Camp Cooking
Recipes. The quantities given are for but two people. When the number is greater, corresponding quantities of materials should be used.
Biscuits. There are many brands of prepared flour which contain baking powder, shortening and other ingredients. These flours require nothing [[116]]more than the addition of enough water to make a soft dough before baking. The baking may be done in a skillet, by simply placing the dough on the bottom of the skillet after greasing and heating. When done on one side the dough should be turned.
If the camper has a reflector oven or a stove oven, roll out or even pat out with the hand the dough to a thickness of half an inch; then with the top of a baking powder can cut out the biscuits one by one and bake until brown. If there be no baking-powder can at hand the biscuits may be roughly shaped with the hand.
If the flour used is not “prepared,” mix in a pan one pint of ordinary flour with a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder. Add a tablespoonful of fat (butter, lard, or other shortening), half a teaspoonful of salt, and three tablespoonfuls of evaporated milk, putting in also just enough water to make a soft dough. Handle the dough as little as possible. Rub flour on the bread board, or, lacking a board, on the bottom of a pan or any flat surface, and then cut out as above. A knife can be used for cutting if nothing else is at hand. Put into a greased pan and place baker before the fire. If there is a good hot fire, the biscuits will be done in about twelve minutes. Stick in a fork, and if no dough sticks to it when withdrawn the biscuits are done.
Flapjacks may be mixed up as biscuits, but the dough should be thin enough to run. This dough is then to be poured or dipped onto the hot skillet, griddle, or pan, baked until one side is done and then [[117]]turned with a turner, unless the camper is skillful enough to turn his pancakes by tossing.
The prepared flour is by all odds the best for pancakes because all you have to add is water. But if the camper prefers to do his own mixing let him mix as for biscuit, but in addition put in a tablespoonful of dried eggs. A large spoonful of batter will make a moderate sized pancake.
Corn Bread. The best corn bread is made by taking the old-fashioned whole corn meal, and buttermilk or clabbered milk, with baking soda. All that was necessary was to take a quart of buttermilk, a couple of pinches of salt (according to taste), a teaspoonful of baking soda, and then add the corn meal until there was a thick batter. This was then poured into a deep pan which had been greased and baked for half an hour. The difficulty with this recipe is that the fundamental ingredient is unobtainable. The corn meal that can be bought in stores is almost always a bolted, devitalized stuff that is very unsatisfactory for corn bread. In some rural districts one can, once in a while, come across a country miller who grinds the old-time corn meal. If the camper comes across such an one, let him buy some of this meal and try it out as above.
Here is one of the modern recipes for what is called corn bread. Into a bread pan put one half pint of flour and one half pint of corn meal, thoroughly mixed with a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder, and half a teaspoonful of salt, a dessert spoonful of desiccated eggs, a half teaspoonful of [[118]]sugar, and a tablespoonful of cold pork fat, lard or vegetable substitute. Add three dessertspoonfuls of evaporated milk and sufficient water to make a thick batter. Stir well, pour into a greased pan and place baker before fire of hot coals.
Corn Meal Mush may be made by pouring slowly into a quart of boiling water to which has been added a half teaspoonful of salt, one cupful of corn meal, stirring constantly. If you wish to avoid its being lumpy, better feed in the corn meal through your fingers, so as to scatter it as it reaches the water.