Camp stove

“ Without plumbing, a stove with a hot water tank is desirable. If this is impossible a large boiler must be kept filled with water on the top of the stove.
An army range, set on a concrete base, gives the greatest satisfaction in a large camp. The ovens are large, an important point, and the top of the stove large enough to care for all necessary pots and kettles. When buying a stove for camp use make sure that it is made for the kind of fuel which will be used in it.
The kitchen sink should be conveniently placed and large enough to hold a large dish pan. ”

“ CHAPTER V. STOVES AND COOKING-UTENSILS.
If you have a permanent camp, or if moving you have wagon-room enough, you will find a stove to be most valuable property. If your party is large it is almost a necessity.
For a permanent camp you can generally get something second-hand at a stove-dealer's or the junk-shop. For the march you will need a stove of sheet iron. About the simplest, smallest, and cheapest thing is a round-cornered box made of sheet iron, eighteen to twenty-four inches long and nine to twelve inches high. It needs no bottom: the ground will answer for that. ”

“ The good points of the stove are that it can be made by anybody in a half day's time; it does not smoke the camp, does not black the cooking utensils, gives the maximum amount of heat from the minimum quantity of fuel, and will not give out or go bad unexpectedly in the middle of the winter. If you leave it to me our camp will be equipped with a sheet iron stove. While the stove itself is not now to be considered, we must know before we commence to build what form of heating and cooking apparatus will be installed. ”

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

“ For fittings build two bunks of poles across the narrow end and fill them with fir browse. There will be room enough to stow personal belongings at the foot of the bunks and they will add to the warmth. If a camp stove is used place it at the back opposite the door and run the pipe through the roof. If no stove is used, make a fireplace of rocks laid up in clay and have a hole in the roof for the smoke to go out. If dry wood is used the smoke in the room is not offensive, for a very little fire will warm the place as much as is desirable. ”

“ Most important of all camp furnishings is the stove. Nothing else adds so much to the cheerfulness and home-like aspect of a camp as a properly enclosed, well behaved fire, which warms up the room, enables us to cook our food indoors, and dispenses the gloom of night by driving the darkness into the farthest corners. If the weather is cold nothing in the camp is so indispensable. ”

“ Emigrants who were dependent upon open fires for cooking were often in very hard case. We were fortunate in the possession of a small sheet-iron camp-stove, for the heating of which a small amount of fuel was sufficient. [109] This handy little apparatus was lashed to the rear end of the wagon when on the trail, and when it was in use, every sort of our simple cookery could be carried on by it with most satisfactory results. ”

“ The author has never had occasion to test the merits of the plan for himself, and has no special desire of being so placed, as that his life will hang upon its success. He presents it therefore as a mere suggestion without endorsing its practicability, and would rather prefer matches in the long run. The open fire generally serves both for purposes of warmth and cooking, but by many, a camp stove is considered a great improvement. ”

“ They are small and portable, with pipe and furniture, all of which pack away closely into the interior. A fire is easily started in one of these stoves, and, by closing the damper, a slow fire may be kept up through the night. The stove is generally set up at the entrance of the tent, the pipe passing through the top, in a hole near the ridge pole. ”

“ And I hereby further acknowledge the receipt of a sixth camp-stove from Monsieur Soyer, for the use of the hospital of the said regiment. I cannot speak too highly in praise of these camp-kitchens for the great comfort and convenience they afford, the great economy and diminution of fuel, whether placed in the open air or under cover, and enabling the cooks to soak their salt meat properly; also to make puddings of rice and other things; and in cases of emergency, any quantity of rice-water, barley-water, or lemonade can be made, as well as soup, beef-tea, &c. ”

“ It is best not to buy an expensive stove for the cabin. A second-hand kitchen range, which can be purchased for a few dollars, will do quite well for the cooking [104] cabin or shack, and an open Franklin stove for the living cabin. If one is going to camp in tents and wants a stove in one of them, it will be necessary to buy a regular tent stove. Anything else would not be safe. ”

“ Monsieur Soyer,—In reply to your letter of the 21st of this month, relative to the field-stoves, I beg to state that the stove has been tried by the 57th Regiment, and I am of opinion that it is well adapted for the purpose intended.
It affords every facility for cooking, and saves a considerable quantity of fuel; and two of the stoves to one company on the march would be far preferable to the camp-kettles now in use. ”

“ This stove is an ingenious contrivance of the Doctor's—a box of sheet-iron, of slight weight, so arranged as to be folded into an incredibly small space; a vast improvement for cooking purposes over an open camp-fire, which Pilgrim's crew know, from long experience in far distant fields, to be a vexation to eyes and soul.
Coaling hamlets more or less deserted were frequent this morning—unpainted, windowless, ragged wrecks. At the inhabited mining villages, either close to the strand or well up [pg 11] on hillside ledges, idle men were everywhere about. ”

“ The various kinds of gasoline stoves specially designed for the use of the motor camper are described in Chapter VI.
Oil stoves have their advantages. They are safe, convenient and reliable. The fuel is readily obtainable almost anywhere, and is economical. Oil stoves, however, have the disadvantage of requiring [99] more attention in the line of cleaning than gasoline stoves because the oil is not as volatile as the gasoline, and so will remain on the parts of the stove and gather dust. This combination is sure to make the stove smelly and a sort of a nuisance in camp. ”

“ The next important thing is the stove. The top of a common cooking-stove with covers and stove-pipe to fit, which can be bought at any junk-shop for a trifle, serves very well in dry weather. Dig out a place in the side of a bank the size and shape of the stove-top, about two feet deep, and line three sides with brick or stones, with the front open. ”

“ In the illustration the reader will notice a stove-pipe at the stern; there is room for a small stove back of the cabin, and in fair weather it is much better to cook outside than inside the cabin. When you tie up to the shore for any length of time, a rude shelter of boughs and bark will make a good kitchen on the land, in which the stove may be placed, and you will enjoy all the fun of a camp, with the advantage of a snug house to sleep in. ”

“ The “Boston Gem,” made by Francis Morandi, No. 102 Union Street, I find, after a thorough trial, works to a charm; the oven baking as well as my stove oven. The broiler is so made that there is no difficulty in broiling with it. When in the woods, if possible, I would have a good bed of coals for broiling.
In regard to Cooking Utensils, coffee and tea pots should not have spouts, but lips: and the lips should be riveted on. It is foolish for a party going any distance to try to carry crockery. Have tin plates and cups made, and they will last you for all your camping life. ”

“ For the kitchen, a canvas stretched between the camp-wagon and a convenient sycamore served as sufficient protection from sun and arboreal insects. The little sheet-iron stove, set up on a flat boulder, boasted an elbow in its pipe that could be adjusted to suit the direction of the wind.
A thread of a creek, tumbling down the hillside, ran not ten yards from the wagon, and at one point a tiny wooden trough had been inserted, giving the effect of a spout where kettles could be quickly filled. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In either case you should stay the tent with lines running from the top to the ground.
It has already been advised that women should have a stove; in general, they ought not to depart so far from home ways as men do.
Rubber boots are almost a necessity for women and children during rainy weather and while the dew is upon the grass. ”

“ She had taught them at home how to put on the plates, knives, forks, spoons, cups, saucers and whatever was needed, and now Bunny and Sue did this, as their share of the work, while Bunker Blue, and the older folk, were busy doing different things.
In the cooking tent the oil stove was set up and lighted, to make sure it burned well. Then Camp Rest-a-While looked just like its name—a place where boys and girls, as well as men and women could come and have a nice rest, near the beautiful lake. ”

“ In the ingle-nook of mine house open fireplaces are, in two rooms, replaced by American stoves. One of them stands about two and a half feet high and cost only 15s. It juts well out in the study—close to the writing-table—and keeps my toes and fingers warm and comfortable at a minimum cost of fuel. An iron arm elbows its way up the closed chimney, and a sheet of zinc nailed over the ordinary grate gives a good draught. The fire-space in this stove is very tiny—a handful of shavings and a spoonful of coal makes it light up cheerfully, and a little damp slack keeps it at furnace heat for hours. ”

“ The fierce little primus stove, pumped up to its limit and perfectly consuming its kerosene fuel, shot out its corona of beautiful blue flame and warmed the tight, tiny tent. The primus stove, burning seven hours on a quart of coal-oil, is a little giant for heat generation. If we had had two, so that one could have served for cooking and one for heating, we should not have suffered from the cold at all, but as it was, whenever the stew-pot went on the stove, or a pot full of ice to melt, the heat was immediately absorbed by the vessel and not distributed through the tent. ”

“ One or more servants in large houses have the entire charge of the stoves. They fill them with wood the last thing at night, and light them some hours before the family rise in the morning. In the sleeping-rooms they are kept in all night. In the houses of the poor, one stove of huge proportions serves for every purpose. It serves not only to heat the hut, but to bake their bread, and for all sorts of cookery, and to dry their clothes, articles of which are generally seen hung up round it. ”

“ There we did fairly well, with a liberal supply of bark; the latter burning well here, but of no use in the range. While in this slough of despond, a man came one day to hang wall-paper for us. Hearing our lamentations, he suggested drying the wood in the oven before using it. Long may that man live and prosper! The curing process helped wonderfully,—only now the wood was too combustible; it burned out in a jiffy. We would fill the stove full, leave it fifteen minutes, come back to it, and not a vestige of fire would be left. We soon learned that the stove must never be left alone ”

“ Things are shoved into it sooty and steaming to get them out of the way, and it soon gets damp and crocky beyond all hope of purification. Hot and cold water run to the boilers and kettles, and there's a funny contrivance for sprinkling clothes. The washing almost does itself. The tubs are of soapstone, at the opposite side of the room from the ironing-table. Over the entire stove—she might have had a range, but didn't want one—there's a sort of movable cover with a flue running into the chimney that carries off every breath of steam and smoke from the cooking. ”

“ Nowadays, only peasants sleep on the stove, and they literally sleep on top of the huge, mud-plastered stone oven, close to the ceiling. In dwellings other than peasant huts, what is known as the "German stove" is in use. Each stove is built through the wall to heat two rooms, or a room and corridor. The yard porter brings up ten or twelve birch logs, of moderate girth, peels off a little bark to use as kindling, and in ten minutes there is a roaring fire. ”

“ In the little cabin of Peter Christianson, the husband of Urda's granddaughter, it sometimes happens that twenty men will gather about the stove. They hang their bear-skin coats on the wall, put their fur gauntlets underneath the stove, where they will keep warm, and then stretch their stout, felt-covered legs to the wood fire. ”