Seneca

“ 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. ”

“ If there is much wind, ashes will [Pg 46] 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 [Pg 19] 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 [Pg 49] 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”