Canoe and Camp Cookery: A Practical Cook Book for Canoeists, Corinthian ...

For most teas the right proportion is one tablespoonful of tea for every teacup that is to be drawn and one " for the pot." The simplest method of making it is to put cold water on the tea in the pot, set over the fire and let it almost boil. Just as it begins to steam remove it to a place less hot, where it will simmer and not boil for 5 minutes. If it boils or simmers too long the tannin will be dissolved, and the tea will have a disagreeable astringent taste. When the liquid is all used out of the pot I do not throw away the " grounds," but add one-half the quantity for the next drawing, and so on till the pot is one-third full of grounds, when it is all emptied and the pot thoroughly washed. . Cornmeal Mush. The main difficulties in making good cornmeal mush are the care necessary to prevent the formation of lumps and the long time required to cook it. The surest way to avoid lumps is to mix the meal first with cold water enough to make a thin batter, and then pour this batter into the pot of boiling water (slightly salted) very gradually, so as not to stop the boiling process. Sufficient of the batter should be stirred in to make a thin mush, and the latter should then be boiled until it is of such consistency that it will hang well together when taken out with a spoon. The longer it is allowed to boil the better it will be, and if long boiling makes it too thick, add more boiling 36 Canoe and Camp Cookery, water. It can be advantageously boiled two hours, but is eatable after twenty minutes* boil. If it is sprinkled into the pot of boiling water dry, do so very gradually and stir it constantly to prevent its lumping. Fried Cold Mush. Cut cold cornmeal mush into slices half an inch thick, and fry on both sides in boiling pork fat or butter. Or, dip each slice into beaten egg (salted), then into bread or cracker crumbs, and fry. If fried in lard add a little salt. Oatmeal Mush Is made the same as cornmeal mush, but must always be sprinkled dry into the pot of boiling water. Johnnycake. Make a thick batter by mixing warm (not scalding) water or milk with one pint of cornmeal, and mix in with this a small teaspoonful of salt and a tablespoonful of melted lard. Grease your bake-tins (described in Chapter I.) thoroughly with lard or butter, set the Johnnycake batter in one, cover over with the other, and bury the oven amongst the hot coals and ashes of the camp-fire, heaping the coals around it so as to have an equal heat on all portions of the oven. In twenty minutes dig out the oven, open it with the pliers and test the Johnnycake. It should be thoroughly baked in a good fire in from twenty to thirty minutes. If the meal is mixed with scalding water it will be lumpy and difficult to work into a batter. Hoe Cakes. Johnnycake batter, thinned down with more warm water or milk, may be fried the same as slapjacks. Slapjacks. To properly cook slapjacks the frying pan should be perfectly clean and smooth inside. If it is not, too much grease is required in cooking. Scrape it after each panful is cooked, and then only occasional greasing will be required, and this is best done with a clean rag containing butter. Drop thin batter in with a spoon, so that the cake will be very thin. Disturb it as little as possible, and when the cake is cooked firm on one side, turn it and cook on the other. Cornmeal Slapjacks. One quart of cold water is mixed with meal enough to make a thin batter, one teaspoonful of salt and one or two teaspoonfuls of baking powder having been stirred into the latter. The addition of one or two well-beaten eggs will improve it. Cook on a very hot pan, as above. Wheat Slapjacks. Make as above, except using wheat flour, and adding last of all one heaping tablespoonful of melted lard or butter, thoroughly stirred in. 38 Canoe and Camp Cookery. t Hecker's Flour Slapjacks.