• CAMP PIT-FIRES, BEAN HOLES
• COW-BOY FIRE-HOLE
• CHINOOK COOKING FIRE-HOLE
• BARBECUE-PITS
• THE GOLD DIGGER'S OVEN
• THE FERGUSON CAMP STOVE
• THE ADOBE OVEN
• THE ALTAR CAMPFIRE PLACE
• CAMP KITCHEN FOR HIKERS, SCOUTS, EXPLORERS, SURVEYORS, AND HUNTERS
• HOW TO COOK MEAT, FISH, AND BREAD WITHOUT POTS, PANS OR STOVES
• DRESSING SMALL ANIMALS
• HOW TO BARBECUE LARGE ANIMALS

Real camp kitchens are naught but well arranged fire-places with rustic cranes and pot-hooks as already described, but in deforested countries, or on the plains and prairies, pit-fires are much in vogue. The pit itself shelters the fire on the windswept plain, which is doubly necessary because of the unprotected nature of such camping places, and because of the kind of fuel used. Buffalo-chips were formerly used on the Western plains, but they are now superseded by cattle chips. The buffalo-chip fire was the cooking fire of the Buckskin-clad long-haired plainsmen and the equally picturesque cowboy; but the buffalo herds have long since hit the trail over the Great Divide where all tracks point one way, the sound of the thunder of their feet has died away forever, as has also the whoop of the painted Indians. The romantic and picturesque plainsmen and the wild and rollicking cowboys have followed the herds of buffalo and the long lines of prairie schooners are a thing of the past, but the pit-fires of the hunters are still in use.

Fig. 106 shows a half section of a bean hole lined with stones. The bean hole may, however, be lined with clay or simply the damp earth left in its natural state. This pit-fire place is used differently from the preceding one, for in the bean hole the fire is built and burns until the sides are heated good and hot, then the fire is removed and the bean pot put in place, after which the whole thing is covered up with ashes and earth and allowed to cook at its leisure.

The cowboy pit-fire is simply a trench dug in the earth (Fig. 107), with a basin-shaped hole at the beginning. When obtainable, sticks are laid across the trench and sods laid upon the top of the sticks. Fig. 107 shows a section of view of the pit-fire and trench chimney, and Fig. 108 shows the top view of the same.

In removing the sod one should be careful not to break them, then even though there be no sticks one may be able to cover the draught chimney with the sods themselves by allowing them to bridge the trench. At the end of the trench the sods are built up, making a short smokestack.

The chinook fire-pit is one which is used in the northwestern part of the United States, and seems to be a combination of the ordinary camp fire-dogs with cross logs and the cowboy fire-pit. Fig. 109 shows a perspective view of this lay. Fig. 110 shows the top view of plan of the lay. Fig. 111 shows a steeper perspective view than that of Fig. 109, and Fig. 112 shows a sectional view. By examining the sectional view and also the deeper perspective view, as well as the plan, you will note that the two logs are placed across the fire-dogs with space between. The back-log is placed upon the top of another back-log A and B (Fig. 112). The fire-dogs have[83]
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As the fire burns the hot coals drop into the pit, and when sufficient quantity of embers are there they may be raked forward and the frying pan placed on top of them (Fig. 112). The chinook fire is good for baking, frying, broiling, toasting, and is an excellent all-around kitchen camp stove.

At the old-fashioned barbecue where our ancestors roasted whole oxen, the ox was placed on a huge spit, which was turned with a crank handle, very similar to the old-fashioned well handle as used with a rope or chain and bucket.

The fire-pit is about four feet wide and four feet deep and is long enough (Fig. 114) to allow a fire to be built at each end of the pit, there being no fire under the meat itself for the very good reason that the melted fat would drop into the fire, cause it to blaze up, smoke and spoil the meat.

The late Homer Davenport (the old-time and famous cartoonist) some years ago gave a barbecue at his wild animal farm in New Jersey. When Davenport was not drawing cartoons he was raising wild animals. At the Davenport barbecue there was a fire-pit dug in the side of the bank (Fig. 115); such an arrangement is known as

In the diagram it will be seen that the carcass is fastened to a spit of green wood, which runs thru a hole in a cross log and fits in the socket D in the bottom log; the spit is turned by handles arranged like A, B or C. The pit is lined with either stones or bricks, which are heated by a roaring big fire until hot enough to bake the meat.

We next come to the ovens, the first of which is known as

It is made by building a rounded hut of stones or sod (Fig. 118), and covering the same with branches over which sod, or clay, or dirt is heaped (Fig. 119). The oven is heated by building the fire inside of it, and when it is very hot and the fire has burned down, the food is placed inside and the opening stopped up so as to retain the heat and thus cook the food.

The advantage of the altar fire and the matasiso is that the cook does not have to get the backache over the fire while he cooks. All of these ovens and fire-places are suitable for more or less permanent camps, but it is not worth while to build these ovens and altar fire-places for quick and short camps.

It is proper and right in treating camp cooking that we should begin with the most primitive methods. For when one has no cooking utensils except those fashioned from the material at hand, he must, in order to prepare appetizing food, display a real knowledge of woodcraft.

Therefore, start by spearing the meat on a green twig of sweet birch, or some similar wood, and toast it before the fire or pinch the meat between the split ends of a twig (Fig. 133) or better still

In order to do this select a wand with a fork to it, trim off the prongs of the forks, leaving them rather long (Fig. 134), then sharpen the ends of the prongs and weave them in and out near the edges of the meat (Fig. 135), which is done by drawing the prongs slightly together before impaling the meat on the second prong. The natural spring and elasticity of the branches will stretch the meat nice and flat (Fig. 135), ready to toast in front of the flames, not over the flame.

A very thick steak of moose meat or beef may be cooked in this manner. Remember to have fire-dogs and a good back log; there will then be hot coals under the front log and flame against the back log to furnish heat for the meat in front. Turn the meat every few minutes and do not salt it until it is about done. Any sort of meat can be thus cooked; it is a favorite way of toasting bacon among the sportsmen, and I have seen chickens beautifully broiled with no cooking implements but the forked stick. This was done by splitting the chicken open and running the forks through the legs and sides of the fowl.

Twist is a Boy Scout's name for this sort of bread. The twist is made of dough and rolled between the palms of the hands until it becomes a long thick rope (Fig. 138), then it is wrapped spirally around a dry stick (Fig. 139), or one with bark on it (Fig. 137). The coils should be close together but without touching each other. The stick is now rested in the forks of two uprights, or on two stones in front of the roasting fire (Figs. 140 and 141), or over the hot coals of a pit-fire. The long end of the stick on which the twist is coiled is used for a handle to turn the twist so that it may be nicely browned on all sides, or it may be set upright in front of the flames (Fig. 142).

May be made of forked branches (Figs. 151, 152, 153, 154 and 155). Upon this hook meat maybe suspended before the fire (Fig. 153) by a piece of twine made from the twisted green bark of a milkweed or some other fibrous plant stalk or tree bark, or a wet string will do if you have one.

Dressing in this case really means undressing, taking their coats off and removing their insides. In order to prepare for broiling or baking any of the small fur-bearing animals, make yourself a skinning stick, using for the purpose a forked branch; the forks being about an inch in diameter, make the length of the stick to suit your convenience, that is, long enough to reach between the knees whether you are sitting on a camp stool or squatting on the ground, sharpen the lower end of the stick and thrust it into the ground, then take your coon, possum, squirrel or muskrat, and punch the pointed ends of the forked stick thru the thin place at the point which corresponds to your own heel, just as the stick in Fig. 155 is punched through the thin place behind the heels of the small animals there sketched. Thus hung the animal may be dressed with comfort to the workmen. If one is squatting, the nose of the animal should just clear the ground. First take off the fur coat. To do this you split the skin with a sharp knife, beginning at the center of the throat and cut to the base of the tail, being careful not to cut deep enough to penetrate the inside skin or sack which contains the intestines; when the base of the tail is reached, use your fingers to roll back the skin. If skinning for the pelt, follow directions given later, but do not destroy any skin as the hide is useful for many purposes around camp. After the coat is removed and all the internal organs taken out, remove the scent glands from such animals as have them, and make a cut in the forearms and the meaty parts of the thigh, and cut out the little white things which look like nerves, to be found there. This will prevent the flesh from having a strong or musky taste when it is cooked.

First dress the carcass and then stretch it on a framework of black birch sticks, for this sweet wood imparts no disagreeable odor or taste to the meat.

Next build a big fire at each end of the pit (Fig. 114), not right under the body of the animal, but so arranged that when the melted fat drops from the carcass it will not fall on the hot coals to blaze up and spoil your barbecue. Build big fires with plenty of small sticks so as to make good red hot coals before you put the meat on to cook.

First bake the inside of the barbecued beast, then turn it over and bake the outside. To be well done, an animal the size of a sheep should be cooking at least seven or eight hours over a charcoal fire. Baste the meat with melted bacon fat mixed with any sauce you may have or no sauce at all, for bacon fat itself is good enough for anyone, or use hot salt water.

Of course, it is much better to use charcoal for this purpose, but charcoal is not always handy. One can, however,

A day or two ahead of the barbecue day, by building big fires of wood about the thickness of one's wrist. After the fire has been burning briskly for a while, it should be covered up with ashes or dirt and allowed to smoulder all night, and turn the wood into charcoal in place of consuming it.

Roll the top of your flour bag back (Fig. 136), then build a cone of flour in the middle of the bag and make a crater in the top of the flour mountain.

In the crater dump a heaping teaspoon—or, to use Mr. Vreeland's expression, put in "one and a half heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder," to which add a half spoonful of salt; mix these together with the dry flour, and when this is thoroughly done begin to pour water into the crater, a little at a time, mixing the dough as you work by stirring it around inside your miniature volcano. Gradually the flour will slide from the sides into the lava of the center, as the water is poured in and care taken to avoid lumps.

Make the dough as soft as may be, not batter but very soft dough, stiff enough, however, to roll between your well-floured hands.

Put the potatoes with their skins on them on a bed of hot embers two or three inches thick, then cover the potatoes with more hot coals. If this is done properly the spuds will cook slowly, even with the fire burning above them. Don't be a chump and throw the potatoes in the fire where the outer rind will burn to charcoal while the inside remains raw.

In preparing a small and tender fish, where possible, the point under the head, where the gills meet, is cut, fingers thrust in and the entrails drawn through this opening; the fish is then washed, cleaned and wrapped in a coating of paper or fallen leaves, before the clay is applied. Place the fish upon a pancake of stiff clay (Fig. 147), fold the clay over the fish (Fig. 148), press the edges together, thus making a clay dumpling (Fig. 149); cook by burying the dumpling in the embers of an ordinary surface fire, or in the embers in a pit-fire (Fig. 150).

A brace of partridges may be beheaded, drawn, washed out thoroughly and stuffed with fine scraps of chopped bacon or pork, mixed with bread crumbs, generously seasoned with salt, pepper and sage, if you have any of the latter. The birds with the feathers on them are then plastered over with clean clay made soft enough to stick to the feathers, the outside is wrapped with stiffer clay and the whole molded into a ball, which is buried deep in the glowing cinders and allowed to remain there for an hour, and at the end of that time the clay will often be almost as hard as pottery and must be broken open with a stick. When the outside clay comes off the feathers will come with it, leaving the dainty white meat of the bird all ready to be devoured.

Woodchucks, raccoons, opossums, porcupines, rabbits had better be barbecued (see Figs. 114, 115, and 155), but squirrels and small creatures may be baked by first removing the insides of the creatures, cleaning them, filling the hollow with bread crumbs, chopped bacon and onions, then closing the opening and plastering the bodies over with stiff clay and baking them in the embers. This seals the meat inside of the mud wrapper and when it is cooked and the brick-like clay broken off, the skin comes off with the broken clay, leaving the juicy meat exposed to view.

Cut off the head of the fish and clean by splitting it through the back, in place of the usual way of splitting up the belly. To salt red meat before you cook it is to make it dry and tough, but the fish should be salted while it is damp with its own juices.

Heat the plank in front of the fire and then spread your fish out flat on the hot puncheon or plank, and with your hunting knife press upon it, make slit holes through the fish (Fig. 145) with the grain of the wood; tack your fish on with wooden pegs cut wedge shape and driven in the slits made by your knife blade (Figs. 143 and 144). Prop the puncheon up in front of a fire which has a good back-log and plenty of hot coals to send out heat (Fig. 146).[E]

Water may be boiled in a birch bark vessel made by folding up a more or less square piece of bark, bending in the corner (Fig. 157) folds and holding them in place by thorns or slivers (Fig. 156). Or the stomach of a large animal or piece of green hide may be filled with water and the latter made hot by throwing in it hot stones (Fig. 158). Dig a hole in the ground, fit the rawhide in the hole, bringing the edges up so as to overlap the sod, weigh down the edges with stones, fill the hide with water and heat with hot stones. Figs. 159 and 160 show how to make tongs with which to handle the stones.

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