Manual for army cooks

One full day's ration of soft bread and fresh meat should be drawn for the first day's march ; also a proportion of one-fifth or more of hard bread, to meet the contingencies of wet weather or lack of fuel for baking purposes. If the company be supplied with a Buzzacott oven, about all the utensils necessary for the mess will be found with the oven ; otherwise, the following (all to be ascertained by inspection to be in serviceable condition) should be taken, if possible : Four frying pans. Six camp kettles (two sets or "nests"). Twenty mess pans (ten deep and ten shalloAv). Three butcher knives. One steel. Two long-handled spoons. Two long-handled forks. Two dippers. One skimmer. One small coffee mill, and coffee roaster. (Plate No. 19.) Plate 19. One iron kettle rod, twelve feet long and one inch in diameter, and supplied with six or more kettle hooks. Two iron uprights, one inch in diameter and four feet long. One spring balance (one which will weigh up to 200 pounds is to be preferred, as being useful when purchases of fresh beef, forage, etc., are made). Two axes and one camp hatchet. The smaller articles can be placed in a small wooden box fastened about with a strap, while the knives may be carried in leather sheaths attached to the cartridge belts of the cooks. In packing the wagons the tents, bedding rolls, etc., should be put in first and a space left at the tail end of tlie wagon for the mess box and cooking outfit. If the wagon be crowded, the Buzzacott oven can be lashed to the rear of the wagon outside the tail gate, the side resting in the feed box. The chief cook should know where everything is when wagons are packed, to save time in searching for articles should anything be wanted during a temporary halt. All articles necessary for the first meal should be so placed in the wagons that they can be taken out at once, and no delay occur in the preparation of the meal. Before leaving a post the chief cook should roast a part of his coffee, so that if unexpectedly called upon to make coffee he will not find himself unprepared. Roasted coffee should always be kept on hand. When pack transportation is provided each troop should have four mess boxes, J-inch lumber, dovetailed, 11 by 18 by 26 inches, and when packed in pack cover, without lids. The rations should be carefully put up in 100- pound packs lashed solidly, and carried on the best pack mules ; each pack is plainly marked with its contents and weighed. Salt, sugar, coffee, and beans are double sacked and lashed in 100-pound packages. Bacon in 100- pound packages, is packed in from 5 to 8 pounds of clean straw or hay, double sacked, and lashed firmly. Each cargo is in two side packs of about 100 to 125 pounds each, and should match in size, shape, and weight, as nearly as practicable; each side pack having, as nearly as may be, the following proportions: width, one-half more than the thickness; length nearly one-half more than width — e. g., 12 by 18 by 25 inches. The salt, sugar, coffee, and beans should not all be placed in one cargo. When 710 tr a asportation is provided, which may occur in maneuver marches in the presence of the