Canoe and Camp Cookery / A Practical Cook Book for Canoeists, Corinthian Sailors and Outers

by Seneca

The fire, in summer, should not be made so close to the tent as to make that sleeping and lounging place too warm, nor should it be made so far away as to tire the cook from running back and forth with the cooking utensils and grub. Two green logs, five or six feet long and eight to twelve inches in diameter, of a nearly even thickness throughout, are laid on a level piece of ground side by side, about a foot apart at one end, and touching at the other, thus forming an elongated V. With a hatchet hew them on their upper sides until the surface is level enough to support pots and pans in safety. Between these logs build your fire. This should not be done carelessly, but methodically and with patience. Begin with only as many dry shavings as you can grasp in your hand. When these are ablaze, add shavings and bits of dry wood of a little larger size, and then those a little larger than the last, and so on, increasing the size of the sticks very gradually and leading the fire by degrees until it covers all the space between the logs.

When the fire is well under way and blazing brightly at all points, pile on it plenty of split sticks, short, and as near a uniform size as possible, and let them all burn to coals before cooking is commenced. If some of the sticks are large and some small, they will not burn evenly, and by the time the larger ones have become coals, the coals of the smaller ones will have become ashes. And if the sticks are round instead of split, they will not catch fire so easily, and will nest so close together as to give insufficient draft. Driftwood will do to start a fire, but it should never be used after the blaze is well going, because it burns to ashes instead of coals. The best coals result from burning hard wood. Never put a cooking utensil on the fire until the smoke and blaze have ceased. When you have a good bed of coals set the coffee pot on near where the logs join, and the frying pan, large pot, etc., where the logs are further apart. If there is much wind, ashes will be blown about to some extent, and it is best to always keep the open end of the "range" to windward, as the frying pan is generally set on this end, while the coffee pot and other pots being covered, can stand a shower of ashes without harm to their contents. As fast as one dish is cooked, set it on one of the logs where it will keep warm, and use the handy blacksmith's pliers to heap up the live coals under other dishes that are not cooking fast enough.

These pliers can be made by any blacksmith, and should be from twelve to eighteen inches in length, and quite broad in the gripping part, which may with advantage be curved to a slight angle. I always use a frying pan without handle for compactness, and can lift it from any side of the fire with the pliers, which are always cool. I even grip the coffee pot with them and pour the coffee for the whole party without touching it with my hands, saving many a scorch thereby. It is a handy tool in making repairs to boats, and in various other ways proves its value as a necessary part of the camp outfit. The coffee pot should not have a spout, but a lip, riveted on, near its topmost edge. The handle should also be riveted, and should set as near as possible to the top of the pot. A wire bale may be attached for handiness in lifting.

The cooking range above described will suffice for nearly all branches of camp cookery. On it one can fry, broil and boil. When a boil is to be kept up for hours, however, as in cooking beans, greens, and some soups and stews, it will be necessary to set up a forked stake at each end of the fire, hang the kettle on a cross-piece between, and keep up the fire beneath by constant feeding and attention. Do not let the blaze mount so high as to burn or char the cross-piece.

The fire for baking should be made apart from the range. A hole in the ground a little more than deep enough to contain the bake-kettle or Dutch oven should be dug, and of sufficient diameter to allow four or five inches' space on each side of the oven when it is in the hole. Build up a good fire in the hole, and when you have a large quantity of hot coals and ashes, dig out all but a thick layer on the bottom, set in your oven, and pack it all around and on top with the coals and ashes. Cover the whole with a piece of turf or some earth. When baking without an oven, as fish in clay, a bird in its feathers, or a 'possum in its own hide, dig out nearly all the coals, put some green grass or leaves in the bottom, then the fish, bird or beast, then more grass or leaves, then coals and ashes, then earth, and lastly build a small fire on top and keep it burning steadily.

In all the baking recipes recommended in this book a certain time is given for each operation. This time mentioned is only approximate, and it will be found to vary a few minutes, according to the amount of coal used, the kind of firewood, etc. The time necessary to bake a given thing can only be learned exactly by practical experience; but this experience will teach the cook all he needs to know after the first two or three attempts.

In closing my remarks on fires I would suggest that the best wood to be obtained for cooking fires is that from hard wood trees that have fallen in the woods or been cut down, and have lain long enough to become well seasoned. If this is used the fire will stand any ordinary rain, and the camper will not be compelled to resort to his alcohol stove under shelter for any thing short of the equinoctial storm. If wood is damp, a few drops of kerosene, gun oil or alcohol sprinkled on it will be a valuable aid in starting a fire.

I have no love for kerosene stoves. The alcohol "flamme forcé" is more compact, gives a stronger heat (have two, set side by side), and is perfectly clean. If, however, you must take along a kerosene stove, the wind-protected kind manufactured by Adams & Westlake (5 East Fourteenth Street, New York, and 78 Washington Street, Boston) will probably be found the most suitable. Neither the kerosene nor the alcohol stoves should be used when an outdoor fire can be built.

A camp dining-table can be made by driving down four forked stakes in the corners of an imaginary rectangle. Connect the end stakes with cross-pieces, and lay planks from one cross-piece to the other. Make it just high enough to get the legs and feet under comfortably when sitting upon the ground, and build it away from the fire. A camp chest makes a good table, so does a large log with one side hewed level. Each member of a party that I frequently camp with has a tin or wooden box in which fishing tackle, cartridges, tools, etc., are carried. When dinner is prepared a piece of spare canvas is laid upon the grass, the tin dishes and edibles are put upon this, then each man brings his box to the particular corner of the cloth he selects, sits on the grass, crosses his legs, and has each his individual table in his own private box, the cover of which is large enough to hold a tin plate, tin cup, knife and fork, etc.

By all means wash the dishes immediately after each meal. You can smoke your post-prandial pipe and do this at the same time. Have a pot or kettle of water heating while you are eating, and if the frying pan is dirty, fill it with water and let it boil over the coals awhile. Put your dishes into the largest pail, pour hot water over them, tone it down with cold water so you can handle them, and wash the dishes, the least dirty first, with a sponge. Sapolio is good to scour them, but sand is better. Soap is less often used by male campers in dish-washing than it should be. It makes the work much easier. When washed, rinse the tin-ware in cold water, drain and dry with a towel. Wring out the sponge in clean water, and hang it on a bush ready for use again.