CHAPTER I. Outfit.—Go Light as Possible.—Carriage of Provisions and Utensils.—Camp Stoves, Ice-boxes and Hair Mattresses.—The Bed of "Browse."—How to make a Cooking Range Out-of-doors.—Building the Fire.—A Useful Tool.—Construction of Coffee Pot and Frying Pan.—Baking in Camp.—Fuel for Camp-fire.—Kerosene and Alcohol Stoves.—Camp Table.—Washing Dishes, etc.
The remarks given on outfit in Chapter I. of Part I. are, many of them, as well adapted to camp as to canoe cookery. The utensils carried for cooking in a permanent camp, and for more than one person, will of course exceed in number those used by the canoeist, but there will be few additional articles really necessary, even with the varied and extensive bill-of-fare that the possibilities of a three weeks' camp in one place suggest. Even if you have teams and lumber-wagons to carry your outfit into the woods it is better to go light as possible. With few things to find places for the camp can be kept neat and ship-shape, and everything will be handy; while the chances are that a portion of a large and varied outfit will be wasted. Two friends and myself go regularly into camp for three weeks with no added utensils to those mentioned in the canoe outfit except an iron pot and a Dutch oven, and even these additions are seldom used. A large cooking outfit for a camp can be best packed in a large pack basket, such as is generally used in the Adirondacks and Maine woods; but these receptacles are not waterproof, therefore I would recommend that the eatables themselves be carried in waterproofed muslin bags, each variety having its own bag. All together may then be packed in basket, chest or knapsack, as desired. Butter will keep sweet longer in an earthen jar with water-tight cover, as described on page 11, than in any other receptacle I know of. It can be enveloped in a net and lowered to the bottom of a lake or river, or set in a cold spring, or tucked away in the coolest corner of a little cellar dug into a side hill and lined with clean birch bark. If I carry a dozen or two of eggs into the woods with me I let them ride in a tin pail along with plenty of corn meal, and seldom find a broken one among them. A good many campers—and especially lady campers—think it necessary to carry a camp stove; some people go into the woods with an ice-box and a ton of ice; and others bring with them bedsteads and hair mattresses. I do not camp with such people, and I think every true woodsman will agree with me that these deluded persons do not enjoy to the full the pleasure and wholesome exhilaration of real camp life. A bed of spruce or hemlock browse, properly "shingled" and of a good depth, is the cleanest, softest, most fragrant and healthful couch in the world. If I never camped for any other reason, I would go once a year for the express purpose of enjoying for a brief season the delicious odor and natural elastic softness of this best of beds. I have never felt the need of ice or ice-box in all my camping experience. A cold spring of water keeps my butter sweet, and I never send to town for butchered meat; if I did perhaps I should find a refrigerator useful. Now as to camp stoves. A camp of lumbermen will find a stove of some sort a time-saving utensil, for but little time can be spared from their work in the woods to prepare meals, and a dinner can be unquestionably got quicker on a stove than with an open fire. But to a party of pleasure outers whose time in camp is not of so great importance, a camp stove is a superfluous piece of furniture. It is unwieldy to carry, smutty to handle, and makes a camp look like a summer kitchen in a back-yard. Every necessary culinary operation can be performed equally well or even better without it, if the camper knows how to properly make a cooking camp-fire. The fire, in summer, should not be made so close to the tent as to make that sleeping and lounging place too warm, nor should it be made so far away as to tire the cook from running back and forth with the cooking utensils and grub. Two green logs, five or six feet long and eight to twelve inches in diameter, of a nearly even thickness throughout, are laid on a level piece of ground side by side, about a foot apart at one end, and touching at the other, thus forming an elongated V. With a hatchet hew them on their upper sides until the surface is level enough to support pots and pans in safety. Between these logs build your fire. This should not be done carelessly, but methodically and with patience. Begin with only as many dry shavings as you can grasp in your hand. When these are ablaze, add shavings and bits of dry wood of a little larger size, and then those a little larger than the last, and so on, increasing the size of the sticks very gradually and leading the fire by degrees until it covers all the space between the logs. When the fire is well under way and blazing brightly at all points, pile on it plenty of split sticks, short, and as near a uniform size as possible, and let them all burn to coals before cooking is commenced. If some of the sticks are large and some small, they will not burn evenly, and by the time the larger ones have become coals, the coals of the smaller ones will have become ashes. And if the sticks are round instead of split, they will not catch fire so easily, and will nest so close together as to give insufficient draft. Driftwood will do to start a fire, but it should never be used after the blaze is well going, because it burns to ashes instead of coals. The best coals result from burning hard wood. Never put a cooking utensil on the fire until the smoke and blaze have ceased. When you have a good bed of coals set the coffee pot on near where the logs join, and the frying pan, large pot, etc., where the logs are further apart. If there is much wind, ashes will be blown about to some extent, and it is best to always keep the open end of the "range" to windward, as the frying pan is generally set on this end, while the coffee pot and other pots being covered, can stand a shower of ashes without harm to their contents. As fast as one dish is cooked, set it on one of the logs where it will keep warm, and use the handy blacksmith's pliers to heap up the live coals under other dishes that are not cooking fast enough. These pliers can be made by any blacksmith, and should be from twelve to eighteen inches in length, and quite broad in the gripping part, which may with advantage be curved to a slight angle. I always use a frying pan without handle for compactness, and can lift it from any side of the fire with the pliers, which are always cool. I even grip the coffee pot with them and pour the coffee for the whole party without touching it with my hands, saving many a scorch thereby. It is a handy tool in making repairs to boats, and in various other ways proves its value as a necessary part of the camp outfit. The coffee pot should not have a spout, but a lip, riveted on, near its topmost edge. The handle should also be riveted, and should set as near as possible to the top of the pot. A wire bale may be attached for handiness in lifting. The cooking range above described will suffice for nearly all branches of camp cookery. On it one can fry, broil and boil. When a boil is to be kept up for hours, however, as in cooking beans, greens, and some soups and stews, it will be necessary to set up a forked stake at each end of the fire, hang the kettle on a cross-piece between, and keep up the fire beneath by constant feeding and attention. Do not let the blaze mount so high as to burn or char the cross-piece. The fire for baking should be made apart from the range. A hole in the ground a little more than deep enough to contain the bake-kettle or Dutch oven should be dug, and of sufficient diameter to allow four or five inches' space on each side of the oven when it is in the hole. Build up a good fire in the hole, and when you have a large quantity of hot coals and ashes, dig out all but a thick layer on the bottom, set in your oven, and pack it all around and on top with the coals and ashes. Cover the whole with a piece of turf or some earth. When baking without an oven, as fish in clay, a bird in its feathers, or a 'possum in its own hide, dig out nearly all the coals, put some green grass or leaves in the bottom, then the fish, bird or beast, then more grass or leaves, then coals and ashes, then earth, and lastly build a small fire on top and keep it burning steadily. In all the baking recipes recommended in this book a certain time is given for each operation. This time mentioned is only approximate, and it will be found to vary a few minutes, according to the amount of coal used, the kind of firewood, etc. The time necessary to bake a given thing can only be learned exactly by practical experience; but this experience will teach the cook all he needs to know after the first two or three attempts. In closing my remarks on fires I would suggest that the best wood to be obtained for cooking fires is that from hard wood trees that have fallen in the woods or been cut down, and have lain long enough to become well seasoned. If this is used the fire will stand any ordinary rain, and the camper will not be compelled to resort to his alcohol stove under shelter for any thing short of the equinoctial storm. If wood is damp, a few drops of kerosene, gun oil or alcohol sprinkled on it will be a valuable aid in starting a fire. I have no love for kerosene stoves. The alcohol "flamme forcÉ" is more compact, gives a stronger heat (have two, set side by side), and is perfectly clean. If, however, you must take along a kerosene stove, the wind-protected kind manufactured by Adams & Westlake (5 East Fourteenth Street, New York, and 78 Washington Street, Boston) will probably be found the most suitable. Neither the kerosene nor the alcohol stoves should be used when an outdoor fire can be built. A camp dining-table can be made by driving down four forked stakes in the corners of an imaginary rectangle. Connect the end stakes with cross-pieces, and lay planks from one cross-piece to the other. Make it just high enough to get the legs and feet under comfortably when sitting upon the ground, and build it away from the fire. A camp chest makes a good table, so does a large log with one side hewed level. Each member of a party that I frequently camp with has a tin or wooden box in which fishing tackle, cartridges, tools, etc., are carried. When dinner is prepared a piece of spare canvas is laid upon the grass, the tin dishes and edibles are put upon this, then each man brings his box to the particular corner of the cloth he selects, sits on the grass, crosses his legs, and has each his individual table in his own private box, the cover of which is large enough to hold a tin plate, tin cup, knife and fork, etc. By all means wash the dishes immediately after each meal. You can smoke your post-prandial pipe and do this at the same time. Have a pot or kettle of water heating while you are eating, and if the frying pan is dirty, fill it with water and let it boil over the coals awhile. Put your dishes into the largest pail, pour hot water over them, tone it down with cold water so you can handle them, and wash the dishes, the least dirty first, with a sponge. Sapolio is good to scour them, but sand is better. Soap is less often used by male campers in dish-washing than it should be. It makes the work much easier. When washed, rinse the tin-ware in cold water, drain and dry with a towel. Wring out the sponge in clean water, and hang it on a bush ready for use again. Remove all refuse and leavings to a good distance from camp, and never allow the vicinity of the tent to become littered up with tomato cans, old cartridge shells, bones, feathers, corn-husks, etc.
Soups.—General Remarks on Cooking Soups.—Soups made of Meat, Vegetables, Deer's Heads, Small Game, Rice, Fish and Turtle. Soups should be made in camp as often as the materials are at hand. They are wholesome and invigorating, and not difficult to prepare; and so many different kinds can be made that no camper's appetite need be cloyed by lack of variety. Most canned soups are excellent, and the directions for cooking which come with them should be closely followed. The time given for cooking soups in the recipes that follow may seem unnecessarily long, but if it is done in a less time, it is at a loss in the flavor. Fast boiling drives off considerable of the aroma of the ingredients used, the water evaporates fast and requires constant replenishing with boiling water, which compels the cook to have an additional vessel always on the fire. Constant skimming is necessary, and an occasional slight stirring will prevent any of the vegetables from burning on the pot where but little water is used. Campers do not commonly have fresh meat in camp, unless in a portion of the country where venison, buffalo or bear meat form a part of the larder. With any one of these, or with beef, we can make what I will call Meat Soup. Use one pound of lean meat (cut into pieces the size of an egg) to a quart of water. Put on the fire with the water cold, and let it heat gradually and simmer rather than boil, skimming it constantly and keeping the cover on the pot when this operation is not being performed. If any cooked meat or bones are to be added, this should be done after the soup has cooked three-quarters of an hour. From four and a half to five hours are necessary for the soup to cook. Just before it is done, season with salt and pepper. If made in an iron pot it should be transferred as soon as done to a tin or earthen vessel. In cold weather this soup may be kept fresh and sweet for a week and "warmed over" as long as it lasts. Vegetable Soup. Onions, potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, parsnips, cabbage, cauliflower, pumpkins, squash, etc., should be picked over, washed, pared, and cut into small pieces from a quarter to a half-inch thick, put into a pan of cold water, rinsed and drained. Tomatoes should be scalded, peeled and sliced. Prepare a meat soup as above, and when it has cooked four hours put in all your vegetables except potatoes, which should be put in only about thirty minutes before the soup is done. Stir the soup occasionally to prevent the vegetables from scorching or sticking to the bottom of the pot, and skim frequently. When done take out the vegetables, mash and return them to the soup, boil one minute, season and serve. Canned corn or tomatoes may be used in this soup the same as fresh vegetables. Deer's Head Soup. Skin the head and split it in pieces, remove the eyes and brains, and wash thoroughly in cold water. Then cook same as meat soup. Small Game Soup. Squirrels, rabbits, and small game generally can be cleaned and split and made into soup as above. When vegetables are added to soup made of small game, the latter should be removed and strained, and the good meat returned to the pot just before the vegetables are put in, leaving out all the bones, skin, gristle, etc. Rice Soup. Make a meat soup, with the addition of one sliced onion. Prepare the rice (one-half pound to a gallon of water) by picking it over, washing and draining, and stir it into the soup half an hour before it is done, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Bean Soup. Pick over two quarts of beans, wash, and soak them over night in cold water. Scrape clean one pound of salt pork, and cut into thin slices. Drain the beans, put them into six quarts of cold water, with one tablespoonful of soda, and let them boil gently for half an hour, skimming constantly. Then drain off all the water and put in the same amount of fresh boiling water. Boil slowly for an hour and a half, stirring frequently; then put in the pork. When the beans have become tender enough to crack, take out the pork and mash the beans into a paste with a wooden masher or the bottom of a large bottle. Then put all back and boil slowly an hour longer. If no soda is used, longer boiling will be necessary. Bean soup will burn if not constantly stirred. Not much salt, but plenty of pepper should be used for seasoning. Pea Soup. Treat the peas exactly the same as the beans in the above recipe, except as to the preliminary boiling in water with soda. Make the same way as bean soup. Pea soup cools and thickens rapidly, therefore if squares of fried bread are thrown upon the surface before serving, it should be done quickly and while the bread is hot. Use more salt than with the bean soup for seasoning, and boil gently or it will surely burn. Fish Soup. Cut up large fish, after it has been cooled from a previous cooking, into small pieces, and stew it with a piece of salt pork for two hours. Turtle Soup. Snapping turtles, "mud turtles" and all tortoises can be made into appetizing soup. Cut their throats to kill them and then let them bleed. Break the shell on the under side, cut out the meat, rejecting the entrails, head and claws, and boil slowly for three hours with some sliced onion.
Fish.—Fish Baked, Plain and Stuffed.—Fish Gravy.—Fish Chowder.—Clam Chowder.—Orthodox Clam Chowder. The subject of fish cookery belongs more to the canoeist than to the general camper, for the reason that the former is so constantly among them in their fluid home that he can readily catch a mess, and easily cook them with his small means after he has caught them. That is why nearly all the practical methods of cooking fish are given in Chapter III. of Part I. of this book. There are, however, some ways of preparing fish in camp that the canoeist will hardly attempt, for lack of time or utensils, and these methods will be given here. Plain Baked Fish. Dig a hole in the ground eighteen inches deep and large enough to contain the fish; build a fire in it and let it burn to coals. Remove the coals, leaving the hot ashes in the bottom, on which place a thick layer of green grass. Put the fish on the grass, cover with another layer of grass; then rake back the coals and loose earth and build a small fire on top. In an hour the baking will be complete, the skin will peel off and leave the flesh clean. A fish prepared this way need not be scaled, but only disembowelled, as the scales will come off with the skin after it is cooked. Stuffed Baked Fish. Only a large fish should be cooked in this manner, as it is hardly worth the trouble to stuff a small fish. Prepare a stuffing of bread or cracker crumbs, with enough butter or lard to make the mixture moist. Season with pepper and salt, and chop up with it one onion, and a little summer savory or sage, if desired. Clean and wipe the fish dry, put in the stuffing lightly and then sew up the opening. Lay the fish in the bake-kettle or Dutch oven, rub it all over with butter or lard and dredge it with flour, meal or some of the dry crumbs left over from the stuffing. Or, lay thin strips of fat salt pork or bacon on the top. Pour a little boiling water into the bottom to prevent the fish adhering, close the bake-kettle and put it into the fire among the hottest coals. In a very hot oven it should be done in forty minutes. Remove the bake-kettle several times before it is done to baste it. When cooked, serve with the following Fish Gravy. Put the bake-kettle back on the fire after the fish is removed; stir into the gravy left, gradually, two tablespoonfuls of flour. Let it boil up once, season with pepper and salt, and pour over the fish. If there are squeamish people in camp remove the "black specks" from this gravy with a spoon. Fish Chowder. Clean the fish and cut up all except the heads and tails into small pieces, leaving out as many bones as possible. Cover the bottom of the pot with slices of fat salt pork; over that a layer of sliced raw potatoes; then a layer of chopped onions; then a layer of fish; on the fish a layer of crackers, first made tender by soaking in water or milk. Repeat the layers, except pork, till the pot is nearly full. Every layer must be seasoned with pepper and salt. Put in enough cold water to moisten the whole mass well, cover the pot closely, set over a gentle fire, and let it simmer an hour or so. Cook it till it is rather thick, then stir it gently, and it is ready to serve. Tomatoes may be added as a layer after the onions. Clam Chowder Can be made the same as Fish Chowder, using clams instead of fish, but a large party of sea-beach picnickers will probably prefer the regular Orthodox Clam Chowder. The first thing necessary is an out-door oven made with flat stones. Start a rousing fire in this and let it burn until every stone is hot all the way through. Then rake out the coals beneath, even to the faintest cinder, so that there will be no smoky taste to the chowder. Then put a couple of stout boughs across the open top of the oven, and cover them with fresh seaweed an inch or two thick. Spread the shelled clams on the seaweed, over them a layer of onions, then a layer of sweet or Irish potatoes, or both, then green corn, then the fish (cleaned and salted and mapped in a cloth, and either a bluefish or a cod, if extra-orthodox), then a lobster, either alive or boiled. Now cover the whole arrangement with a large cloth, and pile on seaweed till no steam escapes. When it has cooked half an hour or so let the company attack it en masse, uncovering it gradually as it is eaten, so as to retain the heat in it as long as possible. The stones should be extremely and thoroughly heated, or the chowder will be a failure, and the cinders should be cleaned out, the chowder put on, and the whole covered with great haste, so as not to give the stones a chance to cool.
Meats and Game.—Hash.—Pork and Beans.—Game Stew.—Brunswick Stew.—Roast Venison.—Baked Deer's Head.—Venison Sausages.—Stuffed Roasts of Game.—Woodchucks, Porcupines, 'Possums and Pigs. Some good recipes for cooking meats and game, which are not given in Part I., are the following: Frizzled Beef. Cut dried beef into very thin shavings, and put into a frying pan nearly half full of cold water. Set over the fire and let it come to a boil, then stir in a large lump of butter and enough flour to make a good gravy. Hash. Four pounds of cold boiled meat (not pork) or corned beef, free from bone or gristle, one large parboiled onion, and two pounds of boiled or baked potatoes are chopped and mixed together, seasoned with pepper and salt, and stirred up with about a pint of hot water. Put enough lard or butter into a frying pan to well cover the bottom when melted, and when it is "screeching hot," put in the hash. Stir it for a few minutes, then let it fry till it is brown on the bottom. Corned beef hash requires little salt for seasoning. Boiled Pork. Soak over night in cold water and put into a pot of cold water over the fire when the boiling begins. Boil same as other meat (see page 27) and save the cake of fat that rises when it is cold for frying purposes. Turnips, cabbage, potatoes and greens are good boiled with the pork. See table for boiling vegetables in the next chapter. Pork Hash. Cut salt pork or bacon into small dice, and while it is frying over a slow fire cut raw potatoes and onions into thin slices, put them with the pork, cover the frying pan and cook for ten minutes, occasionally stirring. Pork and Beans. The right proportions are two quarts of beans to three pounds of pork. Pick over the beans at night, wash them, and put them to soak in cold water until the next morning. Then if only boiled pork and beans are desired, drain the beans, and put them with the pork in the pot, just cover with cold water, set over the fire (with the cover on the pot), and boil till the beans are tender, skimming the scum off as it rises. If baked beans are wanted parboil the pork and cut it into thin slices, then drain the beans and boil as above. Put half the beans into the bake-kettle, then the pork, then the remainder of the beans, and pour over them half a pint of boiling water. Bake among the coals till the top is crusted brown. If buried in the ground with a good supply of coals it is best to put them in at night when going to bed, and they will be done in the morning. If the bake-kettle is enveloped in hot coals on the surface of the ground they will bake on the outside quicker, but inside, where the pork is, they will not be baked at all. This latter method, therefore, should only be used when in a hurry, and in this case the pork should be scattered around in different portions of the pot, and the beans left may be re-baked for another meal. Game Stew. Cut up any kind of game, whether furred or feathered, into small pieces, wash it, and put it in a pot with some pork cut into pieces three inches square, and rather more than enough water to cover it all. Let it boil for half an hour, skimming off the particles that rise to the top. Then add four or five sliced onions, some parsley or summer savory, salt and pepper, and boil slowly for an hour and a half. Half an hour before it is done put in a few pared potatoes, cut to a uniform size. Brunswick Stew.[B] For a stew for five or six persons the following are the ingredients: two-good-sized or three small squirrels, one quart of tomatoes, peeled and sliced, one pint of butter or lima beans, six potatoes, parboiled and sliced, six ears of green corn cut from the cob, one-half pound of butter, one-half a pound of fat salt pork, one teaspoonful of black pepper, one-half a teaspoonful of cayenne, one gallon of water, one tablespoonful of salt, two tablespoonfuls of white sugar, one onion minced small. Cut the squirrels into joints, and lay in cold water to draw out the blood; put on the gallon of water, with the salt in it, and let it boil for five minutes; put in the onion, beans, corn, pork which has been cut into fine strips, potatoes, pepper and the squirrels; cover closely, and stew two and a-half hours very slowly, stirring the mass frequently from the bottom to prevent its burning. Then add the tomatoes and sugar, and stew an hour longer. Ten minutes before it is to be taken from the fire, add the butter, cut into bits the size of a walnut, and rolled in flour; give a final boil, taste to see that it is seasoned to your liking, and serve at once. Flour Gravy. After stews have been taken from the pot stir a tablespoonful of flour gradually into a small quantity of cold water, carefully breaking all the lumps. Then pour this gradually into the boiling liquor left in the pot from the stew, let it boil well two minutes, and serve. If flour is sprinkled dry into boiling water it Will form into lumps at once, no matter how much it is stirred. A tablespoonful of flour will sufficiently thicken nearly a quart of liquor. If what is called "brown gravy" is desired, heat the flour first in a frying pan, stirring it till it is brown. Roast Venison. The saddle is the best portion for roasting, and after this the shoulder. Hang it by a cord over a huge bed of coals, or use the crotched stakes, impaling the venison on the cross-piece. Insert thin slices of salt pork or bacon in gashes cut with a knife where the flesh is thick enough to admit of "gashing," or skewer them on with hard wood twigs where it is not. Turn frequently. The flesh on the surface will become hard by the time the roast is done, but this can be avoided by covering it with buttered paper fastened on with wooden skewers. From two to three hours are required for roasting. Baked Deer's Head. Build a fire in a hole in the ground. When it has burned to a good bed of coals put in the deer's head, neck downward, with the skin on but the eyes and brains removed. Cover with green grass or leaves, coals and earth, and build a new fire on top of all. In about six hours exhume the head, remove the skin, and the baking is complete. This method of baking applies as well to the head of any animal. Forequarter of Venison. This portion is always tough, but may be utilized by stewing it, or making it into Venison Sausages. Chop up pieces of the forequarter, mix with half as much chopped salt pork, season with pepper and salt, make into balls, and fry. Stuffed Shoulder of Venison. If you are very "swell" campers-out, and have some port or Madeira wine with you, you may stew the shoulder of venison in the following manner: Extract the bones through the under side and make a stuffing as follows: Chop up suet very fine, and mix it with bread crumbs, in the proportion of half a pint of suet to a quart of breadcrumbs. Moisten this with wine, season with pepper and allspice and fill the holes from which the bones were taken. Bind firmly in shape with strips of clean cloth, put in a large saucepan with part of a gravy made by boiling the trimmings of the venison; add to this a glass of port or Madeira wine and a little black pepper. Cover tightly and stew very slowly three or four hours, according to the size. It should be very tender when done. Remove the strips of cotton cloth with care, dish, and, when you have strained the gravy, pour it over the meat. Stuffed Game Roasted. Large birds (ducks or turkeys, etc.), rabbits, hares, woodchucks, porcupines, opossums, and the like, may be stuffed with a dressing made of salt pork and bread or crackers. Chop the pork very fine, soak the bread or crackers in hot water and mash them smooth, and mix them with the chopped pork. Season with pepper, a little salt, sage and chopped onion. Sew up the game after stuffing with wire in two or three places, and roast over hot coals. If wrapped in wet brown paper it may be immersed in hot ashes and baked, if small, or may be baked the same as fish. Woodchucks and Porcupines. When properly cooked, are little inferior to any game. They must be thoroughly parboiled before cooking, and then may be roasted or stewed. A young wood-chuck or porcupine may be baked in the ground with the hide on, after having been drawn, and is very palatable. Opossums and Young Pigs Are roasted alike. After cleaning the opossum or pig stuff him with bread crumbs, chopped onion and sage or summer savory for seasoning, boiled Irish and sweet potatoes (the latter especially with the 'possum) and whole boiled onions being pushed in among the dressing. Wire up the opening in two or three places, fold the legs down on the body and wire them fast. Then cut a strong, straight, hard-wood limb, and run it through the animal from stern to snout. This is to be suspended from two crotched stakes over the fire, and, if smooth, the 'possum or pig cannot be turned on it, as the limb will turn inside the animal. Therefore, in lopping off the twigs from the limb after it is cut, leave half an inch or so of each twig to act as a barb, insert the limb in the animal butt first, then give it a "yank" backward so that the barbs may hold when it is desired to turn the animal to roast all sides alike. Cut gashes in the thickest parts of the meat so that it may roast evenly throughout. A 'possum or pig prepared as above may be coated with clay and baked in the ground with plenty of coals in from two to three hours. When roasted over the fire the drippings should be caught and used to baste it.
Preparation of Vegetables for Cooking.—Time Table for Cooking Vegetables.—Cabbage, Beets, Greens, Tomatoes, Turnips, Mushrooms, Succotash, etc. All vegetables must be carefully looked over. Remove the unripe or decayed parts, and then wash in cold water. When to be boiled they should be put in boiling salted water, and if necessary to replenish the water before the cooking is complete, boiling water should be always used. Keep the vessel covered, and drain the vegetables as soon as done. Do not let the water boil long before the vegetables are put in. Old and strong vegetables sometimes require boiling in two or three waters. The following time table for cooking vegetables, culled from the writer's scrap-book, is reliable: Potatoes, old, boiled, 30 minutes.
Potatoes, new, baked, 45 minutes.
Potatoes, new, boiled, 20 minutes.
Sweet potatoes, boiled, 45 minutes.
Sweet potatoes, baked, 1 hour.
Squash, boiled, 25 minutes.
Squash, baked, 45 minutes.
Shell beans, boiled, 1 hour.
Green peas, boiled, 20 to 40 minutes.
String beans, boiled, 1 to 2 hours.
Green corn, 25 minutes to 1 hour.
Asparagus, 15 to 30 minutes.
Spinach, 1 to 2 hours.
Tomatoes, fresh, 1 hour.
Tomatoes, canned, 30 minutes.[C]
Cabbage, 45 minutes to 2 hours.
Cauliflower, 1 to 2 hours.
Dandelions, 2 to 3 hours.
Beet greens, 1 hour.
Onions, 1 to 2 hours.
Beets, 1 to 5 hours.
Turnips, white, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Turnips, yellow, 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
Parsnips, 1 to 2 hours.
Carrots, 1 to 2 hours.
If a piece of lean salt pork is boiled with some of the above, they will be sufficiently seasoned. If not, season with salt, pepper and butter. Potatoes and Corn. For all methods of cooking these vegetables, see Chapter V. of Part I. Boiled Cabbage. Remove the outer and all bad leaves, examining carefully for insects, and halve or quarter the cabbage, according to size. Wash, soak a short time in cold water, and put in a covered pot of boiling salted water. When it is tender and "smells good" it is done. Drain, and press out the water, seasoning with salt, pepper and butter. The latter should be omitted if it is boiled with pork. Cabbage aux Legumes. Cut out the centre of a large cabbage, and fill the hole with small potatoes, onions, parsnips, beets, etc. Cover with a cloth and boil till tender. Fried Cooked Cabbage. Have enough lard in the pan to just cover the bottom when melted. Chop the cabbage, put into the melted lard and stir frequently till the cabbage is piping hot, when it is ready to serve. Succotash. Cut the corn from the cob and shell the beans. If string beans are used, string and cut into half-inch pieces. The right proportion for succotash is two-thirds corn to one-third beans. Put them into enough boiling salt water to cover them. Stew gently till tender, stirring frequently; then drain, add a cup of milk and a piece of butter the size of an egg, and stir till it boils up once. Season to taste. Boiled Beets. Winter beets must be soaked over night in water. Wash them, but do not scrape or cut them, as they lose in color and quality by being cut. Put them in boiling water enough to cover them well, cover and boil till tender, which will take from one to three hours. Then put them in cold water and rub off the skins quickly. If large, slice them; if young, split lengthwise. Greens. When in camp or on a cruise, a most delicious dish can be made of boiled greens, of which a large variety of weeds and plants furnishes the material. Dandelion leaves, nettles, milkweed, spinach, young beet tops, turnip tops, mustard, narrow dock, mountain cow-slip, kale, cabbage, poke, sprouts and other "weeds" are good. They should be picked over carefully, washed in three or four waters, and soaked in cold water half an hour; then drain and put in enough boiling salt water to cover them. Press them down till the pot is full, as they "boil away" and lose more than half in substance. Cover, and boil steadily till tender. Then drain and press out the water. Season to taste with butter, pepper and salt. Greens are good boiled with salt pork, bacon, corned beef or ham. Put them in the pot in time to be done with the meat. Stewed Tomatoes. Peel by pouring over them boiling water, when the skin will easily come off. Cut up, discarding unripe and hard parts. Put into a pot, seasoning with butter, pepper, salt, and if very acid, two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Cover, and stew gently. See time table. Boiled Turnips. Wash and peel, and if old, pare off part of the "meat" next the skin. Cut into pieces of a uniform size, soak in cold water half an hour, put into enough boiling salt water to cover them, cover, and cook according to time table. Season with butter, pepper and salt. Omit the butter if they are cooked with meat. Mushrooms. Edible mushrooms are found in clear, open, sunny fields and elevated ground where the air is pure and fresh; poisonous ones are found in woods, low, damp ground, in shady places and upon putrefying substances. The edible kind are most plentiful in August and September, and spring up after low lying fogs, soaking dews or heavy rains. They first appear very small and of a round form, on a little stalk, the upper part and stalk being then white. They grow very fast, and, as the size increases, the under part gradually opens and shows a fringy fur (called "gills") of a delicate salmon color. After the mushroom is a day old this salmon color changes to a russet or dark brown. The gills of the poisonous variety are red, green, blue, yellow or orange red, and sometimes white, but they never have the delicate salmon color of the edible mushroom. The latter have an agreeable odor, and the poisonous have sometimes a similar odor, but generally smell fetid. The flesh of the edible kind is compact and brittle; that of the poisonous generally soft and watery. The skin of the former is easily peeled from the edges, and the seeds or sprouts are for the most part roundish or oval; the skin of the latter is not easy to peel and the seeds are mostly angular. Some poisonous ones assume a bluish tint on being bruised and others exude an acrid, milky juice. The mushroom should have all of the above-named characteristics of the edible variety before it is put in the pot, and it is safest not to select mushrooms gathered by somebody else, as they change color after being picked several hours, and the two kinds are then difficult to distinguish. Finally, if a white peeled onion cooked with them turns black, or if a silver spoon with which they are stirred while cooking turns black, don't eat them; and if you don't know a salmon color from a yellow let somebody gather them who does. Stewed Mushrooms. Select mushrooms of uniform size. Wipe them clean with a soft cloth; peel, commencing at the edge and finishing at the top; cut off the lower part of the stem; put them into a tin or earthen vessel and half cover them with cold water, and stew gently for fifteen minutes, frequently stirring to prevent burning; season with pepper and salt. When the stew is done stir into it one or more tablespoonfuls of butter, previously cut in small pieces, and rolled in flour; stir three or four minutes. Do not let it boil. Fried Mushrooms. Prepare as directed for stewing; heat in a frying pan enough butter to thinly cover the bottom; put in the mushrooms and fry both sides a golden brown. Broiled Mushrooms. Prepare as above, put on a broiler with gills uppermost, sprinkle on a little salt and pepper and a tiny piece of butter, and hold over a bed of coals. Fried Beans. Put enough butter in a frying pan to just cover the bottom when melted. When it is hot put in your beans, already boiled and drained, and fry brown, stirring occasionally.
Boiled Rice.—Cracked Wheat.—Hominy Grits.—Batter Cakes.—Rice Cakes.—Puddings.—Welsh Rarebit.—Fried Bread for Soups.—Stewed Cranberries. Boiled Rice. Pick one pound of rice over carefully and wash it clean in one or two cold waters, then drain and put it into a pot containing four quarts of boiling water, and add four teaspoonfuls of salt; cover and boil steadily for fifteen minutes, then drain off the water, empty the rice, wipe out the pot, sprinkle a little salt over the bottom of it and rub it with a dry cloth, finally emptying out the salt, replacing the rice and setting the pot near the fire for fifteen minutes longer to let the rice dry and swell. If a large pot is at hand a better way after the rice has boiled fifteen minutes is to drain it as above, then pouring the boiling water into the large pot, set in the dry rice in the smaller one, which should be put in the larger one and all set over the fire and the rice allowed to steam thoroughly dry, which will take fifteen minutes. The writer followed the above recipe implicitly till he discovered that nothing further is necessary to cook rice to his own particular taste than the boiling fifteen minutes. Since making this discovery he has omitted the further portion of the recipe in practice, but gives it here for the benefit of those whose tastes may be more dainty than his own. Cracked Wheat. To one quart of the wheat add one tablespoonful of salt, and soak over night in cold water enough to cover it. In the morning put the wheat with the water it was soaked in into a pot, cover closely and cook gently until soft—probably from one to one and one-half hours—stirring frequently to prevent scorching. When necessary to replenish the water add boiling water. Hominy Grits Are cooked the same as cracked wheat, and are very wholesome. Coarse hominy requires long boiling. Batter Cakes. Put one quart of sifted flour in a deep dish, and mix with it one-half teaspoonful of salt, two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder and one teaspoonful of sugar. Add warm water (milk is better) sufficient to make a thick batter. Then add two eggs, beaten light, and if they do not thin down the batter sufficiently, add more water (or milk). Beat thoroughly and cook immediately the same as slapjacks. Rice Cakes. Into one quart of sifted flour stir enough water (or milk) to make a medium thick batter; add two cups of cold boiled rice, one teaspoonful of salt, and lastly, four eggs, beaten light. Beat thoroughly and cook immediately the same as slapjacks. Plum Pudding. Put into a basin one pound of flour, three-quarters of a pound of raisins (stoned, if possible), three-quarters of a pound of fat of salt pork (well washed and cut into small dice or chopped), and two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Add half a pint of water and mix well together. Dip a cloth bag large enough to hold the pudding into boiling water, wring it out, and apply flour well to the inside. Put in the pudding and fasten it up, leaving a little room in the bag for the pudding to swell. Now place the whole in enough boiling water to cover the bag, and boil two hours, turning the bag several times to prevent its scorching against the bottom or sides of the pot. If necessary to add water to keep the bag covered, add boiling water. When done take the pudding from the pot, plunge it into cold water for an instant, and then turn it out to be eaten. Omaha Pudding. Mix in a deep dish one quart of sifted flour and one tablespoonful of baking powder. Dissolve one heaping teaspoonful of salt in one half pint of cold water (or milk), adding enough of the latter to the former to make a very thick batter. Mix quickly and boil in a bag as above. Batter Pudding. One quart of sifted flour in a deep dish worked into a smooth paste with one quart of sweet milk; then mix in the yolks of seven eggs, beaten well, one teaspoonful of salt and one-fourth of a teaspoonful of baking powder dissolved in a little hot water. Stir hard and finally work in quickly the whites of the seven eggs, which should previously have been beaten into a stiff froth. Boil two hours in bags and leave plenty of room for it to swell. Corn Starch Pudding. Dissolve three tablespoonfuls of corn starch in a small quantity of milk, add two eggs, beaten light, and a small pinch of salt. Heat three pints of milk nearly to boiling, mix all together and boil four minutes, constantly stirring. Dip a cup or basin in cold water to cool it, and turn into it the pudding, which should be eaten with sugar and milk when it is cold. Baked Rice Pudding. Pick over and wash well one pint of rice and soak it two hours in enough milk or water to just cover it. Then stir it into two quarts of milk, one half pound of sugar, one teaspoonful of salt, and a small quantity of nutmeg or cinnamon, if at hand. Put into the baking basins, having first well greased them, and bake in the ground two or three hours till it is done brown. Creole Sauce. The juice of a lemon, three tablespoonfuls of sugar, ditto of tomato catsup, one teaspoonful of mustard. Heat all to near the boiling point, and use hot with meats or game. Welsh Rarebit. Cut bread into slices about one inch in thickness, and pare off the crust. Toast the slices slightly without hardening or burning and spread with butter; cut slices of cheese not quite as large as the bread, lay it on the bread, and toast all over the fire on a broiler. Be careful that the cheese does not burn, and let it be equally melted. Spread over the top a little mustard already prepared and seasoning of pepper, and serve very hot. Fried Bread for Soups. Cut stale bread into square pieces, and fry in boiling fat for an instant. Take care it does not burn, removing it as soon as brown. Stewed Cranberries. Pick the berries carefully; then wash them in cold water; drain. Put them into fresh cold water and allow them to remain therein five or ten minutes; drain. Then put the fruit into a well-covered pot (not iron) with sufficient boiling water to cover the berries. Stew rather quickly, stirring occasionally until soft. They should cook in from twenty to thirty minutes. Five minutes before they are done stir in sugar to taste.
Dishes for Yachtsmen.—Macaroni, Boiled and Baked.—Baked Turkey.—Pie Crust.—Brown Betty.—Apple Pudding.—Apple Dumplings. For the benefit of Corinthian yachtsmen, recipes are here given for some dishes which are rather too elaborate in preparation for camp purposes, but which can be cooked readily in the yacht's galley, if it be provided with a regular yacht's stove, having an oven, etc. Boiled Macaroni. Wipe the macaroni carefully, and break it into lengths, put it into a pot of boiling salt water, say ten times as much water as macaroni. Boil fifteen to twenty minutes, or until tender. Take care that it does not burst or become a pulp from excessive boiling; drain at once and season with butter. If desired to impart the flavor of onion to macaroni boil with it two onions for each pound of macaroni. The liquor drained from the macaroni may be used for broth or soup. Boiled macaroni may be served with a white sauce, made as follows; for one pound of macaroni put into a pot over the fire two ounces of butter and two ounces of flour, stir until it becomes smooth, then gradually stir in one quart of hot milk and water in equal parts, season with pepper and salt, put in the macaroni, and let it remain over the fire for one minute. Or, as soon as the butter and flour bubbles, gradually pour in one quart of boiling water, stirring it until it becomes smooth; season with pepper and salt; put in the macaroni and let it remain over the fire for one minute. Have ready one or two onions, minced or shredded, fried brown. Dish the macaroni and pour the fried onions over it. Boiled macaroni may be served with tomato sauce made as follows: for one pound of macaroni put into a pot half a can of tomatoes, or twelve large fresh ones, one half a pint of stock, gravy, or broth of any kind, a little thyme or parsley, six whole cloves, a sliced onion, pepper and salt. Cover and boil gently for one hour, stirring frequently; drain and press the mixture through a sieve (an old pan full of nail holes will do); then stir into it about two ounces of butter and one ounce of flour, previously mixed smooth over the fire; stir until it is well incorporated; pour it over the macaroni: sprinkle on top grated cheese, and put it into the oven for five or ten minutes. Baked Macaroni and Cheese. Boil and drain the macaroni and with it fill by layers a buttered earthen dish, seasoning each layer with butter, grated cheese, mustard, pepper, and salt; add bread crumbs for the top layer. Cover and put it into the oven, and bake with a moderate heat for a half hour. Remove the cover, and when the top is browned serve in the baking-dish. Minced fat pork may be used instead of butter. Baked Turkey. Tame and wild turkeys are prepared and cooked alike. The time for cooking is from fifteen to twenty minutes to the pound, but this depends much upon the age of the bird; it must be well done to be palatable. Success lies in cooking it long enough, and frequent basting. Put the turkey into a pan of cold water; rinse it inside and out in three or four waters; in the last water but one dissolve a teaspoonful of soda. Fill the body with this water; shake it well; pour it off and rinse with fresh water; wipe it dry inside and out; rub the inside with pepper and salt. Prepare a stuffing as follows; Mix into enough grated bread crumbs to fill the craw and body of the turkey a half teaspoonful of summer savory, thyme, or sage, four ounces of lard, four ounces of butter, with enough warm water to make the mixture moist. Mix all thoroughly and stuff the craw and body with it; tie a string tightly about the neck; sew up the incision; tie down the wings and legs; then lay it on its back in the baking-pan; wet the skin and season it with pepper and salt and dredge it with flour. Distribute on the upper side small pieces of butter; put into the pan about a pint of boiling stock or a quarter of a pound of butter; have a brisk fire; put the pan into the oven and bake. Baste frequently, at least every ten minutes; bake to a rich brown. If it browns too rapidly lay a sheet of white paper over it until the lower part is done. When the turkey is browned on the breast turn it over in the pan while in the oven. Pepper, salt, and dredge the back with flour, and bake until browned, basting as above. When baked remove the strings from the neck and body; put it into a hot dish and serve with a flour gravy, made as described on page 62. The turkey may also be stuffed with sausage-meat, fresh oysters or roasted chestnuts. Pie Crust. All pie crust should be made in a cool place and handled as little as possible during the process. The heat from the hand makes the crust tough. The ingredients are: One quart of flour (sifted); one-fourth of a pound butter; one-half teaspoonful salt; enough cold water to make a stiff dough. Sift the flour into a deep wooden bowl or tin pan; put into it the salt; mix; then the lard. With a keen chopping-knife cut up the lard into the flour until it is thoroughly incorporated, with no lumps; wet with cold water, stirring it in with a wooden spoon until it becomes a stiff dough. Flour the hands and make dough into a lump with as little handling as possible. Remove lump to well-floured kneading-board, and roll it out into a sheet a fourth of an inch thick, always rolling from you, and with as little pressure upon the rolling-pin as may be necessary. Into the rolled sheet stick small pieces of butter at regular intervals. Dredge slightly with flour. Roll up the sheet, commencing to roll from the side nearest you. Roll out, again buttering and dredging until the butter is exhausted. If time will permit, when the butter has been exhausted and the roll made up, lay it away in a cold place or on the ice for twenty minutes. Place it again upon the floured kneading-board, roll out into a sheet as hereinbefore directed. Butter the pie-plates; lay the paste lightly within them, fitting it nicely. Trim off the paste neatly around the edges of the pie-plates. Gather up the cuttings and roll them into a separate sheet. If the pies are to have a top crust, cover the tops with the paste, cutting neatly round the edges, and with a knife, spoon or the fingers join securely the edges of the top and sides to prevent escape of juices. Then with a sharp knife make three or four incisions about an inch long in the center of the top crust. If the top crust is lightly brushed with sweet milk, it will brown evenly. Bake in a moderate oven until a light brown. Be careful to have the heat as great at the bottom as at the top of oven. If this is not looked to, the lower crust will be uncooked and inedible. Should a richer crust be desired the proportions of lard and butter can be doubled. Brown Betty (Baked). The ingredients are: Cooking-apples, pared, cored, and sliced; dry-bread crumbs, or well-toasted bread rolled into crumbs; sugar, butter, and ground cinnamon. Grease well a deep baking-dish. Into the bottom of this put a layer of prepared apples; sprinkle them lightly with sugar; scatter small pieces of butter over this, then dust with ground cinnamon; over this place a layer of bread crumbs from one-half to three-quarters of an inch thick; over this apples, butter, and cinnamon, and continue this process until the dish is full, or until sufficient material has been used. The top layer must be crumbs, and on this must be scattered small pieces of butter. If the top layer is moistened with a couple of tablespoonfuls of milk it will brown more evenly. Put into a moderate oven and bake from a half to three-quarters of an hour. When a fork will easily penetrate the apples it is cooked. Alden dried apples may be substituted for the fresh fruit. It can be eaten hot or cold with butter, sugar, or sauce. Baked Apple Pudding. Use the following ingredients: Apples pared, cored and sliced; one quart sifted flour; three teaspoonfuls baking powder, incorporated with the dry flour; one-half teaspoonful salt; two tablespoonfuls lard (half butter is preferable); one pint milk (cold water will do). Have ready sugar, butter, and ground cinnamon. Put flour into a deep dish or pan; mix into it the salt and lard; then add the milk, and work the mixture with the hands to a smooth light dough. Roll the dough into a sheet about one-quarter of an inch thick. Have prepared a well-greased baking-dish. Cover the bottom and sides of the dish with rolled dough or paste, press it lightly against the sides and bottom, and cutoff the edges above the dish. Put into the bottom of the baking-dish thus prepared a thick layer of sliced apples, sprinkle them with sugar and ground cinnamon, then another layer of apples treated in like manner, and so on successively until the dish is full. The top layer of apples should have the dressing of sugar and cinnamon, and be also sprinkled with small pieces of butter. Wet the top layer with three or four teaspoonfuls of water, and then sprinkle it lightly with dry flour. Take the remainder of the dough, roll it out thin, and cover the dish with it, pressing the paste down round the edges of the dish to join it with the paste that lines the sides. Make three or four incisions in the cover with a sharp knife. Then put the dish into a moderate oven and bake from one to one and a half hours. When a fork easily penetrates the pudding, it is cooked. Eat hot with sauce. Alden dried apples, canned apples, canned peaches, or fresh peaches pared, quartered, and the stones extracted may be used. Baked Apple Dumplings. The apples pared, cored and quartered. Prepare paste as directed for Baked Apple Pudding above. When the paste is rolled, cut it into squares, and in the centre of each square place the four parts of an apple; add to each apple a piece of butter the size of a chestnut and a small sprinkle of sugar and ground cinnamon. Envelop the apple in the paste, pressing the cut edges together. Place the dumplings thus prepared into a well-greased baking-pan, cut edges downwards. Bake a half to three-fourths of an hour in a moderate oven. When a fork will penetrate the dumplings they are cooked. Apples dried by the Alden process may be used.
Cooking in Iron Pots.—Let nothing stand in an iron pot after it is cooked, or it will become discolored and have an unpleasant taste. Rusty Knives.—If knives become rusty, rub them with a fresh-cut potato dipped in ashes. Emetic.—Gunpowder dissolved in water is a good emetic. Save the Bacon Grease.—After frying salt pork, bacon or fat meat, do not discard the grease that is left in the pan. Keep a cup or small tin pail, in which pour all residue. It will soon harden, and is just the thing for frying slapjacks or potatoes in. Improved River Water for Drinking.—If you make tea do not throw out the "grounds" after each drawing. In warm weather ordinary lake or river water will taste very refreshing if poured into the pot where tea-grounds have been left, and allowed to stand a few minutes before drinking. Salt.—It is always best in cooking to use too little salt rather than too much. Further salting can be easily done at any time, but it is difficult or impossible to freshen anything that has been over-salted.Baking Powder.—In using baking powder it is always best to follow the printed directions on the can as to the amount. The different makes of baking powders have each a different strength. Spoons.—On a canoe trip, where storage room is at a premium, one spoon will suffice for all purposes. Let it be of iron, of "dessert" size. Get a tinsmith to cut off two inches of the handle, and solder strongly to the stump a tin cylinder one-half inch in diameter. There will be no long handle to interfere with packing it in a small space, and if a long handle is desired for skimming soups, stirring mush, etc., a stick of any length can be instantly cut to fit the tin cylinder. Frozen Fish should be soaked in cold water to thaw them before cooking. Fish-eating Ducks may be made palatable by parboiling them in water with an onion in it. After parboiling them throw away the onion and lay the ducks in cold water for half an hour, after which they may be roasted, broiled, fried or stewed. Soft vs. Hard Water.—Beans, peas and other vegetables are best boiled in soft water. Hard water can be made soft (if its hardness depends upon the presence of carbonate of lime) by boiling it an hour and then allowing it to cool, when most of the lime will be precipitated. Broiling.—Remember that it is better to broil before a fire than over it, as by the former process the juices of the meat can be caught and used as a dressing, while in the latter manner they are lost in the fire and tend to give a smoky flavor by their ignition. In broiling, the article should be turned frequently. Frying.—The lard or fat used for frying should always be very hot before the article to be cooked is put in. If little jets of smoke issue from the top of the fat it is hot enough. If the fat is insufficiently hot, anything cooked in it will taste of the grease, while the moment a substance is dropped into fat at a great heat the exterior pores are closed, and no grease penetrates it. Mixing Ingredients.—Preciseness in the preparation of ingredients is an important element of success in cooking. Guessing at proportions is the practice of the lazy or indifferent cook. New Iron Pots.—Boil a handful of grass in a new iron pot, then scrub it inside with soap and sand, fill it with clean water and let this boil half an hour. It is then ready to use for cooking. Table of Approximate Weights and Measures.—The following table may be of use. It is near enough to accuracy for cooking purposes:— Three teaspoonfuls = One tablespoonful. Four tablespoonfuls = One wine glass. Two wine glasses = One gill. Two gills = One tumbler or cup. Two cupfuls = One pint. One quart sifted flour = One pound. One quart powdered sugar = One pound, seven ounces. One quart granulated sugar = One pound, nine ounces. One pint closely packed butter = One pound. Three cupfuls sugar = One pound. Five cupfuls sifted flour = One pound. One tablespoonful salt = One ounce. Seven tablespoonfuls granulated sugar = One half pint. Twelve tablespoonfuls flour = One pint. Three coffee cupfuls = One quart. Ten eggs = One pound.
Yeast.—A serviceable yeast for leavening bread may be made by mixing flour and cold water into a thin batter. Set it away in a bottle until it sours, when it is ready for use.
Apple dumplings (baked), 87
— pudding (baked), 85
Ash cakes, 38
Bacon, fried, 25
— grease should be saved, 88
Bags, waterproof, for provisions and clothing, 13
Baked apple dumplings, 87
— apple pudding, 85
— brown Betty, 85
— deer's head, 63
— fish, plain, 55
— — stuffed, 56
— macaroni with cheese, 81
— rice pudding, 77
— turkey, 82
Baking powder, 89
— — biscuits, 39
— time necessary for, 47
— without a stove, 47
Ballast, canned goods for, 15
Batter cakes, 75
— pudding, 77
Beans, fried, 73
— pork and, 60
— soup, 52
Beds, camp, 43
Beef, frizzled, 59
Betty, brown, 85
Biscuits, baking powder, 39
— Hecker's flour, 39
— Maryland, 40
Blacksmith's pliers, 12, 46
Blanketed oysters, 24
Boiled cabbage, 68
— eggs, 40
— fish, 22
Boiled fish roe, 23
— green corn, 32
— macaroni, 80
— meat, 27
— pork, 60
— potatoes, 30
— rice, 74
— turnips, 71
Box for provisions, the canoeist's, 9-11
Box for salt and pepper, 12
Bread, fried, for soups, 78
— pilot, 15
— quick camp, 39
— unleavened, 40
Broiled mushrooms, 73
— salt pork, 25
— steaks, 26
Broiling hints, 89
— in a frying-pan, 26
Brown Betty (baked), 85
Brunswick stew, 61
Butter jar, 11
Cabbage aux legumes, 69
— boiled, 68
— fried cooked, 69
Cakes, ash, 38
— batter, 75
— hoe, 37
— rice, 76
Camp bed, 43
— cellar, 43
— dining-table, 48
— fire, 44-48
— stove, 43-44
Canned corn beef, 25
— food for canoe ballast, 15
Canoe stove, 14
— — Danforth's, 14
Cellar, camp, 43
Chest, provision, for canoeists, 9-11
Chowder, clam, 57
— — orthodox, 57
— fish, 57
Clam chowder. (See chowder.)
— soup, 18
Coffee, 34
— pot, construction of, 46
Condensed provisions, 14
Cooking in iron pots, 88
Corn, boiled, 32
— fried, 33
— roasted, 33
— stewed, 33
— dodgers, 38
— pone, 38
— starch pudding, 77
Corned beef, canned, 25
Cornmeal mush, 35
— — slapjacks, 37
Crabs, hard shell, 23
— soft, 23
Cracked wheat, 75
Cranberries, stewed, 78
Creole sauce, 78
Crust, pie, 83
Damp wood, to start a fire with, 48
Danforth fluid canoe stove, 14
Deer's head soup, 52
Dishes, washing, 49
Driftwood for fires, 45
Drinking river and lake water, 88
Dumplings, apple (baked), 87
Ducks, fish-eating, 89
— roast, 28
— stewed, 29
Eggs, boiled, 40
— fried, 40
— poached, 40
— scrambled, 41
— ham and, 26
— method of carrying to avoid breakage, 12, 43
Emetic, 88
Fish, 20, 55
Fish, baked, plain, 55
— — stuffed, 56
— boiled, 22
— chowder, 57
— fried, 21
— gravy, 56
— planked, 21
— sauce, 22
— soup, 53
— skewered, 22
— caught in muddy streams, 20
— frozen, 80
— grubs in, 29
— roe, boiled, 23
— — fried, 23
— should be killed as soon as caught, 20
Fish-eating ducks, 89
Fire, best fuel for, 45, 47
— for camp cooking, 44-48
— how to build, 45
— how to start with damp wood, 48
— of driftwood, 45
Flamme forcÉ, 14, 48
Flapjacks. (See slapjacks.)
Flour gravy, 62
Flour, self-raising, 15
Folding stoves, 14
Forequarter of venison, 64
Fried beans, 73
— cold mush, 36
— cooked cabbage, 69
— — potatoes, 31
— eggs, 40
— fish, 21
— — roe, 23
— green corn, 33
— mushrooms, 73
— oysters, 24
— pigeons, 27
— raw potatoes, 31
— salt pork (or bacon), 25
— squirrels, 27
Frizzled beef, 59
Frogs, 29
Frozen fish, 89
Frying hints, 90
Frying-pan, broiling in, 26
— handleless, 46
Fuel for camp-fire, 45, 47
Game, 25, 29
— soup of small, 52
— stew, 61
— stuffed and roasted, 65
Gravy, flour, 62
— fish, 56
— for stews, 62
Grease, save the bacon, 88
Green corn, boiled, 32
— — fried, 33
— — roasted, 33
— — stewed, 33
Greens, 70
Grits, hominy, 75
Grouse, roast, 28
"Grub-box," canoeist's, 9-11
Grubs in fish, 20
Ham and eggs, 26
Hash, 59
— pork, 60
Hard-shell crabs, 23
Hard vs. soft water, 89
Hares or rabbits, 28
Hecker's flour biscuits, 39
— — slapjacks, 38
— prepared flour, 15
Hints, 88
Hominy grits, 75
Hoe cakes, 37
Ice-box, 44
Ingredients, mixing, 90
Iron pots, cooking in, 88
— — new, 90
Johnnycake, 36
Kerosene stoves, wind-protected, 48
Knives, rusty, 88
Macaroni, baked with cheese, 81
— boiled, 80
— sauce for, 80
Maryland biscuit, 40
Mashed potatoes, 31
Measures and weights, table of, 90
Meat, boiled, 27
— soup, 51
Mixing ingredients, 90
Mush, cold, fried, 36
— corn meal, 35
— oatmeal, 36
Mushrooms vs. poisonous fungi, 71
Mushrooms, broiled, 73
— fried, 73
— stewed, 72
New iron pots, 90
Oatmeal mush, 36
Oil-stoves, wind-protected, 48
Omaha pudding, 76
Onion soup, 18
Opossums, 65
Oven, portable, 13
Oyster soup, 18
Oysters, blanketed, 24
— fried, 24
Pack baskets for carrying outfit, 43
Pancakes. (See slapjacks.)
Pea soup, 53
Pepper and salt boxes, 12
Pie crust, 83
Pigeons, fried, 27
— stewed, 29
Pigs, young, 65
Pilot bread, 15
Planked fish, 21
Pliers, blacksmith's, 12, 46
Plover, roast, 27
Plum pudding, 76
Poached eggs, 40
Pone, corn, 38
Porcupines, 65
Pork and beans, 60
Pork, boiled, 60
— broiled, 25
— fried, 25
— hash, 60
— selection of, 25
Portable oven, 13
'Possums, 65
Potatoes, boiled, 30
— fried (raw), 31
— fried (cooked), 31
— mashed, 31
— roasted, 31
— stewed, 32
— sweet, 32
Pots, iron, cooking in, 88
— — new, 90
Powder, baking, 89
Provisions consumed in a week's cruise, 16
Pudding, apple (baked), 85
— batter, 77
— corn starch, 77
— Omaha, 76
— plum, 76
— rice, 77
Quail, roast, 27
Quick camp bread, 39
Rabbits or hares, 28
Rabbit, stewed, 28
Range, out-door cooking, 44-46
Rarebit, Welsh, 78
Rice cakes, 76
— boiled, 74
— pudding, baked, 77
— soup, 52
River water, improved for drinking, 88
Roast ducks and grouse, 28
— green corn, 33
— potatoes, 31
— quail, snipe and plover, 27
— venison, 63
— woodcock, 28
Rusty knives, 88
Salt and pepper boxes, FOOTNOTES:[A] See note on baking powder in the chapter of "Hints."
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
Inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, grammar, and punctuation have been standardized. |
