FoodNet

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

1885

Page 4

Presented as published in 1885. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
and won't make the rest of the things in the chest sticky. If you carry potatc^, onions or other vege- tables, always have enough in the chest for three meals. The surplus supplies of provisions, such as vegetables, extra bread, crackers, flour, meal, pork or bacon, etc, should be carried in waterproof bags, and they can then be stowed wherever necessary to properly trim the canoe. These waterproof bags may be used also for clothing and blankets. They are made of unbleached muslin, sewn in a lap seam, with a double row of stitches. When sewn they are dipped in water and slightly shaken to remove the drops, and then while wet a mixture of equal parts of boiled oil, raw oil and turpentine is applied to the outside with a brush. This takes about a week to become thoroughly dry, and then another coat is put on without dampening the cloth, and if a^ little liquid drier is added to the mixture, this coat will dry in four or five days. Having prepared several bags, the provisions, clothing, blankets, etc., are put in the bag^ and its mouth is inserted in that of another bag of the same size, the latter being drawn on like a stocking as far as it will go. If several bags are used instead of one or two large ones, the canoe can be trimmed and + packed to better advantage. ■^ A canoeist's portable oven is made of two small basins, one of which has " ears " riveted to its rim, so that when it is placed bottom up on the other the ears will spring over the rim of the second basin, thus making an oven that is not air-tight, allowing gases to escape. The basins should be made of sheet-iron, V 14 Canoe and Camp Cookery. and, as their interiors can easily be kept clean, they answer very well for s^up dishes. Instructions for (baking in them will be given later on. These should not go in the provision chest, as they will smut every- thing with which they come in contact. Butter, I have found, keeps better in its jar outside of the chest than in. Outside, too, are kept a small jug of molasses, and a jug of fresh water, if cruising on the " briny." There is no perfect canoe stove. The " flamme ioxci " is probably as good as any. It takes up a little more room than the folding " pocket " variety, and it does not give more heat ; but it burns for a longer time, and is not top-heavy when a heavy pot or pan is set on it. For cooking in large utensils have three of these flamme forc^ alcohol lamps, light them and place them side by side, and you can cook in this way a dozen slapjacks at once on a big griddle, if you like. Danforth, the fluid man, makes a small canoe stove *^ ' that would be preferable to all others if his fluid were ^ obtainable at all the corners of the earth that canoe- S ists frequent ; but unfortunately it is not. Beware of " folding stoves " to use ashore and burn wood in. They are the greatest possible nuisances — smutty, red-hot and cumbersome. Don't carry an oil stove. But if you really must, put the nasty thing in a large bucket, and only remove it from this receptacle when absolutely necessary. Now as to eatables in general, besides what I have already mentioned, condensed milk is a good thing, but condensed coffee, condensed eggs and condensed f d- Canoeist* s Cooking Outfit, iS