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.