Now. as to camp stoves. A camp of lumbermen
will find a stove of some sort a time-saving utensil, for
but little time can be spared from their work in the
woods to prepare meals, and a dinner can be unques-
tionably got quicker on a stove than with an open
fire. But to a party of pleasure outers whose time in
camp is not of so great importance, a camp stove is a
superfluous piece of furniture. It is unwieldy to carry,
smutty to handle, and makes a camp look like a sum-
mer kitchen in a back-yard. Every necessary culinary
operation can be performed equally well or even bet-
ter without it, if the camper knows now to properly
make a cooking camp-fire.
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
Camp Cooking Outfit, 45
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 sup-
port 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 de-
grees 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 be-
come 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
46 Canoe and Camp Cookery.
be blown about to some extent, and it is best to
always keep the open end of the " range " to wind-
ward, 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 con-
tents. 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.
Page 14
Presented as published in 1885. 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
Now. as to camp stoves. A camp of lumbermen will find a stove of some sort a time-saving utensil, for but little time can be spared from their work in the woods to prepare meals, and a dinner can be unquestionably got quicker on a stove than with an open fire. But to a party of pleasure outers whose time in camp is not of so great importance, a camp stove is a superfluous piece of furniture. It is unwieldy to carry, smutty to handle, and makes a camp look like a summer kitchen in a back-yard. Every necessary culinary operation can be performed equally well or even better without it, if the camper knows now to properly make a cooking camp-fire.
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
Camp Cooking Outfit, 45
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
46 Canoe and Camp Cookery.
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.