Manual for army cooks

DOUGH. Dough may be mixed in mess j^ans, on a piece of canvas, on a rubber blanket, or in the flour barrel or flour sack. Dough should be set near the fire, and be allowed to rise well before baking. Very little fire is required at first. If time and fuel are to be considered, biscuits will prove more suitable than large loaves. FIELD BAKE HOUSES. During good weather a tent fly, awning, paulin, tent, or interior of a wagon will answer for a temporary shelter under which the labor of the baker can be performed, but in rainy or cold weather a board or more substantial building is essential. To knead and raise bread successfully in the field with a temperature below 65° or 70° F. requires a long time, and is attended with difficulties and much uncertainty. UTENSILS NECESSARY FOR A FIELD OVEN. One dough trough and cover made of pine plank 2 or 2.25 inches thick, about 2 feet 6 inches wide at top and 22 inches at the bottom, and about 18 inches in depth. Length to correspond with capacity of oven. For an oven with capacity of 100 rations, 5 feet long will be sufficient. Two sets of boards for each trough to separate flour, sponge, and dough. One board for dough about 4 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 2 inches thick. One oven peel, wood ; blade about 10 inches wide, pole 2 feet longer than the oven. One short-handled brush. Two large-sized common knives. Two camp kettles. One yeast tub (two better). Two wooden pails, ordinary size, without paint. A shelter in which to make and keep the bread warm. BAKING BREAD IN FIELD OVENS. It not unfrequently occurs that the first baking in a field oven is of a bad quality ; the bread is burnt at the top and not cooked enough at the bottom. This shows ordinarily that a hearth made on the natural soil is not as dry as the other parts of the oven, and if you have the time and means it should be paved. In regard to French field ovens it is stated that the average temperature for baking is about 250° F., when the bread is placed in, and it is so managed that when it is baked the temperature has not fallen below 180° F. (This would appear to be an error, or the loaves should be made very small and thin; even then a thorough soaking or crusting could not be satisfactorily done.) If not baked in one hour's time it is permitted to remain in the oven about fifteen minutes longer, but after this delay it must be taken out, or it will lose more than gain by remaining. The best temperature for baking in field ovens is from 380° to 450° F. If higher, the fermentation, not always perfect in raising the dough, in the open air, will be stopped too soon. If below this, it will require too long a time to properly bake. KNEADING TROUGHS. An expeditions means of constructing a kneadingtrough in the field consists in digging two trenches of unequal size, parallel, a and b. The first should be lined with plank ; the solid earth which separates the two trenches should, in the second trench, be sustained by boards also, or pickets at a proper slope. The bakers descend into the large trench h and knead the dough in the trench a-, in the trough.