As soon as the oven is at a white heat the ashes should be raked out, the floor swept clean, and the dough in pans introduced. The door should then be closed, and all interstices filled with moistened clay or earth. Bake pans may be dispensed with if the floor is made of bricks. If bread pans are used they should be of such size that four of them, or at most six, will cover the whole available sj^ace of the oven floor. The time required for each baking is about 45 minutes. As each of the two principal pieces forming an oven weighs only about 85 pounds, the whole — con- sisting of the two sides, the door, and end plate — can be easily transported, and can even be carried on a pack animal if necessary. To set up the oven no tools except a pickax and a shovel are required, the sides being merely placed on level ground, attached together, the rear end closed, and the whole covered with earth. It can be erected and prepared for use in 15 minutes, and if kept in constant operation for 24 hours can bake 238 MANUAL FOR ARMY COOKS. sufficient bread for 1,000 men. By the use of two of these ovens, therefore, a regiment of a thousand men, if it make a halt of 14 hours each day, can be supplied with fresh bread daily on the line of march. The dough is kneaded in the field by hand, and the operation requires about 45 minutes. Ordinary kneading troughs for the purpose are made, which may be placed on trestles, or they may be fixed on the ground and trenches excavated near them for the kneaders to stand in. PORTABLE FIELD OVEN OF A LARGER SIZE (plate 15). The body (top and sides) of this oven is made in two parts, each part being in shape nearly the quar- ter of a cylinder, and formed of three pieces of sheet iron 3 feet long by 2 feet 2 inches wide and -^ inch thick, riveted together, and overlapping 2 inches (fig. 2). Each side has three transverse bars of iron, 1^ inches wide and f inch thick, riveted on the outside. The upper ends of the bars on one of the sides are formed into hooks, and those of the other side into eyes, by means of which the two parts are connected and held firmly together along the ridge of the oven when erected. The lower edge of each side for a width of 3 inches along its entire length is bent outward into a flange, the lower face of which coincides with the plane of the bed of the oven. A longitudinal strip of light sheet iron, 2|- inches wide, is riveted along the upper edge of the side on which the eyes are, and the edge of the other side slips under it in hooking (fig. 4). To each side, on the under front end of the oven, are riveted two short iron bars, 5^ inches long, 1^ inches wide, and fV inch thick, each with a small hole in the outer end, and which are so bent as to MANUAL FOR ARMY COOKL' 239 240 MANUAL FOR ARMY COOKS. pass tlirougli slots in tlie face of the front of the oven, and are cauglit outside by corresponding hooks, as shown in the drawing (fig. 3). Riveted to the door are two short iron handles, and cut in the face is a "draft hole," which may be opened and closed at pleasure by a lozenge-shaped door, turning on a rivet. The front of the oven is strengthened with bar iron, 1 inch wide and f inch thick, riveted around the edge on the outside.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

As soon as the oven is at a white heat the ashes should be raked out, the floor swept clean, and the dough in pans introduced. The door should then be closed, and all interstices filled with moistened clay or earth. Bake pans may be dispensed with if the floor is made of bricks. If bread pans are used they should be of such size that four of them, or at most six, will cover the whole available space of the oven floor. The time required for each baking is about 45 minutes. As each of the two principal pieces forming an oven weighs only about 85 pounds, the whole — consisting of the two sides, the door, and end plate — can be easily transported, and can even be carried on a pack animal if necessary. To set up the oven no tools except a pickax and a shovel are required, the sides being merely placed on level ground, attached together, the rear end closed, and the whole covered with earth. It can be erected and prepared for use in 15 minutes, and if kept in constant operation for 24 hours can bake sufficient bread for 1,000 men. By the use of two of these ovens, therefore, a regiment of a thousand men, if it make a halt of 14 hours each day, can be supplied with fresh bread daily on the line of march. The dough is kneaded in the field by hand, and the operation requires about 45 minutes. Ordinary kneading troughs for the purpose are made, which may be placed on trestles, or they may be fixed on the ground and trenches excavated near them for the kneaders to stand in. PORTABLE FIELD OVEN OF A LARGER SIZE (plate 15). The body (top and sides) of this oven is made in two parts, each part being in shape nearly the quarter of a cylinder, and formed of three pieces of sheet iron 3 feet long by 2 feet 2 inches wide and -^ inch thick, riveted together, and overlapping 2 inches (fig. 2). Each side has three transverse bars of iron, 1^ inches wide and f inch thick, riveted on the outside. The upper ends of the bars on one of the sides are formed into hooks, and those of the other side into eyes, by means of which the two parts are connected and held firmly together along the ridge of the oven when erected. The lower edge of each side for a width of 3 inches along its entire length is bent outward into a flange, the lower face of which coincides with the plane of the bed of the oven. A longitudinal strip of light sheet iron, 2|- inches wide, is riveted along the upper edge of the side on which the eyes are, and the edge of the other side slips under it in hooking (fig. 4). To each side, on the under front end of the oven, are riveted two short iron bars, 5^ inches long, 1^ inches wide, and fV inch thick, each with a small hole in the outer end, and which are so bent as to pass tlirougli slots in tlie face of the front of the oven, and are cauglit outside by corresponding hooks, as shown in the drawing (fig. 3). Riveted to the door are two short iron handles, and cut in the face is a "draft hole," which may be opened and closed at pleasure by a lozenge-shaped door, turning on a rivet. The front of the oven is strengthened with bar iron, 1 inch wide and f inch thick, riveted around the edge on the outside.

Manual for army cooks