw ma- terials. Tough meat should be boiled or braised in a pot. FRYING. Do not try to fry over a flaming fire or a deep bed of coals ; the grease would likely burn and catch aflame. Rake a thin layer of coals out in MEAT. 51 front of the fire; or, for a quick meal, make your fire of small dry sticks, no thicker than your fin- ger, boil water for your coffee over the flame, and then fry over the quickly formed coals. If you have a deep pan and plenty of frying fat, it is much the best to immerse the material completely in boiling grease, as doughnuts are fried. Let the fat boil until little jets of smoke arise (being careful not to burn the grease). When fat begins to smoke continuously it is de- composing and will impart an acrid taste. When a bread crumb dropped in will be crisp when taken out, the fat is of the right temperature. Then quickly drop in small pieces of the material, one at a time so as not to check the heat. Turn them once while cooking. Remove when done, and drop them a moment on coarse paper to absorb sur- plus grease, or hang them over a row of small sticks so they can drain. Then season. The fry will be crisp, and^ dry enough to handle without soiling the fingers. This is the way for small fish. Travelers must generally get along with shal- low pans and little grease. To fry (or, properly, to saute) in this manner, without getting the ar- ticle sodden and unfit for the stomach, heat the dry pan very hot, and then grease it only enough to keep the meat from sticking (fat meat needs none). The material must be dry when put in the pan (wipe fish with a tow:el) or it will absorb grease. Cook quickly and turn frequently, not jabbing with a fork for tliat would let juice es- cape. Season when done, and serve piping hot. Fat used for frying fish must not be used again for anything but fish. Surplus fat can be kept 52 CAMP COOKERY. in a baking powder can, sealed, for transit, with surgeon's plaster. Chops, fat meats, squirrels, rabbits, and the smaller game birds are best sauted or fricasseed and served with gravy. A fricassee is made of meat or birds cut into small pieces, fried or stewed, and served with gravy. Sausage should be fried over a very gentle fire. BROILING. Fresh meat that is tender enough to escape the boiling pot or the braising oven should either be broiled or roasted before a bed of clear, hard coals. Both of these processes preserve the char- acteristic flavor of the meat and add that piquant, aromatic-bitter "fraste of the fire" which no pan nor oven can impart. Broil when you are in a hurry, but when you have leisure for a good job, roast your meat, basting it frequently with drip- pings from the pan below, so as to keep the sur- face moist and flexible and insure that precise de- gree of browning which delights a gourmet. For broiling, cut the meat at least an inch thick. Only tender pieces are fit for broiling. Venison usually requires some pounding, but don't gash it in doing so. Have a bed of bright coals free from smoke, with clear flaming fire to one side. Sear outside of meat by thrusting for a moment in the flame and turning; then broil be- fore the fire, rather than over it, so as to catch drippings in a pan underneath. Do not season until done. A steak 1 inch thick should be broiled five minutes, I^ inches ten minutes, 2 inches twenty minutes. Serve on hot dish with drippings poured over, or buttered. To broil enough for a party, when you have no MEAT. 53 broiler, clean the frying-pan thoroughly and get it almost red hot, so as to seal joores of meat instantly. Cover pan. Turn meat often, without stabbing. A large venison steak will be done in ten minutes. Put on hot dish, season with pepper and salt, and pour juices over it. Equal to meat broiled on a gridiron, and saves the juices. To broil by completely covering the slice of meat with hot ashes and embers is a very good way. To grill on a rock, take two large flat stones of a kind that do not burst from heat (not moist ones), wipe them clean of grit, place them one above the other, with a few pebbles between to keep them apart, and build a fire around them. When they are well heated, sweep away the ashes, and place your slices of meat between the stones. Before broiling fish on an iron they should be buttered and floured to prevent sticking; or, grease the broiler. ROASTING. To roast is to cook by the direct heat of the fire, as on a spit or before a high bed of coals. Baking is performed in an oven, pit, or closed vessel. No kitchen range can compete with an open fire for roasting. Build a rather large fire of split hardwood (softwoods are useless) against a high backlog or wall of rocks which will reflect the heat forward. Sear the outside of the roast (not a bird or fish) in clear flames until outer layer of albumen is coagulated. Then skewer thin slices of pork to upper end; hang roast before fire and close to it by a stout wet cord; turn frequently; catch drip- pings in pan or green-bark trough, and baste with them. This is better than roasting on a spit over 54 CAMP COOKERY. the fire, because the heat can be better regulated, the meat turned and held in position more easily, the roast ij not smoked, and the drippings are utilized. Just before the meat is done, baste it and sprin- kle with flour, then brown it near the fire, and make gravy as directed on page 62. A whole side of venison can be roasted by plant- ing two stout forked stakes before the fire, a stub of each stake being thrust through a slit cut be- tween the ribs and under the backbone. The for- ward part of the saddle is the best roasting piece. Trim off flanky parts and ends of ribs, and split backbone lengthwise so that the whole will hang flat. To roast a shoulder, peel it from the side, cut off leg at knee, gash thickest part of flesh, press bits of pork into them, and skewer some slices to upper part. When roasting a large joint, a turkey, or any- thing else that will require more than an hour of steady heat, do not depend upon adding wood from time to time, unless you have a good supply of sound, dry hardwood sticks of stove-wood size. If green wood or large sticks must be used, build a bonfire of them at one side of your cooking-fire, and shovel coals from it as required. It will not do to check the cooking-fire. Kabobs. — When in a hurry, cut a l^^ o^ 2 inch portion from the saddle or other tender part, break up the fiber by pounding, unless the animal was young, and divide the meat into several small frag- ments. Impale one of these on a sharpened stick, salt and pepper it, plunge it for a moment into a clear bright flame, then toast it slowly over the embers. Salt, in this case, is glazed on the sur- MEAT. 55 face and cannot draw the juice. While eating one bit, toast another. Roasting in the Reflector, — Pin thin slices of pork or bacon over the roast. Put a little water in the bake-pan, lay the meat in, and set the baker before the fire. Baste occasionally. When the front is done, reverse the pan'. Make gravy from the drippings. Barbecueing, — To barbecue is to roast an ani- mal whole, and baste it frequently with a special dressing, for which the following recipe is bor- rowed from Frank Bates: One pint of vinegar, half a can of tomatoes, two tea- spoonfuls of red pepper (chopped pepper-pods are bet- ter), a teaspoonful of black pepper, same of salt, two tablespoonfuls of butter. Simmer together till it is com- pletely amalgamated. Have a bit of clean cloth or sponge tied on the end of a stick, and keep the meat well basted with the dressing as long as it is on the fire. BRAISING. Tough meat is improved by braising in a Dutch oven, or a covered pot or saucepan. This process lies between baking and frying. It is pre-emi- nently the way to cook bear meat, venison shoul- ders and rounds. Put the meat in the oven or pot with about two inches of hot water in the bot- tom, and a bit of bacon or pork (but not for bear). Add some chopped onion, if desired, for seasoning. Cover and cook about fifteen minutes to the pound. A half hour before the meat is done, sea- son it with salt and pepper. The gravy is made by pouring the grease from the pot, adding a little water and salt, and rubbing flour into it gradually with a spoon. BAKING MEAT. Baking in a Hole. — This is a modification of 56 CAMP COOKERY. braising. Dig a hole in the ground^ say 18x18x12 inches. Place kindling in it^ and over the hole build a cob house by laying split hardwood sticks across, not touching each other, then another course over these and at right angles to them, and so on till you have a stack two feet high. Set fire to it. The air will circulate freely, and the sticks, if of uniform size, will all burn down to coals together. Cut the fowl, or whatever it is, in pieces, sea- son, add a chunk of fat pork the size of your fist, put in the kettle, pour in enough water to cover, put lid on kettle, rake coals out of hole, put kettle in, shovel coals around and over it, cover all with a few inches of earth, and let it alone over night. It beats a bake-oven. In case of rain, cover with bark. Experiment with this two or three times before you risk much on it; for the right heat and the time required can only be learned by experience. Baking an Animal in its Hide. — If the beast is too large to bake entire, cut off what you want and sew it up in a piece of the hide. In this case it is best to have the hole lined with flat stones. Rake out embers, put meat in, cover first with green grass or leaves, then with the hot coals and ashes, and build a fire on top. When done, re- move the skin. A deer's head is placed in the pit, neck down, and baked in the same way: time about six hours. Baking in Clay. — This hermetically seals the meat while cooking, and is better than baking in a kettle, but requires experience. Draw the ani- mal, but leave the skin and hair on. If it be a large bird, as a duck or goose, cut off head and most of neck, also feet and pinions, pull out tail MEAT. 57 feathers and cut tail off (to get rid of oil sac), but leave smaller feathers on. If a fish, do not scale. Moisten and work some clay till it is like softened putty. Roll it out in a sheet an inch or two thick and large enough to completely encase the animal. Cover the latter so that no feather or hair projects. Place in fire and cover with good bed of coals and let it remain with fire burning on top for about % of an hour, if a medium fish or bird. Larger animals require more time, and had best be placed in bake-hole over night. When done, break open the hard casing of baked clay. The skin peels off with it, leaving the meat perfectly clean and baked to perfection in its own juices. This method has been practiced for ages by the gypsies and other primitive peoples. Frank Bates recommends another way: "Have a pail of water in which stir clay until it is of the consistency of thick porridge or whitewash. Take the bird by the feet and dip into the water. The clay will gather on and between the feathers. Repeat till the bird is a mass of clay. Lay this in the ashes, being careful to dry the outside. . . . Bake till the clay is almost burned to a brick." Baking in the Embers. — To bake a fish, clean it — if it is large enough to be emptied through a hole in the neck, do not slit the belly — season with salt and pepper, and, if liked, stuff with In- dian meal. Have ready a good bed of glowing hardwood coals ; cover it with a thin layer of ashes, that the fish may not be burnt. Lay the fish on this, and cover it with more ashes and coals. Half an hour, more or less, is required, accord- ing to size. On removing the fish, pull off the skin, and the flesh will be found clean and palat- able. 58 CAMP COOKERY. A bird^ for example a duck, is baked in much the same way. Draw it, but do not remove the feathers. If you like stuffed duck, stuff with bread crumbs or broken biscuit, well seasoned with salt and pepper. Wet the feathers by dip- ping the bird in water; then bury it in the ashes and coals. A teal will require about half an hour; other birds in proportion. BOILING. The broader the pot, and the blacker it is, the quicker it boils. Fresh meats should be started in boiling water; salt or corned meats, and those in- tended for stews or soups, in cold water. The meat (except hams) should be cut into chunks of not over five pounds each, and soup bones well cracked. Watch during first half hour, and skim off all scum as fast as it rises, or it will settle and adhere to meat. Fresh meat should be boiled un- til bones are free, or until a fork will pierce easily (ten pounds take about two and a half hours). Save the broth for soup-stock, or make gravy of it by seasoning with pepper and thickening with flour. (See page 62.) Meat that is to be eaten cold should be allowed to cool in the liquor in which it was boiled. A tablespoonful or two of vinegar added to the boil- ing water makes meat more tender and fish firmer. Turn the meat several times while boiling. If the water needs replenishing, do it with boiling, not cold, water. Season a short time before meat is done. If vegetables are to be cooked with the meat, add them at such time that they will just finish cooking when the meat is done (potatoes twenty to thirty minutes before the end; carrots and turnips, sliced, one to one and a half hours). MEAT. 59 Remember this: put fresh meat in hard boiling water for only five minutes^ to set the juices; then remove to greater height over the fire and boil very slowly — to let it boil hard all the time would make it tough and indigestible. Salt or corned meats go in cold water at the start and are gradu- ally brought to a boil; thereafter they should be allowed barely to simmer. Fish go in boiling salted water. Boiling meat must be kept covered. At high altitudes it is impossible to cook satis- factorily by boilings because water boils at a lower and lower temperature the higher we climb. The decrease is at the rate of about one degree for every 550 feet up to one mile, and one degree for 560 feet above that, when the temperature is 70°. With the air at 32° F., and the barometer at 30 inches, water boils at 212° at sea-level, 202.5° at 5,000 feet, 193.3° at 10,000 feet, and 184.5° at 15,000 feet. These figures vary somewhat accord- ing to the purity of the water, the material of the vessel, etc. To parboil is to boil only until tender, before cooking in some other way. STEWING. This process is slow, and should be reserved for tough meats. Use lean meat only. First brown it with some hot fat in a frying-pan; or jDut a couple of ounces of chopped pork in a kettle and get it thoroughly hot; cut your meat into small pieces; drop them into the fat and "jiggle" the kettle until the surface of the meat is coagulated by the hot fat, being careful, the while, not to burn it. Add a thickening of a couple of ounces of flour and mix it thoroughly with the fat; then a pint of water or soup-stock. Heat the contents 60 CAMP COOKERY. of the kettle to boiling and season with salt, Pep- per, and chopped onion. Curry powder, if you like it, is proper in a stew. Now cover the kettle closely and hang it where it will only simmer for four or five hours. Stews may be thickened with rice, potatoes, or oatmeal, as well as with flour. Add condiments to suit the taste. A ragout is nothing but a highly seasoned stew. The greater the variety of meats and vegetables, the better. The method given above is the one I have fol- lowed; but I take the liberty of adding another by Captain Kenealy: Stewing is an admirable way of making palatable coarse and tough pieces of meat, but it requires the knack, like all other culinary processes. Have a hot fry- pan ready, cut the meat up into small squares and put it (without any dripping or fat) into the pan. Let it brown well, adding a small quantity of granulated sugar and sliced onions to taste. Cook until the onions are tender and well colored. Then empty the fry-pan into a stew-pan and add boiling water to cover the meat, and let it simmer gently for two or three hours. Flavor with salt, pepper, sweet herbs, curry powder or what you will. The result will be a savory dish of tender meat, called by the French a ragout. It is easy to prepare it this way. Do not boil it furiously as is sometimes done, or it will become tough. This dish may be thickened with browned flour, and vegetables may be added — turnips, carrots, celery, etc., cut into small pieces and browned with the meat. The sugar improves the flavor vastly. The only condiments actually necessary are pepper and salt. Other flavorings are luxuries. STEAMING. To steam meat or vegetables: build a large fire and throw on it a number of smooth stones, not of the bomb-shell kind. Dig a hole in the ground near the fire. When the stones are red hot, fork them into the hole, level them, cover with green or wet leaves, grass, or branches, place the meat or potatoes on this layer, cover with more leaves,' MEAT. 61 and then cover all with a good layer of earth. Now bore a small hole down to the food, pour in some water, and immediately stop up the hole, letting the food steam until tender. This is the Chinook method of cooking camass. Shellfish can be steamed in the same way. MEAT GRAVIES AND SAUCES. A gravy is seasoned with nothing but salt and pepper, the object being to preserve the flavor of the meat. A sauce is highly seasoned to dis- guise poor meat, or made-over dishes, or whatever has been served so often that it begins to pall on the appetite. An abundance of rich gravy is relished by campers who do not carry butter. They have nothing else to make their bread "slip down." Good gravy cannot be made from meat that has been fried properly or broiled, because the juice is left in the meat. Our pioneer families seldom had butter, yet they had to eat a much larger component of bread than we do, from lack of side dishes. Hence the "fried-to-a-chip" school of cookery. In such case, the right way is obvious, granting that you have plenty of meat. Fry properly enough meat for the party and leave enough more in the pan to make gravy. Gash or mince this remainder, cook all the juice out of it without scorching, throw out the refuse meat, rub in a thickening prepared in advance as directed below, salt and pepper, then thin to the desired con- sistency with boiling water. The thickening is made by rubbing cold milk, or water, or broth, a little at a time, into a spoonful of flour, until a smooth paste is formed that will just drop from a 62 CAMP COOKERY. spoon; or thicken with roux. Chopped liver im^ proves a gravy. Roux (pronounced "roo") is a thickening for gravy or soups that can be prepared at any time and kept ready for emergencies. It will keep good for months in a covered jar. A teaspoonful thickens half a pint of gravy, or a pint of soup. Brown roux is made thus: Melt slowly ^ lb. of butter, skim it well, let it stand for a minute to settle, and pour it off from the curd. Put the clear oily butter into a pan over a slow fire, shake into it enough sifted flour (7 or 8 oz.) to make a thick paste. Stir constantly and heat slowly and evenly until it is very thick and of a bright brown color. Put it into a jar. White roux is made in the same way except that it is stirred over a very gentle fire until it is thor- oughly baked but not browned. It is used for white gravy on fish, etc. Gravy for Boiled Meat. — Some of the liquor in which the meat was cooked can be thickened by melting a piece of butter the size of a small ^gg, mixing with it very smoothly a tablespoonful of flour, heating until lightly browned, adding the meat liquor and letting it boil up. Flavor to taste and serve separately from the meat. Gravy for Roast Meat. — Use the drippings as above, and thin with boiling water in which half a teaspoonful of salt has been dissolved. Dripping is the fat that drops from meat when roasting. Gravy from Extract of Beef. — When there is no venison in camp, it will not be long before the men crave the taste of beef. Liebig's extract dis- solved in boiling water and liberally salted will make a good beef gravy by letting it boil up, MEAT. 63 then simmer, and thicken in one of the ways de- scribed above. Cream Gravy for Meat or Fish. — 14 pint milk. 1 tablespoonful butter. Yo tablespoonful flour. yo tablespoonful salt. l^ tablespoonful pepper. Heat butter in frying-pan. Add flour, stirring until smooth and frothy. Draw pun back and gradually stir in the milk. Then return the pan to the fire. Add salt and pepper. Stir until sauce boils. This must be used at once, and everybody's plate should be hot, of course. Sauces. — A camp cook nearly always lacks the sweet herbs, fresh parsley, mushrooms, capers, anchovies, shrimps, tarragon, wine, and many other condiments to which standard sauces owe their characteristic flavors. He must make shift with spices and perhaps lemon, Worcestershire, vinegar, mustard, curry powder, or celery seed. How to use these to the best advantage cannot be taught in a book. Personal tastes and the materials at hand must govern. I give here the recipes for three simple sauces for meat. Others will be found in the chapters on Game, Fish, and Desserts. Mustard Sauce. — Brown two teaspoonfuls of flour in a pan with a little butter. Put two table- spoonfuls of butter on a plate and blend with it the browned flour, a teaspoonful of mustard, and a little salt. When these are smoothly mixed stir them into ^ pint boiling water. Simmer five minutes. Add enough vinegar or lemon juice to flavor. Venison Sauce. — Stir together one tablespoonful of butter with a teaspoonful of mustard and three 64j camp cookery. tablespoonfuls of jelly (preferably currant). When these are well blended^, add three table- spoonfuls of vinegar, some grated nutmeg, and a dash of Cayenne pepper. Heat together. When the sauce boils add three tablespoonfuls chopped pickles. Serve at once. Currant jelly alone goes well with venison. Sauce for Broiled Venison. — Make the steak-dish very hot. Put on it for each pound of venison ^ tablespoonful of butter, a tablespoonful of cur- rant jelly, one of boiling water, and a little pep- per and salt. Turn the broiled steaks in the sauce once or twice and serve verv hot. CHAPTER VI. GAME. THE following additional details are sup- plementary to what has gone before, and presuppose a careful reading of the pre- ceding pages. Game and all other kinds of fresh meat should be hung up till they have bled thoroughly and have cooled through and through — they are ten- derer and better after they have hung several days. Venison especially is tough until it has hung a week. In no case cook meat until the animal heat has left it: if you do, it is likely to sicken jou. This does not ai3ply'to fish. Frozen meat or fish should be thawed in very cold water and then cooked immediately — warm water would soften it and steal its flavor. All mammals from the coon size down, as well as duck and grouse, unless young and tender, or unless they have hung several days, should be parboiled (gently simmered) from ten to thirty minutes, according to size, before frying, broiling, or roasting. The scent glands of mammals and the oil sacs of birds should be removed before cooking. In small mammals look for pea-shaped, waxy or red kernels under the front legs and on either side of the small of the back. As game has little natural fat, it requires fre- quent basting and the free use of butter or bftcon grease in cooking. 65 66 CAMP COOKERY, VENISON. (Deer of all species, elk, moose, caribou.) Fried Venison. — See page 50. Broiled Venison. — See page 53. Roast Venison. — See page 53, Braised Venison.' — See page 55. Baked Venison. — See page 55. Boiled Venison. — See page 58. Stewed Venison. — See page 59. Steamed Venison. — See page 60. Baked Deer's Head. — See page 56. Deer's Brains. — Fry them; or boil slowly half an hour. Heart. — Remove valves and tough, fibrous tis- sue; then braise_, or cut into small pieces and use in soups or stews. Kidneys. — Soak in cold water one hour. Cut into small pieces, and drop each piece into cold water, as cut. Wash well; then stew, seasoning with onion, celery seed, cloves, salt, pepper. Liver. — Carefully remove gall-bladder, if the animal has one — deer have none. Parboil the liver and skim off the bitter scum that rises; then fry with bacon; or put the liver on a spit, skewer some of the caul fat around it, and roast before the fire ; or cut the liver into slices ^ inch thick, soak it one hour in cold salt water, rinse well in warm water, wipe dry, dip each slice in flour seasoned with salt and pepper, and fry. Marrow Bones. — Cover ends with small pieces of plain dough made with flour and water, over which tie a floured cloth; place bones upright in kettle, and cover with boiling water. Boil two hours. Remove cloth and paste, push out mar- row, and serve with dry toast. Milt (Spleen). — Skewer a piece of bacon to it, and broil. GAME. 67 Moose Muffle. — Boil like pig's head. Add an onion. Tongue. — Soak for one hour; rinse in fresh water; put in a kettle of cold water, bring to a boil, skim, and simmer two hours, or until tender. A blade of mace and a clove or two improve the gravy; so also Worcestershire sauce. Venison Sausages. — Utilize the tougher parts of the deer, or other game, by mincing the raw meat with half as much salt pork, season with pepper and sage, make into little j)ats, and fry like sausages. Very good. Game Pot Fie. — Take % teaspoonful baking powder to 1^ pint of flour, sift together, and add a teaspoonful lard or butter by rubbing it in, also a pinch of salt. Make a soft biscuit dough of this, handling as little as possible and being careful not to mix too thin. Roll into a sheet and cut into strips about I'^/o inch wide and 3 inches long, cutting two or three little holes through each to let steam escape. Meantime you have been boil- ing meat or game and have sliced some potatoes. When the meat is within one-half hour of being done, pour off the broth into another vessel and lift out most of the meat. Place a layer of meat and potatoes in bottom of kettle, and partially cover with strips of the dough; then another layer of meat and vegetables, another of dough, and so on until the pot is nearly full, topping off with dough. Pour the hot broth over this, cover tightly, and boil one-half hour, without lifting the pot cover, which, by admitting cold air, would make the dough "sad." Parsley helps the pot, when you can get it. Dumplings. — These add zest to a stew or to boiled meat of any kind. Plain dumplings are 68 CAMP COOKERY. made of biscuit dough or the batter of dropped biscuit (recipes in chapter on Bread). Drop them into the pot a short time before meat is done. See also page 117. Bear, Braised. — See page 55. SMALL GAME. Jamholaya. — This is a delicious Creole dish, easily prepared. Cut up any kind of small game into joints, and stew them. When half done, add some minced ham or bacon, 14 pi^^ rice, and sea- son with pepper and salt. If rabbit is used, add onions. Serve with tomatoes as a sauce. Brunswick Stew. — This famous huntsman's dish of the Old Dominion is usually prepared with squirrels, but other game will serve as well. The ingredients, besides squirrels, are: 1 qt. can tomatoes, * 1 pt. can butter beans or limas, 1 pt. can green corn, 6 potatoes, parboiled and sliced, 14 lb. butter, 1/2 lb. salt pork (fat), 1 teaspoonful black pepper, 14 teaspoonful Cayenne, 1 tablespoonful salt, 2 tablespoonfuls white sugar, 1 onion, minced small. Soak the squirrels half an hour in cold salted water. Add the salt to one gallon of water, and boil five minutes. Then put in the onion, beans, corn, pork (cut in fine strips), potatoes, pepper, and squirrels. Cover closely, and stew very slowly two and a half hours, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Add the tomatoes and sugar and stew an hour longer. Then add the butter, cut into bits the size of a walnut and rolled in flour. Boil ten minutes. Then serve at once. GAME. 69 Curry of Game. — Cut some birds or other small game into rather small joints. P'ry until lightly- browned. Score each joint slightly, place a lit- tle curry powder in each opening, and squeeze lemon juice over it. Cover the joints with brown gravy and simmer gently for twenty minutes. Serve with rice around the dish. (See also Curry Sauce, page 80.) Game Pie. — Make a plain pie crust as directed in the chapter on Desserts. Cut the game into joints. Season rather highly. Moisten the joints with melted butter and lemon juice, or put a few thin strips of bacon in with them. Cover with top crust like a fruit pie and bake not too long; time according to size. Squirrels, Fried. — Unless they are young, par- boil them gently for ^2 hour in salted water. Then fry in butter or pork grease until brown. A dash of curry powder when frying is begun im- proves them, unless you dislike curry. Make gravy as directed on page C3. Squirrels, Broiled. — Use only young ones. Soak in cold salted water for an hour, wipe dry, and broil over the coals with a slice of bacon laid over each squirrel to baste it. Squirrels, Stewed. — They are best this way, or fricasseed. For directions see pages 59 and 52. Squirrels, Barbecued. — Build a hardwood fire between two large logs lying about two feet apart. At each end of the fire drive two forked stakes about fifteen inches apart, so that the four stakes will form a rectangle, like the legs of a table. The forks should all be about eighteen inches above the ground. Choose young, tender squirrels (if old ones must be used, parboil them until tender but not soft). Prepare spits by cutting 70 CAMP COOKERY. stout switches of some wood that does not burn easily (sassafras is best — beware of poison sumach), peel them, sharpen the points, and har- den them by thrusting for a few moments under the hot ashes. Impale each squirrel by thrusting a spit through flank, belly, and shoulder, on one side, and another spit similarly on the other side, spreading out the sides, and, if necessary, cutting through the ribs, so that the squirrel will lie open and flat. Lay two poles across the fire from crotch to crotch of the posts, and across these lay your spitted squirrels. As soon as these are heated through, begin basting with a piece of pork on the end of a switch. Turn the squirrels as re- quired. Cook slowly, tempering the heat, if need- ful, by scattering ashes thinly over the coals; but remove the ashes for a final browning. When the squirrels are done, butter them and gash a little that the juices may flow. Rabbit, or Hare. — Remove the head; skin and draw, cut out the waxy glands under the front legs where they j oin the body ; soak in cold salted water for one hour; rinse in fresh cold water and wipe dry. For frying, select only young rabbits, or par- boil first with salt and pepper. Cut off legs at body joint, and cut the back into three pieces. Sprinkle with flour and fry brown on both sides. Remove rabbit to a dish kept hot over a few coals. Make a gravy as follows: Put into the pan a small onion previously parboiled and minced and add one cup boiling water. Stir in gradually one or two tablespoonfuls of browned flour; stir well, and let it boil one minute. Season with pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Pour it over the rabbit. GAME. 71 To roast in reflector: cut as above, lay a slice of pork on each piece, and baste frequently. The rabbit may be roasted whole before the fire. To bake in an oven: stuff with a dressing made of bread crumbs, the heart and liver (previously parboiled in a small amount of water), some fat salt pork, and a small onion, all minced and mixed together, seasoned with pepper, salt, and nutmeg, and slightly moistened with the water in which heart and liver were parboiled. Sew up the open- ing closely; rub butter or dripping over rabbit, dredge with flour, lay thin slices of fat pork on back, and place it in j^an or Dutch oven, back uppermost. Pour into pan a pint or more of boil- ing water (or stock, if you have it), and bake with very moderate heat, one hour, basting every few minutes if in pan, but not if in Dutch oven. Prepare a gravy with the pot juice, as directed above. Rabbit is good stewed with onion, nutmeg, pep- per, and salt for seasoning. Also curried, after the manner already described. Rabbits are unfit to eat in late summer, as their backs are then infested with w^arbles, which are the larvae of the rabbit bot-fly. Possum. — To call our possum an opossum, out- side of a scientific treatise, is an affectation. Pos- sum is his name wherever he is known and hunted, this country over. He is not good until you have freezing weather; nor is he to be served without sweet potatoes, except in desperate extremity. This is how to serve "possum hot." — Stick him, and hang him up to bleed until morn- ing. A tub is half filled with hot water (not quite scalding) into which drop the possum and hold him by the tail until the hair will strip. Take 72 CAMP COOKERY. him out. lay him on a plank^ and pull the hair out with your fingers. Draw^ clean^ and hang him up to freeze for two or three nights. Then place him in a 5 -gall on kettle of cold water, into which throw two pods of red pepper. Parboil for one hour in this pepper-water, which is then thrown out and the kettle refilled with fresh water, wherein he is boiled one hour. While this is going on, slice and steam some sweet potatoes. Take the possum out, place him in a large Dutch oven, sprinkle him with black pepper, salt, and a pinch or two of sage. A dash of lemon will do no harm. Pack sweet po- tatoes around him. Pour a pint of water into the oven, put the lid on, and see that it fits tightly. Bake slowly until brown and crisp. Serve hot, without gravy. Bourbon whiskey is the only orthodox accompaniment. If you are a teetotaler, any plantation darky can show jou how to make "ginger tea" out of ginger, molasses, and water. Corn bread, of course. It is said that jDossum is not hard to digest even when eaten cold, but the general verdict seems to be that none is ever left over to get cold. When you have no oven, roast the possum be- fore a high bed of coals, having suspended him by a wet string, which is twisted and untwisted to give a rotary motion, and constantly baste it with a sauce made from red pepper, salt, and vinegar. Possum may also be baked in clay, with his hide on. Stuif with stale bread and sage, plaster over him an inch of stiff clay, and bake as previ- ously directed. He will be done in about an hour. Coon. — It is likewise pedantic to call this ani- mal a raccoon. Coon he always has been, is now, and shall ever be, to those who know him best. GAME. 73 Skin and dress him. Remove the "kernels" (scent glands) under each front leg and on either side of spine in small of back. Wash in cold water. Parboil in one or two waters, depending upon the animal's age. Stuff with dressing like a turkey. If you have a tart apple, quarter it and add to the dressing. Roast to a delicate brown. Serve with fried sweet potatoes. Porcupine. — I quote from Nessmuk: "And do not desjjise the fretful porcupine ; he is better than he looks. If you happen on a healthy young speci- men when you are needing meat, give him a show before condemning him. Shoot him humanely in the head, and dress him. It is easily done; there are no quills on the belly, and the skin peels as freely as a rabbit's. Take him to camp, parboil him for thirty minutes, and roast or broil him to a rich brown over a bed of glowing coals. He will need no pork to make him juicy, and you will find him very like spring lamb, only better." The porcupine may also be baked in clay, with- out skinning him; the quills and skin peel off with the hard clay covering. Or, fry quickly. As I have never eaten porcupine, I will do some more quoting — this time from Dr. Breck: "It may be either roasted or made into a stew, in the manner of hares, but must be parboiled at least a half-hour to be tender. One part of the porcupine is always a delicacy — the liver, which is easily removed by making a cut just under the neck into which the hand is thrust, and the liver pulled out. It may be fried with bacon, or baked slowly and carefully in the baker-pan with slices of bacon." Mushrat. — You may be driven to this, some day, and will then learn that muskrat, properly 74 CAMP COOKERY. prepared, is not half bad. The French-Canadians found that out long ago. "Skin and clean carefully four muskrats, being particular not to rupture musk or gall sac. Take the hind legs and saddles, place in pot with a little water, a little julienne (or fresh vegetables, if you have them), some pepper and salt, and a few slices of pork or bacon. Simmer slowly over fire until half done. Remove to baker, place water from pot in the baking pan, and cook until done, basting frequently. This will be found a most toothsome dish." Muskrat may also be broiled over the hot coals, basting with a bit of pork held on a switch above the beastie. Woodchuch. — I asked old Uncle Bob Flowers, one -of my neighbors in the Smokies: "Did you, ever eat a woodchuck.^" "Reckon I don't know what them is." "Ground-hog," "O la! dozens of 'em. The red ones hain't good, but the gray ones! man, they'd jest make yer mouth water !" "How do you cook them.^*" "Cut the leetle red kernels out from under their" forelegs; then bile 'em, fust — all the strong is left in the water — then pepper 'em, and sage 'em, and put 'em in a pan, and bake 'em to a nice rich brown, and — then I don't want nobody there but me!" Beaver Tail. — This tid-bit of the old-time trap- pers will be tasted by few of our generation, more's the pity I Impale the tail on a sharp stick and broil over the coals for a few minutes. The rough, scaly hide will blister and come off in sheets, leaving the tail clean, white, and solid. GAME. 75 Then roast;, or boil until tender. It is of a gela- tinous nature, tastes somewhat like pork, and is considered very strengthening food. A young beaver, stuffed and baked in its hide, is good; old ones have a peculiar flavor that is unpleasant to those not accustomed to such diet. Beaver tail may also be soused in vinegar, after boiling, or baked with beans. The liver, broiled on a stick and seasoned with butter, salt, and pepper, is the best part of the animal. BIRDS. Game Birds, Fried. — Birds for frying should be cut in convenient pieces, parboiled until tender in a pot with enough water to cover, then removed, saving the liquor. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and flour (this for the sake of the gravy), ^ fry in melted pork fat, take out when done, then stir into the frying fat one-half cuj^ful dry flour till a dark brown, add parboiling liquor, bring to a boil, put game in dish, and pour gravy over it, or serve with one of the sauces described below. Game Birds, Broiled. — Split them up the back, broil over the coals, and baste with a piece of pork on tined stick held over them. Fillets of ducks or other large birds may be sliced off and impaled on sticks with thin slices of pork. Game Birds, Fricasseed. — Any kind of bird may be fricasseed as follows: Cut it into convenient pieces, parboil them in enough water to cover; when tender, remove from the pot and drain. Fry two or three slices of pork until brown. Sprinkle the pieces of bird with salt, pepper, and flour, and fry to a dark brown in the pork fat. Take up the bird, and stir into the frying fat half a cup, more or less, of dry flour, stirring until it be- 76 CAMP COOKERY. comes a dark brown; then pour over it the liquor in which the bird was boiled (unless it was a fish-eater), and bring the mixture to a boil. Put the bird in a hot dish, and pour gravy over it. Wild Turkey, Roasted. — Pluck, draw, and singe. Wipe the bird inside and out. Rub the inside with salt and red pepper. Stuff the crop cavity, then the body, with either of the dress- ings mentioned below, allowing room for the filling to swell. Tie a string around the neck, and sew up the body. Truss wings to body with wooden skewers. Pin thin slices of fat pork to breast in same way. Suspend the fowl before a high bed of hardwood coals, as previously described, and place a pan under it to catch drippings. Tie a clean rag on the end of a stick to baste with. Turn and baste frequently. Roast until well done (two to three hours). (See also page 53.) Meantime cleanse the gizzard, liver, and heart of the turkey thoroughly in cold water; mince them; put them in a pot with enough cold water to cover, and stew gently until tender; then place where they will keep warm until wanted. When the turkey is done, add the giblets with the water in which they were stewed to the drippings in pan; thicken with one or two tablespoonfuls of flour that has been stirred up in milk or water and browned in a pan; season with pepper and salt, and serve with the turkey. If you have butter, the fowl may be basted with it (melted, of course), and when stewing the giblets add a tablespoonful of butter and half a teacupful of evaporated milk. Stuffing for Turkey. — (1) If chestnuts are -pxo- curable, roast a quart of them, remove shells, and mash. Add a teaspoonful of salt, and some pep- GAME. 77 per. Mix well together, and stuff the bird with them. (2) Chop some fat salt pork very fine; soak stale bread or crackers in hot water, mash smooth, and mix with the chopped pork. Season with salt, pepper, sage, and chopped onion. No game bird save the wild turkey should be stuffed, unless you deliberately wish to disguise the natural flavor. Wild Turkey, Boiled. — Pluck, draw, singe, wash inside with warm water, and wijDc dry. Cut off head and neck close to backbone, leaving enough skin to turn over the stuffing. Draw sinews from legs, and cut off feet just below joint of leg. Press legs into sides and skewer them firmly. Stuff breast as above. Put the bird into enough hot water to cover it. Remove scum as it rises. Boil gently one and one-half to two hours. Serve with giblet sauce as above. Waterfowl have two large oil glands in the tail, with which they oil their feathers. The oil in these glands imparts a strong, disagreeable flavor to the bird soon after it is killed. Hence the tail should always be removed before cooking. To cook a large bird in a hurry. — Slice off sev- eral fillets from the breast; impale them, with slices of pork, on a green switch; broil over the coals. Wild Goose, Roasted. — A good way to suspend a large bird before the fire is described by Dillon Wallace in his Lure of the Labrador Wild: George built a big fire — much bigger than usual. At the back he placed the largest green log he could find. Just in front of the fire, and at each side, he fixed a forked stake, and on these rested a cross-pole. From the center of the pole he suspended a piece of stout twine, which reached nearly to the ground, and tied the lower end into a noose. Then it was that the goose, nicely prepared for the 78 CAMP COOKERY. cooking, was brought forth. Through it at the wings George stuck a sharp wooden pin, leaving the ends to protrude on each side. Through the legs he stuck a similar pin in a similar fashion. This being done, he slipped the noose at the end of the twine over the ends of one of the pins. And lo and behold! the goose was suspended before the fire. It hung low — ^just high enough to permit the placing of a dish under it to catch the gravy. Now and then George gave it a twirl so that none of its sides might have reason to complain at not receiving its share of the heat. The lower end roasted first; seeing which, George took the goose off, reversed it, and set it twirl- ing again. Time-tahle for Roasting Birds. — A goose or a middling-sized turkey takes about two hours to roast_, a large turkey three hours, a duck about forty-five minutes, a pheasant twenty to thirty min- utes, a woodcock or snipe fifteen to twenty min- utes. Wild Duch, Baked. — The bird should be dry- picked, and the head left on. Put a little pepper and salt inside the bird, but no other dressing. Lay the duck on its back in the bake-pan. Put no water in the pan. The oven must be hot, but not hot enough to burn ; test with the hand. Baste frequently with butter or bacon. A canvasback requires about thirty minutes ; other birds accord- ing to size. When done, the duck should be plump, and the flesh red, not blue. This is the way to bring out the distinctive flavor of a canvasback. Seasoning and stuffing de- stroy all that. A canvasback should not be washed either inside or outside, but wiped clean with a dry cloth. Duck should be served with currant jelly, if you have it. (See also page 55.) Wild Duck, Stewed. — Clean well and divide into convenient pieces (say, legs, wings, and four parts of body). Place in pot with enough cold GAME. 79 water to cover. Add salt, pepper, a pinch of mixed herbs, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Cut up fine some onions and potatoes (carrots, too, if you can get them). Put a few of these in the pot so they may dissolve and add body to the dish (flour or corn starch may be substituted for thick- ening). Stew slowly, skim and stir frequently. In forty-five minutes add the rest of the carrots, and in fifteen minutes more add the rest of the onions and potatoes, also turnips, if you have any. Stew until meat is done. A plainer camp dish is to stew for an hour in water that has previously been boiled for an hour with pieces of salt pork. (See also page 59.) Fish-eating Ducks. — The rank taste of these can be neutralized, unless very strong, by baking with an onion inside. Use plenty of pepper, inside and out. Mud-hens and Bitterns. — Remove the breast of a coot or rail, cut slits in it, and in these stick thin slices of fat salt jDork; broil over the embers. The broiled breast of a young bittern is good. Grouse, Broiled. — Pluck and singe. Split down the back through the bone, and remove the trail. Wipe out with damp towel. Remove head and feet. Rub inside with pepper and salt. Flatten the breast, brush over with melted butter, or skewer bacon on upper side, and grill over a hot bed of coals. Grouse, Roasted. — Dress and draw, but do not split. Place a piece of bacon or pork inside, and skewer a piece to the breast. Roast before the fire as described for turkey, or in a reflector. Small Birds (quail, woodcock, snipe, plover, etc.). — These are good roasted before a big bed of coals, searing them first as in broiling meat. 80 CAMP COOKERY. Impale each bird on a green stick, with a slice of bacon on the point of the stick over the bird. Thrust butt of stick into the ground, and incline stick toward the fire. Turn frequently. When a number of birds are to be roasted, a better way is to set up two forked stakes and a cross-pole before the fire. Hang birds from the pole, heads downward, by wet strings. Baste as recommended for turkey, and turn frequently. Serve very hot, without any sauce, unless it be plain melted butter and a slice of lemon. Such birds can also be served in a ragout. (See page 60.) Woodcock are not drawn. The trail shrivels up and is easily removed at table. SAUCES FOR GAME. (See also page 63.) Giblet Sauce. — See under Wild Turkey, Roasted. Celery Sauce. — Having none of the vegetable itself, use a teaspoonful of celery seed freshly powdered, or five drops of the essence of celery on a piece of sugar. Flavor some melted butter with this, add a little milk, and simmer ten min- utes. Cranberry Sauce. — Put a pound of ripe cran- berries in a kettle with just enough water to pre- vent burning. Stew to a pulp, stirring all the time. Then add syrup previously prepared by boiling a pound of sugar in 2/3 pint of water. Canned cranberries will answer. Curry Sauce. — This is used with stewed small game or meat (especially left-overs) that is served in combination with rice. (See page 69.) Put a large spoonful of butter in a pan over the fire; add one onion cut into slices; cook until the onion is lightly browned. Then stir in one GAME. 81 teaspoonful of curry powder and add gradually a generous cup of brown gravy^ or soup stock, or the broth in which meat has been stewed, or evaporated milk slightly thinned. Boil fifteen minutes, and strain. Curry may be varied in- definitely by further flavoring with lemon juice, red pepper, nutmeg, mace, or Worcestershire sauce. CHAPTER VII. FISH AND SHELLFISH. FISH of the same species vary a great deal in quality according to the water in which they are caught. A black bass taken from one of the overflow lakes of the Mississippi bears no comparison with its brother from a swift, clear, spring-fed Ozark river. When it is necessary to eat fish caught in muddy streams, rub a little salt down the backbone, lay them in strong brine for a couple of hours before cooking, and serve with one of the sauces described farther on in this chapter. Carp should have the gills removed, as they are always muddy from burrowing. Never put fish on a stringer to keep in water till you start for home. It is slow death for them, like putting a cord through an animal's lung and letting him half smother, half bleed to death. If you have no live-box or net, kill and bleed every fish as soon as caught. The flesh will be much firmer and more palatable. Fish, Fried. — (See also page 50.) Small fish should be fried whole, with the backbone severed to prevent curling up; large fish should be cut into pieces, and ribs cut loose from backbone, so as to lie flat in pan. Rub the pieces in corn meal, or powdered crumbs, thinly and evenly (that browns them). Fry in plenty of very hot grease 82 FISH AND SHELLFISH. 83 to a golden brown, sprinkling lightly with pepper and salt just as the color turns. If the fish is not naturally full-flavored, a few drops of lemon juice will improve it. Olive oil is best to fry fish in; the next choice is clear drippings or butter. If the fish has not been wiped dry it will absorb too much grease. If the frying fat is not very hot when fish are put in they will be soggy with it. Fish, Broiled. — (See also page 52.) If a broil- ing iron is used, first rub it with fat bacon to prevent fish from sticking to it. In broiling large fish, remove the head, split down the back instead of the belly, and lay on the broiler with strips of bacon or pork laid across. Broil over a rather moderate bed of coals so that the inside will cook done. Small fish are best broiled quickly over ardent coals. They need not have heads removed. When done, sprinkle with salt and pepper, spread with butter (unless you have used bacon), and hold again over fire until butter melts. Fish, Skewered. — Small fish may be skewered on a thin, straight, greenwood stick, sharpened at the end, with a thin slice of bacon or pork between every two fish, the stick being constantly turned over the coals like a spit, so that juices may not be lost. Another way is to cut some green hardwood sticks, about three feet long, forked at one end, and sharpen the tines. Lay a thin slice of pork inside each fish lengthwise, drive tines through fish and pork, letting them through be- tween ribs near backbone and on opposite sides of the latter — then the fish won't drop off as soon as it begins to soften and curl from the heat. Place a log lengthwise of edge of coals, lay broil- 84 CAMP COOKERY. ing sticks on this support, slanting upward over the fire, and lay a small log over their butts. Large fish should be planked. Fish Roasted in a Reflector. — This process is simpler than baking, and superior in resulting flavor, since the fish is basted in its own juices, and is delicately browned by the direct action of the fire. The surface of the fish is lightly mois- tened with olive oil (first choice) or butter; lack- ing these, use drippings, or bacon grease, or lard. Then place the fish in the pan and add two or three morsels of grease around it. Roast in front of a good fire, just as yoii would bake biscuit. Be careful not to overroast and dry the fish by evapor- ating the gravy. There is no better way to cook a large fish, unless it be planked. Fish, Planlced. — More expeditious than baking, and better flavored. Split and smooth a slab of sweet hardwood two or three inches thick, two feet long, and somewhat wider than the opened fish. Prop it in front of a bed of coals till it is sizzling hot. Split the fish down the back its entire length, but do not cut through the belly skin. Clean and wipe it quite dry. When plank is hot, spread fish out like an opened book, tack it, skin side down, to the plank and prop before fire. Baste continu- ously with a bit of pork on a switch held above it. Reverse ends of plank from time to time. If the flesh is flaky when pierced with a fork, it is done. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the fish, moisten with drippings, and serve on the hot plank. No better dish ever was set before an epicure. Plenty of butter improves it at table. Fish, Stujfed and Baked. — Clean, remove fins, but leave on head and tail. Prepare a stuffing as follows: put a cupful of dry bread-crumbs in a FISH AND SHELLFISH. 85 frying-pan over the fire with two tablespoonfuls of drippings, or the equivalent of butter, and stir them until they begin to brown. Then add enough boiling water to moisten them. Season this stuf- fing rather highly with salt, pepper, and either celery seed, or sage, or a teaspoonful of highly chopped onion. Stuff the fish with this and sew up the opening, or wind string several times around the fish. Lay several strips of salt pork or bacon in the pan, and several over the top of the fish. Sprinkle over all a little water, pepper, salt, and bread crumbs (or dredge with flour). Bake in a hot oven, basting frequently. When flakes of fish begin to separate, it will be done. This is best for coarse fish. Fish Baked in Clay. — "Take a fresh-caught fish and rub it in soft clay from the river bank, against the scales and gills. When the clay is set a little, roll the whole fish in a blanket of clay, till the body is completely covered. Dry in the heat of the fire for fifteen minutes; bury in the hot coals and ashes till the clay is hard. Rake the brick out of the fire and crack it open with the hatchet. The fish will split in two pieces; the spine can easily be taken out; the 'inwards' are shrunk to a little ball, which can be flipped off; and the scales are stuck on the clay. Dust on a little salt, and you have a meal fit for — a hungry hunter." {Frank Bates.) Fish, Steamed. — Smear some tissue Manila paper with butter. Clean the fish, leaving head and fins on. Season with salt and Cayenne pep- per. Roll each fish separately in a piece of the buttered paper. Place the fish in a pile and en- velop them in a large sheet of paper. Then wrap the bundle in a newspaper, and dip this in water 86 CAMP COOKERY. for five minuteSj, or long enough to saturate the newspaper. Scrape a hole in the middle of a bed of coals^ and bury the package in the embers. Leave it there ten to twenty minutes, depending upon size. The newspaper will scorch, but the in- ner wrappers will not. The result is a dish fit for Olympus. (JJp De Graff.) Small fish can be steamed in wet basswood leaves, or other large leaves, without buttering. For another method of steaming, see page 60. Fish, Boiled. — None but fish of good size should be boiled. If the fish is started in cold water and not allowed to boil hard, it will be less likely to fall apart, but the flavor will not be so good. It is better to wrap the fish in a clean cloth and drop it into boiling water well salted. A tablespoonful of vinegar, or the juice of a lemon, improves the dish. Leave the head on, but remove the fins. Boil very gently until the flesh will easily part from the bones. Time depends on species; from eight to ten minutes per pound for thick fish, and five minutes for small ones. Boiled fish require considerable seasoning and a rich sauce, or at least melted butter, to accompany them. Besides vinegar or lemon, onions, carrots, cloves, etc., may be used in the water. Recipes for sauces follow. (See also pages 63 and 80.) Butter Sauce. — Q heaped tablespoonfuls butter. 1 heaped tablespoonful flour. 1 teaspoon ful salt. % teaspoonful pepper. Put the butter in a cold pan, and rub into it the flour, salt, and pepper, beating well. Then pour on a scant half-pint boiling water. Cook two min- utes. Use immediately. FISH AND SHELLFISH. 87 White Sauce. — 2 tablespoonfuls butter. 2 heaped tablespoonfuls flour. 1 pint milk. 14 teaspoon ful salt. Ys teaspoonful pepper. Cook butter until it bubbles. Add flour, and cook thoroughly. Remove from direct heat of fire, but let it simmer, and add the milk in thirds, rub- bing into a smooth paste each time as it thickens. Season last. Cold fish that has been left over is good when heated in this sauce. It can be served thus, or baked and some chopped pickles sprinkled over the top. India Sauce. — Make a white sauce as above, add a teaspoonful of curry powder, and some pickles, chopped small, with a little of the vinegar. Lemon Sauce. — 1 lemon. 3 tablespoonfuls sugar. 14 pint milk. 1 scant tablespoonful butter. Put the milk, sugar, and thin rind of the lemon into a pan and simmer gently ten minutes. Then add the juice of the lemon and the butter rolled in flour. Stir until butter is dissolved and strain or pour off clear. Fish Chowder. — Cut the fish into pieces the right size for serving, and remove all the bones possible. For 5 or 6 lbs. of fish take % lb. clear fat salt pork, slice it, and fry moderately. Slice two good-sized onions and fry in the fat. Have ready ten potatoes pared and sliced. Into your largest pot place first a layer of fish, then one of potatoes, then some of the fried onion, with pep- per, salt, and a little flour, then a slice or two of the pork. Repeat these alternate layers until 88 CAMP COOKERY. all has been used. Then pour the fat from the frying-pan over all. Cover the whole with boiling water^ and cook from twenty to thirty minutes, according to thickness of fish. Five or ten minutes before serving, split some hard crackers and dip them in cold water (or use stale bread or biscuits similarly), add them to the chowder, and pour in about a pint of hot milk. The advantage of first frying the pork and onion is that the fish need not then be cooked over- done, which is the case in chowders started with raw pork in the bottom of the kettle and boiled. Another Fish Chowder. — Clean the fish, parboil it, and reserve the water in which it was boiled. Place the dry pot on the fire; when it is hot, throw in a lump of butter and about six onions sliced finely. When the odor of onion arises, add the fish. Cover the pot closely for fish to absorb flavor. Add a very small quantity of potatoes, and some of the reserved broth. When cooked, let each man season his own dish. Ask a blessing and eat. (Kenealy.) Fish Cakes. — Take fish left over from a previous meal and either make some mashed potatoes (boil them, and mash with butter and milk) or use just the plain cold boiled potatoes. Remove bones from fish and mince it quite fine. Mix well, in propor- tion of one-third fish and two-thirds potato. Sea- son with salt and pepper. Then mix in thor- oughly a well-beaten egg or two (or equivalent of desiccated egg). If it seems too dry, add more egg. Form into flat cakes about 2^ x % inches, and fry with salt pork, or (preferably) in deep fat, like doughnuts. Fish, Creamed. — See page 98. A good way of utilizing fish left over. FISH AND SHELLFISH. 89 Eel, Broiled. — Skin, clean well with salt to re^ move slime, slit down the back and remove bone, cut into good-sized pieces, rub inside with egg, if you have it, roll in corn meal or dry bread- crumbs, season with pepper and salt, and broil to a nice brown. Some like a dash of nutmeg with the seasoning. Eel, Stewed. — Skin the eel, remove backbone, and cut the eel into pieces about two inches long; cover these with water in the stew-pan, and add a teaspoonful of strong vinegar or a slice of lemon, cover stew-pan and boil moderately one half hour. Then remove, pour off water, drain, add fresh water and vinegar as before, and stew until tender. Now drain, add cream enough for a stew, season with pepper and salt (no butter), boil again for a few minutes, and serve on hot, dry toast. {Up De Graff.) Fish Roe. — Parboil (merely simmer) fifteen minutes; let them cool and drain; then roll in flour, and fry. MISCELLANEOUS. Frog Legs. — First after skinning, soak them an hour in cold water to whicli vinegar has been added, or put them for two minutes into scalding water that has vinegar in it. Drain, wipe dry, and cook as below: To fry: roll in flour seasoned with salt and pep- per and fry, not too rapidly, preferably in butter or oil. Water cress is a good relish with them. To grill: Prepare three tablespoonfuls melted butter, one-half teaspoonful salt, and a pinch or two of pepper, into which dip the frog legs, then roll in fresh bread crumbs, and broil for three minutes on each side. 90 CAMP COOKERY. Turtles. — All turtles (aquatic) and most tor- toises (land) are good to eat_, the common snapper being far better than he looks. Kill by cutting throat or (readier) by shooting the head off. This does not kill the brute immediately, of course, but it suffices. The common way of killing by drop- ping a turtle into boiling water I do not like. Let the animal bleed. Then drop into a pot of boiling water for a few seconds. After scalding, the outer scales of shell, as well as the skin, are easily re moved. Turn turtle on its back, cut down middle of under shell from end to end, and then across. Throw away entrails, head, and claws. Salt and pepper it inside and out. Boil a short time in the shell. Remove when the meat has cooked free from the shell. Cut up the latter and boil slowly for three hours with some chopped onion. If a stew is preferred, add some salt pork cut into dice, and vegetables. (See page 59.) Crayfish. — These are the "craw-feesh !" of our streets. Tear oft" extreme end of tail, bringing the entrail with it. Boil whole in salted water till the crayfish turns red. Peel and eat as a lobster, dipping each crayfish at a time into a saucer of vinegar, pepper, and salt. SHELLFISH. Oysters, Stewed. — Oysters should not be pierced with a fork, but removed from the liquor with a spoon. Thoroughly drain the juice from a quart of shelled oysters. Add to the juice enough water (if needed) to make one-half pint. Place juice over fire, and add butter the size of a wal- nut. Remove all scum tliat arises when the juice boils. Put in the oysters. Let them cook quickly until the beards wrinkle, but not until oysters FISH AND SHELLFISH. 91 shrivel — they should remain plump. Add two- thirds pint of milk, let all scald through, remove from fire, and season to taste. Never boil oysters in milk. Oysters, Fried. — Drain the oysters, and dry them on a soft cloth (then they will not absorb grease). Have some desiccated egg prepared, or beat light the yolks of two or three eggs. Have enough smoking hot grease in the pan to cover all the oysters. Dip an oyster into the egg, then into rolled cracker or dry crumbs, and repeat this. Lay oysters in the pan one at a time, so as not to check the heat. When one side is brown, turn, and brown the other side. Serve piping hot. Oysters, Scalloped. — Cover bottom of greased bake-pan with a layer of drained oysters, dot thickly over with small bits of butter, then cover with finely crumbled stale bread, and sprinkle with pepper and salt. Repeat these layers until the pan is full, with bread and butter for top layer. The bread crumbs miist be in very thin layers. Bake in reflector or oven until nicely browned. Oysters, Saute. — Drain the oysters. Melt a lit- tle butter in the frying-pan, and cook the oysters in it. Salt when removed from pan. Oysters, Roasted. — Put oysters unopened on broiler, and hold over the coals. When they open, put a little melted butter and some white pepper on each oyster, and they are ready. Clams, Baked. — Lay down a bed of stones in disk shape, and build a low wall almost around it, forming a rock oven open at the to^. Build a big fire in it and keep it going until the wood has burned down to embers and the stones are very hot. Rake out all smoking chunks. Throw a layer of sea-weed over the embers, and lay the clams 92 CAMP COOKERY. on this. Roasting ears in the husks, or sweet po- tatoes, are a desirable addition. Cover all with another layer of sea-weed, and let steam about forty minutes, or until clams will slip in the shell. Uncover and serve with melted butter, pepper, salt, and perhaps lemon or vinegar. Clam Chowder. — Wash the clams, put them in a kettle, and pour over them just enough boiling water to cover them. When the shells open, pour off the liquor, saving it, cool the clams, and shell them. Fry two or three slices of pork in bot- tom of kettle. When it is done, pour over it two quarts of boiling clam liquor. Add six large pota- toes, sliced thin, and cook until nearly done. Turn in the clams, and a quart of hot milk. Season with salt and pepper. When this boils up, add crackers or stale bread, as in fish chowder. Remove from fire and let crackers steam in the covered pot un- til soft. Fried sliced onion and a can of tomatoes will Improve this chowder. Cloves, allspice, red pep- per, Worcestershire sauce, and other condiments, may be added according to taste. Shellfish, Steamed. — See page 60. CHAPTER VIII. CURED MEATS, ETC.— EGGS. BACON, Fried. — Slice quite thin. Remove the rind, as it not only is unsightly but makes the slices curl up in the pan. Put pan half full of water on fire; when water is warm, drop the bacon in, and stir around until water begins to simmer. Then remove bacon, throw out water, fry over very few coals, and turn often. Remove slices while still translucent, and season with pepper. They will turn crisp on cooling. Some prefer not to parboil. Bacon, Broiled. — Slice as above. Turn broiler repeatedly until bacon is of a light brown color. Time, three to four minutes. Bacon, Boiled, — Put in enough cold water to just cover. Bring to a boil very gradually. Re- move all scum as it arises. Simmer gently until thoroughly done. Two pounds take 1^ hours; each additional pound, % hour. Bacon, Toasted. — Cut cold boiled bacon into thin slices. Sprinkle each with fine bread crumbs peppered with Cayenne. Toast quickly in wire broiler. Bacon and Eggs. — Poach or fry the eggs and lay them on fried bacon. Bacon Omelet. — See Ham Omelet, near end of chapter. Bacon and Liver. — Fry bacon as above, and re- 93 94. CAMP COOKERY. move to a hot plate. Slice the liver (that of any large game animal) thin. Flour and pepper it and place it in the pan. Turn frequently until done; then place a slice of bacon on each slice of liver and pour over it a gravy made as follows: Bacon Gravy, Thin. — Pour off the fat and save it for future use. Pour in enough water to supply the quantity of gravy desired. Add the juice of a lemon. Boil and pour upon the bacon. If a richer gravy is desired, follow recipe given below. Pork Gravy, Thickened. — This can be made with ham or salt pork, as well as with bacon. To make gravy that is a good substitute for butter, rub into the hot grease that is left in the pan a tablespoonful of flour, keep on rubbing until smooth and brown; then add two cups boiling water and a dash of pepper. A tablespoonful of catchup may be added for v^ariety. If you have milk, use it instead of water (a pint to the heap- ing tablespoonful of flour), and do not let the flour brown; this makes a delicious white gravy. Salt Pork, Fried. — Same as fried bacon, above. Pork should be firm and dry. Clammy pork is stale. Salt Pork, Broiled. — Same as bacon; but it is usually so salty that it should be parboiled first, or soaked at least an hour in cold water. Salt Pork, Boiled. — Nearly always cooked with vegetables or greens; hence need not be soaked or parboiled. See page 58. Pork Fritters. — Make a thick batter of corn meal one- third and flour two-thirds, or of flour alone. Fry a few slices of pork until the fat is tried out. Then cut a few more slices, dip them in the batter, drop them in the bubbling fat, sea- son with salt and pepper, fry to a light brown. CURED MEATS, ETC.— EGGS. 95 and eat while hot. It takes the stomach of a lum- berjack to digest this, but it is a favorite variant in frontier diet. Pork and Hardtack. — Soak hardtack in water until it is partly softened. Drop it into hot pork fat, and cook. A soldier's resource. Ham, Fried. — Same as bacon. Parboil, first, for eight or ten minutes, if hard and salty. Ham and Eggs. — Same as bacon and eggs. Ham, Broiled. — If salty, parboil first. Cut rather thick slices, pepper them, and broil five minutes. Ham that has been boiled is best for broiling. A little mustard may be spread on the slices when served. Ham, Boiled. — Wash the ham, and let it soak over night in cold water. In the morning, cover it well with fresh water, bring to a boil, and hang the kettle high over the fire where it will boil gently until dinner time. When the bone on the under side leaves the meat readily, the ham is done. If you have eggs, the nicest way to serve a boiled ham is to remove the skin, brush over the top of ham with yolk of egg, sprinkle thickly with finely grated crumbs or cracker-dust, and brown in an oven. Pork Sausages. — Cut links apart, prick each with a fork so it will not burst in cooking, lay in cold frying-pan, and fry fifteen to twenty minutes over a slow fire, moving them about so they will brown evenly all over. Serve with mashed po- tatoes, over which pour the fat from the pan. Apples fried to a light brown in the sausage grease are a pleasant accompaniment. Corned Beef, Boiled. — Put the ham into enough cold water to cover it. Let it come slowly to a boil, and then merely simmer until done. Time, 96 CAMP COOKERY. about one-half hour to each pound. Vegetables may be added toward the end^ as directed on page 58. If not to be used until the next day, leave the meat in its liquor, weighted down under the surface by a clean rock. Corned Beef Hash. — Chop some canned corned beef fine with sliced onions. Mash up with freshly boiled potatoes, two parts potatoes to one of meat. Season highly with pepper (no salt) and dry mus- tard if liked. Put a little pork fat in a frying- pan, melt, add hash, and cook until nearly dry and a brown crust has formed. Evaporated pota- toes and onions can be used according to directions on packages. Stew with Canned Meat. — Peel and slice some onions. If the meat has much fat, melt it; if not, melt a little pork fat. Add onions, and fry until brown. Mix some flour into a smooth batter with cold water, season with pepper and salt, and pour into the camp kettle. Stir the whole well together. Cut meat into slices, put into the kettle, and heat through. Lohscouse. — Boil corned beef as above (if very salty, parboil first, and then change the water). About thirty minutes before it is done add sliced potatoes and hardtack. Slumgullion. — When the commissariat is re- duced to bacon, corned beef, and hardtack, try this sailor's dish, described by Jack London: Fry half a dozen slices of bacon, add fragments of hard- tack, then two cups of water, and stir briskly over the fire; in a few minutes mix in with it slices of canned corned beef; season well with pepper and salt. Dried Beef, Creamed. — Slice 3 oz. of dried beef into thin shavings. Pour over it a pint of boil- CURED MEATS, ETC.— EGGS. 97 ing water, and let it stand two minutes. Turn off water, and drain beef dry. Heat a heaped tablespoonful of butter in the frying-pan; then add the beef. Cook three minutes, stirring all the time. Then pour on 14 pi^* ^^^^ milk. Mix 4 tablespoonfuls milk with 1 teaspoonful flour, and stir into the beef in the pan. Cook two minutes longer and serve at once. Canned Meats. — Never eat any that has been left standing open in the can. It is dangerous. If any has been left over, remove it to a clean vessel and keep in a cool place. CURED FISH. Salt Fish requires from twelve to thirty-six hours' soaking, flesh downward, in cold water be- fore -cooking, depending on the hardness and dry- ness of the fish. Change the water two or three times to remove surplus salt. Start in cold water, then, and boil until the flesh parts from the bones. When done, cover with bits of butter, or serve with one of the sauces given in the chapter on Fish. Broiled Salt Fish. — Freshen the flakes of fish by soaking in cold water. Broil over the coals, and serve with potatoes. Stewed Codfish. — Soak over night in plenty of cold water. Put in pot of fresh, cold water, and heat gradually until soft. Do not boil the fish or it will get hard. Serve with boiled potatoes, and with white sauce made as directed under Fish. Codfish Hash. — Prepare salt codfish as above. When soft, mash with potatoes and onions, season with pepper, and fry like corned beef hash. Codfish Balls. — Shred the fish into small pieces. Peel some potatoes. Use one pint of fish to one quart of raw potatoes. Put them in a pot, cover 98 CAMP COOKERY. with boiling water^ cook till potatoes are soft, drain water off, mash fish and potatoes together, and beat light with a fork. Add a tablespoonf ul of butter and season with pepper. Shape into flattened balls, and fry in very hot fat deep enough to cover. Smoked Herrings. — (1) Clean, and remove the skin. Toast on a stick over the coals. (2) Scald in boiling water till the skin curls up, then remove head, tail, and skin. Clean well. Put into frying-pan with a little buttef or lard. Fry gently a few minutes, dropping in a little vinegar. Smoked Sprats. — Lay them on a slightly greased plate and set them in an oven until heated through. Canned Salmon, Creamed. — Cut into dice. Heat about a pint of them in one-half ^pint milk. Sea- son with salt and Cayenne pepper. Cold cooked fish of any kind can be served in this way. Canned Salmon, Scalloped. — Rub two teaspoon- fuls of butter and a tablespoonful of flour together. Stir this into boiling milk. Cut two pounds of canned salmon into dice. Put a layer of the sauce in bottom of a dish, then a layer of salmon. Sprinkle with salt, Cayenne pepper, and grated bread crumbs. Repeat alternate layers until dish is full, having the last layer sauce, which is sprin- kled with crumbs and bits of butter. Bake in very hot oven until browned (about ten minutes). Canned Salmon on Toast. — Dip slices of stale bread in smoking-hot lard. They will brown at once. Drain them. Heat a j^int of salmon, picked into flakes, season with salt and Cayenne, and turn into a cupful of melted butter. Heat in pan. Stir in one egg, beaten light, with three table- CURED MEATS, ETC.— EGGS. 99 spoonfuls evaporated milk not thinned. Pour the mixture on the fried bread. Sardines, Fried. — Fry them and give them a dash of red pepper. They are better if wiped free of oil, dipped into whipped egg, sprinkled thickly with cracker crumbs, fried, and served on buttered toast. EGGS. Desiccated Egg. — The baker's egg mentioned in my first chapter is in granules about the size of coarse sand. It is prepared for use by first soak- ing about two hours in cold or one hour in luke- warm water. Hot water must not be used. Solu- tion can be quickened by occasional stirring. The proportion is one tablespoonful of egg to two of water, which is about the equivalent of one fresh egg. Use just like fresh eggs in baking, etc., and for scrambled eggs or omelets. Of course, the desiccated powder cannot be fried, boiled, or poached. Fried Eggs. — Have the frying-pan scrupulously clean. Put in it just enough butter, dripping, or other fat, to prevent the eggs sticking. Break eggs separately in a cup, and drop them, one at a time, into the pan when it is hot. The fire should be moderate. As the eggs fry, raise their edges and ladle a little of the grease over the yolk. In two or three minutes they will be done. Eggs fried longer than this, or on both sides, are leathery and unwholesome. Scrambled Eggs. — Put into a well-greased pan as many eggs as it will hold separately, each yolk being whole. When the whites have begun to set, stir from bottom of pan until done (buttery, not leathery). Add a piece of butter, pepper, and 100 CAMP COOKERY. salt. Another way is to beat the eggs with a spoon. To eight eggs add one-third teaspoonful salt. Heat two tablespoonfuls butter in the fry- ing-pan. Stir in the eggs, and continue stirring until eggs set. Before they toughen_, turn them out promptly into a warm dish. Plain Omelet. — It is better to make two or three small omelets than to attempt one large one. Scrape the pan and wipe it dry after each omelet is made. Use little salt: it keeps the eggs from rising. Heat the fat in the pan very gradually, but get it hot almost to the browning point. Beat four eggs just enough to break them well. Add one-half teaspoonful of salt. Put two heaped teaspoonfuls of butter in the pan and heat as above. Pour egg into pan, and tilt the pan for- ward so that the egg flows to the far side. As soon as the egg begins to set, draw it up to the raised side of the pan with a knife. Beginning then at the left hand, turn the egg over in small folds until the lower part of the pan is reached, and the omelet has been rolled into a complete fold. Let the omelet rest a few seconds, and then turn out into a hot dish. Work rapidly throughout, so that the omelet is creamy instead of tough. It should be of a rich yellow color. Ham Omelet. — Cut raw ham into dice. Fry. Turn the beaten eggs over it and cook as above. Bacon can be used instead of ham. Fancy Omelets. — Take tender meat, game, fish, or vegetable, hash it fine, heat it in white sauce (see page 87), and spread this over the omelet before you begin to fold it; or they can be put in with the eggs. Jam, jelly, or preserved fruit may be used in a similar way. Rum Omelet. — Beat three eggs, add a very CURED MEATS, ETC.— EGGS. 101 small pinch of salt^ a teaspoonful of powdered sugar, a slice of butter, and a tablespoonful of rum. Fry as described above. Lay the omelet on a hot dish, pour around it one-half tumblerful of rum that has been warmed in a pan, light it, and serve with its blue flame rising round it. Poached Eggs. — Put a pint of water in the fry- ing pan, with one-half teaspoonful of salt. If you have vinegar, add two teaspoonfuls to the water: it keeps the whites from running too much. Bring the water to a gentle boil. Break the eggs separately into a saucer and slide them into the water. Let the water simmer not longer than three minutes, meantime ladling spoonfuls of it over the yolks. Have toast already buttered on a very hot plate. Lay eggs carefully on it. Eat at once. This may be varied by moistening the toast with hot milk. Eggs, Boiled. — Eggs are boiled soft in two and one-half to three minutes, depending upon size and freshness. If wanted hard boiled, put them in cold water, bring to a boil, and keep it up for twenty minutes. The yolk will then be mealy and wholesome. Eggs boiled between these ex- tremes are either clammy or tough, and indiges- tible. CHAPTER IX. BREADSTUFFS AND CEREALS. WHEN men must bake for themselves they generally make biscuit, biscuit-loaf, flap- jacks, or corn bread. Bread leavened with yeast is either beyond their skill or too trou- blesome to make out of doors; so baking powder is the mainstay of the camp. Generally the batch is a failure. To paraphrase Tom Hood, Who has not met with camp-made bread. Rolled out of putty and weighted with lead? It need not be so. Just as good biscuit or johnny cake can be baked before a log fire in the woods as in a kitchen range. Bread making is a chemical process. Follow directions; pay close attention to details, as a chemist does, from build- ing the fire to testing the loaf with a sliver. It does require experience or a special knack to guess quantities accurately, but none at all to measure them. In general, biscuit or other small cakes should be baked quickly by ardent heat; large loaves re- quire a slow, even heat, so that the outside will not harden until the inside is nearly done. The way to bake in a reflector or in a "baker'* has been shown in the chapter on Meats. If you have neither of these utensils, there are other ways. 102 BREADSTUFFS AND CEREALS. 103 Baking in a Frying-pan. — Grease or flour a fry- ing-pan and put a loaf in it. Rake some embers out in front of the fire and put pan on them just long enough to form a little crust on bottom of loaf. Then remove from embers, and, with a short forked stick, the stub of which will enter hole in end of handle, prop pan up before fire at such angle that top of loaf will be exposed to heat. Turn loaf now and then, both sidewise and upside down. When firm enough to keep its shape, remove it, prop it by itself before the fire to finish baking, and go on with a fresh loaf. A tin plate may be used in place of the frying-pan. Bahing on a Slab. — Heat a thick slab of non- resinous green wood until the sap simmers. Then proceed as with a frying-pan. Baking on a Stick. — Work dough into a ribbon two inches wide. Get a club of sweet green wood (birch, sassafras, maple), about two feet long and three inches thick, peel large end, sharpen the other and stick it . into ground, leaning to- ward fire. When sap simmers wind dough spirally around peeled end. Turn occasionally. Several sticks can be baking at once. Bread for one man's meal can be quickly baked on a peeled stick as thick as a broomstick^ holding over fire and turn- ing. Baking in the Ashes. — Build a good fire on a level bit of ground. When it has burned to coals and the ground has thoroughly heated, rake away the embers, lightly drop the loaf on the hot earth, pat it smooth, rake the embers back over the loaf, and let it bake until no dough will ad- here to a sliver thrust to the center of the loaf. This is the Australian damper. Ash cakes are 104 CAMP COOKERY. similarly baked (see under Corn Bread). Nasty? No, it isn't; try it. Baking in a Hole. — Every fixed camp should have a bake-hole, if for nothing else than baking beans. The hole can be dug anywhere, but it is best in the side of a bank or knoll, so that an opening can be left in front to rake out of, and for drainage in case of rain. Line it with stones, if there are any. In any case, have the completed hole a little larger than your baking kettle. Build a hardwood fire in and above the hole and keep it going until the stones or earth are very hot (not less than half an hour). Rake out most of the coals and ashes, put in the bake-pot, which must have a tight-fitting lid, cover with ashes and then with live coals ; and, if a long heating is needed, keep a small fire going on top. Close the mouth of the oven with a fiat rock. This is the way for beans or for braising meat. Bread is not easily baked in a straight-sided pot (rather it is hard to get out when baked). A pan with flaring sides, well covered, is bet- ter. Two pudding pans that nest, the larger in- verted over the smaller, do very well. Have some ashes between them and the coals, to prevent burning the loaf. A shifty camper can bake bread in almost anything. I have baked beans in a thin, soldered, lard-pail, by first encasing it in clay. Baking in a Dutch Oven. — This is a cast-iron pot with flaring sides and short legs, fitted with a thick iron cover, the rim of which is turned up to hold a layer of coals on top. If it were not for its weight it would be the best oven for outdoor use, since it not only bakes but cooks the meat or pone in its own steam. The pots BREADSTUFFS AND CEREALS. 105 made for fireless cookers can be used in a similar way. , Place the Dutch oven and its lid separately on the fire. Get the bottom moderately hot, and the lid very hot (but not red, lest it warp). Grease the bottom and sprinkle flour over it, put in the bread or biscuits, set cover on, rake a thin layer of coals out in front of the fire, stand oven on them, and cover lid thickly with more live coals. Re- plenish occasionally. Have a stout pot-hook to lift lid with, so you can inspect progress of baking, once or twice. WHEAT BREAD AND BISCUITS. When baking powder is used, the secret of good bread is to handle the dough as little as possible. After adding the water, mix as rapidly as you can, not with the warm hands, but with a big spoon or a wooden paddle. To knead such bread, or roll it much, or even to mould biscuits by hand instead of cutting them out, would surely make your baking "sad." As soon as water touches the flour, the baking powder begins to give off gas. It is this gas, imprisoned in the dough, that makes bread light. Squeezing or moulding presses, this gas out. The heat of the hands turns such dough into Tom Hood's "putty." Biscuit Loaf. — This is a standard camp bread, because it bakes quickly. It is good so long as it is hot, but it dries out soon and will not keep. For four men: 3 pints flour, 3 heaping teaspoonfuls baking powder, 1 heaping teaspoonful salt, 2 heaping tablespoonfuls cold grease, 1 scant pint cold water. Amount of water varies according to quality of 106 CAMP COOKERY. flour. Baking powders vary in strength; follow directions on can. Mix thoroughly, with big spoon or wooden pad- dle, first the baking powder with the flour, and then the salt. Rub into this the cold grease (which may be lard, cold pork fat, drippings, or bear's grease), until there are no lumps left and no grease adhering to bottom of pan. This is a little tedious, but don't shirk it. Then stir in the water and work it with spoon until you have a rather stiff dough. Have the pan greased. Turn the loaf into it, and bake. Test center of loaf with a sliver when you think it probably done. When no dough adheres, remove bread. All hot breads should be broken with the hands, never cut. To freshen any that is left over and dried out, sprinkle a little water over it and heat through. This can be done but once. Biscuit. — These are baked in a reflector (12- inch holds I dozen, 18-inch holds 1^2 dozen), un- less a camp stove is carried or an oven is dug. Build the fire high. Make dough as in the pre- ceding recipe, which is enough for two dozen bis- cuits. Flop the mass of dough to one side of pan, dust flour on bottom of pan, flop dough back over it, dust flour on top of loaf. Now rub some flour over the bread board, flour your hands, and gently lift loaf on board. Flour the bottle or bit of peeled sapling that you use as rolling-pin, also the edges of can or can cover used as biscuit cutter. Gently roll loaf to three-quarter-inch thickness. Stamp out the biscuit and lay them in pan. Roll out the culls and make biscuit of them, too. Bake until edge of front row turns brown; reverse pan and continue until rear row is simi- BREADSTUFFS AND CEREALS. 107 larly done. Time, twenty to twenty-five min- utes in a reflector, ten to fifteen minutes in a closed oven. Dropped Biscuit. — These do away with bread- board, rolling-pin, and most of the work, yet are about as good as stamped biscuit. Use same projDortions as above, excejDt turn in enough water to make a thick hatter — one that will drop lazily from a spoon. In mixing, do not stir the batter more than necessary to smooth out all lumps. Drop from a big spoon into the greased bake-pan. Army Bread. — This is easier to make than bis- cuit dough, since there is no grease to rub in, but it takes longer to bake. It keeps fresh longer than yeast bread, does not dry up in a week, nor mould, and is more wholesome than biscuit. It is the only baking-powder bread I know of that is good to eat cold — in fact, it is best that way. 1 quart flour, 1 teaspoonful salt, 1 tablespoonful sugar, 2 heaped teaspoonfuls baking powder. Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly. Then stir in enough cold water (about II/2 pints) to make a thick batter that will pour out level. Mix rap- idly with spoon until smooth, and pour at once into bake-pan. Bake about forty-five minutes, or until no dough adheres to a sliver. Above quan- tity makes a 1%-pound loaf (say 9x5x3 inches). Breakfast Rolls. — 1 quart flour, 3 level tablespoon fuls butter, 1 egg, 1 teaspoonful baking powder, 1 pint cold milk (or enough to make a soft dough). Rub butter and flour well together, add beaten egg, a pinch of salt, and the milk, till a soft dough is mixed. Form into rolls and bake quickly. 108 CAMP COOKERY. Sour-dough Bread. — Mix a pail of batter from plain flour and water^ and hang it up in a warm place until the batter sours. Then add salt and soda (not baking powder), thicken with flour to a stiff dough, knead thoroughly, work into small loaves, and place them before the fire to rise. Then bake. Salt-rising Bread. — This smells to heaven while it is fermenting, but is a welcome change after a long diet of baking-powder breadstuffs. For a baking of two or three loaves take about a pint of moderately warm water (a pleasant heat to the hand) and stir into it as much flour as will make a good batter, not too thick. Add to this one-half teaspoonful salt, not more. Set the vessel in a pan of moderately warm water, within a little distance of a fire, or in sunlight. The water must not be allowed to cool much below the original heat, more warm water being added to pan as re- quired. In six to eight hours the whole will be in ac- tive fermentation, when the dough must be mixed with it, and as much warm water (milk, if you have it) as you require. Knead the mass till it is tough and does not stick to the board. Make up your loaves, and keep them warmly covered near the fire till they rise. They must be baked as soon as this second rising takes place; for, un- less the rising is used immediately on reaching its height, it sinks to rise no more. To Raise Bread in a Pot. — Set the dough to rise over a very few embers, keeping the pot turned as the loaf rises. When equally risen all around, put hot ashes under the pot and upon the lid, taking care that the heat be not too fierce at first. BREADSTUFFS AND CEREALS. 109 Lungwort Bread. — On the bark of maples^ and sometimes of beeches and birches^ in the northern woods, there grows a green, broad-leaved lichen variously known as lungwort, liverwort, lung- lichen, and lung-moss, which is an excellent sub- stitute for yeast. This is an altogether different growth from the plants commonlj'^ called lung- wort and liverwort — I believe its scientific name is Sticta pulmonacea. This lichen is partly made up of fungus, which does the business of raising dough. Gather a little of it and steep it over night in lukewarm water, set near the embers, but not near enough to get overheated. In the morn- ing, pour oft' the infusion and mix it with enough flour to make a batter, beating it up with a spoon. Place this "sponge" in a warm can or pail, cover with a cloth, and set it near the fire to work. By evening it will have risen. Leaven your dough with this (saving some of the sponge for a future baking), let the bread rise before the fire that night, and by morning it will be ready to bake. It takes but little of the original sponge to leaven a large mass of dough (but see that it never freezes), and it can be kept good for months. Unleavened Bread. — Quickly made, wholesome, and good for a change. Keeps like hardtack. 21/2 pints flour, 1 tablespoonful salt, 1 tablespoonful sugar. Mix with water to stiff dough, and knead and pull until lively. Roll out thin as a soda cracker, score with knife, and bake. Unleavened bread that is to be carried for a long time must be mixed with as little water as possible (merely dampened enough to make it adhere), for if any moisture 13 left in it after baking, it will mould. no CAMP COOKERY. To Mix Dough Without a Pan. — When bark will peel, use a broad sheet of it (paper birch, basswood, poplar, cottonwood, slippery elm, etc.). It is easy to mix unleavened dough in the sack of flour itself. Stand the latter horizontally where it can't fall over. Scoop a bowl-shaped depres- sion in top of flour. Keep the right hand moving round while you pour in a little water at a time from a vessel held in the left. Sprinkle a little salt in. When a thick, adhesive dough has formed, lift this out and pat and work it into a round cake about 2^/2 inches thick. CORN BREAD. Plain corn bread, without flour, milk, or egg, is hard to make eatable without a Dutch oven to bake it in. Even so, it is generally spoiled by be- ing baked too fast and not long enough to be done inside. Johnny Cake. — 1 quart meal, 1 teaspoon fill salt, 1 pint icarm (but not scalding) water (l^/^ pints for old meal). Stir together until light. Bake to a nice brown all around (about forty-five minutes), and let it sweat fifteen minutes longer in the closed oven, removed from the fire. , Yellow meal generally requires more water than white. Freshly ground meal is much better than old. Corn Dodgers. — Same as above, but mix to a stiff dough, and form into cylindrical dodgers four or five inches long and 1^ inches diameter, by rolling between the hands. Have frying-pan very hot, grease it a little, and put dodgers on as you roll them out. As soon as they have browned, put them in oven and bake thoroughly. BREADSTUFFS AND CEREALS. Ill Ash Cake. — Same kind of dough. Form it into balls as big as hen's eggs^ roll in dry flour, lay in hot ashes, and cover completely with them. Corn Bread (Superior). — 1 pint corn meal, 1 pint flour, 3 tablespoon fuls sugar, 2 heaped tablespoonfuls butter, 3 teaspoonfuls baking powder, 1 teaspoonful salt, 2 eggs, 1 pint (or more) milk. Rub butter and sugar together. Add the beaten eggs; then the milk. Sift the salt and baking powder into the meal and flour. Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients, beating well. Pour bat- ter into well-greased pan, and bake thirty to forty minutes in moderately hot oven. Can also be made into muflins. Corn Batter Bread. — 1 pint corn meal, Q pints milk (or water), 2 eggs, 1 teaspoonful salt. Beat the eggs light; add the salt; then the meal and milk, gradually, until well blended. Bake about thirty minutes. This is the standard break- fast bread of the South, easily made, and (if the meal is freshly ground) delicious. A little boiled rice, or hominy grits, may be substituted for part of the meal. Snow Bread. — After a fall of light, feathery snow, superior corn bread may be made by stirring together 1 quart corn meal, Yz teaspoonful soda, 1 teaspoonful salt, 1 tablespoonful lard. 112 CAMP COOKERY. Then^ in a cool place where snow will not melt, stir into above one quart light snow. Bake about forty minutes in rather hot oven. Snow, for some unknown reason, has the same effect on bread as eggs have, two tablespoonfuls of snow equaling one egg. It can also be used in making batter for pancakes, or puddings, the batter being made rather thick, and the snow mixed with each cake just before putting in the pan. Substitute for Baking Soda. — Take the white of wood ashes, same quantity as you would use of soda, and mix dry with the flour. It makes bread rise the same as soda, and you can't tell the difference. The best ashes are those of hick- ory, dogwood, sugar maple, and corncobs ; beech, ash, buckeye, balsam poplar, and yellow poplar are also good. "Gritted Bread." — When green corn has be- come too hard for boiling, but is still too soft for grinding into meal, make a "gritter," as fol- lows: Take a piece of tin about 7x14 inches (unsolder a lard pail by heating, and flatten the sides) ; punch holes through it, close together, with a large nail; bend the sheet into a half cylin- der, rough side out, like a horseradish grater; nail the edges to a board somewhat longer and wider than the tin. Then, holding the ear of corn pointing lengthwise from you, grate it into a vessel held between the knees. The meal thus formed will need no water, but can be mixed in its own milk. Salt it, and bake quickly. The flavor of "gritted bread" is a blend of hot pone and roasting ears — delectable! Hard corn can be grated by first soaking the ears over night. BREADSTUFFS AND CEREALS. 113 PANCAKES. Plain Flapjacks. — 1 quart flour, 1 teaspoonful salt, 3 teaspoonfuls sugar, or 4 of molasses, 2 level tablespoonfuls baking powder. Rub in^ dry, two heaped tablespoonfuls grease. If you have no grease, do without. Make a smooth batter with cold milk (best) or water — thin enough to pour from a spoon, but not too thin, or it will take all day to bake enough for the party. Stir well, to smooth out lumps. Set frying-pan level over thin bed of coals, get it quite hot, and grease with a piece of pork in split end of stick. Pan must be hot enough to make batter sizzle as it touches, and it should be polished. Pour from end of a big spoon successively enough batter to fill pan within one-half inch of rim. When cake is full of bubbles and edges have stiffened, shuffle pan to make sure that cake is free below and stiff enough to flip. Then hold pan slanting in front of and away from you, go through preliminary motion of flapping once or twice to get the swing, then flip boldly so cake will turn a somersault in the air, and catch it upside down. Beginners generally lack the nerve to toss high enough. Grease pan anew and stir batter every time before pouring. This is the "universal pancake" that Nessmuk derided. Much better and wholesomer are: Egg Pancakes. — Made same as above excepting that you add two eggs, or their equivalent in des- iccated egg. Snow Pancakes. — Instead of eggs, in the above recipe, use four tablespoonfuls of freshly fallen snow. Make the batter rather thick, and add 114 CAMP COOKERY. some clean^ dry snow to each pancake before put- ting it in the pan. Mixed Cakes. — When cold boiled rice is left over, mix it half and half with flour, and proceed as with flapjacks. The batter is best mixed with the water in which the rice was boiled. Oatmeal, grits, or cold boiled potatoes, may be used in the same way. Corn Batter Cahes. — ^ pint corn meal, 14 pint flour, 1 heaped teaspoonful baking powder, 1 heaped teaspoonful sugar or 2 molasses, 1 level teaspoonful salt. After mixing the dry ingredients thoroughly, add cold water, a little at a time, stirring briskly, until a rather thick batter results. Bake like flap- jacks. Wholesomer than plain flour flapjacks. These are better with an egg or two added, and if mixed with milk instead of water. Snow can be substituted for eggs, as described above. Buckwheat Cakes. — 1 pint buckwheat flour, 14 pint wheat flour, 2 tablespoon fuls baking powder, % teaspoonful salt. Mix to a thin batter, preferably with milk. A couple of eggs make them light, or, make snow cakes. TOAST, FRITTERS, DUMPLINGS, ETC. Stale Bread. — Biscuit or bread left over and dried out can be freshened for an hour or two by dipping quickly in and out of water and placing in the baker until heated through; or, the biscuit may be cut open, slightly moistened, and toasted in a broiler. If you have eggs, make a French toast by di|)- BREADSTUFFS AND CEREALS. 115 ping the slices in whipped eggs and frying them. With milk, make milk toast: heat the milk_, add a chunk of butter and son\e salt, toast the bread, and pour milk over it. Stale bread may also be dipped into smoking hot grease. It will brown immediately. Stand it edgewise to drain, then lay on hot plate. Cut into dice for soups. Fried Quoits. — Make dough as for biscuit. Plant a stick slanting in the ground near the fire. Have another small, clean stick ready, and a frying-pan of lard or butter heated sissing hot. There must be enough grease in the pan to drown the quoits. Take dough the size of a small hen's egg, flatten it between the hands, make a hole in the center like that of a doughnut, and quickly work it (the dough, not the hole) into a flat ring of about two inches inside diameter. Drop it flat into the hot grease, turn almost immediately, and in a few seconds it will be cooked. When of a light brown color, fish it out with your little stick and hang it on the slanting one before the fire to keep hot. If the grease is of the right temperature, the cooking of one quoit will occupy just the same time as the molding of another, and the product will be crisp and crump- ety. If the grease is not hot enough, a visit from your oldest grandmother may be expected before midnight. (Adapted from Lees and Clutter- buck.) Fritters. — A dainty variety is added to the camp bill-of-fare by fritters of fruit or vegetables, fish, flesh, or fowl. They are especially relished in cold weather, or when the butter supply is low. Being easily made and quickly cooked, they fit any time or place. 116 CAMP COOKERY. The one essential of good and wholesome frit- ters is plenty of fat to fry them in^ and fat of the right temperature. (The best friture is equal parts of butter and lard.) Set the kettle where the fat will heat slowly until needed; then closer over the fire until a bluish smoke rises from the center of the kettle. Drop a cube of bread into it; if it turns golden-brown in one minute, the fat is right. Then keep the kettle at just this tem- perature. Make batter as follows: Fritter Batter. — 1 pint flour, 4 eggs, 1 tablespoonful salt, 1 pint water or milk, 3 tablespoonfuls butter or other grease. Blend the salt and the yolks of the eggs (or desiccated egg). Rub the butter into this; then the flour, a little at a time; then the water. Beat well, and, if you have time, let it stand a while. If fresh eggs are used, now beat the whites to a stiff froth and stir them in. When using, drop even spoonfuls into the fat with a large spoon. When golden-brown, lift fritter out with a forked stick (not piercing), stand it up to drain, and serve very hot. The base may be almost any- thing: sliced fruit, minced game or meat, fish or shellfish, grated cheese, boiled rice, grated potato or green corn, etc. Anything cut to the size of an oyster is dipped in the batter and then fried; if minced or grated it is mixed with the batter. Jam is spread on bread, covered with another slice, the sandwich is cut into convenient pieces, and these are dipped in the batter. Plain fritters of batter alone are eaten with syrup. Those made of corn meal instead of flour (mixed with warm milk and egg) are particularly good. The BREADSTUFFS AND CEREALS. 117 variety that can be served, even in camp, is well- nigh endless. Dumplings. — Those of biscuit dough have al- ready been mentioned. When specially prepared they may be made as follows: Yz pint flour, 1 teaspoon ful baking powder, ^ teaspoonful salt, % teaspoonful sugar, Yq pint milk. The stew that they are to be cooked with should be nearly done before the dumplings are started. Then mix the dry ingredients thoroughly. Wet with the milk and stir quickly into a smooth ball. Roll into a sheet three-quarters of an inch thick, and cut like biscuit. Meantime bring the stew to a sharp boil. Arrange dumplings on top of it, cover the vessel, and cook exactly ten minutes. MACARONI. Boiled Macaroni. — For one-half pound macaroni have not less than three quarts of salted water boiling rapidly. Break the macaroni into short pieces, and boil thirty-five minutes for the small, forty-five minutes for the large. Then drain, and pour sauce over it, or bake it. It is better if boiled in good broth instead of water. Tomato Sauce. — 1 quart can tomatoes, 1 tablespoonful butter, Q tablespoon fuls flour, 1 teaspoonful salt, Ys teaspoonful pepper, 1 teaspoonful sugar. Rub the flour into the butter until they blend. Brown this in a pan. Add the tomatoes and sim- mer thirty minutes. Stir frequently. Add the seasoning, along with spices, if you wish. This 118 CAMP COOKERY. makes enough sauce for 1% pounds macaroni, but it keeps well in cold weather, and can be used with other dishes. Good in combination with the following : Macaroni with Cheese. — After the macaroni is boiled, put it in a pan with a little butter and some grated cheese. Stir gently, and as soon as the cheese is melted, serve; or, pour the above sauce over it. Macaroni, Baked.- — Boil first, as above. Drain. Place in a deep pan, add a cupful of cold milk, sprinkle in three tablespoonfuls grated cheese and one tablespoonful butter. Then bake until brown. PORRIDGE. Corn Meal Mush. — Mix two level tablespoon- fuls salt with one quart meal. Bring four quarts of water (for yellow meal, or half as much for fresh white meal) to a hard boil in a two-gallon kettle. Mix the salted meal with enough cold water to make a batter that will run from the spoon; this is to prevent it from getting lumpy. With a large spoon drop the batter into the boil- ing water, adding gradually, so that water will not fall below boiling point. Stir constantly for ten minutes. Then cover pot and hang it high enough above fire to insure against scorching. Cook thus for one hour, stirring occasionally, and thinning with boiling water if it gets too thick. Fried Mush. — This, as Father Izaak said of another dish, is "too good for any but very honest men." The only drawback to this gastronomic joy is that it takes a whole panful for one man. As it is rather slow to fry, let each man perform over the fire for himself. The mush should have been poured into a greased pan the previous even- BREADSTUFFS AND CEREALS. 119 ing, and set in a cool place over night to harden. Cut into slices one-third of an inch thick, and fry in very hot grease until nicely browned. Eat with syrup, or au naturel. Polenta. — An Italian dish made from our na- tive corn and decidedly superior to plain boiled mush. Cook mush as above for one hour. Partly fill the bake-pan with it, and pour over it either a good brown gravy, or the tomato sauce described under macaroni. Then sprinkle with grated cheese. Set the pan in the oven three minutes, or in the reflector five minutes, to bake a little. Oatmeal Porridge. — Rolled oats may be cooked much more quickly than the old-fashioHcd oat- meal; the latter is not fit for the human stomach until it has been boiled as long as corn mush. To two quarts boiling water add one teaspoonful of salt, stir in gradually a pint of rolled oats, and boil ten minutes, stirring constantly, unless you have a double boiler. The latter may be extem- porized by setting a small kettle inside a larger one that contains some water. CEREALS. Rice, Boiled. — Good precedent to the contrary notwithstanding, I contend that there is but one way to boil rice, and that is this (which is de- scribed in the words of Captain Kenealy, whose Yachting Wrinkles is a book worth owning) : To cook rice so that each grain will be plump, dry, and separate, first, wash the measure of rice thoroughly in cold, salted water. Then put it in a pot of furiously boiling fresh water, no salt be- ing added. Keep the jDot boiling hard for twenty minutes, but do not stir. Then strain off the wa- ter, place the rice over a very moderate fire (hang 120 CAMP COOKERY. high over camp-fire), and let it swell and dry for half an hour, in an uncovered vessel. Remem- ber that rice swells enormously in cooking. Rice, Fried. — When boiled rice is left over, spread it in a dish. When cold, cut it into cakes and fry it, for a hasty meal. It is better, though, in muffins. Rice Muffins. — Mash very smooth half a pint boiled rice. Add slowly, stirring to a thinner paste, half a pint of milk, three beaten eggs, salt. Then make into a stiff batter with flour. Bake like dropped biscuits. Risotto. — Fry a sliced onion brown in a table- spoonful of butter. Add to this a pint of hot water and half a pint of washed rice. Boil until soft, adding more hot water if needed. Heat half a pint canned tomatoes, and stir into it a teaspoon- ful of sugar. When the rice is soft, salt it; add the tomato; turn into a dish and sprinkle over it a heaped tablespoonful of grated cheese. Rice, Curried. — Same as Risotto, but put a tea- spoonful of curry powder in the tomatoes and omit cheese. Grits, Boiled. — Put in plenty of boiling unsalted water. Boil about thirty minutes ; then salt and drain. Grits, Fried. — Same as fried rice. ^'Breakfast Foods.'' — According to directions on packages. Left-over Cereals. — See Mixed Cakes, page 114. CHAPTER X. VEGETABLES.— SOUPS. FRESH Vegetables. — Do not wash them until just before they are to be cooked or eaten. They lose flavor quickly after being washed. This is true even of potatoes. Fresh vegetables go into plenty of fast-boiling salted water. Salt prevents their absorbing too much water. The water should be boiling fast, and there should be plenty of it. They should be boiled rapidly, with the lid left off the pan. If the water is as hot as it should be, the effect is similar to that which we have noted in the case of meats: the surface is coagulated into a water- proof envelope which seals up the flavor instead of letting it be soaked out. In making soup, the rule is reversed. Dried Vegetables. — Beans and peas are to be cooked in unsalted water. If salted too soon they become leathery and difficult to cook. Put them in cold, fresh water, gradually heated to the boil- ing point, and boil slowly. Desiccated {dehydrated) Vegetables. — Follow directions on package. Desiccated potatoes of the ordinary kind require long soaking in cold water. Then put them in water slightly salted and pro- ceed as with fresh potatoes. They may need boil- ing in three waters. Canned Vegetables. — The liquor of canned peas, 121 122 CAMP COOKERY. string beans^ etc., is unfit for use and should be thrown away; this does not apply to tomatoes. Cleaning Vegetables. — To clear cabbage, etc., from insects, immerse them, stalk upward, in plenty of cold water salted in the proportion of a large tablespoonful to two quarts. Vinegar may be used instead of salt. Shake occasionally. The insects will sink to bottom of pan. Storing Vegetables. — To keep vegetables, put them in a cool, dry place (conditions similar to those of a good cellar). Keep each kind away from the other, or they will absorb each other's flavor. Potatoes, Boiled. — Pick them out as nearly as possible of one size, or some will boil to pieces before the others are done; if necessary, cut them to one size. Remove eyes and specks, and pare as thinly as possible, for the best of the potato lies just under the skin. As fast as pared, throw into cold water, and leave until wanted. Put in furi- ously boiling salted water, then hang kettle a little higher where it will boil moderately, but do not let it check. Test with a fork or sliver. When the tubers are done (about twenty minutes for new potatoes, thirty to forty minutes for old ones) drain off all the water, dust some salt over the potatoes (it absorbs the surface moisture), and let the pot stand uncovered close to the fire, shak- ing it gently once or twice, till the surface of each potato is dry and powdery. Never leave potatoes in the water after they are done; they become watery. Potatoes, Boiled in Their Jackets. — After wash- ing thoroughly, and gouging out the eyes, snip off a bit from each end of the potato; this gives a vent to the steam and keeps potatoes from burst- VEGETABLES.— SOUPS. 123 ing open. I prefer to j)ut them in cold water and bring it gradually to a boil, because the skin of the potato contains an acid poison which is thus extracted. The water in which potatoes have been boiled will poison a dog. Of course we don't "eat 'em skin and all/' like the people in the nursery- rhyme; but there is no use in driving the bitter- ness into a potato. Boil gently, but continuously, throw in a little salt now and then, drain, and dry before the fire. Potatoes, Steamed. — Old potatoes are better steamed. A rough-and-ready method is shown on page 60. Potatoes, Mashed. — After boiling, mash the po- tatoes with a peeled stub of sapling, or a bottle, and work into them some butter, if you have it, and milk. "The more you beat 'em, the better they be." Salt and pepper. Potato Cakes. — Mould some mashed potato into cakes, season, and fry in deep fat. Or add egg and bake them brown. Potatoes, Baked. — Nessmuk's description cannot be improved: "Scoop out a basin-like depression under the fore-stick, three or four inches deep, and large enough to hold the tubers when laid side by side ; fill • it with bright hardwood coals ^nd keep up a strong heat for half an hour or more. Next, clean out the hollow, place the po- tatoes in it, and cover them with hot sand or ashes, top23ed with a heap of glowing coals, and keep up all the heat you like. In about forty minutes commence to try them with a sharpened hardwood sliver; when this will pass through them they are done and should be raked out at once. Run th^ sliver through them from end to end, to let the 124 CAMP COOKERY. steam escape^ and use immediately, as a roast potato quickly becomes soggy and bitter." Potatoes, Fried. — Boiled or steamed potatoes that have been left over may be sliced one-quarter inch thick, and fried. Potatoes, Fried, Raw, — Peel, and slice into pieces half an inch thick. Drop into cold water until frying-pan is ready. Put enough grease in pan to completely immerse the potatoes, and get it very hot, as directed under Frying. Pour water off potatoes, dry a slice in a clean cloth, drop it into the sizzling fat, and so on, one slice at a time. Drying the slices avoids a splutter in the pan and helps to keep from absorbing grease. If many slices were dropped into the pan together, the heat would be checked and the potatoes would get soggy with grease. When the slices begin to turn a faint brown, salt the potatoes, pour off the grease at once, and brown a little in the dry pan. The outside of each slice will then be crisp and the insides white and deliciously mealy. Potatoes, Lyonnaise. — Fry one or more sliced onions until they are turning yellowish, then add sliced potatoes, previously boiled or steamed; keep tossing now and then until the potatoes are fried somewhat yellow; salt to taste. Potatoes, Stewed. — Cut cold boiled potatoes into dice, season with salt, pepper, butter, and stew gently in enough milk to cover them. Stir occa- sionally to prevent scorching. Or peel and slice some raw potatoes. Cover with boiling water and boil until tender. Pour off the water. Roll a large piece of butter in flour, heat some milk, beat these together until smooth, season with salt and* pepper, and bring to a boil. Then stew together five minutes. jServe very hot. VEGETABLES.— SOUPS. 125 Sweet Potatoes, Boiled. — Use a kettle with lid. Select tubers of uniform size; wash; do not cut or break the skins. Put them in boiling water, and continue boiling until, when you pierce one with a fork, you find it just a little hard in the center. Drain by raising the cover only a trifle when kettle is tilted, so as to keep in as much steam as possible. Hang the kettle high over the fire, cover closely, and let steam ten minutes. Sweet Potatoes, Fried. — Skin the boiled potatoes and cut them lengthwise. Dust the slices with salt and pepper. Throw them into hot fat, brown- ing first one side, then the other. Serve very hot. Potatoes and Onions, Hashed. — Slice two pota- toes to one onion. Parboil together about fifteen minutes in salted water. Pour off water, and drain. Meantime be frying some bacon. When it is done, remove it to a hot side dish, turn the vegetables into the pan, and fry them to a light brown. Then fall to, and enjoy a good thing! Beans, Boiled. — Pick . out all defective beans, and wash the rest. It is best to soak the beans over night; but if time does not permit, add one- quarter teaspoonful of baking soda to the parboil- ing water. In either case, start in fresh cold water, and parboil one quart of beans (for four men with hearty appetites) for one-half hour, or until one will pop open when blown upon. At the same time parboil separately one pound fat salt pork. Remove scum from beans as it rises. Drain both ; place beans around the pork, add two quarts boiling water, and boil slowly for two hours, or until tender. Drain, and season with salt and pepper. It does not hurt beans to boil all day, provided boiling water is added from time to time, lest they 126 CAMP COOKERY. get dry and sporch. The longer they boil the more digestible they become. Beans, Baked. — Soak and parboil^ as above, both the beans and the pork. Then pour off the water from the pork, gash the meat with a knife, spread half of it over the bottom of the kettle, drain the beans, pour them into the kettle, put the rest of pork on top, sj^rinkle not more than one- half teaspoonful of salt over the beans, pepper liberally, and if you have molasses, pour a table- spoonful over all; otherwise a tablespoonful of sugar. Hang the kettle high over the fire where it will not scorch, and bake at least two hours ; or, add enough boiling water to just cover the beans, place kettle in bake-hole as directed on page 56, and bake all night, being careful that there are not enough embers with the ashes to burn the beans. Baked beans are strong food, ideal for active men in cold weather. One can work harder and longer on pork and beans, without feeling hungry, than on any other food with which I am ac- quainted, save bear meat. The ingredients are compact and easy to transport; they keep indefi- nitely in any weather. But when one is only be- ginning camp life he should be careful not to over- load his stomach with beans, for they are rather indigestible until you have toned up your stomach by hearty exercise in the open air. Onions, Boiled. — More wholesome this way than fried or baked. Like potatoes, they should be of as uniform size as possible, for boiling. Do not boil them in an iron vessel. Put them in enough boiling salted water to cover them. Cover the kettle and boil gently, lest the onions break. They are cooked when a straw will pierce them VEGETABLES.— SOUPS. 127 (about an hour). If you wish them mild, boil in two or three waters. When cooked, drain and season with butter or dripping, pepper, and salt. Boiled milk, thickened, is a good sauce. Green Corn. — If you happen to camp near a farm in the "roasting-ear" season, you are in great luck. The quickest way to roast an ear of corn is to cut off the butt of the ear closely, so that the pith of the cob is exj)osed, ream it out a little, impale the cob lengthwise on the end of a long hardwood stick, and turn over the coals. To bake in the ashes: remove one outer husk, stripping off the silk, break off about an inch of the silk end, and twist end of husks tightly down over the broken end. Then bake in the ashes and embers as directed for potatoes. Time, about one hour. To boil: prepare as above, but tie the ends of husks; this preserves the sweetness of the corn. Put in enough boiling salted water to cover the ears. Boil thirty minutes. Like potatoes, corn is injured by over-boiling. When cooked, cut off the butt and remove the shucks. Cold boiled corn may be cut from the cob and fried, or mixed with mashed potatoes and fried. Greens. — One who camps early in the season can add a toothsome dish, now and then, to his menu by gathering fresh greens in the woods and marshes.* As a salad (watercress, peppergrass, dandelion, wild mustard, sorrel, etc.) : wash in cold salted water, if necessary, although this abstracts some of the flavor; dry immediately and thoroughly. * Nearly a hundred edible wild plants, besides mush- rooms and fruits, are discussed in my Campinff and Woodcraft, Chap. XVII. 128 CAMP COOKERY. Break into convenient pieces^ rejecting tough stems. Prepare a simple French dressing, thus; 1 tablespoonful vinegar, 3 tablespoon fuls best olive oil, % teaspoonful salt, 14 teaspoonful black pepper. Put salt and pepper in bowl, gradually add oil, rubbing and mixing till salt is dissolved; then add by degl*ees the vinegar, stirring continuously one minute. In default of oil, use cream and melted butter; but plain vinegar, salt, and pepper will do. Pour the dressing over the salad, turn the latter "upside down, mix well, and serve. A scalded salad is prepared in camp by cutting bacon into small dice, frying, adding vinegar, pepper, and a little salt to the grease, and pour- ing this, scalding hot, over the greens. Greens may be boiled with salt pork, bacon, or other meat. To boil them separately: first soak in cold salted water for a few minutes, then drain well, and put into enough boiling salted water to cover, pressing them down until the pot is full. Cover, and boil steadily until tender, which may be from twenty minutes to an hour, depending upon kind of greens used. If the plants are a little older than they should be, parboil in water to which a little baking soda has been added; then drain, and continue boiling in plain water, salted. Some greens are improved by chopping fine after boiling, putting in hot frjdng-pan with a tablespoonful of butter and some salt and pepper, and stirring until thoroughly heated. Poke stalks are cooked like asparagus. They should not be over four inches long, and should show only a tuft of leaves at the top; if much older than this, they are unwholesome. Wash the VEGETABLES.— SOUPS. 129 stalks, scrape them, and lay in cold water for an hour; then tie loosely in bundles, put in a ket- tle of boiling water, and boil three-fourths of an hour, or until tender; drain, lay on buttered toast, dust with pepper and salt, cover with melted but- ter, and serve. Jerusalem artichokes must be watched when boiling and removed as soon as tender; if left longer in tlie water they harden. Dock and sorrel may be cooked like spinach: pick over and wash, drain, shake, and j)ress out adhering water; put in kettle with one cup water, cover kettle, place over moderate fire, and steam thus twenty minutes; then drain, chop very fine, and heat in frying-pan as directed above. Mushrooms. — Every one who camps in summer should take with him a mushroom book, such as Gibson's, Atkinson's, or Nina Marshall's. (Such a book in pocket form, with colored illustrations, is a desideratum.) Follow recipes in book. Mush- rooms are very easy to prepare, cook quickly, and offer a great variety of flavors. All mushrooms on the following list are de- licious : Coprinus comatus. Lactarius volemus. Hypholoma appendiculatum. " deliciosus. Tricholoma personatum. Russula alutacea. Boletus subauretis. " virescens. " bovinus. Cantharellus cibarius. " sub sanguineous. Marasmius oreades. Clavaria botrytes. Hydnum repandum. " cinerea. " Caput-Medusce. " vermicularis. Morchella esculenta. " incequalis. " deliciosa. " pistillaris. Canned Tomatoes. — To a pint of tomatoes add butter twice the size of an egg, some pepper, very little salt, ^ttd a tablespoonful qi sugar. Boil ISO CAMP COOKERY. about five minutes. Put some bread crumbs or toast in a dish^ and pour tomatoes over them. But- ter can be omitted. Some do not like sugar in tomatoes. Canned Corn. — Same as tomatoes; but omit su- gar and bread. Add a cup of milk, if you have it. Miscellaneous Vegetables. — Since campers very seldom have any other fresh vegetables than po- tatoes and onions_, I will not take up space with special recipes for others. The following time- table may some time be useful: Boiling of Vegetables. Asparagus 20 to 25 minutes Cabbage 20 " 05 Carrots 30 " 40 Cauliflower 30 " 25 Corn (green) 15 " 20 Beans (string) 25 " 30 Beans (Lima) 30 " 35 Beans (navy, dried) x^i/g " 4 hours Beets 30 to 40 minutes Onions 30 " 40 Parsnips 30 " 35 Peas (green) 20 Potatoes (new) 20 Potatoes (old) 30 " 40 Spinach 20 " 25 Turnips ....30 " 35 SOUPS. When Napoleon said that "soup makes the soldier/' he meant thick, substantial soup — soup that sticks to the ribs — nofr mere broths or meat extracts, which are fit only for invalids or to coax an indifferent stomach. "Soup," says Ness- muk, "requires time, and a solid basis of the right material. Venison is the basis, and the best ma- terial is the bloody part of the deer, where the bullet went through. We used to throw this away ; VEGETABLES.— SOUPS. 131 we have learned better. Cut about four pounds of the bloody meat into convenient pieces, and wipe them as clean as possible with leaves jr a damp cloth, but don't wash them. Put the meat into a five-quart kettle nearly filled with water, and raise it to a lively boiling pitch." Here I must interfere. It is far better to bring the water gradually to a boil and then at once hang the kettle high over the fire where it will only keep up a moderate bubbling. There let it simmer at least two hours — better half a day. It is impossible to hasten the process. Furious boil- ing would ruin both the soup and the meat. Nessmuk continues: "Have ready a three-tined fork made from a branch of birch or beech, and with this test the meat from time to time; when it parts readily from the bones, slice in a large onion. Pare six large, smooth potatoes, cut five of them into quarters, and drop them into the kettle; scrape the sixth one into the soup for thickening. Season with salt and white pepper to taste. When, by skirmishing with the wooden fork, you can fish up bones with no meat on them, the soup is cooked, and the kettle may be set aside to cool." Any kind of game may be used in a similar way, provided that none but lean meat be used. Soup is improved by first soaking the chopped-up meat in cold water, and using this water to boil in thereafter. Soup should be skimmed for some time after it has started simmering, to remove grease and scum. To any one who knows petite marmite or poule- au-pot, these simple directions will seem barbarous — and so they are; but barbarism has its compen- sations. A really first-class soup cannot be made 152 CAMP COOKERY. without a full day's previous preparation and the resources of a city grocery. Mulligatawny, for example, requires thirty-two varieties of spices and other condiments. No start can be made with any standard soup until one has a supply of "stock" made of veal or beef, mutton or poul- try, by long simmering and skimming and strain- ing. In camp, stock can be made expeditiously by cutting one or two pounds of venison into thin slices, then into dice, cover with cold water, boil gently twenty minutes, take from the fire, skim, and strain. A tolerable substitute is Liebig's beef extract dissolved in water. Onion, cloves, mace, celery seed, salt, and red or white pepper, are used for seasoning. Sassa- fras leaves, dried before the fire and powdered, make the gumbo file of the Creoles. Recipes for, a few simple, nourishing soups, are given below: Squirrel Soup. — Put the squirrels (not less than three) in a gallon of cold water, with a scant tablespoonful of salt. Cover the pot closely, bring to the bubbling point, and then simmer gently un- til the meat begins to be tender. Then add what- ever vegetables you have. When the meat has boiled to a rag, remove the bones. Thicken the soup with a piece of butter rubbed to a smooth paste in flour. Season to taste. Croutons for Soup. — Slice some stale bread half an inch thick, remove crust, and cut bread into half-inch dice. Fry these, a few at a time, in deep fat of the "blue smoke" temperature, until they are golden brown. Drain free from grease, and add to each plate of soup when serving. (See also page 114.) Tomato Soup, — Take a quart can of tomatoes VEGETABLES.— SOUPS. 133 and a sliced onion. Stew twenty minutes. Mean- time boil a quart of milk. Rub to a paste two tablespoonfuls each of flour and butter, and add to the boiling milk, stirring until it thickens. Now season the tomatoes with a teaspoonful of sugar, a little salt, and pepper. Then stir into the toma- toes one-half teaspoonful baking soda (to keep milk from curdling), add the boiling milk, stir quickly, and serve. Bean Soup. — Boil with pork, as previously di- rected, until the beans are tender enough to crack open; then take out the pork and mash the beans into a paste. Return pork to kettle, add a cup of flour mixed thin with cold water, stirring it in slowly as the kettle simmers. Boil slowly an hour longer, stirring frequently so that it may not scorch. Season with little salt but plenty of pepper. Pea Soup. — Wash well one pint of split peas, cover with cold water, and let them soak over night. In the morning put them in a kettle with close-fitting cover. Pour over them three quarts cold water, adding one-half pound lean bacon or ham cut into dice, one teaspoonful salt, and some pepper. When the soup begins to boil, skim the froth from the surface. Cook slowly three to four hours, stirring occasionally till the peas are all dis- solved, and adding a little more boiling water to keep up the quantity as it boils away. Let it get quite thick. Just before serving, drop in small squares of toasted bread or biscuits, adding quickly while the bread is hot. Vegetables may be added one-half hour before the soup is done. Condensed Soups. — Follow directions on wrap- per. Skilligalee. — The best thing in a fixed camp is 134 CAMP COOKERY. the stock-pot. A large covered pot pr enameled pail is reserved for this and nothing else. Into it go all the clean fag-ends of game — heads, tails, wings, feet, giblets, large bones — also the left- overs of fish, flesh, and fowl, of any and all sorts of vegetables, rice, or other cereals, macaroni, stale bread, everything edible except fat and grease. This pot is always kept hot. Its flavors are for- ever changing, but ever welcome. It is always ready, day or night, for the hungry varlet who missed connections or who wants a bite between meals. No cook who values his peace of mind will fail to have skilly simmering at all hours. CHAPTER XI. BEVERAGES AND DESSERTS. COFFEE.— To have coffee in perfection the berry must be freshly roasted and freshly ground. This can be done with frying- pan and pistol-butt; yet few but old-timers take the trouble. There are two ways of making good coffee in an ordinary pot. (1) Put coffee in pot with cold water (one heaped tablespoonful freshly ground to one pint, or more, if canned ground) and hang over fire. Watch it, and when water first begins to bubble, remove pot from fire and let it stand five minutes. Settle grounds with a tablespoonful of cold water poured down spout. Do not let the coffee boil. Boiling extracts the tannin, and drives off the volatile aroma which is the most precious gift of superior berries. (2) Bring wa- ter to hard boil, remove from fire, and quickly put coffee in. Cover tightly and let steep ten min- utes. A better way, when you have a seamless vessel that will stand dry heat, is to put coffee in, place over gentle fire to roast until aroma begins to rise, pour boiling water over the coffee, cover tightly, and set aside. Tea. — Pour boiling water over tea (one heaped teaspoonful tea to the pint), cover tightly, and steep away from fire four minutes hy the watch. Then, if you have no percolator, strain into sep- 135 136 CAMP COOKERY. arate vessel. If tea is left steeping more than five or six minutes the result is a liquor that will tan skin into leather. To boil tea is — well, it is like watering a rare vintage. You know what the old Colonel said: "My friend, if you put water in that wine, God'U never forgive you I" Chocolate. — For each quart of boiling water scrape up four tablespoonfuls of chocolate. Boil until dissolved. Then add half a pint milk. Stir with a peeled stick until milk has boiled up once. Let each man sweeten his own cup. DESSERTS. Dried Fruit. — Evaporated or dried apples, apri- cots, peaches, prunes, etc., are misprized, under- rated, by most people from not knowing how to prepare them. The common way is to put the fruit on to stew without previous soaking, and then boil from one-half hour to two hours until it is more or less pulpy. It is then flat and insipid, besides unattractive to the eye. There is a much better way. Soak the fruit at least over night, in clear cold water — just enough to cover. If time permits, soak it from twenty-four to thirty-six hours. This restores the fruit to its original size and flavor. It is good to eat, then, without cooking. To stew, merely simmer gently a few minutes in the water in which the fruit was soaked. This water carries much of the fruit's flavor, and is invaluable for sauce. California prunes prepared in this way need no sugar. Dried apples and peaches have none of the rank taste by which they are unfavorably known, but resemble the canned fruit. Apricots properly soaked are especially good. BEVERAGES AND DESSERTS. 137 Jelly from Dried Fruit.— ^l was present when a Southern mountain woman did some "experi- encinV' with nothing to guide her but her own wits. The result was a discovery of prime value to us campers. Here are the details — any one can follow them: Wash one pound of evaporated apples (or com- mon sun-dried apples of the country) in two wa- ters. Cover with boiling water, and put them on to stew. Add boiling water as required to keep them covered. Cook until fruit is soft (about half an hour). Strain oif all the juice (cheesecloth is convenient), and measure it. There will be, prob- ably, a quart. Put this juice on the fire and add half its own measure of granulated sugar (say a scant pound— but measure it, to make sure of the proportion). Now boil this briskly in a broad, uncovered vessel, without stirring or skimming, until the juice gets syrupy. The time varies according to quality of fruit — generally about twenty minutes after coming to a full boil. When the thickened juice begins to "flop," test it by letting a few drops drip from a spoon. When the drops thicken and adhere to the spoon, the syrup is done. There will be a little more than a pint. Pour it out. As soon as it cools it will be jelly, as good as if made from fresh fruit and much better than what is commonly sold in the stores. The apples remaining can be spiced and used as sauce, or made into pies or turnovers, or into apple butter by beating smooth, adding a tea- cupful of sugar, spicing, and cooking again for fifteen or twenty minutes. If preferred, a second run of jelly can be made from the same apples. Cover again with boil- 1S8 CAMP COOKERY. ing water, stew about fifteen minutes, add sugar by measure, as before. This will take less boiling than the first juice (about seven minutes). Enough jelly will result to make nearly or quite a quart, all told, from one pound of dried apples and about one and one-half pounds of sugar. Apricots or any other tart dried fruit can be used instead of apples. Sweet fruit will not do, unless lemon juice or real apple vinegar is added. Wild Fruits. — American wild fruits ripen as follows ; May — June. Chickasaw Plum (to July). Wild Strawberries. June — July. Woolly-leaved Buckthorn. Dewberry. Service-berry (June-berry). Shad-bush. July. May Apple. July — A ugust. Blackberries (some in Sep.). Bilberries. Blueberries. Huckleberries. Buffalo-berry. Choke Cherry. Wild Black Currant. Wild Gooseberries. Riverside Grape (to Oct.). Wild Raspberries (to Sep.). Salmon-berry. Silver-berry. August* Sand Cherry. Western Wild Cherry. Wild Red Cherry. Elderberry. Sand Grape. Canada Plum. Porter's Plum. Barberry. Cranberries. August — Ssptembtr, BEVERAGES AND DESSERTS. 139 Wild Black Cherry. Fox Grape. Wild Red Plum (to Oct.). Snowberry. September, Carolina Buckthorn. September — October, Wild Crab-apples. Summer Grape. Haws. Beach Plum. Wild Goose Plum. Large-fruited Thorn. Scarlet Thorn. October. Missouri Grape. Black Thorn. Frost Grape. October — November. Edible After Frost. Pawpaw. Persimmon. I Pie. — It is not to be presumed that a mere male camper can make a good pie-crust in the regular way; but it is easy to make a wholesome and very fair pie-crust in an irregular way, which is as follows: Make a glorified biscuit dough by mix- ing thoroughly 1 pint flour, 1 teaspoonful baking powder, % teaspoonful salt, rubbing in 4 heaped tablespoonfuls of lard (better still, half-and-half of butter and lard), and making into a soft dough with cold water. In doing this, observe the rules given under Biscuit. The above quantity is enough for a pie filling an 8x12 reflector pan. Roll the dough into a thin sheet, as thin as you can handle, and do the rolling as gently as you can. From this sheet cut a piece large enough for bottom crust and lay it in the greased pan. The sheet should be big enough to lap over edge of pan. Into this put your fruit (dried fruit ig 140 CAMP COOKERY. previously stewed and mashed), and add sugar and spice to taste. Then, with great circumspec- tion and becoming reverence, lay on top of all this your upper crust. Now, with your thumb, press the edges of upper and lower crust together all around, your thumb-prints leaving scallops around the edge. Trim off by running a knife around edge of pan. Then prick a number of small slits in the top crust, here and there, to give a vent to the stem when the fruit boils. Bake as you would biscuits. Note that this dough contains baking powder, and that it will swell. Don't give the thing a name until it is baked; then, if you have made the crust too thick for a pie, call it a cobbler, or a shortcake, and the boys, instead of laughing at you, will ask for more. Doughnuts. — Mix 1 quart of flour with 1 tea- spoonful of salt, 1 tablespoonful of baking pow- der, and 1 pint of granulated sugar, and I/2 nut- meg grated. Make a batter of this with 4 beaten eggs and enough milk to make smooth. Beat thor- oughly and add enough flour to make a soft dough. Roll out into a sheet ^ inch thick and cut into rings or strips, which may be twisted into shape. Fry in very hot fat; turn when neces- sary. Drain and serve hot. Suits und Knepp. — This is a Pennsylvania- Dutch dish, and a good one for campers. Take some dried apples and soak them over night. Boil until tender. Prepare knepp as directed for pot- pie dough, only make a thick batter of it instead of a dough. It is best to add an egg and use no shortening. Drop the batter into the pan of stewing apples, a large spoonful at a time, not fast enough to check the boiling. Boil about ^ BEVERAGES AND DESSERTS. 141 hour. Season with butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Fruit Cobbler. — Make up your dough as di- rected under Pie, excepting omit baking powder, and use % pound of mixed butter and lard to 2 pints flour. Mix with coldest spring water, and have your hands cold. After putting under crust in greased pan, pour in scant S pints of fruit, which may be either fresh, canned, or evaporated (soaked as explained under Dried Fruits), leav- ing out the free juice. Cover with upper crust, bake brown, and serve with milk or pudding sauce. Puddings are either baked in an oven or re- flector, or boiled in a cloth bag. Baked puddings are quickest and easiest to manage. A few ex- amples of simple puddings are given below. They may be varied indefinitely, according to materials available. Deep tin pudding pans are convenient to bake in. Snow may be substituted for eggs (see page 111). Rice Pudding. — Mix 1 pint cold boiled rice with 1 quart milk and sugar to taste. Put in a well- greased pan, dust nutmeg or cinnamon over the top, and bake slowly one hour. Seeded raisins are an agreeable addition, and a couple of eggs make the pudding richer. Mix them in before baking. To stone them, keep them in lukewarm water during the process. Fruit Pudding. — Line a deep dish or pan, well greased, with slices of buttered bread. Then put in a layer of fruit, dusting it with sugar and dotting with small lumps of butter. Repeat these alternate layers until the dish is full, the last layer being bread. Bake % to % hour, with moderate heat. Eat hot, with the sweet sauce given below. 142 CAMP COOKERY. Cottage Pudding. — 1 pint flour, y^ pint sugar, Yz pint milk, 3 heaped tablespoonfuls butter, 1 egg, 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder, Grated rind of a lemon. Mix thoroughly the flour and baking powder. Rub the butter and sugar to a cream, add the milk and egg beaten together; then the lemon rind. Add this to the flour and mix well. But- ter a pan well to prevent scorching and dredge it with flour or powdered bread-crumbs. Pour in the batter, and bake about half an hour in hot oven. A richer pudding is made by using one-half pound butter and two eggs. A cupful of stoned raisins, minced figs, or dates, added to the batter, converts this into a good fruit pudding. Nutmeg, cinnamon, or other flavoring may be substituted for lemon. Batter Pudding. — Yz pint flour, 1 pint milk, 1 heaped tablespoonful butter, 6 eggs. Beat flour and milk into a smooth batter. Then add the eggs, beaten light. Stir all well together, adding the butter in tiny lumps. Dip a clean cloth bag into hot water, dredge it with flour, pour the batter into this, tie up firmly, and put into plenty of boiling water. Keep this boiling steadily for an hour. Then dip the bag quickly in cold water and remove cloth with care not to break the pudding. Serve very hot, with a sauce. BEVERAGES AND DESSERTS. 143 Plain Plum Duff. — 1 quart flour, 1 heaped teaspoonful baking powder, 2 tablespoon fuls sugar, 1 lb. seeded raisins. % R>. suet (or see below). Venison suet chopped fine, or the fat of salt pork minced up, will serve. Marrow is better than either. Mix the dry ingredients intimately. Then make up with half a pint of water. Put this into a cloth bag prepared as in the preceding recipe. Since suet puddings swell considerably, the bag must be large enough to allow for this. Place in enough boiling water to cover, and do not let it check boiling until done (about two hours). Add boiling water as required to keep the bag cov- ered. Turn the bag upside down when pudding begins to set, or the fruit will all go to the bot- tom; turn it around now and then to prevent scorching against sides of pot. When done, manipulate it like cottage pudding. Serve with sweet sauce. A richer duff can be made by spicing and add- ing molasses, or the rind and juice of a lemon. Sweet Sauce for Puddings. — Melt a little but- ter, sweeten it to taste, and flavor with grated lemon rind, nutmeg, or cinnamon. Brandy Sauce. — Butter twice the size of an egg is to be beaten to a cream with a pint of sugar and a tablespoonful of flour. Add a gill of brandy. Set the cup in a dish of boiling water and beat until the sauce froths. Fruit Sauce. — Boil almost any fresh fruit un- til it is quite soft. Squeeze it through cheese- cloth, sweeten to taste, heat it, and pour the sauce over your pudding. Spices may be added during the final heating. APPENDIX. COOK S MEASURES. 45 drops water=l teaspoonful=l fluidram. 2 teaspoonfuls=l dessertspoonful. 4 teaspoonfuls=:l tablespoonful. 2 tablespoonfuls=l fluidounce. 4 tablespoonfuls=l wineglassful. 8 tablespoonfuls=l gill. 2 gills=l cup. 4 gills=l pint (1 lb. water). 2 pints=l quart (1 lb. flour). 4 quarts=l gallon. 2 gallons (dry)=l peck. 4 pecks (dry)=l bushel. outfitter's data. Baking powder 1 lb.=li4 pints. Beans, dried 1 qt.=l % ft»s. CoflFee, roasted whole 1 qt.=10 oz. Corn meal 1 qt.=:li4 ^s. Flour 1 qt.=l lb. Macaroni 1 lb.=8%x23/gx23/8 in. Oatmeal 1 qt.=% lb. Peas, split 1 qt.=l% lbs. Rice 1 qt.=2 lbs. Salt, dry 1 qt.=l% ^s. Soda crackers are about 3 times as bulky as bread, weight for weight. 144 APPENDIX. 145 Sugar, granulated Tea Bacon, breakfast Salt pork Salt pork Butter, closely packed.. Butter, creamery Eggs, desiccated Eggs, fresh Lard Lard Milk, evaporated Milk, evaporated Milk, evaporated Apples, evaporated Apples, evaporated Corn, canned Fruit, canned, small can, Fruit, canned, large can, Tomatoes, canned Lemons Raisins, stemmed Carrots Onions Potatoes Sweet Potatoes 1 qt.=l3^ lbs. 1 qt.=y2 lb. 1 fiitch=:5-8 lbs., average. 1 side=30-40 lbs,, average. 1 belly:=20 lbs., average. 1 lb.=l pint. 1 ib.=:4%x2y2x2y2 in. 1 Ib.=:6x3x3 in.=4 doz. fresh. 10 medium or 8 large=l lb. 3 lb. pail=:5x5 in. 5 K). pail=6x6 in. 7 oz. can=2i4x2y2 in. 12 oz. can=:3%x3 in. 1 lb. can=4%x3 in. 1 lb. (14 oz.)=r:7y8x4y3x2 in. 1 peck=:6 lbs. 1 can=:2l^ lbs.=4%x33/8 in. same as corn, same as tomatoes. .1 can=:2l^ Ibs.=4ygx4i4 in. .1 doz.=:2 lbs.^=2 qts. , 1 ib.=:iy3 pints. .1 qt.=iy4 lb. 1 qt.=rl lb. .1 peck=15 lbs. 1 peck=14 lbs. THE END. INDEX. Acids 11 "Aluminol" 25 Aluminum ware 32 Army bread 107 Artichokes, Jerusalem 129 Ash cake 103, 111 Asparagus 130 Bacon, 6; and eggs, 93; and liver, 93; Boiled, 93; Broiled, 93; Fried, 93; omelet, 100; Toasted.. 93 Bakers 23, 24, 27 Baking bread, 103; fish, 84; fowl, 76, 78; in a hole, 56, 103; in a pot, 104; in clay, 56, 72, 85; in Dutch oven, 104; in embers, 57, 103; in frying-pan, 103; in the hide, 56; meat, 55; on a slab, 103 ; on a stick 103 Baking powder 5 Barbecuing 55, 69 Batter, bread. 111 ; cakes, 114; Fritter 116 Bean soup 133 Beans, 9; Baked, 126; Boiled, 125; Canned, 9; Lima, 130; String 130 Bear, Braised, 55 ; To skin 41 Bear's oil 41 Beaver tail 74 Beef, Dried. See Dried Beef; extract, 6, 62; Corned. See Corned Beef. Beets 130 Beverages 135 Birds, Small game, 79; Time-table for roasting, 78; To cook, 75, 77; To keep 47 Biscuit, 106 ; Dropped, 107 ; loaf 105 Bittern "^9 Blow-flies 4.1* ^6 Boiling, 58, 62 ; at high altitudes 59 Bones, Marrow ^6 Brains, Fried 66 Braising 55 Brandy H 147 148 INDEX. Bread, 4; Army, lOT; Corn, 110, 111; "Gritted," 112; Lungwort, 109; Self-rising, 108; Snow, 111; Sour-dough, 108; Stale, 114; To raise in a pot, 108; Unleavened, 109; Wheat 105 BreadstuflFs 102 Breakfast foods 120 Broiling 52, 83 Brunswick stew 68 Buckwheat cakes 114 Bullhead, To skin 44 Butchering 36 Butter, To keep 8 Cabbage 130 Cakes, Buckwheat, 114; Grits, 114; Mixed, 114; Oatmeal, 114; Potato, 114; Rice 114 Canned fruit, 2; meats, etc., 6; vegetables 121 Canvasback, Baked 78 Carrots 9, 130 Catfish, To skin 44 Caul fat 40 Cauliflower 130 Celery seed 80 Cereals, 119 ; Left-over 120 Cheese 8 Chests 16 Chocolate 11, 136 Chowder, Clam, 92 ; Fish 8T Citric acid 11 Clam chowder 92 Clams, Baked 91 Coals 29 Cobbler, Fruit 141 Codfish balls, 97 ; hash, 97 ; Stewed 97 Coffee 10, 135 Coffee pot 22, 27 Cold weather rations 12 Condiments 3, 11, 49 Cook's measures 144 Cooking, General principles of 49 Coon, Baked 72 Coot 79 Corn bread, 110, 111; cakes, 114; dodgers, 110; Green, 127; meal, 5; mush, 118; Stewed canned 130 Corned beef. Boiled, 95; hash 96 Crayfish 90 Croutons 115, 132 Cups 22, 27 Curry of game 69 INDEX, 149 Damper, Australian 103 Deer brains 66 Deer head, Baked 56 Deer, To butcher, 37; To hang, 36; To skin, 3T; Weight of 41 Desserts 136 Dock 129 Dough, To mix without a pan 110 Doughnuts 140 Dressing, Salad 128 Dried beef, 6 ; Creamed 96 Duck, Baked, 78; Stewed, 78; To dress 43 Ducks, Fish-eating 79 DuflP, Plum 142 Dumplings 67, 117 Dutch oven 24, 104 Eel, Broiled, 89 ; Stewed, 89 ; To skin 45 Eggs, 99; Boiled, 101; Desiccated, 7, 99; Fried, 99; Poached, 101 ; Scrambled 99 Elk, To butcher 40 Enameled ware 22 Fat, 12; Caul 40 Fire irons 19 Fires 28 Fish, 82; Baked, 84; Baked in clay, 85; Boiled, 59, 86; Broiled, 52, 83; cakes, 88; Canned, 6; chowder, 87, 88; Creamed, 88; Cured, 93, 97; Fried, 50, 51, 82; from muddy streams, 82; Left-over, 86, 88; Planked, 84; Roasted, 84; roe, 89; Salt, 97; Skewered, 83; Smoked, 7, 96; Steamed, 85; To clean, 44; To dry, 47; To keep 46 Flapjacks 113 Flour 5 Food components, 12; Relative values of, 3; To pack 15 Fowls, To dress 42, 77 Fricasseeing 52, 75 Fritter batter 116 Fritters 115 Friture 8, 51, 83, 116 Frog legs 89 Frozen game and fish 65 Fruit, Canned, 9; Dried, 10; Dried, Jelly from, 137 ; Dried, Stewed, 136 ; Preserved 9 Fruits, Wild 138 Frying 50, 61, 82 Frying fat 8, 51, 83, 116 150 INDEX. Frying-pan 23, 27 Fuel 31 Game birds, Broiled, 75; Fricasseed, 75; Fried 75 Game, Boiled, 58; Braised, 55; Broiled, 52; Cook- ing, 65; Curry of, 69; Fried, 50; Hanging, 65; pie, 69; pot pie, 67; Roasted, 53; Stewed, 59, 60 ; To dress and keep, 36 ; To ship 47 Giblets 76 Goose, Roast, 77 ; To dress 42 Grates 18 Gravy, Bacon, 94; Braising, 55; Cream, 63; for broiled meat, 62; for roasts, 62; from beef extract, 62; Pork, 94; Rabbit 70 Greens 127 Grilling on a rock 53 Grits, Boiled, 120; Fried 120 "Gritted" bread 112 Groundhog 74 Grouse, Broiled, 79; Roasted, 79; To dress 42 Ham, 6; and eggs, 94; Boiled, 95; Broiled, 95; Fried, 95; omelet 100 Hare 70 Hash, Corned beef 96 Heart, To cook 66 Herrings, Smoked 98 Jam 9 Jambolaya 68 Jelly from dried fruit 137 Jerked venison 6 Johnny cake 110 Kabobs 54 Kidneys, Stewed 66 Kindling 34 Lard 8, 51, 116 Lemons 11 Liver, 62; and bacon, 93; Fried, 66; Roasted 66 Lobscouse 96 Macaroni, 5; Baked, 118; Boiled, 117; with cheese. 118 Marrow-bones, Boiled 66 Match, To light in a wind 35 Measures 144 Meat, 49; Boiled, 58; Braised, 55; Broiled, 52; Canned, To cook, 96, 97; Cured, 93; Fried, 50; Roasted, 53; Salt, Boiled, 59; Steamed, 60; INDEX. 151 Stewed, 59; To cure, 45; To protect, 41; Tough 50, 55 Milk, Evaporated, 8 ; Powdered 8 Milt, Broiled gg Moose, To butcher 40 Moose muffle 67 Mud-hen * 79 Mush, Boiled, 118; Fried ......!.....!.* 118 Mushrooms 129 Muskrat 73 Nut butter g^ 10 Nuts * If Oatmeal porridge , II9 Oats, Rolled [] 5 Oil, Olive .8, 88 Omelet, Fancy, 100; Ham, 100; Plain, 100; Rum.. 100 Onions, 9 ; Boiled l^g Opossum [ 71 Outfitter's data I44 Oven 24 104 Oysters, Fried, 91; Roasted, 91; Saut6, 91; Seal-* loped, 91 ; Stewed 90 Packing food 15 Pails !21, 24, 27 Pancakes, Egg, 113 ; Snow 113 Parboiling 59, 65 Parsnips 130 Pea soup 133 Peas, Green, 130; Split 9 Pepper H Percolator qq 27 Pheasant 79 Pie, Fruit, 139; Game 69 Planking 84, 103 Plaster, Surgeon's 15 Plover 79 Plum duff 142 Poke, Boiled 128 Polenta 119 Porcupine 73 Pork, Salt See Salt pork Porridge 118 Possum, Baked, 71, 72; Roasted 72 Pot pie 67 Potato cakes 123 Potatoes, 8; and onions hashed, 125; Baked, 123; 152 INDEX. Boiled, 122; Boiled in jackets, 122; Fried, 124; Fried, raw, 124; Lyonnaise, 124; Mashed, 123; Steamed, 60, 123; Stewed, 124; Sweet 125 Prairie chicken 79 Provisions 1 Prunes, Stewed 136 Pudding, Batter, 142; Cottage, 142; Fruit, 141; Rice, 141 ; Snow 141 Quail 79 Quoits, Fried 115 Rabbit, Baked, 71; Fried, 70; Roasted, 71; Stewed, 71; To dress 70 Raccoon 72 Ragouts 60 Rail 79 Ration lists 11, 15 Reflector 23, 27, 55 Rice, 5; Boiled, 119; Curried, 120; Fried, 120; muf- fins 120 Risotto 120 Roasting, 53, 62; in reflector 55, 84 Roe 89 Rolls, Breakfast 107 Roux 62 Saccharin 10 Sardines, Fried 99 Salad dressing, 128; Scalded 128 Salads 127 Salmon, Canned, 98; Creamed, 98; on toast, 98; Scalloped 98 Salt 11, 15 Salt fish. Boiled, 97; Broiled 97 Salt pork and hardtack, 95; Boiled, 94; Broiled, 94; Fried, 94; fritters 94 Sauce, Barbecue, 55; Brandy, 143; Butter, 86; Celery, 80; Cranberry, 80; Curry, 80; Fruit, 143; Giblet, 76; India, 87; Lemon, 87; Mus- tard, 63; Sweet, 143; Tomato, 117; Venison, 63; White 86 Sausage, Fried, 52 ; Pork, 95 ; Venison 67 Saut6ing 51 Scent glands 65, 70, 73 Seasoning 49, 133 Shellfish 90 Skilligalee 133 Slumgullion 96 Smudges ^ , , . ^ . ^ . ^ » 36 INDEX. 153 Snipe 79 Snits uiid Knepp 140 Snow bread, 111; pancakes, 113; pudding 141 Soda, 5 ; Substitute for 112 Sorrel 129 Soup, Bean, 133; Condensed, 7, 133; Game, 131; Pea, 133; seasoning, 132; Squirrel, 132; stock, 132 ; Tomato, 132 ; Venison 130 Spinach 130 Spleen, Broiled 66 Sprats, Smoked 98 Squirrel, Barbecued, 69; Broiled, 69; Fried, 69; soup, 132; Stewed, 68, 69; To skin 43 Steak, Broiled 52, 53 Steaming GO, 85 Stew, Brunswick, 68; with canned meat 96 Stewing 59 Stock pot 133 Stoves 18 Stuffing 76 Sugar 10, 12 Surgeon's plaster 15 "Surprise," The 50 Sweet potatoes. Boiled, 125 ; Fried 125 Syrup 10 Tea 11, 135 Time-tables xi, 78, 130 Tinware 22 Toast, French, 114; Milk 115 Tomato soup 133 Tomatoes, Canned, 9 ; Stewed 129 Tongue, Boiled 67 Trout, To clean 43 Turkey, Boiled, 77; Roast, 54, 76; Stuffing for, 76; To dress 43 Turnips 130 Turtle 90 Utensils 18 Variety 3 Vegetables, Boiled, 121; Canned, 9, 121; Cleaning, 121, 122; Dehydrated, 9, 121; Storing 122 Venison, Baked, 55; Boiled, 58; Braised, 53; Broiled, 52; Dried, 121; Fried, 50; Hanging, 65; Jerked, 6; Roast, 53; sausage, 67; soup, 130; Steamed, 60; Stewed, 59; To cure 45 Vinegar 11 154 INDEX. Warbles 71 Water in food 9 Waterfowl, To dress 77 ' Weights and measures 144 1 Woc^chuck 73 Woodcock 79 NEW RECIPES. NEW RECIPES. NEW RECIPES. NEW RECIPES. NEW RECIPES. NEW RECIPES. NEW RECIPES. NEW IlECIPES. NEW RECIPES. NEW RECIPES. NEW RECIPES. NEW. RECIPES. Outing How To Books Have been carefully selected from the out-door books of the Outing Publishing Company. No title is add- ed to the list until its readers have demonstrated its exceptional merit as a practical manual. Consequently these books offer complete and reliable courses of in- struction in outdoor life. They sum- marize the experience of experts, and they are especially helpful in the selection and purchase of equipment and supplies. Wherever possible they have been made pocket size for easy transport- ation. Every copy is printed on high grade bookpaper, artistically illustra- ted and bound attractively. They serve equally well in the open, in the library and as gifts. iOUTING • PUBLISHING COMPANY^ 315 FIFTH AVtNL'E j- ■ ■ • NEW YORK CITY OUTING HOW TO BOOK No. 7. THE BOOK OF Camping fe? Woodcraft By HORACE KEPHART It fits the pocket — a7i encyclopedia in 4)i by 7 inches. Copiously illustrated jj I pages. Cloth, decorative^ %i .So postpaid. <osti>aid. ^HIS volume tells how the amateur can build a log cabin at a minimum of cxt pense. No detail is omitted. Numer- ous plans are given a,nd valuable specific- ations. The chapters are as follows. Making Plafis. — The Fireplace.— The Axe and the Tree. — Builditig the Cabin. — The Roof and the Floor.— The Cabin and Its Environment. — Inside the Cabin. — What It will Cost. — Some Hunting Cabins. — A Few Plans — Wildwood, Crows Nesf^ A Club House, The Block House, Idlewild, The Jolly Pities, The Antlers. T OUTING HOW TO BOOK No. 4. TRACKS and TRACKING, Tracks y Tracking By JOSEF BRUNNER Pocket size 3xy\ in. Completely illust7-ated. Cloth. %i. 25 postpaid AFTER twenty years of patient study and practical experience, Mr. Brun- ner can, from his intimate know- ledge, speak with authority on this subject. "Tracks and Tracking" shows how to follow intelligently even the most intricate animal or bird tracks. It teaches how to interpret tracks of wild game and decipher the many tell-tale signs of the chase that would otherwise pass unnoticed. It proves how it is possible to tell from the foot- prints the name, sex, speed, direction, whether and how wounded, and many other things about wild animals and birds. All material has been gathered first hand; the drawings and half-tones from photographs form an important part of the work, as the author has made faithful pictures of the tracks and signs of the game followed. The list is: The White-Tailed or Virginia Deer. — The Fan-Tailed Deer — The Mule-Deer — The Wapiti or Elk.— The Moose.— The Mountaift Sheep.— The Antelope.— The Bear.— The Cougar.— The Lynx.— The Domestic Cat — The Wolf .— The Coyote — The Fox. — The Jack Rabit. — The Varying Hare — The Cottontail Rabbit. — The Squirrel. — The A4arten afid the Black-Footed Fer- ret.— The Otter.— The Mink. — The Ermine.— The Beaver — The Badger.— The Porcupine. — The Skunk. — Feathered Game.— Upland Birds .— Waterfowls.— Predatory Birds. This book is invaluable to the novice as well as the experi- enced hunter. OUTING HOW TO BOOK No. j. Fishing Kits ^ Equipment ly SApMUEL G. CAMP Pocket size — 4^ xy\ inches. Illustrated. Cloth. % J. 00 postpaid. A complete guide to the angler buying a new outfit. Every detail of fish- ing kit of the freshwater angler is described, from rod-tip to creel and cloth- ing. Special emphasis is laid on outfitt- ing for fly fishing, but full instruction is is also given to the man who wants to catch pickerel, pike, muskellunge, lake- trout, bass and other fresh-water game fishes. Prices are quoted for all articles recommended and the approved method of selecting and testing the various rods, lines. leaders, etc., is described. 3^ FISHING KITS « EQUIPMENT Jby SAMUEL C. CAMP V -^ 1.9 1911 One copy del. to Cat. Div. UM i)y um