Camping and camp cooking

by Frank A. Bates

BREAD AND CEREALS.

Baked Bread:—Put in the mixing dish (I use the stew pan), 1 quart of flour, 4 teaspoonfuls of baking powder, and a teaspoonful of salt, and mix together; then work in a little butter with the hand or mixing spoon, add cold water, stirring all the time, till you have a stiff dough without lumps. Turn it out on a plate, wash the dish thoroughly, grease the inside so the dough will not stick. Put the dough back in the dish, cover it with a tin plate, place it on the coals in the oven, and cover with the hot coals and ashes that you have just raked out. Leave it for from one to two hours. A little experience will be needed to know just how long to bake it, for a rock oven, with a heavy bed of coals, will bake more quickly than a hole in the ground with pine embers. (N. B. I use double the quantity of baking powder in camp, that I use at home, because I have found it necessary to obtain the desired result. Why it is, I do not know.)

Spider-cake:—Mix 1 pint wheat flour, 1 teaspoonful salt and 2 of baking powder. Add water to make a thick batter. Grease the fry pan, and turn in the batter; bake very slowly over the fire. As soon as the crust forms on the bottom, so that it can be moved without breaking, loosen it in the pan with a thin knife, and shake it occasionally to keep it from scorching. When baked on one side, turn it over and bake the other side. (This is not called spider-cake on account of the insects that might fall into it, while in process of cooking, but because in olden times the fry pan was called a spider.)

Flapjacks or Batter-cakes:—Mix 1 quart of flour, 1 teaspoonful of salt, 4 of baking powder, and 4 of sugar or a little molasses. Add water to make a thin batter. If you have milk, it may be used instead of the water, to the benefit of the cakes. A teaspoonful of condensed milk dissolved in the water is also good. Grease the fry pan and drop in enough batter to make a thin layer. As soon as the cake browns on the under side, slip a thin knife or cake-turner under it and turn it over. When baked, take it off onto a plate, placed where it will keep warm: grease the pan again and repeat the operation. The best results will be obtained by keeping the inside of the pan smooth, and using as little grease as possible. This receipt may be varied in many ways. A mixture of corn meal and flour in equal parts will give variety.

Rice-cakes and Oatmeal-cakes are simply the above mixture with the addition of 2 cups of boiled rice or rolled oats or hominy mixed with one-half the above quantity of flour. If eggs are obtainable, one or two stirred into the batter just before cooking, improves the cakes immensely. If whortleberries or dangleberries or blueberries are in season, stir in a cupful. The boys will like them. My experience has taught me that an extra quantity of berry flapjacks will be about the right size. Maple syrup, molasses, or sugar, may be used with these.

Boiled Rice:—Wash clean 1 pound of rice, and put in 2 quarts of boiling water with 2 teaspoonfuls of salt. Boil one-half hour. Take off and drain, cover the dish tightly and set aside to steam.

Corn-meal Mush:—Have a dish of boiling water, salted to taste. Sift in the cornmeal slowly with the one hand, while stirring briskly with the other, until the porridge is thick enough. This may seem very trivial, but it takes patience to do it properly or it will be full of lumps of dry meal. Set it on one side the fire and steam slowly for 15 minutes. If your patience is not sufficient for this process, mix your meal in cold water to make a thick batter. Have your dish of water boiling, and turn in the batter slowly, so as not to stop the boiling. When properly done, and it is not so easy either, this makes a good dish for the camper. The remainder may be put one side until cold, sliced in pieces about one-half an inch thick, and fried in butter. This is improved by dipping the slices in beaten egg, before frying. If the mush has not been properly made at first, the slices will fall in pieces.

Milk Toast:—If you have any stale bread in camp (as when do you not, if anybody goes near a bakeshop on the visit to town), make it up for milk toast. Put on the stew pan, with a cup of milk. Put in a pinch of salt, a generous lump of butter, and allow it to come to a boil. In the meanwhile toast your bread to a nice brown, and when of the right complexion, drop it into the boiling milk.

Cereals:—Of these various preparations, their name is legion, and nearly all of them have directions for cooking, printed on the package. I have tried a number of them, and the receipts hold as good in camp as at home. This is not, however, a guarantee that the rule will always hold good. Why it is I do not know, but some things cannot be handled the same in camp as when prepared over the stove at home.

There are various makes of prepared flours in the market, under as many various names. As a rule they are very handy to the camper, as they are put up in small packages, by which the necessity of breaking out a large package is avoided, and they also avert some mistakes of omission common to men doing work they are not accustomed to do.