"Plasmon biscuit, imported from England, is the most nutritious breadstuff I have ever used. It is a round cracker, firm but not hard, of good flavor, containing a large percentage of the protein of milk, six of the small biscuits holding as much proteid as a quarter of a pound of beef.
"Flour—Graham and entire wheat flours contain more protein than patent flour, but this is offset by the fact that it is not so digestible as the protein of standard flour. Practically there is little or no difference between them in the amount of protein assimilated. The same seems to be true of their mineral ingredients.
"Many campers depend a good deal on self-raising flour because it saves a little trouble in mixing. But such flour is easily spoiled by dampness, it does not make as good biscuits or flapjacks as one can turn out in camp by doing his own mixing, and it will not do for thickening, dredging, etc.
"Flour and meal should be sifted before starting on an expedition. There will be no sieve in camp."
"Baking Powder—Get the best available powder, put up in air and damp-eight tins, so that your material will be in good condition when you come to use it in camp. Baking soda will not be needed on short trips, but is required for longer ones, in making sour-dough, as a steady diet of baking-powder bread or biscuit will ruin the stomach if persisted in for a considerable time. Soda also is useful medicinally.
"Cornmeal—Some like yellow, some prefer white. The flavor of freshly ground meal is best, but the ordinary granulated meal of commerce keeps better, because it has been kiln-dried. Cornmeal should not be used as the leading breadstuff, for reasons already given, but johnnycake, corn pancakes, and mush are a welcome change from hot wheat bread or biscuit, and the average novice at cooking may succeed better with them. The meal is useful to roll fish in before frying.
"Breakfast Cereals—These according to taste, and for variety's sake. Plain cereals, particularly oatmeal, require a long cooking, either in a double boiler or with constant stirring, to make them digestible; and then there is a messy pot to clean up. They do more harm than good to campers who hurry their cooking. So it is best to buy the partially cooked cereals that take only a few minutes to prepare. Otherwise the 'patent breakfast foods' have no more nutritive quality than plain grain; some of them not so much. The notion that bran has remarkable food value is a delusion; it actually makes the protein of the grain less digestible. As for mineral matter, 'to build up bone and teeth and brawn,' there is enough of it in almost any mixed diet, without swallowing a lot of crude fiber.
"Rice, although not very appetizing by itself, combines so well in stew or the like, and goes so well in pudding, that it deserves a place in the commissariat.
"Macaroni—The various pastes (pas-tay, as the Italians call them) take the place of bread, may be cooked in many ways to lend variety, and are especially good in soups which otherwise would have little nourishing power. Spaghetti, vermicelli, and noodles all are good in their way. Break macaroni into inch pieces and pack so that insects cannot get into it. It is more wholesome than flapjacks and it 'sticks to the ribs.'
"Sweets—Sugar is stored-up energy, and is assimilated more quickly than any other food. Men in the open soon get to craving sweets.