SUPPOSEDLY the greatest privation which will confront the amateur woodsman who breaks away from home ties for a few weeks’ jaunt into the wilderness is a gastronomic one. Yet with a properly balanced ration list composed of goods procurable of any grocer with perhaps the addition of some of the newer evaporated foods available on special order or made at home, the hiker may hit the trail confident that he will be well fed.

The hackneyed slogan of outfitting, viz.:—to secure the maximum in efficiency from supplies which represent a minimum in carrying weight and bulk—must be reiterated in choosing the tramper’s food supply. For those demanding the extreme in portable equipage the evaporated foods—vegetables (as dried potatoes, Julienne, etc.,) soups (Erbswurst), eggs, milk, etc., are invaluable. In their preparation by dessication the fresh vegetables are deprived of their water content so that all one needs to do in preparing them for table use is to add water and cook in the usual way. They are thus restored to their former value as palatable foods although of course their form and shape may be altered.

Their chief value for our purpose is that they represent a tremendous reduction (of approximately 15 per cent) in their natural weight and a corresponding lessening of bulk. For example a pound of evaporated potatoes will represent seven pounds of the fresh product. Or again one pound of granulated dried egg represents four dozen of the fresh eggs. Dehydrated goods are equal to fresh goods and are far superior to the canned kind. They are palatable and nutritious as foods, they never spoil and permit a welcome variety in the bill of fare. Concentration of bulk alone is not the criterion in choosing camp foods—digestibility is really paramount. Thus cheese, nuts, beans, rice and the various evaporated foods are highly concentrated but differ greatly in their ease of digestion.

Food for the hiker, as we have said, must with the least weight and bulk furnish appetizing and digestible nourishment to an active man. It should be composed of the proper proportions of fat, protein (which comprises the elements of lean meat) and cereal. It should pack easily under all conditions of heat, moisture and rough handling and must cook simply.

The following items are looked upon as the essentials in diet lists for campers:—flour, bacon, beans, tea, sugar. They represent the three classes of foods necessary to health. For increasing the palatability and variety of the bill of fare other items creep in and they are admissible if they represent in food value and concentration of bulk the same as a given amount of the essential food for which they were substituted.

Bush life develops a great appetite, therefore figure well on the necessary amounts to be packed. Too much means discomfort and fatigue in packing and too little means hunger and perhaps privation. Little dependence should be placed upon securing game or fish en route unless one is certain that he is in a country where such are present in reasonable abundance and that there is nothing to interfere with procuring them.

In general it may be said that for each week about twenty pounds of food stuff are needed per man. The following proportions of the various items will be found about right:—

On the trail count on cooking but two meals a day, morning and night with a noon-day stop with lunch and hot drink. This allows time for a day’s work.

Foods will keep well if care is taken to exclude moisture by packing in provision bags of closely woven muslin, size 6 by 10 inches with tie strings for closing the open end. They are made waterproof by painting with paraffin, which has been liquefied in gasoline. Mark each bag well. They stow away nicely in odd corners of the pack sack.

Bacon is the great standby in the meat line. Only the leanest should be chosen: trim off the rind before starting on the hike and wrap it in a piece of waterproof muslin to protect it from other items of the outfit. Do not seal it too tight as it will mold. As bacon grease will be used instead of lard the latter can be omitted entirely.

The flour ration should be made up of whole wheat or graham flour and yellow corn meal. For a stimulating beverage coffee is generally preferred in the United States and tea in Canada. The latter is much easier to transport and more sustaining to the body. If properly chosen you can eliminate the tea or coffee pot from the camp outfit. George Washington coffee and Instant Postum are powdered preparations and all that is needed is to put a teaspoonful in a cup of hot water, stir up, sweeten and drink. If you use tea get the tea tabloids which are a great convenience because of their extreme compactness. Sufficient for 100 cups of good tea occupies only about as much space as one or two ounces of loose tea leaves. For use throw one tabloid into a cup of hot water, wait a minute and a satisfying infusion is the result. Tea in general is to be preferred, for an ounce of it will go as far as many ounces of coffee.

Dried fruits such as raisins, figs, etc., should always be included in the ration list. They make fine emergency rations to be carried in the knapsack (with a cake of sweet chocolate added.) Chocolate beats whisky for putting new energy into a fellow who is all in. When raisins are cooked up alone or with rice one gets an agreeable change in the bill of fare. Rice is one of the most concentrated foods we have, it is easy to pack and cook and has great sustaining powers as an article of diet. It has food elements of such a kind that it can be taken in place of potatoes or bulky breakfast foods. To cook rice, add gradually the washed kernels to furiously boiling salted water and keep this over the fire for 20 minutes. Powdered milk is on the market and is more satisfactorily purchased than made at home. It is the milk of choice when you have to cut down weight as on a hike.

Baking powder should be pure, and it should be kept in air and water tight containers and sunk in the middle of the flour sack. I keep it in an aluminum flask with a cork lined metal screw top. When moisture reaches baking powder a chemical change takes place destroying its leavening powers and it is useless for cooking purposes. Keep this in mind in considering self rising flours which have the baking powder mixed with the flour in proper proportions for use and simply requiring the addition of water before cooking.

One has a remarkable craving for sweets when on the trail which only sugar will satisfy. Sugar is the most concentrated food we have for it supplies so much heat and energy to the body. In cold weather Nature calls for more heat in the body and one’s appetite for sweets usually increases in proportion. Much is written in camp outfitting concerning a preparation called saccharine or crystallose which is a chemical of remarkable sweetness—a small portion of it equalling in sweetening power several hundred times its bulk of sugar. Do not depend on it, for its chemical action delays digestion and it does not furnish the food value which sugar does.

Dehydrated Navy Beans

In preparing dried bean meal one uses ordinary navy beans which are cooked in the usual way and then baked in an oven. By spreading this product out in a broad flat bottomed pan and continuing the baking or drying out process in the oven the moisture is all driven out and only a crumbling crust remains. This is pulverized and packed in tight fitting tins or in waterproof sacks. It is used as a soup or gruel. Common baked beans which come in tins from the corner grocer may be put into the broad bake tins and thoroughly dried and packed away. As beans are hard to boil in high altitudes you can prepare them at home by parboiling without salt in the water, drying well and later using by cooking as usual in salted water.

Jerked Meats

In the palmy days of the “late lamented wild west” the Indian hunters preserved meats by a method called “jerking.” The flesh would be cut into strips and laid on light wooden racks in the sun or in the smoke of a camp fire until dry and hard. This would be packed away and used in the winter time much the same as we use the dried beef of the butcher shops of today. You can preserve meats—steaks, game, or fish—this way or after the improved method of Dr. Hornaday of the New York Zoological Garden. He takes meat cut into strips and works well into the flesh a mixture of salt 1 pound, allspice 1? tablespoonsful and black pepper 1½ tablespoonsful. Then he hangs it up by a string in the sun if the air is dry as in the mountains or, if not, in a camp fire smoke protected from the wet. It can be eaten uncooked and tastes fine after a month or so has passed.

Erbswurst

One of the best concentrated foods for campers and one admirably suited for use as an emergency ration is Erbswurst—a meal preparation used by various European armies. As it is hard to get except from grocers of the larger cities or sporting goods dealers one can well make it at home as follows:—Procure common dried peas and navy beans and dessicate them after cooking as suggested above (see paragraph on Dehydrated Navy Beans). Of the pea meal use one pound; of the bean meal 1¼ pounds; bacon chopped fine and dried, and onions pulverized, of each ? pound. Mix all together and run through the grinder again, dry and pack away. It is used to make a thick soup and is very nutritious.

Evaporated Egg Powder

Probably the most remarkable dried food of all is the evaporated egg. Take ½ dozen eggs and beat them up hard with an egg beater. Take two flat bottomed baking pans from the kitchen and spread a very thin layer of egg thereon. Now in drying should you put this in the oven it will cook whereas if simply set in the sun during the day the moisture is evaporated and a crust of the essential elements retaining all the nourishment and flavor of the egg remains. True the product is shapeless as far as the ordinary conception of an egg is concerned but it is very effective for cooking where weight and fragility in packing are concerned. After the eggs have been in the sun all day remove indoors and if dry run through a cleaned coffee mill. This pulverizes the mass. It should next be completely dried out in the sun and packed away in empty molasses tins with pry up lids.

A pound of evaporated egg equals four dozen fresh eggs and one tablespoonful of egg powder with two tablespoonsful of water represents an egg. It is useful in omelets, scrambled or in combination cooking. Besides being a great saving in weight since one does not have to carry around the water, the evaporated preparation enables us to utilize eggs on the hardest kind of a hike where if we were forced to use fresh eggs their place in the knapsack would be positively prohibited because of their fragility.

Pemmican

When much fat is required for the body as in colder regions no food has been found to surpass Pemmican. Peary says:—“Pemmican is the most concentrated and satisfactory of all meat foods and is absolutely indispensable on long Arctic sledge journeys.” For a ten pound lot take of lean meat, 5 pounds; fat (suet) 4 pounds; dried fruit (raisins) ½ pound and of sugar ½ pound. Cut the meat in thin slices, dry several days as directed under “Jerked Meats.” Pulverize between two stones or otherwise grind and mix well with the suet, melted, to a paste, add the ground currants or raisins and sugar, allow to cool and pack away. Eat raw, boiled with flour or fry.

Lemonade Powder

This makes an agreeable lunch drink and is really necessary to keep the system in good order. Take the clear juice of three lemons and 15 teaspoonfuls of sugar and put into a broad, flat baking pan. Since so much water is to be evaporated it is best to dry this out in an oven, but prolonged exposure to a hot sun will do the trick. The lemon powder should be perfectly dry and then pulverized and stored in pry up tins. For use put the powder in water to the desired strength. The addition of citric acid crystals in small amounts is a help, but when relied upon alone to make lemonade, as recommended by some writers, will not make a drink which takes the place of the concentrated lemon except as to taste.

Breads

Bread is the staff of life. Just as good bread can be baked in the woods as in the best hotel of the boulevards. The baking of camp bread can be taken as a criterion of the amateur cook’s ability. Have a good baker, a good fire and follow the recipe if you would have success. On back pack trips it is advisable to retain the frying pan as the baker and by using a tin cover you can heap coals upon it and get the envelope of hot air. Lay two green chunks or two square edged stones about 6 to 8 inches apart near the camp fire. Rake a few coals between and place the pan over them. Put the dough in the pan after sprinkling with flour and cover with the tin. Place live coals on this tin—about twice as many as underneath—and watch the baking closely so that it won’t burn. You can fry bread on the top of stone: when one side is baked stand the pan on edge by the side of the stone and allow baking to proceed in that way.

Remember that small cakes and biscuits must be baked quickly before a hot fire whereas large loaves, such as johnny cake, must have a slow even heat so as to get done through. The secret of the camp oven is the envelope of hot air which must not be too hot and must be kept even. Below are given the recipes which are most successfully used with the frying pan baker. Whole wheat flour makes easier than white and has more taste. Use yellow corn meal. In the recipes follow exactly to obtain the best results.

Self-rising Flour

To save packing several ingredients separately it is often recommended to mix the johnny cake and pan cake flour at home and carry it in one sack on the trail. Then merely mixing with water to a given consistency will be sufficient to supply a good dough. If dampness is kept from it while packing it is very good and the following recipe will be found satisfactory:—take of granulated yellow corn meal 1 quart, of white wheat flour 1 pint, sugar ½ cup, salt 1 teaspoonful and baking powder 4 teaspoonsful. For flapjacks in camp take a portion of the above flour mixture and add sufficient water to make a stiff batter and allow it to stand for a few minutes before dropping it in spoonfuls on the hot greased fry pan: when bubbles begin to show on top turn. To make a johnny cake or corn bread use less water than above so as to make a doughy mass, turn into the fry pan, set up before the fire and leave until the top sets, then turn over.

A method for corn pone in which the ingredients are mixed at each baking:—1 pint of water in a pail is brought to a boil, add a teaspoonful of salt, corn meal is slowly added and stirred to a mush, cooking it for a few minutes. Grease the fry pan, put in the mush, cover with tin, bury in the ashes and coals, and bake 30 to 40 minutes. This makes the finest kind of breadstuff.

Army Bread

This is easy to mix, is made without grease, keeps fresh for a long period and will not dry up or mold. It is good to eat when cold and is just the thing when laying in a supply. For routine diet it is much better than biscuit. Take of flour 1 quart, salt 1 teaspoonful, sugar 1 tablespoonful, and baking powder 2 heaping teaspoonfuls. Mix in 1½ pints of cold water to make a thick batter and pour out level into a pan. Bake 45 minutes or until a sliver will not stick into the dough.

Fish

One of the delights of camp life is in estranging one’s self from the fastidious customs of civilization and living off the country where you camp. A fine pastime and diet change is the catching and eating of fish. The lakes and streams of the outdoors abound with fish which when caught in the icy water and cooked over a camp fire in the open makes a welcome addition to the hiker’s bill of fare. Trout are easily cooked. Black bass are good if the water where you catch them is cold. Pike is the best American food fish. They should be left uncleaned never longer than one-half day after catching, never leave in water and don’t wash until just before cooking. Roll in cornmeal, have plenty of bacon fat in the fry pan and cook slowly. Try with the tine of fork to see if done.

For digestible frying use a shallow pan and little grease, heat the pan and grease just enough to keep the meat from sticking. The meat must be dry or it will absorb the grease. Cook quick at first to seal in the juices and turn frequently; do not jab too much with fork for that would let the juice escape.

The seasoned hiker is little apt to be separated from his outfit, but it can and sometimes is done and then one must be able to cope with a real emergency. Every individual outfit should contain emergency food. It is a safe plan never to become separated from your party without an emergency ration with you and materials for securing game and fish if such abound in the region.