Project Gutenberg's Canoe and Camp Cookery, by (AKA "Seneca") H. H. Soulé
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Title: Canoe and Camp Cookery
A Practical Cook Book for Canoeists, Corinthian Sailors and Outers
Author: (AKA "Seneca") H. H. Soulé
Release Date: October 8, 2017 [EBook #55705]
Language: English
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Canoe and Camp Cookery:
A PRACTICAL COOK BOOK
FOR
CANOEISTS, CORINTHIAN SAILORS AND OUTERS.
By "SENECA."
NEW YORK:
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO.,
1885.
Copyright,
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO.
1885.
CONTENTS.
PART I.--CANOE COOKERY.
CHAPTER I.
Page.
Outfit for Cooking on a Cruise.--Value of a Single Receptacle for
Everything Necessary to Prepare a Meal.--The Canoeist's "Grub
Box."--The Same as a Seat.--Water-tight Tins.--Necessary Provisions
and Utensils.--Waterproof Bags for Surplus Provisions.--Portable
Oven.--Canoe Stoves.--Folding Stoves a Nuisance.--Hints for
Provisioning for a Cruise. 9
CHAPTER II.
Soups.--Canned Soups.--The Brunswick Goods Cheap, Wholesome and
Convenient.--Huckins' Soups.--Oyster, Clam, Onion and Tomato
Soups. 17
CHAPTER III.
Fish.--Fish Caught in Muddy Streams.--Kill your Fish as soon as
Caught.--Fish Grubs.--Fish Fried, Planked, Skewered and
Boiled.--Fish Sauce, Fish Roe, Shell Fish. 20
CHAPTER IV.
Meats and Game.--Salt Pork.--Ham and Eggs.--Broiling and Boiling
Meats.--Pigeons, Squirrels, Ducks, Grouse, Woodcock, Rabbits,
Frogs, etc. 25
CHAPTER V.
Vegetables.--Potatoes and Green Corn, Boiled, Fried, Roasted and
Stewed. 30
CHAPTER VI.
Coffee and Tea.--Mush, Johnnycake and Hoe Cake.--Slapjacks,
Corn Dodgers, Ash Cakes, Biscuits, Camp Bread.--Eggs. 34
PART II.--CAMP COOKERY.
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. 42
CHAPTER II.
Soups.--General Remarks on Cooking Soups.--Soups Made of Meat,
Vegetables, Deer's Heads, Small Game, Rice, Fish, and Turtle. 50
CHAPTER III.
Fish.--Fish Baked, Plain and Stuffed.--Fish Gravy.--Fish
Chowder.--Clam Chowder.--Orthodox Clam Chowder. 55
CHAPTER IV.
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. 59
CHAPTER V.
Preparation of Vegetables for Cooking.--Time Table for Cooking
Vegetables.--Cabbage, Beets, Greens, Tomatoes, Turnips, Mushrooms,
Succotash, etc. 67
CHAPTER VI.
Boiled Rice.--Cracked Wheat.--Hominy Grits.--Batter Cakes.--Rice
Cakes.--Puddings.--Welsh Rarebit.--Fried Bread for Soups.--Stewed
Cranberries. 74
CHAPTER VII.
Dishes for Yachtsmen.--Macaroni, Boiled and Baked.--Baked
Turkey.--Pie Crust.--Brown Betty.--Apple Pudding.--Apple Dumplings. 80
HINTS. 88
PREFACE.
A BOOK in the writer's possession, entitled "Camp Cookery," contains
the following recipe:
"BOILED GREEN CORN.--Boil twenty-five minutes, if very young and
tender. As it grows older it requires a longer time. Send to the table
in a napkin."
The writer of the above is a good housewife. She cannot conceive
that anybody will attempt to boil green corn who does not know such
rudiments of the culinary art as the proper quantity of water to put
into the pot and the necessity of its being slightly salted and at a
boil when the corn is put in, instead of fresh and cold; and, like the
careful cook that she is, she tells the camper to send the ears to the
camp "table" in a "napkin."
The faults of the above recipe are the faults of all recipes furnished
by the majority of books on out-door life. They do not instruct in
those rudimentary principles of cooking so important to the outer who
has eaten all his life no food except that furnished him ready for
instant despatch; and they commend to the camper dishes that require
materials and utensils for their preparation which are seldom at hand
in the field and forest.
The object of this little volume is to give to the Corinthian cruiser
and the camper some practical recipes for simple but substantial
dishes, in such a manner that the veriest novice in the art of
the kitchen may prepare palatable food with no more materials and
paraphernalia than are consistent with light cruising and comfortable
camping. The first part, "Canoe Cookery," instructs in such dishes as
the limited outfit of the canoeist or camper who "packs" his dunnage
afoot will admit of, while the second part, "Camp Cookery," deals
with the more elaborate _menu_ that can be prepared when ease of
transportation will allow the carriage of a more extensive supply.
Few of the recipes given are original with the compiler. Some have been
obtained from trappers and hunters, others from army and navy cooks,
and a few from cook books; but all have been practically tested in camp
or on a cruise by the writer, whose pleasure in out-door cooking is
only equalled by his delight in out-door life.
CANOE AND CAMP COOKERY.
PART I.--CANOE COOKERY.
CHAPTER I.
OUTFIT FOR COOKING ON A CRUISE.--VALUE OF A SINGLE RECEPTACLE
FOR EVERYTHING NECESSARY TO PREPARE A MEAL.--THE
CANOEIST'S "GRUB BOX."--THE SAME AS A SEAT.--WATER-TIGHT
TINS.--NECESSARY PROVISIONS AND UTENSILS.--WATERPROOF
BAGS FOR SURPLUS PROVISIONS.--PORTABLE
OVEN.--CANOE STOVES.--FOLDING STOVES A
NUISANCE.--HINTS FOR PROVISIONING FOR A CRUISE.
FOR canoe cruising a certain amount of food supplies and the necessary
utensils for cooking should be carried in a single box or chest, so
that when one cooks a meal on board he may have in one receptacle
everything necessary for preparing a meal, and when going ashore
for his repast he can take in his hands everything requisite at one
journey. If on a long cruise the large portion of his food supply may
be kept in different parts of the canoe, but the box should contain
sufficient for at least three meals, and can be replenished from the
larger store when stopping for the night or at a camping place for any
length of time. The larger the box that his stowage room will allow the
greater will be the comfort of the canoeist.
The box may be made of wood, tin or galvanized iron. The former costs
but little, can be made by the cruiser himself, and if properly made
and properly taken care of, should answer the purpose; but a box of
either japanned or painted tin or galvanized iron will stand much
knocking about without fracture, and is therefore preferable when its
expense is no objection. Of course it must be water-tight, and if made
of wood the nicest joining and dove-tailing must be done, and it should
be varnished inside and out with shellac or boat varnish. Arbitrary
dimensions cannot be given because of the varying sizes of canoes and
the different amounts of provisions carried on cruises, therefore let
each canoeist first determine what amount and variety of eatables he
will carry, and then construct the box according to his needs and his
stowage room in the cockpit. If made of wood quarter inch or 5/16 stuff
(pine) will do, and if the box is to be used as a seat the top and
bottom pieces should be heavier, say 3/8 of an inch. The cover should
be two inches deep and the handle by which the box is carried should be
a thin, wide, flat strap tacked to the cover. If the box is not used
as a seat but is stowed under the deck it will be found an advantage
to have the flanges of the cover fall over the side pieces of the box
and the strap tacked to one end piece, carried over the cover and
fastened by a hook to an eye in the other end piece in reach of the
hand, so that the cover may be removed and articles obtained from the
box without taking it from under the deck. If used as a seat the cover
may be hinged on one side and two hooks fastened at the ends on the
other, and for the back rest two pieces of three-quarter inch pine are
screwed to the sides, running aft horizontally six or eight inches from
the aftermost end of the box, holes being bored in them an inch apart
"athwartship" and cut opposite each other, through which a quarter-inch
brass rod is passed for the back rest to play on. As the lower end of
the back rest strikes the end of the box near the floor when in use, it
may be "slanted" as inclination demands by changing the brass rod from
one set of holes to another.
[Illustration]
To carry the provisions in the box so that they will not mix or spill,
several water-tight tins should be used. The Consolidated Fruit Jar
Company, 49 Warren Street, New York, makes tin screw-tops for jars and
canisters that are perfectly water-tight. Send for several of these
tops, of assorted sizes, and have a tinsmith make the tin cans of the
dimensions you desire, so that they will nest in the box closely. The
same company will also furnish you with a pint or quart earthen jar
with water-tight screw-top, in which butter may be kept sweet for a
long time in hot weather, and which may be enveloped in a net and
lowered to the bottom of the river or lake without fear of its leaking.
In the tin cans may be carried coffee, tea (or cocoa), sugar, flour
(or meal), rice and alcohol. (A special screw-top is made for fluid
cans.) Pepper and salt are in small spice boxes with two covers, the
one underneath being perforated. Eggs are safest carried in the tins
with the flour, coffee and rice; bread and bacon (or salt pork) are
wrapped in macintosh and put near the top of the chest; the vinegar
goes in a whisky flask (mark it to avoid mistakes), and canned goods,
condensed milk, baking powder, etc., in their own cans. The alcohol
stove and utensils necessary to cook a meal should go in the box,
such as coffee pot, cup, fork, knife, spoon, frying pan and plates.
The coffee pot should be of small size, with handle and lip riveted.
If soldered, they are likely to melt off. Cups or plates should be of
tin or granite ware. The fork and knife have their sheaths of leather
inside the box cover. The plates should nest in the frying pan, which
should have no handle, and is fastened inside the chest cover by two
buttons, so that it may be readily released. Next the knife and fork
have a sheath for a pair of small blacksmith's pliers. This instrument
serves as a handle to the frying pan and a lifter for everything on
the fire, and can always be kept cool. A three-quart tin or granite
ware pail is necessary for stews, and two smaller ones may be nested
in it, of two-quart and three-pint capacity, respectively. Put the can
of condensed milk in the smallest pail. It will be out of the way,
and won't make the rest of the things in the chest sticky. If you
carry potatoes, onions or other vegetables, always have enough in the
chest for three meals. The surplus supplies of provisions, such as
vegetables, extra bread, crackers, flour, meal, pork or bacon, etc.,
should be carried in waterproof bags, and they can then be stowed
wherever necessary to properly trim the canoe. These waterproof bags
may be used also for clothing and blankets. They are made of unbleached
muslin, sewn in a lap seam, with a double row of stitches. When sewn
they are dipped in water and slightly shaken to remove the drops, and
then while wet a mixture of equal parts of boiled oil, raw oil and
turpentine is applied to the outside with a brush. This takes about
a week to become thoroughly dry, and then another coat is put on
without dampening the cloth, and if a little liquid drier is added to
the mixture, this coat will dry in four or five days. Having prepared
several bags, the provisions, clothing, blankets, etc., are put in the
bag, and its mouth is inserted in that of another bag of the same size,
the latter being drawn on like a stocking as far as it will go. If
several bags are used instead of one or two large ones, the canoe can
be trimmed and packed to better advantage.
A canoeist's portable oven is made of two small basins, one of which
has "ears" riveted to its rim, so that when it is placed bottom up
on the other the ears will spring over the rim of the second basin,
thus making an oven that is not air-tight, allowing gases to escape.
The basins should be made of sheet-iron, and, as their interiors
can easily be kept clean, they answer very well for soup dishes.
Instructions for baking in them will be given later on. These should
not go in the provision chest, as they will smut everything with which
they come in contact. Butter, I have found, keeps better in its jar
outside of the chest than in. Outside, too, are kept a small jug of
molasses, and a jug of fresh water, if cruising on the "briny."
There is no perfect canoe stove. The "flamme forcé" is probably as
good as any. It takes up a little more room than the folding "pocket"
variety, and it does not give more heat; but it burns for a longer
time, and is not top-heavy when a heavy pot or pan is set on it. For
cooking in large utensils have three of these flamme forcé alcohol
lamps, light them and place them side by side, and you can cook in this
way a dozen slapjacks at once on a big griddle, if you like. Danforth,
the fluid man, makes a small canoe stove that would be preferable to
all others if his fluid were obtainable at all the corners of the
earth that canoeists frequent; but unfortunately it is not. Beware of
"folding stoves" to use ashore and burn wood in. They are the greatest
possible nuisances--smutty, red-hot and cumbersome. Don't carry an oil
stove. But if you really must, put the nasty thing in a large bucket,
and only remove it from this receptacle when absolutely necessary.
Now as to eatables in general, besides what I have already mentioned,
condensed milk is a good thing, but condensed coffee, condensed eggs
and condensed beef are abominations. Self-raising or Hecker's prepared
flour, wheat, rye, Indian or Graham, is easily made into bread and
slapjacks. The directions come with the packages. Pilot bread will
keep an indefinite time, and is not so unpalatable as hard-tack.
Indian meal is very nutritious and easily made up, as it requires
nothing to lighten it; scald it before using when it is not fresh.
Canned tomatoes, corn, fruits, beans, soups, salmon, etc., are easy to
prepare, and can be stored as ballast in the canoe. Mr. Hicks, of the
Toronto Canoe Club, prepares certain kinds of food in cans for ballast
as follows, according to the _American Canoeist_:
"Get a number of flat square tin cans made like oyster cans, of a handy
size to lie under your floor boards. Then cook a turkey, some chickens,
a sirloin of beef, etc. Cut the hot meat up into large dice-shaped
pieces, and put it in the tins hot, then pour melted fat in till the
tins are full, and then solder them tight. Get as much meat in as you
can before putting in the fat. Put up fruit in square flat cans in
the same way. There is your ballast, and heavy stuff it is. When the
provisions run short let the crew feed on the ballast. The preparation
described is far more nutritious than canned corned beef, is more
palatable, and will keep indefinitely--that is, throughout a very long
cruise."
I have not tried this method of preserving provisions, but the theory
is excellent, and I do not see why it would not be a feasible scheme.
The Brunswick canned soups are the cheapest made, are easily prepared
and as wholesome as any; but I have known squeamish canoeists who would
not use them because they didn't like the looks of the powder to which
they are desiccated. Dried beef, corned beef, lemons and sardines make
good additions to an outfit. Potatoes, onions and other vegetables
should be procured en route as needed, if possible.
As it may puzzle some neophytes to know how much of each article of
food to take on a cruise, I give below the exact amount of provisions
I carried on a cruise of a week last autumn. I did not run short of
anything at the end of the week, but I had not provisions enough left
for three square meals: 1 lb. sugar (cut loaf); 1/8 lb. tea; 1 lb.
flour; 1-1/2 lbs. crackers; 1/2 lb. lard; 1/2 lb. rice; 1/2 lb. bacon;
3/4 lb. coffee; 1 lb. butter; 1 can condensed milk; 3 loaves bread; 3/4
peck potatoes; 1/2 peck meal; 1 pint molasses; 2 oz. pepper; 1 bottle
pickles; 1 bottle yeast powder; 1 qt. salt.
CHAPTER II.
SOUPS.--CANNED SOUPS.--THE BRUNSWICK GOODS CHEAP, WHOLESOME, AND
CONVENIENT.--HUCKINS' SOUPS.--OYSTER, CLAM, ONION, AND TOMATO SOUPS.
CANOEISTS will hardly take the time and trouble to make soups out of
meats and vegetables, unless they are in a permanent camping place for
some length of time. Nearly all soups require several hours to cook
properly, as they must be boiled very slowly to retain the aroma of the
ingredients used.
Canned soups, therefore, are the handiest for the canoeist or
single-hand cruiser. I can recommend the Brunswick variety as cheap,
convenient, wholesome and easy to prepare if the directions on the
cans are implicitly followed. Any variation from these instructions,
however, is certain to result in an unpalatable mess. The higher priced
soups, Huckins' and other varieties, are more like home-made soups than
the Brunswick kind, and hence a fastidious taste will prefer them. They
are bulkier to carry, but are quite as easily prepared, and I would
recommend those made by Huckins as especially good. The great objection
to them is their high price.
There are a few good soups that can be prepared from materials readily
accessible to the canoeist, and in a comparatively short time. These
are:
Oyster Soup.
Put a quart of milk and a piece of butter as large as an egg into the
pot and heat gradually. When hot, stir in the strained liquor of one
pint of oysters, very gradually, to prevent the milk from curdling,
then one-quarter pound of crushed crackers or bread crumbs. When it has
come to a boil put in the oysters (one pint), and let it cook till the
edges of the oysters curl up, when it should be seasoned and served.
Clam Soup.
Exactly the same as oyster soup, using clams instead of oysters.
Onion Soup.
Put three tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying pan, cut six large
onions in slices, and stir them into the butter over the fire till they
begin to cook. Then cover tight and set them where they will simmer
slowly for half an hour. Put a quart of milk with a tablespoonful of
butter on to boil, and while this is doing stir into the onions a
tablespoonful of flour while they are simmering. Turn the mixture into
the boiling milk and cook quarter of an hour, seasoning with salt and
pepper. If an old tin pan is handy that you can use for the purpose,
the soup will be improved by knocking small holes in the bottom of
the pan, thus making a colander, and straining the soup through it,
afterwards adding the well-beaten yolks of four eggs and cooking three
minutes longer.
Tomato Soup.
Mix one tablespoonful of flour and a piece of butter the size of an
egg into a smooth paste, and if you have onions, chop up fine one
medium-sized one. Prepare about one pound of tomatoes by scalding,
peeling and slicing them (the same amount of canned tomatoes may be
used), and put all the ingredients with a pinch of salt into one pint
of cold water. Boil gently for an hour, stirring frequently enough to
dissolve the tomatoes and prevent burning, then stir in one cup of
boiled milk, and let it come again to a boil, constantly stirring.
Season and serve. The soup will be good if the milk is omitted.
CHAPTER III.
FISH.--FISH CAUGHT IN MUDDY STREAMS.--KILL YOUR FISH AS SOON
AS CAUGHT.--FISH GRUBS.--FISH FRIED, PLANKED, SKEWERED, AND
BOILED.--FISH SAUCE, FISH ROE, SHELL-FISH.
FISH should naturally have a prominent place in the canoeist's larder.
Few streams that he will navigate are entirely destitute of edible
fish, and a few minutes spent in angling will amply repay the cruiser.
Fish caught out of muddy streams have an unpleasant taste, and their
flavor can be improved by soaking them half an hour or more in strong
salted water. Fish should be killed as soon as caught by a sharp rap
on the back just aft of the head with a stick or the handle of your
big knife, not only in justice to the fish, but because he tastes
better, for the same reason that a butchered steer is preferable to one
smothered to death.
You may find grubs in fish along the backbone in July and August. You
will generally remove them by taking out the backbone and its branches.
But if you don't get them all out, never mind; they are good to eat;
but if any one of the party is squeamish, tell him you have got them
all out anyway: he won't know any better after they are cooked. It is
supposed that everybody has known how to clean fish ever since he was a
schoolboy, so we will proceed at once to the instructions for cooking.
Fried Fish.
Small fish may be fried whole, but large ones should be cut up. Have
enough pork fat or lard bubbling hot in the frying-pan to well cover
the fish. Smear the fish well with dry corn meal or flour, or, what
is better, dip it into well-beaten egg and then into bread or cracker
crumbs, and fry both sides to a clear golden brown. Sprinkle lightly
with pepper and salt just as it is turning brown.
Planked Fish.
Shad, flounders, sunfish or any other "flat" fish may be "planked."
Cut off the head and tail, split open the back, but do not cut clear
through the belly, leaving the fish so that it may be opened wide like
a book and tacked on a plank or piece of bark. Tack some thin slices of
bacon or pork to the end of the fish that will be uppermost when before
the fire, and, if you like, a few slices of raw onion sprinkled with
pepper and salt. Sharpen one end of the plank and drive it into the
ground, before a bed of hot coals. Catch the drippings in a tin cup or
large spoon and baste the fish continually till it smells so good you
can't wait another instant to eat it. It is then done.
Skewered Trout.
Sharpen a small, straight stick, and on it skewer small trout and thin
slices of bacon or pork in alternation. Hold over a bed of hot coals
and keep constantly turning, so that the juices will not be lost in the
fire. A very few minutes will suffice to cook the trout.
Boiled Fish.
Tie or pin the fish (which should not weigh less than three pounds)
in a clean cloth. If the pot is too small for the fish, skewer the
tail into the mouth. Put into enough boiling water to cover it about
an inch, and simmer steadily until done. Some fish boil quicker than
others; as a general rule those of white flesh requiring less time than
those of a darker tinge. If a couple of tablespoonfuls of salt and four
ditto of vinegar are put into the water the fish will cook sooner.
About twenty-five minutes are necessary for a three-pound fish, and
over that six minutes extra to every pound. An underdone fish is not
fit to eat, and one boiled too long is insipid. When the meat separates
easily from the backbone it is cooked just right. Take it up, remove
the cloth carefully, and pour over it the following hot
Fish Sauce.
Put two tablespoonfuls of butter and two ditto of flour into a hot
frying pan over the fire and mix them together with a spoon into a
smooth paste. Pour over very gradually about a pint of the water in
which the fish was boiled, stirring it well in. Boil up once and
season with pepper and salt. If an acid taste is desired, add a few
drops of vinegar.
Boiled Fish Roe.
Wash and wipe the roes with a soft cloth. Wrap in a cloth and boil the
same as fish. Or, they may be tied inside the fish with a string and
boiled with it.
Fried Fish Roe.
Prepare as above, dredge in meal or flour, and fry exactly as fish.
Soft Crabs.
Have enough boiling hot grease in a pan over a hot fire to cover the
crabs. Throw them in as soon as possible after they are taken, with a
little salt. Let them brown and turn them once. When done cut off the
gills or "dead men's fingers," and serve on toast.
Hard Shell Crabs.
These are best steamed. Boil two cups of water in your largest pail.
Put in two or three large handfuls of grass and then the crabs, as
soon as possible after they are caught. Over them put more grass,
and, covering the pail, let them steam thoroughly over the fire for
twenty minutes. When done, eat all except the shell, the gills and the
stomach, which last is in an easily distinguished sack. Be sure to have
sufficient water in the pail to keep up the steam for the requisite
time.
Fried Oysters.
Strain the liquor from the oysters. Crush crackers into fine crumbs;
or, if you have no crackers, toast some slices of bread and crush them
fine. Beat up an egg (both white and yolk) in a tin cup with a spoon.
Dip the oysters into the beaten egg, then roll them in the crumbs, and
put over the fire in a pan of boiling fat over half an inch deep. Turn
when brown on one side, and let the other side brown. If the oysters
are small do not prepare them singly, but place them two together (the
large portions at opposite ends), then immerse them in the egg and
crumbs together. If the crumbs do not readily adhere, pat the oysters
gently while rolling them in the crumbs.
Blanketed Oysters.
Get the largest oysters you can find, cut fat bacon into very thin
slices, wrap an oyster in each slice, and skewer with a small stick.
Heat a frying pan very hot, put in your oysters, and cook long enough
to just crisp the bacon--not over two minutes--taking care that they do
not burn. Serve immediately without removing the skewers.
CHAPTER IV.
MEATS AND GAME.--SALT PORK.--HAM AND EGGS.--BROILING AND BOILING
MEATS.--PIGEONS, SQUIRRELS, DUCKS, GROUSE, WOODCOCK, RABBITS,
FROGS, ETC.
IN selecting salt pork pick out that which is smooth and dry. Damp,
clammy pork is unwholesome. Canned corn beef is palatable, and useful
in making hash, but is sometimes poisonous from the solder used in
sealing the cans. If canned beef is carried, use only the portion that
does not touch the metal of the cans, throwing away the remainder.
Fried Salt Pork (or Bacon).
Slice thin, put in frying pan with cold water enough to cover, let it
come to a boil and boil two or three minutes; then turn off the water
and fry brown on both sides; or, soak one hour in cold water, then roll
in bread or cracker crumbs and fry with a little butter or lard in the
pan.
Broiled Salt Pork.
Slice thin, and broil on the end of a green switch held over the coals,
using extra care that the smoke and flame from the drippings do not
reach the pork.
Ham and Eggs.
Fry the ham first, the same as pork or bacon, and fry the eggs in the
fat left in the pan. Break each egg separately into a cup, and thence
transfer it to the pan, by which means the yolks are kept intact and
bad eggs are discovered before it is too late. While the eggs are
frying dip up some of the fat with a spoon and pour it over the tops of
the eggs.
Broiled Steaks.
If the steak is tough, beat it on both sides, but not enough to tear
the meat and allow the juices to escape. Sharpen a green switch at
the end, secure the steak on it, and place over a bed of hot coals,
turning frequently. Do not let the escaping juices set fire to the
meat. Season, after it is done, with pepper and salt, and if a gravy
is desired, put a half teaspoonful of salt, half as much pepper, and a
piece of butter or fat as large as a duck's egg into a hot dish, and
add two tablespoonfuls of boiling water. Pour it over the steak slowly,
so that every part of the latter will be moistened.
Broiling in a Frying Pan.
Broiling can be done as well with a frying pan as with a gridiron, and
all the juices are preserved. Heat the empty pan very hot first, then
put in the meat to be broiled, cover over with a tin plate, and turn
the meat often in the pan.
Boiled Meat.
Put the meat into enough boiling water so that the former will be
a little more than covered. Cover the pot and boil till cooked,
which will take about fifteen minutes for every pound of meat. Skim
constantly while boiling, and turn the meat several times. Replenish
when necessary with boiling water. One teaspoonful of salt for each
five pounds of meat should be put into the pot a short time before the
meat is done. If there is a layer of fat on top after the meat is cold,
remove it. Beef or venison may be used for frying.
Fried Pigeons.
Dress them, parboil until they are tender, then cut off the legs and
wings, slice off the breast pieces, roll in flour or meal and fry in
hot pork fat till they are nicely browned. Grouse, ducks, quail, snipe
and plover may also be fried, but are better cooked as given below.
Snipe, quail and plover need no parboiling.
Fried Squirrels.
Skin and clean, cutting off heads, tails and feet. Parboil and fry,
same as pigeons.
Roast Quail, Snipe or Plover.
Dress and impale each on a stick with a piece of fat pork in each
bird. Set the stick in the ground before a big bed of live coals in
a slanting position so that the heat will fall evenly on all portions
of the bird, and turn frequently till a sharp sliver will easily pass
through the breast. Catch the drippings in a tin cup and pour over
the birds again and again, and if they are served on toast pour the
drippings also on the toast. The blacksmith's pliers mentioned in
Chapter I. will come in handy for turning the birds before the fire on
their sticks and holding the cup to catch the drippings. Without this
tool the cook's hands are likely to be roasted by the time the birds
are done.
Roast Ducks and Grouse.
Parboil till tender, then roast as above.
Roast Woodcock.
Pick, but do not clean. Roast as above without parboiling. Remove the
entrails after the bird is done.
Rabbits or Hares.
These require considerable parboiling unless young. They may be fried
like squirrels, cutting them into pieces, or made into stews.
Stewed Rabbit.
After skinning and cleaning the rabbit cut it into pieces, and wash
again in cold water. Mince an onion, cleanse and cut into small pieces
one-half pound of fat salt pork, and put with the cut-up rabbit into a
pot with about a pint of cold water. Season with pepper and salt, cover
the pot and let it simmer till the flesh can be easily pierced with a
sharp sliver. Take it up when done and set where it will keep warm, and
make a gravy by adding to the water left in the pot one cup of boiling
milk or water, stirring in gradually one well-beaten egg and one or two
tablespoonfuls of flour made into a smooth paste with cold water. Boil
one minute and then pour over the rabbit. This gravy will be nearly or
quite as good if the egg is omitted.
Stewed Ducks or Pigeons.
Stew exactly the same as rabbits. The pork may be omitted without
detracting from the edible quality of the dish.
Frogs.
Use only the hind legs of small frogs, but both the fore and hind legs
of large ones. They are best broiled, but may be fried in butter.
CHAPTER V.
VEGETABLES.--POTATOES AND GREEN CORN, BOILED, FRIED, ROASTED AND
STEWED.
THE canoeist, whose stowage room is limited, will not carry with him
a variety of vegetables, therefore completer directions for cooking
these edibles will be left for Part II. of this book, and instructions
will here be given only for the preparation of the potatoes, which he
will most certainly carry, and green corn, which, in its season, he
can obtain readily, if his cruise leads him through a farming country.
These two articles will form the canoeist's mainstay in the vegetable
line, and can be prepared in several appetizing ways.
Boiled Potatoes.
Small or medium-sized potatoes are preferable to large ones. Choose
those with small eyes, as those with large eyes are generally about to
sprout and are of poor quality. Do not pare unless they are very old,
and in the latter case put them in cold water and allow it to boil. If
they are of unequal size cut the large ones, so that they will boil
evenly; wash, cut out bad places and eyes, and slice off a piece of
skin at each pointed end. Put, unless old, into enough boiling salted
water to cover them, and simmer steadily till a sliver will easily
pierce the largest. Strain when done, and set the pot near the fire,
shaking them occasionally to dry them.
Mashed Potatoes.
After boiling, peel and mash thoroughly with the bottom of a large
bottle, working in pepper, salt, butter, and sufficient hot milk or
water to make them into the consistency of soft dough. If mashed in an
iron pot they will be discolored, but will taste just as good as if
mashed in tin or earthenware.
Roasted Potatoes.
Wash and wipe them dry, and cut off the ends. Bury them in the ashes
till a sliver will easily pierce them. Do not make the common mistake
of putting them among the live coals of the fire, or they will be
burned, not cooked through.
Fried Cooked Potatoes.
Peel and slice cold cooked potatoes, and put them into enough
"screeching hot" lard or pork fat to cover the bottom of the pan. Stir
frequently and fry slowly, seasoning with pepper and salt.
Fried Raw Potatoes.
Wash, peel, and slice very thin. Put few at a time into enough boiling
fat to float the slices. If too many are put in at one time they will
chill the fat and will not fry evenly. Turn and fry a light brown on
both sides. When done remove with a fork, leaving as much grease as
possible, and shake them up in a covered dish to eliminate the grease
still further.
Stewed Potatoes.
Cut cold boiled potatoes into pieces the size of a hickory nut, put
them into enough boiling milk to cover them, and let them simmer slowly
till the milk is nearly exhausted, stirring frequently to prevent
burning. Season with pepper, salt and butter.
Sweet Potatoes.
Are cooked the same as Irish potatoes, but require longer time. See
time table in Part II.
Boiled Green Corn.
The sweetness of corn is better preserved in the boiling if the outer
layer of husks only is stripped off. Turn back the inner husks and
strip off the silk, then replace the inner husks and tie the ends. Put
the corn into enough boiling salt water to cover it. Boil, if young,
twenty-five minutes; if old, nearly or quite twice as long. After
half an hour's boiling, an ear had best be removed occasionally and
the kernels prodded with a sliver, to see if they have cooked tender.
Overboiling spoils corn. Drain off the water as soon as they are done.
Fried Corn.
Cut cold boiled corn from the cob, mix with mashed potatoes, and fry in
butter or pork fat.
Roasted Corn.
Leave the ear in the husks, cover it well with the hot ashes, and let
it remain from forty-five minutes to an hour.
Stewed Corn.
Cut the corn from the cob, put it into a pot, barely covering it with
cold milk. Season it with pepper and salt, and if common field corn,
with sugar. Cover and stew gently till very tender.
CHAPTER VI.
COFFEE AND TEA.--MUSH, JOHNNYCAKE AND HOECAKE.--SLAPJACKS, CORN
DODGERS, ASH CAKES, BISCUITS, CAMP BREAD.--EGGS.
Coffee.
THE simplest way to make good coffee is to put into the pot two
tablespoonfuls of the ground and browned berry to each cupful of the
beverage. Pour on cold water to the required amount, remove it from
the fire when it first boils up, let it stand a few moments in a warm
place, and then pour into the pot half a cup of cold water to settle it.
Coffee, No. 2.
If the ground coffee is running low or the cook wishes to economize
and has plenty of time and utensils, I will give him a recipe which
requires much less of the berry to produce the required strength, as
follows: Put the dry coffee into the pot, and heat it, stirring it
constantly. Then pour over it one quart of boiling water to every two
tablespoonfuls of coffee, and set the pot where it will keep hot but
not boil. After standing ten or fifteen minutes it is ready to drink.
Tea.
For most teas the right proportion is one tablespoonful of tea for
every teacup that is to be drawn and one "for the pot." The simplest
method of making it is to put cold water on the tea in the pot, set
over the fire and let it almost boil. Just as it begins to steam remove
it to a place less hot, where it will simmer and not boil for five
minutes. If it boils or simmers too long the tannin will be dissolved,
and the tea will have a disagreeable astringent taste. When the liquid
is all used out of the pot I do not throw away the "grounds," but
add one-half the quantity for the next drawing, and so on till the
pot is one-third full of grounds, when it is all emptied and the pot
thoroughly washed.
Cornmeal Mush.
The main difficulties in making good cornmeal mush are the care
necessary to prevent the formation of lumps and the long time required
to cook it. The surest way to avoid lumps is to mix the meal first with
cold water enough to make a thin batter, and then pour this batter into
the pot of boiling water (slightly salted) very gradually, so as not to
stop the boiling process. Sufficient of the batter should be stirred in
to make a thin mush, and the latter should then be boiled until it is
of such consistency that it will hang well together when taken out with
a spoon. The longer it is allowed to boil the better it will be, and
if long boiling makes it too thick, add more boiling water. It can be
advantageously boiled two hours, but is eatable after twenty minutes'
boil. If it is sprinkled into the pot of boiling water dry, do so very
gradually and stir it constantly to prevent its lumping.
Fried Cold Mush.
Cut cold cornmeal mush into slices half an inch thick, and fry on both
sides in boiling pork fat or butter. Or, dip each slice into beaten egg
(salted), then into bread or cracker crumbs, and fry. If fried in lard
add a little salt.
Oatmeal Mush.
Is made the same as cornmeal mush, but must always be sprinkled dry
into the pot of boiling water.
Johnnycake.
Make a thick batter by mixing warm (not scalding) water or milk with
one pint of cornmeal, and mix in with this a small teaspoonful of salt
and a tablespoonful of melted lard. Grease your bake-tins (described in
Chapter I.) thoroughly with lard or butter, set the Johnnycake batter
in one, cover over with the other, and bury the oven amongst the hot
coals and ashes of the camp-fire, heaping the coals around it so as
to have an equal heat on all portions of the oven. In twenty minutes
dig out the oven, open it with the pliers and test the Johnnycake. It
should be thoroughly baked in a good fire in from twenty to thirty
minutes. If the meal is mixed with scalding water it will be lumpy and
difficult to work into a batter.
Hoe Cakes.
Johnnycake batter, thinned down with more warm water or milk, may be
fried the same as slapjacks.
Slapjacks.
To properly cook slapjacks the frying pan should be perfectly clean and
smooth inside. If it is not, too much grease is required in cooking.
Scrape it after each panful is cooked, and then only occasional
greasing will be required, and this is best done with a clean rag
containing butter. Drop thin batter in with a spoon, so that the cake
will be very thin. Disturb it as little as possible, and when the cake
is cooked firm on one side, turn it and cook on the other.
Cornmeal Slapjacks.
One quart of cold water is mixed with meal enough to make a thin
batter, one teaspoonful of salt and one or two teaspoonfuls of baking
powder having been stirred into the latter. The addition of one or two
well-beaten eggs will improve it. Cook on a very hot pan, as above.
Wheat Slapjacks.
Make as above, except using wheat flour, and adding last of all one
heaping tablespoonful of melted lard or butter, thoroughly stirred in.
Hecker's Flour Slapjacks.
Mix well one pint of Hecker's prepared flour with one-half pint of cold
milk or water. Cook as above.
Corn Dodgers.
Mix one pint of corn meal, one small teaspoonful of salt and one
tablespoonful of sugar with warm (not scalding) water enough to make a
moderately stiff batter. Make into flat cakes about three-quarters of
an inch thick, and fry in _boiling_ fat till brown. Fried in bacon fat
and eaten with the fried bacon they are very palatable.
Corn Pone or Ash Cakes.
If unprovided with the portable oven or bake tin recommended in Chapter
I., mix up a pint of corn meal with water and a pinch of salt into a
stiff dough, make into cakes, and set them on a clean, hot stone close
to the coals of a hot fire. When the outside of the cakes has hardened
a little cover them completely in hot ashes. In fifteen to twenty-five
minutes rake them out, brush off the ashes, and devour quickly. Any
ashes adhering after the brushing process can be readily removed by
cutting out the irregularities in the crust where they have lodged. The
writer has known a party of ladies, who could scarcely be induced to
taste these cakes at first, become so fond of them after a trial as to
insist upon having them three times a day for a week in camp.
Baking Powder Biscuits.
Put one pint of flour into a deep vessel, mix into it two large
teaspoonfuls of baking powder[A] and a pinch of salt; then rub in one
small teaspoonful of lard or butter, lessening the amount of salt
if the latter is used, and add enough cold water or milk to make a
soft dough. Handle as little as possible, but roll into a sheet about
three-quarters of an inch thick, and cut into round cakes with an empty
tin cup. Lay the biscuits close together in a well-greased tin, and
bake a few minutes in the coals, as described above for Johnnycake.
Hecker's Flour Biscuits.
Require only the mixing of the flour with water, and are then ready to
bake.
Quick Camp Bread.
Make a biscuit dough as above, and roll it to a thickness of half an
inch. Grease a frying-pan and set it over the hot embers till the
grease begins to melt. Then put the dough into the pan and set it on
the fire, shaking it frequently to prevent the dough from adhering.
When the crust has formed on the bottom, take the bread out of the pan
and prop it up on edge, close to the fire, turning it occasionally to
insure its being baked through. Or, turn the bread in the frying pan
until it is cooked through. This bread will not keep soft long, and
the writer prefers, when depending for any length of time upon his own
baking, to make
Unleavened Bread.
This is the kind almost wholly used by coasting vessels, and is cooked
as above in a frying-pan, even when there is a galley-stove with a
good hot oven on board the vessel. The dough is mixed up with a quart
of wheat flour, one teaspoonful of lard, a teaspoonful of salt and
sufficient water to make it stiff. It is then beaten or hammered
lustily on a board or smooth log until it becomes elastic. When cut up
into biscuit it can be baked in the portable oven among the coals. It
is called "Maryland Biscuit" along the Potomac and Chesapeake.
Fried and Boiled Eggs
Are so easy to prepare that no instruction is necessary in these
familiar methods of cooking them.
Poached Eggs.
Into a frying pan nearly full of boiling water containing a teaspoonful
of salt slip carefully the eggs one by one, breaking each previously
into a cup. Keep them on the surface of the water, if possible, and
boil gently three or four minutes, dipping up some of the water with a
spoon and pouring it over the tops of the eggs. Serve on toast.
Scrambled Eggs.
Break the eggs into a cup to insure their freshness, and throw them
into the frying pan with a lump of butter and salt and pepper. Stir
over a fire of coals until they are almost hard. Do not break the yolks
at first.
PART II.--CAMP COOKERY.
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.
CHAPTER II.
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.
CHAPTER III.
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.
CHAPTER IV.
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.
CHAPTER V.
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.
CHAPTER VI.
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.
CHAPTER VII.
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.
HINTS.
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.
INDEX.
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, 12
-- in cooking, 88
Sauce, Creole, 78
Sausages, venison, 64
Scrambled eggs, 41
Self-raising flour, 15
Shoulder of venison, stuffed, 64
Skewered trout, 22
Slapjacks, 37
-- cornmeal, 37
-- Hecker's flour, 38
-- wheat, 37
Small game soup, 52
Snipe, roast, 27
Soft crabs, 23
Soups, 17, 50
-- Brunswick, 17
-- fried bread for, 78
-- general remarks on making, 17, 50
-- Huckins', 17
Soup, bean, 52
-- clam, 18
-- deer's head, 52
-- fish, 53
-- meat, 51
-- onion, 18
-- oyster, 18
-- pea, 53
-- rice, 52
-- small game, 52
-- tomato, 19
-- turtle, 54
-- vegetable, 51
Spoon, improved, 89
Squirrels, fried, 27
Steaks, broiled, 26
Stew, Brunswick, 61
-- of game, 61
Stewed cranberries, 78
-- ducks or pigeons, 29
-- green corn, 33
-- mushrooms, 72
-- potatoes, 32
-- rabbits, 28
-- tomatoes, 70
Stews, gravy for, 62
Stove, camp, 43-44
-- canoe, 14
-- folding, 14
Stuffed baked fish, 56
-- game roasted, 65
-- shoulder of venison, 64
Succotash, 69
Sweet potatoes, 32
Table, camp, 48
-- of weights and measures, 90
Tea, 35
Tins for carrying provisions, 11
Tomatoes, stewed, 70
Tomato soup, 19
Trout, skewered, 22
Turkey, baked, 82
Turnips, boiled, 71
Turtle soup, 54
Unleavened bread, 40
Utensils for camp cookery, 43, 46
-- for canoe cookery, 9-16
Vegetables, remarks on, 67
-- for a canoe cruise, 30
-- time-table for cooking, 67-68
Vegetable soup, 51
Venison, forequarter of, 64
Venison, roast, 63
-- sausages, 64
-- stuffed shoulder of, 64
Washing dishes, 49
Water, hard vs. soft, 89
-- river, improved for drinking, 88
Waterproof bags for provisions and clothing, 13
Weights and measures, table of, 90
Welsh rarebit, 78
Wheat, cracked, 75
-- slapjacks, 37
Woodchucks, 65
Woodcock, roast, 28
Yachtsmen, dishes for, 80
Yeast, 91
FOOTNOTES:
[A] See note on baking powder in the chapter of "Hints."
[B] This is a favorite Virginia dish, of which the compiler of this
book has eaten, but which he has never cooked. The recipe here given is
said by an old Virginian to be reliable.
[C] If the unopened can is put in boiling water, only about ten minutes
are necessary.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
Text in italics is surrounded with underscores: _italics_.
Inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, grammar, and punctuation have
been standardized.
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