For baking in a reflector, or roasting a joint,
a high fire is best, with a backing to throw the heat
forward. Sticks three feet long can be leaned
against a big log or a sheer-faced rock, and the
kindling started under them.
Often a good bed of coals is wanted. The
30 CAMP COOKERY.
camp-fire generally supplies these, but sometimes
they are needed in a hurry, soon after camp is
pitched. To get them, take sound hardwood,
either green or dead, and split it into sticks of
uniform thickness (say lj4-irich face). Lay down
two bed-sticks, cross these near the ends with two
others, and so on up until you have a pen a foot
high. Start a fire in this pen. Then cover it with
a Yayev of parallel sticks laid an inch apart. Cross
this with a similar layer at right angles, and so
upward for another foot. The free draft will
ma,ke a roaring fire, and all will burn down to
coals together. The thick bark of hemlock, and
of hardwoods generally, will soon yield coals for
ordinary cooking.
To keep coals a long time, cover them with
ashes, or with bark which will soon burn to ashes.
In wet weather a bed of coals can be shielded by
slanting broad strips of green bark over it and
overlapping them at the edges. In windy weather
build your fire in a trench.
Camp-fires, as distinguished from cooking-fires,
are usually built by laying down two short, thick
logs five or six feet apart, for bed-sticks, crossing
these with two parallel logs about a foot apart,
and firing with small poles between them. Such a
fire is generally too hot for good cooking, and it
blazes or smokes too much. Cook in front of it,
or to one side, with coals raked from under the
forestick. . .
When staying several days in one place, build
a separate cooking-fire. It saves trouble in the
end. On a level spot near the camp-fire set up
two 'stout forked stakes about five feet apart and
four feet to the crotches. Across them lay a green
stick (lug-pole) somewhat thicker than a broom-
FIRES. 31
stick. Now cut three or four green crotches from
branches, drive a nail in the small end of each,
invert the crotches, and hang them on the lug-
pole to suspend kettles from. These pot-hooks
are to be of different lengths so that the kettle can
be adjusted to different heights above the fire,
first for hard boiling, and then for simmering. If
kettles were hung from the lug-pole itself, this
adjustment could not be made, and you would
have to dismount the whole business in order to
get one kettle off.
Then get two tliick, flat rocks and bed them
under the lug-pole to support your fire-irons or
the frying pan itself. A pair of green logs will
do if there are no rocks handy.
There is much in knowing how to select fuel.
As a rule, hardwoods make good, slow-burning
fuel that produces lasting coals, while softwoods
make a quick, hot fire that soon dies to useless
ashes.
Page 14
Presented as published in 1910. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
For baking in a reflector, or roasting a joint, a high fire is best, with a backing to throw the heat forward. Sticks three feet long can be leaned against a big log or a sheer-faced rock, and the kindling started under them.
Often a good bed of coals is wanted. The
camp-fire generally supplies these, but sometimes they are needed in a hurry, soon after camp is pitched. To get them, take sound hardwood, either green or dead, and split it into sticks of uniform thickness (say lj4-irich face). Lay down two bed-sticks, cross these near the ends with two others, and so on up until you have a pen a foot high. Start a fire in this pen. Then cover it with a Yayev of parallel sticks laid an inch apart. Cross this with a similar layer at right angles, and so upward for another foot. The free draft will make a roaring fire, and all will burn down to coals together. The thick bark of hemlock, and of hardwoods generally, will soon yield coals for ordinary cooking.
To keep coals a long time, cover them with ashes, or with bark which will soon burn to ashes. In wet weather a bed of coals can be shielded by slanting broad strips of green bark over it and overlapping them at the edges. In windy weather build your fire in a trench.
Camp-fires, as distinguished from cooking-fires, are usually built by laying down two short, thick logs five or six feet apart, for bed-sticks, crossing these with two parallel logs about a foot apart, and firing with small poles between them. Such a fire is generally too hot for good cooking, and it blazes or smokes too much. Cook in front of it, or to one side, with coals raked from under the forestick. . .
When staying several days in one place, build a separate cooking-fire. It saves trouble in the end. On a level spot near the camp-fire set up two 'stout forked stakes about five feet apart and four feet to the crotches. Across them lay a green stick (lug-pole) somewhat thicker than a broom-
stick. Now cut three or four green crotches from branches, drive a nail in the small end of each, invert the crotches, and hang them on the lugpole to suspend kettles from. These pot-hooks are to be of different lengths so that the kettle can be adjusted to different heights above the fire, first for hard boiling, and then for simmering. If kettles were hung from the lug-pole itself, this adjustment could not be made, and you would have to dismount the whole business in order to get one kettle off.
Then get two tliick, flat rocks and bed them under the lug-pole to support your fire-irons or the frying pan itself. A pair of green logs will do if there are no rocks handy.
There is much in knowing how to select fuel. As a rule, hardwoods make good, slow-burning fuel that produces lasting coals, while softwoods make a quick, hot fire that soon dies to useless ashes.