Camping and camp cooking

by Frank A. Bates

Cape Cod Succotash:—Boil a piece of salt beef for an hour till the salt has got soaked out of it. Drain off the water and fill up with fresh, cold water. Put in some chicken, a piece of pork about a quarter as big as the beef, and boil till it all comes to pieces. Scrape off the corn from the cobs and put in with about half as many beans, and cook till the beans are tender. Season to taste. Of course green shell beans are what is intended in the above.

Boiled Beets:—Wash the beets, but do not break the skin, for that will make them bleed, and thus lose some of the sweetness. Put them in boiling water, enough to cover them, and leave till they are tender. Drain off the water and drop them in cold water, when the skin may be easily rubbed off. If there are any left from the meal, slice them into a shallow dish and cover them with vinegar. This is a splendid relish.

Pork and Greens:—I am requested to mention the variety of plants which may be used for this homely dish. No one needs to go hungry in the country, for the fields are filled with edible plants. Their list would be legion, but I will mention a few: Dandelion, nettles, milkweed, spinach, beet-tops, turnip-tops, mustard, narrow dock, cowslip (marsh marigold), kale, poke, brussels sprouts, cabbage, purslane, shepherd’s purse, and a myriad others. Any of the above, cleaned and boiled till tender with a generous piece of pork, and served with boiled potatoes, is not only satisfying, but is an excellent corrective for the system. Of course, it is understood that the young plants or shoots are the portions to be used. You might as well try to get nourishment from a piece of wood, if you try to use them after the hard fiber has formed in these plants.

Stewed Tomatoes:—Peel by pouring boiling water over them, when the skin will easily come off. Cut up in the stew pan, throwing out the hard and unripe parts. Stew gently until they come to pieces; season with butter, salt, pepper and a little sugar if desired.

Baked Beans:—This New England dish is almost a sine qua non in the Eastern woods camp, and is seen nowhere else in its perfection. Pick over a quart of beans, discarding all poor ones. Parboil until the skin starts. Drain off the water and throw it far away from the camp, for it does not smell particularly sweet. Put half the beans in the bean pot, then a generous junk of fat salt pork, then the rest of the beans, so that the pork shall be bedded. A little salt and some molasses, the quantity depending on the taste, will complete the list. Pour in enough hot water to cover the beans. Put on the cover of the pot, and set in the hot ashes of the bean hole, just before you go to bed. Rake the coals over it, put a few sticks on top, so the ashes will keep hot, and go to bed. In the morning rake out the bean pot, and you will find them nicely baked, and redolent of that aroma so dear to every Yankee. If you do not relish it, so much the worse for you, and so much the better for the rest of the party, for there will be more for them.

Macaroni:—Break the sticks of macaroni into convenient lengths; put in the stew pan with hot salted water and cook till tender. Stew half a can of tomatoes till you can mash them up with the spoon and pick out the skin and the hard lumps; put in a lump of butter, a little salt and pepper, and thicken with flour and water, rubbed smooth. Pour this over the macaroni and serve.

MUSHROOMS.

At the earnest request of a friend, but with fear and trembling at the possible results, do I include this chapter in these notes. There is no shadow of doubt that men have gone hungry in the midst of plenty, from the lack of knowledge of the food that was all around them. But the average camper, with his meager knowledge of mycology, generally feels that eating wild mushrooms is much like living over a powder magazine. If a person of average intelligence will take the pains so to educate himself that he can surely identify the edible varieties, and it needs no more than that, there is no more danger than is present in eating the fish you catch from the lakes. But if you are not positive that you can identify each specimen as you gather it, let it go, and confine yourself to those that you do know are harmless. My experience in this direction has been so limited, that I am obliged to copy, in most cases, from the experience of others. There is no space here to go into descriptions of species, but the literature on the subject is so easily obtainable, that there seems no need to do so.

Broiled Russula:—Thoroughly clean the top or peel off the skin; place the cap on a gridiron over a hot fire, gills downward, and heat through, but do not scorch. Turn over and repeat the process; lay on a hot plate, gills upward and drop on a piece of butter with a little salt and pepper.

Vegetable Oyster—A. ostreatus:—This species grows out of the sides of trees and stumps. Broil the young and tender specimens the same as in the last instance; or they may be fried in butter, or in batter, or in fact any way that the real oyster is cooked. As a stew it is delicious.