The reason why as a rule a man will make a better camp cook than a woman is because he has [[110]]had no experience as a cook in the use of modern conveniences. The woman who cooks splendidly in the home, with gas range and electric cooking utensils always at hand, is likely to be lost when out camping in the woods she tries to prepare breakfast with the limited equipment of a camp cooking kit, or a camp fireplace. She is still more in the wilderness as an efficient worker if she has nothing more than an open camp fire to work with. But, man or woman, the camp cook can live and learn, and the simpler and cruder the facilities with which to work the more zest there will be in getting the cooking done well. And food never tastes quite so good as when flavored with a dash of wood ashes and the pungent savor of wood smoke from a camp fire.
A camp meal for a party of three or four is comparatively simple to prepare, and it can be speedily and effectively served as well. It need not be elaborate, but it should be hot. Circumstances oftentimes demand that the whole process of preparing and serving breakfast be brief. When the fish are jumping one had almost rather do without his cup of hot coffee than spend twenty minutes making fire and bringing the water to a boil. But when one learns how, he finds that such delay is not necessary. A substantial breakfast of eggs, bacon and coffee can be prepared in from ten to fifteen minutes, and the fire built, even in the rain, within this time limit. Few motorists know the essentials of a successful fire for cooking. A fire that could be built [[111]]within the limits of an ordinary soup plate will cook quicker than the bonfire that the motor camper usually builds. What is needed is not a big fire for warmth or for drying out wet clothing.
A Typical Process of Getting a Meal
Three or four cobblestones, bricks or even tin cans will do for a fireplace. If no stones, bricks or even cans are at hand, dig a small hole in the ground. All that is necessary is to find something that will support a skillet or frying pan in a steady and even position. A small fire directly under the skillet will work wonders. There is not much heat, but what there is goes right to the spot where it is needed to do the work. The camper soon learns how to make this small fire, feed it bit by bit, and control it even in rain or wind. To be sure of this little fire under all circumstances it will be advisable for the camper to have along with him a few short pieces of dry wood which can easily be split up. Should rain be falling when the fire is being made these small pieces of split wood can be kept dry as they are being fed to the fire by covering them with a piece of rubber cloth or oilcloth.
With a bright blaze started in this the miniature fireplace, the next thing to do is to heat water for the coffee before the rest of the cooking begins. The skillet being clean and free from grease, the water can be brought to a boil without receiving any taste from its container. A quart thermos [[112]]bottle should be filled with water, and when the fire has been started the water should be poured into the skillet as it rests on the stones over the fire. In a surprisingly short time the water will be hot and the coffee may be made in the skillet, or if a prepared coffee is to be used, the scalding water may be returned to the thermos bottle to be kept hot until the meal, when it will be added to the prepared coffee in the cup. In either case the hot fluid is returned to the thermos bottle. Using the skillet to heat the coffee water will save much time and insure the coffee being in a steaming condition when needed.
The coffee being made, the hot skillet goes back over the fire to receive the bacon, eggs or whatever else is to be cooked. The skillet can be used with equal success for frying, stewing, boiling, or even for making flapjacks, as required. A surprisingly large variety of dishes may be successfully prepared with this simple cooking utensil. In fact a skillful camper needs only a skillet, and finds all other pots and pans simply burdensome. The skillet will serve all needful purposes in cooking.
When the cooking is done the skillet should be wiped free from grease, filled with water and placed over the fire. By the time the meal is over the water will be sufficiently hot to be used in washing the dishes.
Many people feel unsatisfied and uneasy unless they can sit down to their three square meals a day. In the three square meals are included, as a rule, [[113]]an oversupply of some food elements and an insufficiency of others. This lack of balance in the diet of the average man has much to do with the various ills to which his body falls heir.
Not a little of the benefit to be derived from a motor camping trip will be the benefit derived from the simple fare that will be had on the camping trip. He will get all the more good from it if the party adopts the Indian plan of two meals a day—breakfast and supper, morning and night.