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Title: In camp and kitchen
        A handy guide for emigrants and settlers

Author: Lucy H. Yates


        
Release date: June 22, 2026 [eBook #78919]

Language: English

Original publication: London: Andrew Melrose, 1912

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78919

Credits: Bob Taylor, Tim Miller and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)


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  Transcriber’s Note
  Italic text displayed as: _italic_




IN CAMP AND KITCHEN




_Uniform with “In Camp and Kitchen.”_

SOYER’S PAPER BAG COOKERY,

By NICOLAS SOYER.

F’cap. 8vo cloth, 1/-net. Third large edition.


Paper Bag Cookery is handy, easy and economical, and hundreds of
thousands of people have adopted it permanently.


LONDON: ANDREW MELROSE.




  IN CAMP AND
  KITCHEN

  A Handy Guide for Emigrants
  and Settlers

  BY THE AUTHOR OF
  “THE SUCCESSFUL HOME COOK,” ETC.


  LONDON: ANDREW MELROSE
  3, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.

  1912

    He must go—go—go away from here,
      On the other side the world he’s overdue;
    Send your road is clear before you
                          When the old
      Spring-fret comes o’er you,
      And the Red Gods call for you!

  _The Feet of the Young Men._—KIPLING.




INTRODUCTION


One who has had much to do with outgoing colonists and knows a great
deal about their wants and difficulties, has summed up in a couple of
terse sentences their primary needs. These are, he says—

Things to Take: Time, Patience, Money.

Things to Leave: Hurry, Worry, Doubt.

The summary is an excellent one. It covers all the necessary ground;
it is capable of infinite enlargement as to meaning, and at the same
time it packs away into the smallest possible compass all that the
traveller, the pioneer or future citizen can require. It is, in fact,
a complete manual in itself, and all that we do here is to interpret
it in fuller detail, and we do this in order to save the time, the
patience and the money of those who perhaps have little of either to
spare.

Much has been written about the romance of colonization, and stories
of pioneering experiences are of thrilling interest—when read at home.
It is difficult to see the romance, as it is difficult to experience
the thrills when actually undergoing the hardships and battling with
the difficulties on the spot. What really helps, then, is not the
ability to see the romance or the picturesqueness of the situation,
but the ability to see the humorous side of things. A sense of humour
saves many a situation, and to be able to laugh in the face of hunger
and hardship, because it brings goodwill to bear on the subject, does
wonders in the way of smoothing down the rough side both of men and
things.

One of the daily trials will be the imperative need of getting meals
ready. Those three meals a day are perpetually hindering other work,
taking up much time and thought, and involving much carrying about of
tools and materials. Yet they cannot be done without, and are not to be
despised or treated with indifference. In fact, from the health point
of view they are of more consequence than making progress in other
ways, for without health and strength the colonist is of no good at all.

Those who set out with the idea of “roughing it” are very apt, in their
early enthusiasm, to think lightly about the food question, but when
they find themselves thrown on their own resources, obliged to use
their own initiative in everything, it is wonderful how important a
matter cookery becomes, and how much is made of a little knowledge or
skill in this direction.

“Can you tell me of a simple cookery-book to send out to my boy in
Canada?” a lady asked us one day. “He says he finds meals are so much
more important than he ever imagined they were, and he wants to know
how to do so many things.”

It is the simple book we have tried to write, one that the average
young man—or young woman—will have the time and patience to read and
the money to buy. It may not tell all that they will want to know, but
at least it will tell them enough to make for comfort, economy and
health, and we trust that all useless and needless technicalities have
been avoided. The great Food question comes first, and has received
the bulk of attention, as it should do, but there are a few useful
suggestions further on which may help to make the difficult way easier.
It is not possible to meet the wants of all types of settlers, for some
go to pioneer work and others go to live under advanced conditions—more
advanced, in fact, than they leave behind them in the old country;
nevertheless, all must take with them a certain amount of time,
patience and money, and all must leave behind hurry, worry and doubt,
while all, wherever they are, will find, we think, some use for our
Handy Guide.

  L. H. Y.

LONDON, 1912




CONTENTS


                                                               PAGE

  INTRODUCTION                                                    7

     I COOKING IN THE OPEN: ELEMENTARY COOKING APPARATUS         13

    II THE LOG-HUT OR CAMP KITCHEN                               24

   III DEALING WITH THE STORES: WATER, REFUSE, WASTE, ETC.       34

    IV THE STAFF OF LIFE: BREAD; YEASTS, QUICK BREAD, ETC.       50

     V THE DAY’S FOOD AND WORK: FOOD REQUIRED, INITIAL
        PREPARATIONS                                             61

    VI COOKING OF FISH, MEAT, AND VEGETABLES, THE “REASON WHY,”
        ETC.                                                     78

   VII SIMPLIFIED COOKERY RECIPES                                90

  VIII PRACTICAL HINTS FOR THE HANDY MAN                        118




I

COOKING IN THE OPEN: AND ELEMENTARY COOKING APPARATUS


The ideal colonist is he who is able to turn his hand to anything and
to supply a table although having practically nothing in the way of
cooking utensils. Necessity will teach him how to use his ingenuity in
building and manufacturing contrivances of his own, and it is to such a
handy man that we offer the following suggestions.

A kettle, a “billy” and a frying-pan may seem a quite sufficient
kitchen equipment at first, but some means of baking will soon seem
necessary. Bread, for instance, or whatever takes the place of bread,
is so much more satisfactory when baked. Hence it is worth while to
spend a little time in building up a fireplace in which heat can
be retained for some considerable time. Much must depend upon the
kind of fuel that can be obtained, but mostly this will be wood, or
charcoal made from wood, or the dried droppings of cattle, when coal is
unprocurable.

The most elementary type of fireplace for boiling purposes is made by
gathering together large stones of even size, and to form a square with
them, opening at one side, and of course open at the top. The size of
this top opening is regulated by the size of the kettle or pan that is
set over it. Place the stones with as much regularity as possible, and
fill in the spaces between with clay or earth. If the soil is clay and
stones are not to be had, form a fireplace with the clay itself in such
a way as to have four walls with opening at the side and at top. Make a
small fire first in the firehole with the driest grass and twigs, then
feed it with small pieces of wood, and when it is burning well fill up
with wood and dried grass and any fuel you have, packing it lightly but
closely. It is possible to build a fire that will be bright and quick
for boiling, or one that will burn steadily for hours, for stewing or
baking purposes. With practice a good deal of skill is acquired, and
the more the fireplace is used, the better will it serve its purpose.
When new it is slower in getting to work on account of damp, but will
burn quite quickly when hard and dry through. To dry the fuel that is
going to be used is a great economy of time, and can be done when the
fire itself has gone out. Keep the firehole clear and free from ashes.

An oven can be made to stand on top of this fireplace by coating a
large biscuit-tin with clay and baking it. A little ingenuity will
devise a door for this oven, and it will be found to answer quite well
for baking bread and cooking a pudding or for making a slow stew.

In building a fire in the open take notice as to the way the wind blows
and take advantage of it as much as possible, as it will help or hinder
the fire from burning. Sometimes a screen of stones built up on the
windward side will help matters considerably.

A small pair of bellows should be included in the colonist’s outfit,
as well as a small pair of tongs, for any fire will burn the better
for a little coaxing with the bellows first, and pieces of wood can be
more skilfully arranged with the help of tongs than without them. Then
whenever any sawdust is met with it should be carefully collected and
mixed with oil or paraffin into little cakes, to make quick and easy
firelighters.

An open bonfire, with tripod of three sticks or iron supports, may
be all that it is possible to get together for the quick boiling of
saucepan or kettle, but the results can never be so good as when a
built up fireplace is made. On the other hand, a good bonfire leaving a
thick bed of burnt ashes and embers is sometimes the best contrivance
for roasting large pieces of meat, birds, and so on. Suppose it is
desired to cook a whole large fish, a rabbit, fowl or other troublesome
creature (troublesome because of the plucking and drawing, skinning,
etc., that it seems to require), all trouble is saved by making a
covering of wet clay well pressed down as a thick coating over the
fish, bird or animal, after having let out the blood, making it into
a sort of ball of clay. Bury this ball in the hot ashes and embers,
heaping them over it. In about an hour or rather more, the ball can be
broken open and feathers, fur or scales will be found to have stuck to
the clay, leaving the flesh perfectly baked and juicy, and the entrails
will have dried up inside.

Suppose a big roast of meat is wanted—a half-side of a sheep or pig.
The outer skin has, of course, been taken from the meat in this case
and all internals too. Make a rather deep circle on the ground, paving
it with flat stones, or beat the clay very flat and hard. Build a
big fire on this and let it burn right through, then sweep aside all
embers and ashes, brushing the stones or clay clean, lay down the meat
and cover it first with a thick layer of leaves, then pile over it
the embers, some brushwood, and finally more clay until it is closely
covered and none of the heat can escape. Leave for two or three hours;
uncover, and clear off all ashes, and the meat should be found well
baked through. In a similar way bread can be cooked on hot stones,
using only a thick layer of leaves and ashes for covering.

A little experience will make any one quite skilful in the use of
the most unpromising materials, and if compelled to do it a man can
generally produce a quite appetising meal with nothing but a clay
fireplace and a few old meat tins. The total absence of what Americans
call “fixings”—the little additions which the ordinary cook at home
considers indispensable—need not, and will not deter the camp cook
from making savoury meals, but as circumstances alter cases very
considerably, it is possible only to make suggestions here, which each
one must adapt or improve upon to suit himself. When hungry men are
craving to be fed the absence of seasoning or condiments is not missed,
but good baking, frying or boiling has to be accomplished somehow.

Where the camp is a more or less permanent one or the preliminary
to a settlement and house-building, there may be a number of people
to cook for, and hence it is worth while making some form of Trench
Kitchen. For this, dig a trench about three feet deep and four or five
feet wide, and at right angles form a series of narrow trenches close
together. Arch over these with stones and turf and make hollows in the
top of the ridges to hold saucepans and kettles. A hole for the firing
is made at the end of each ridge, the smoke from which passes along the
side trenches that are arched over and is drawn up a “chimney” that
is set up in the middle of the cross trough at the further end which
connects all the trenches. To create a good draught a long tin funnel
helps to make this chimney. If there is any likelihood of the trench
kitchen becoming flooded out by rains it can be tented over. A series
of “ranges” is created by forming ridges in this way so that boiling
and stewing, frying and grilling can all be going on at the same time.
All the same, the need of an oven for baking will be felt, and while
small ovens for placing over a firehole can be made out of biscuit
tins as before mentioned, a large one can be built out of stones and
clay, or with the help of an iron-hooped barrel, in this wise: cover
the barrel with clay or turf and stones, well wetted and beaten down
over it, and give it time to solidify, then build a fire inside the
barrel. The wood will burn away, leaving the iron hoops as supports. If
the covering is sufficiently thick, such an oven is quickly heated and
retains its heat quite a long time, the fire being built inside it and
swept out when burnt through. Insert a piece of piping in the middle
of the top of this barrel-oven to act as a vent for the smoke. Arrange
a door with a piece of sheet iron sufficiently large to cover up the
opening; it need not, of course, be put on hinges, as stones will help
to keep it in position. Food that is put into this oven to cook, after
the oven has been heated and swept out, should be enclosed in a bag of
paper if not already in a dish. A little practice will enable any one
to judge how long the heat may be relied upon to last, and how long
time must be allowed for the cooking in paper or in a dish.

Food that is already cooked can be kept hot for hours by following
the Thermos principle. This is the principle of storing up heat, but
not of generating it. Anything that is already hot can be kept hot,
and anything already cold can be kept cold. In a Thermos flask there
is a vacuum between two surfaces which is a non-conductor preventing
the escape of heat, likewise in the Thermos jar, and whatever is put
in at a certain temperature retains that temperature for a very long
time without alteration. While it is hardly possible for the pioneering
colonist to make a good Thermos flask or jar, he can carry out the
same principle of storing heat in other ways. The Hay-box Oven is a
primitive construction, perhaps, but it answers extremely well and
costs very little to make. What is wanted is a strong wooden box with
well-fitting lid—a thick box and one that is large enough to take a
thick layer of hay or sawdust at the bottom as well as all round the
jar put inside the box. Cook over the fire the soup, stew, pudding or
whatever it may be, and when sufficiently cooked and whilst boiling
hot, lift the jar or pan off the fire and set it in the middle of the
Hay-box Oven. Pack hay and sawdust closely round it, filling up all
spaces, then over the top as well and put on the box cover, then a
piece of blanket folded, or a rug. You may go away for hours, all the
day or night, if you like, and come back to find your soup or stew
perfectly cooked and thoroughly hot.

A hole in the ground, lined with hay and sawdust, will answer the same
purpose, if care is taken to cover the place very thickly to allow no
escape of heat. The advantage of the box is that it is portable and can
be used anywhere.

The Biscuit-tin Oven has the advantage over the Hay-box Oven in that
it can be used for actual cooking by placing it over the firehole and
keeping a fire burning underneath it. But unless the biscuit-tin is
covered with clay made hard the solder is very apt to melt and cause
the oven to give way when exposed to great heat. The same objection
arises with regard to the use of empty fruit and meat cans as cooking
pots. On the other hand, stone jam jars are valuable, and make
excellent stew-jars; especially useful are they for holding anything
that is to go into the Hay-box Oven to be kept hot for hours.

Where there are no saucepans and no jars to use, nothing but the open
fire and a billy, it is an improvement to have two of these billies
and to set one inside the other with water between. The “billy,” be it
understood, is nothing more than a tin can with handle slung across it,
but there are improved forms of it, such, for instance, as the cans
which navvies use to carry their coffee or soup when going to work,
and some of these are made in enamelled ware, with close-fitting lid.
If one of these better cans were to be placed inside a rougher one of
tin, the outer one would get all the smoking and hard usage, while the
better one would be clean enough to set on the table when required.
If a little hook is made in the wire of the handle it will prevent
slipping when the billy is suspended over the fire.

The principle of this kind of cookery—what a colonist would doubtless
dub “glue-pot cookery”—is sound, and it is copied by many inventors of
more elaborate things which, in spite of their elaboration, however,
cook none the better in reality than two cans one inside the other.
The Warrener, for instance, which is much liked by camp cooks and
travellers, is in principle but a glorified glue-pot. What is really
better than the Warrener is the Hutchings steamer, which is a kind
of conjuror’s cabinet, having a tier of compartments or pans one
fitting above the other, each one being a sort of steamer, the bottom
one holding the water. This is guaranteed by its maker to cook as
perfectly on the “top floor as in the basement,” and one or more of the
compartments can be used without the other, while a whole dinner may be
cooked at the same time with nothing but the one pan. These Hutchings
steamers are likewise fairly cheap, and can be procured at the large
ironmongery stores anywhere in London.

Still another of these “glorified glue-pots,” if we may be pardoned
for using the term, is the Welbank Boilerette, the Cooker that Looks
After Itself, as its advertisement declares. This is much less
expensive than the Warrener, and can be had in several sizes. It
cooks everything—whether porridge, soups, stews, joints, fowls or
vegetables—in their own juices, and so preserves the fullest flavours
and makes tenderness certain. Like the Warrener, it must be used in
conjunction with some sort of stove or fireplace, not on the hearth or
open fire.

The frying-pan is another article which must be classed among
elementary cooking appliances, for it is almost indispensable for the
quick preparation of a meal. It is well to take two frying-pans, one of
black iron for quick frying of fish or meat, the other of enamelled
iron for cooking eggs and making damper. The iron one will not often
need washing if it is well rubbed with paper after each time of using,
but the other one will want washing with soap and perhaps a little sand
or ashes to keep it white and smooth.

Some travellers argue that bread as well as meat can be roasted on a
spit—no doubt meaning that the spit can be run through the middle of
a piece of dough, and by careful watching and turning the bread cooks
all over. But a spit is not difficult to make, only in cutting them
from wood care must be taken not to use poison woods; take the straight
branches of trees that are well known and familiar. Wild shrubs
and wild vegetables should be looked upon with distrust; a few are
harmless, but many are not. It would be better to make the spit with
an iron or wire rod, setting it in supports at either end, if at all
possible to do so. The fire must have burnt clear red before attempting
to roast anything on a spit, otherwise smoke will spoil the flavour of
the food.




II

THE LOG-HUT OR CAMP KITCHEN


Some men possess considerable natural aptitude in cooking, and any
skill of this kind will serve them in good stead when they become
colonists, and where there is not natural aptitude it is well worth
while acquiring a little knowledge by dint of study. Supposing all
other kinds of employment fail, a cook’s job is generally to be got and
no one grudges his wages. A little story may be cited which bears out
the truth of this. The son of an army chaplain and a public school-boy,
decided to go out to the Colonies, and before doing so took a course
of lessons in land surveying. He went out to a large farm and at
first did fairly well, but then he fell on evil times, and having no
capital was soon on his beam ends. A chum of his who came across him
remembered certain school study feasts, and as he was himself a kind of
sub-contractor in a lumber camp, offered his friend the post of camp
cook for a hundred or more men, at good wages. The offer was promptly
accepted. The new cook, who was a smart lad, soon had everything well
organized and in apple-pie order. He pleased the men mightily and could
always rely on their help for the harder tasks of chopping firewood,
washing-up, and so on. Soon he acquired a real liking for his job
and got through his work quickly and easily. When the second season
came round he again enlisted as camp cook, but this time, having some
capital, he went into partnership with his friend the sub-contractor.
The two prospered. They sub-contracted for the woodwork to be done on
one of the railways then being built, and the “cook’s” knowledge of
mathematics and surveying then came in useful. In a few years’ time he
blossomed out as a railway engineer with an important post, big salary,
house, servants and horses. Of course he had his mathematics and his
land surveying to help him. Still it was his wage-commanding knowledge
of cookery that had set him on his feet, and on the road to fortune.

Most open-air cooks have to make the best they can out of the
situation, for the site of a camp is not usually settled with much
regard for their convenience. If there is good water within reasonable
distance that is much to be thankful for. The planning out of the
kitchen will depend chiefly upon circumstances; where there are only
two or three to be catered for it is not a difficult matter, but where
a dozen or more men want at least two meals a day, it is a matter
requiring some contrivance and organization.

Choose a position as much protected from wind as possible for the camp
kitchen, and have it separate from the rest of the camp. Where rocks
or boulders can be made use of take them into service, but build a
furnace, (one or more), with stones, of a size convenient to hold pans
and cauldrons, and make a table also.

If a circular form is taken for the furnace it can be partly domed
over, which enables more draught and a greater degree of heat to be
obtained. Where a good deal has to be turned out of the kitchen it is
a good plan to have a row of furnaces and build a chimney to connect
with them, making the walls thick at bottom and narrow at the top. The
chimney should come immediately behind the furnaces with a hollow base
three feet square, gradually narrowing up to a height of six feet or
more. A hole or flue of stones welded together with clay should connect
each furnace with the chimney. If the whole battery is built in one
block flues are easy to shape, and a splendid heat should be obtained
from the stoves.

Where a log cabin or stone hut is being built the greatest care should
be given to the erection of the fireplaces for cooking purposes, as the
comfort and likewise the safety of the whole construction will depend
on this part being secure and sound. The more good masonry work is put
into the fireplaces the greater and more economical will be the amount
of heat obtained from the fuel that is consumed. Thick, well-made walls
prevent the escape of heat.

For the hearth and base of furnaces and chimney use as large stones
as can possibly be found, the flatter the better. If the large stones
require much levelling take smaller ones in preference and fit them
together as evenly as can be with sand and clay. Excellent fireplaces
can be built with stones and mud, but a little cement is of course much
better for binding together the stones. Build the fireplace in the
middle of the wall at the end of the hut, or across one corner. Make
the hearth a little higher than the floor level. Sacrifice a little
space, if need be, to have the fireplace inside the hut, and not, as
is too often done, outside as a separate projection. Level the hearth,
cover with a thin bed of cement or mortar or wet clay, and place
thereon the largest and flattest stones, making the level as straight
as you can. Now build round this hearth thick walls, starting them in a
trench dug at least eighteen inches below the level of the ground. The
walls should surround the hearth on three sides, leaving a part of the
side facing into the hut open. Carry them up to about two or three feet
high and gradually narrow them to bring the top nearer towards a dome
shape. A good builder will then carry his furnace up in chimney shape
right out through the roof of the hut, but if stones fail then the rest
of the chimney can be a zinc or tin pipe. Experts, who are able to use
mortar, will give the chimney a bend to right or left which prevents
too strong a downward draught, or the fire from being put out by rain.

With a hearth such as this it is well to place upstanding supports
about the middle, such as a pan or kettle could be rested upon; this
helps in the cooking very much, and prevents any spilling when the fire
burns down. With an open hearth with thick-walled sides, such as this,
much can be done, but it is well worth while going to the trouble of
building a furnace oven, as before described, in addition.


Additional Portable Appliances

Only in very remote districts indeed would any one be limited to such
rough fireplaces as these. Fuel of some other kind, such as oil, would
assuredly be procurable to some extent, and a portable oil stove would
take the place of the gas ring and gas appliances in town houses. The
outgoing colonist would not be ill-advised to take with him a portable
oil stove of some make, and when doing so he might as well choose one
that will do more than merely boil a kettle. A small-sized Rippingill,
with one tank can, when required, cook a full-sized dinner and will
burn no more oil than a simple boiling stove. When buying such a
stove buy a can for holding oil, a filler, and an extra wick or two,
and carry something wherewith to clean the stove and keep it in good
condition, then wherever oil is procurable the little stove can be
brought into use and prove of endless comfort. There may be occasions
when the stove must be packed away and resort be had to the rougher and
more primitive methods of the clay fireplace or the tripod in the open,
but the stove would in that case take no harm and come out smiling when
opportunity favours it again.

The same remark applies to the spirit lamp or traveller’s Etna; though
methylated spirit is more difficult to procure than is kerosene or
paraffin oil. Still there are occasions when travelling or when camping
in a tent, or making a journey by boat, when a portable spirit stove or
lamp is of great service, or in sickness.


Electric Cooking Apparatus

One must bear in mind that all Colonists are not going out as pioneers,
but that many will be setting up new homes in districts where in
certain matters conditions of living will be even more advanced than
they are in the old country. For instance, in parts of South Africa,
the Transvaal, and the Cape, electric power is fast coming into common
use, while gas is not used at all and coal is scarce and expensive.
In such cases, electric lighting will be found general in quite small
townships and in quite small houses, and therefore the electric cooking
stove will become, not a luxury such as we in England would deem it,
but a necessity.

Having ascertained how far electric power is in use in the district
to which the colonist is going, and also how it is supplied and how
available, it is possible then to consider the advisability of taking
out a portable electric stove, such, for instance, as can be connected
up with an ordinary light in any room. A portable stove of this kind,
about twelve inches square, which is a combined Grill and Water Boiler,
can be had for 35_s._ complete, with flexible wiring for connecting
up. Its consumption is about 750 watts of electric energy per hour or
about three-fourths of a unit—the cost of course depending on the price
charged per unit in the district. In any case, this is a little stove
that at a cost of approximately a penny will produce a full meal with
tea, coffee or soup, a grilled steak or chop and toast in something
less than half an hour. It is so small and so capable, that, whether
sure of finding electric power or not, the outgoing colonist would add
little to his expenses and less to his luggage by taking one on the
chance of finding it useful.

But when certain of electric power and when going out to establish
a home forthwith, in a district where electricity is in common use,
certain fittings and assuredly a cooking stove, should be taken
without hesitation. There are some to be got out there no doubt, but
they are cheaper here, and also there is more variety to choose from.
Several types of electric ovens are now on the market; the price of
them varies according to size and capacity. One that is strongly to be
recommended for wear and capability, for family use in a small kitchen,
is the “X.L.” It stands 36 inches high; it is 24 inches in width,
and weighs 130 pounds. It is a thoroughly good and strong stove and
can be installed wherever electric current is obtainable. One of its
commendable points is its perfect freedom from dust or smoke, another
is that each of its compartments can be used independently of the
others, being controlled by separate switches. There is also a minimum
and a medium switch, and when both are put on together the maximum
degree of heat is obtained. The oven is large enough to hold a joint
and pastry or bread, while the grill, the hot-plate and plate-warmer
can be used or shut off, as desired. The price of this complete is £18
10_s._ f.o.b. at any English port. These “X.L.” stoves are manufactured
by O. G. Hawkes, Ltd., at Globe Works, Bromsgrove Street, Birmingham.

Smaller and less expensive is the “Tricity” range and outfit supplied
by the Berry Construction Company, 29a, Charing Cross Road, whose
wholesale agents are Messrs. Gillespie & Beales, Amberley House,
Norfolk Street, Strand, W.C. The Tricity Cookers are listed for
Direct or Alternating Current Circuits of not less than 100 voltage.
In addition to the oven and hot-plate, either of which can be used
independently of the other, the outfit comprises an extension cooker
which gives another boiling ring, and the whole equipment of utensils
consists of thirteen articles, comprising a complete apparatus. The
full list with stove and extension cooker costs £12 10_s._, but the
oven and hot-plate alone is four guineas. Ordinary tin kettles and
saucepans will answer, but the outfit is purchasable in parts and may
consist of as few articles as any one wishes to take.

That fine explorer, Boyd Alexander Smith, and in fact all experienced
travellers, speak of the value of having a mincing machine at hand. It
comes in useful for so many purposes, making tender and digestible
meat that is often too tough to use in any other way. It assists in
making savoury dishes out of remnants, will grind down the stale
crusts, and save much trouble in many ways. A good mincing machine can
be got for 12_s._ 6_d._, but one that has adjustable parts, making it
useful for cutting up vegetables and beans, is a little more in price.




III

DEALING WITH STORES, ETC.

  Purification of Water—Storage of Water—Disposal of Refuse and
  Waste—Keeping Food Stores—A Curing House—An Ice House, etc.


The importance of having a supply of water can hardly be
over-estimated. A township depends upon it, and a log-hut or cabin must
be pitched as near to a water supply as is possible, while no journey
of any length can be undertaken unless water is carried or obtained at
fairly frequent intervals, and this whether the climate is hot or cold.
Some ready means of purifying water that is abundant yet of doubtful
quality is likewise essential, also some means of catching the rainfall
as it occurs. Then we must consider the storage of water in camps and
locations not intended to be permanent ones. On all these points it is
desirable to be ready with knowledge and resourcefulness.

Experienced travellers like the late Sir Francis Galton, W. B. Lord
and Thos. Baines all speak of ways of filtering water and of making it
fit for human consumption, writing at a time when the portable filter
was almost unknown. Still if a portable filter saves much trouble it
is also heavy to carry about, and rougher and readier forms must
sometimes be resorted to. An excellent filter for camp use is described
by the two writers last named. They say—

Take a wooden box or barrel, long and deep. Bore a number of holes in
the bottom and then fasten inside it a bag made with a folded piece
of blanket. At the bottom place a layer of grass, moss or twigs, then
a layer of sand, then fresh layer of moss, and so on until the barrel
is half-filled. Make a cover which will fit well inside the barrel
like a second bottom; press it down and weight it to keep it from
rising. Half-sink this barrel in a pond or stream, and the water which
will gradually filter up to the upper compartment can then be baled
out clean and clear. If it needs purifying still further after this
clearing, boil it with a pinch of alum, and then expose it again to the
air. Alum has a chemical effect on organic matter, and a small handful
of it will purify a whole hogshead of water.

This arrangement of cask or barrel can be carried out by fitting a
smaller cask inside a larger one, the smaller being perforated with
holes, and the space between it and the larger one filled with stones
and sand, then the double cask can be sunk in the pond. These rough and
ready filters are very useful where a collection of water is found
in hollow places, the drainage from streams and after a rainfall, the
quality of which may be doubtful or too muddy for drinking purposes. If
water is merely thick, not putrid, it can be filtered through a cloth.
But where it is putrid, and is yet the only water available, it should
be first boiled, then mixed up with crushed charcoal and allowed to
settle again exposed to sun and air. Alum is a purifier and charcoal
is a disinfectant. There is no other way of using salt water than by
distilling it.

How to store water, in places where it is difficult to keep any supply,
is another matter. Every drop of rain water is of value, and should
be caught, as far as possible by means of piping from the roofs of
sheds, ending in barrels, but this source of supply can be increased by
suspending blankets or canvas sails by the four corners between trees,
weighting them with stones in the middle to make the water run towards
the centre, and placing underneath this a barrel or bucket. Dew water
brushed off leaves and grass into basins in the early morning will
yield a great deal more than might be imagined, and in dry climates
there is often a heavy fall of dew before sunrise.

A precaution which old travellers take to prevent thirst is to keep
the outer clothing damp and a wet cloth folded round the throat. Where
water is not fit for drinking it still can be used to moisten clothing,
and this little precaution prevents evaporation from the skin.

As an indication where water may be found in strange districts, Galton
advises watching the flight of birds. Converging flights of birds
are usually safe guides, especially towards evening. Dogs also have
an instinct for discovering water, but cattle are less trustworthy,
as their tracks may often lead from rather than towards water. When
digging for water, in default of spades, a hole can be made with a
sharp-pointed stick, holding it upright and stirring it round, scraping
out the loosened earth with the hands. Where soil or sand is found
moist lower down, water will generally collect when a hollow is made
for it. The native bushmen keep their holes open by a rough contrivance
of twigs tied together and converging to a point.

When carrying water in pails from a spring or well, place a thick
wreath of grass or leaves round the edge of the pail to prevent
spilling. Leaves floating on the top will also help to keep the water
in. Where water has to be carried for a journey, over the shoulder or
from a saddle, nothing is better than leather bags, or skin bags answer
the purpose well. Stone jars are heavy and unsatisfactory.

The water supply for a district of isolated homesteads or camps is
sometimes a difficult matter to arrange where there is no spring
or river near enough. Some form of co-operation in the matter of
well-sinking is very desirable, and the wells should be concreted and
protected in the common interest. Well boring is beyond our scope and
cannot be gone into here, as it requires some engineering knowledge and
skill, but it may doubtless come into the day’s work at some time or
other. Making a cistern for rain water is, however, another matter, one
for the individual camper or hut-dweller to attend to, and therefore
we may here give Dr. George Vivian Poore’s clever adaptation of the
old Venetian system, as cited by the editor of an admirable work on
_Small Estate Management_, by A. C. Freeman, a useful book published by
Rebman & Co., 129, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W.C., which will give
invaluable help to those laying out homesteads.

“His cistern, which received rain from the roof of a four-roomed
bungalow cottage (giving about 1,100 feet square of surface), was
circular, partly sunk in the ground, and built of concrete. The
dimensions were: internal diameter 7 feet, depth 10 feet. It was
divided into two compartments by a cement diaphragm, perforated at the
bottom by agricultural drain-pipes. Both sections contained a filter
bed, consisting of 1 foot of sand, 1 foot of fine gravel, and a top
layer of coarse gravel, also one foot thick. The water on draining off
the roofs into the gutters passed through a double strainer and then
entered at the top of the first section of the cistern, being filtered
downwards, and then filtered upwards as it rose in the second half,
which was provided with a pump having a copper suction pipe (lead and
ironing being of course inadvisable where soft, solvent rain water is
concerned). A good cover protected the top. The storage capacity of
this cistern was 1,600 gallons, or forty gallons a day for a drought of
six weeks. Although the cottage was near a small town the water proved
of excellent quality, pure, chemically and bacteriologically, and used
for all purposes, and appreciated by a family in spite of its having
a slightly yellow caste and a faint smell. An undoubted improvement
would be to use as a substitute for the strainer an automatic tilting
separator, which divests the first few gallons (the washing shower)
from the reservoir. Such water is perfectly fitted for all domestic
purposes, but the supply from an ordinary cottage roof may not be
adequate for a household. In such a case a surface well may be sunk
to provide water for washing, bathing, live stock watering, etc. Such
wells should be sunk about 10 to 12 feet deep, the upper 8 or 10 feet
being lined with impervious material (concrete with smooth cement
surface) covered over. In this way the water can only rise from the
bottom, and if the land is being well cultivated the ground water is
sure to be pure. Dr. Poore had a shallow well, only 5 feet 6 inches
deep, in his highly cultivated garden, the sides lined with concrete
pipes protected by 4 inches of concrete right to the bottom. This well
generally contained 3 feet 6 inches of water (about ninety gallons),
yet it was chemically and bacteriologically pure and quite potable.”

It may be useful to those who are making a dwelling within a township
if we quote further the author’s words about water carried from main
pipes. He says—

“Where water is obtained through mains it is well to make some
provision against the effects of frost. In Canada the general practice
is to carry the supply pipe into the house below the frost level, into
a sunken earthenware box, open at the bottom and resting on a drainage
pit filled with sand or breeze. The tap proper is placed within this
box, and rising from this to the sink level are two pipes, one within
the other, the outer one being a tap spindle, the inner the actual
water pipe. At the base of this pipe is a vent-hole. When the tap
spindle is turned on the water rises and flows out; when turned off the
vent-hole is opened and at once drains the standpipe, so that freezing
is impossible. A somewhat easier method is to bring the pipe through a
small closed copper vessel placed just at the entrance of the pipe into
the house. When there is any sign of hard frost it is merely necessary
to place a small flamed lamp beneath the copper vessel to prevent any
possibility of freezing. It is inexpensive, saves much inconvenience,
and also loss arising from damage done by bursts.”

Having made what suggestions we can to help the colonist in the matter
of securing and storing a water supply, we must now consider that other
important item, the disposal of waste water and other refuse. It is
amazing what an amount of refuse matter and waste water accumulates
from day to day in a camp or quite small settlement. The ground is
the one safe and sure receptacle for all waste matter, even kitchen
waste where there are no fowls or pigs to consume the scraps. But all
vegetable refuse and bones should be burned before returning it to the
soil, hence a scrap heap can be made and set fire to once a week, the
whole of it when raked out being dug into the soil again. Ashes from
fires should be put into a box and kept for use in the earth closet,
the waste matter from the latter being dug into a field or garden, not
into a pit, and it should not be too far below the surface. Dry soil
does quite as well as ashes for sprinkling into the closet pail, and
this dug into the earth again at short intervals is the most sanitary
and easy way of disposing of this waste. If the precaution of using
plenty of dry earth is used no flies will gather about the organic
matter, nor will any smells be noticeable.

Waste water from baths and from kitchen washing-up is valuable wherever
bush fruit is grown, and can always be poured round trees, or round
young plants in a garden plot. The main point in disposing of all
refuse is to restore as much as possible to the land. Where this is
done carefully and with discrimination the ground benefits and nothing
offensive is left to annoy by sight or smell. The secret of successful
French and Dutch gardening is this careful digging in of all refuse
matter, vegetable and other, and not in the applying of expensive
guanos and manures. The authority quoted above has a good deal to say
on this matter of returning refuse matter to the soil. To quote him
again—

“The splendid productive soils of the Dutch, French and Italian gardens
are the result of many years of careful cultivation, a system whereby
the soil is continually being enriched with what we are pleased to call
‘Waste’ material. Therefore for both hygienic and practical gardening
reasons, the earth closet system is to be advocated. While on the
question of soil enrichment we would point out that those who cultivate
small holdings, allotments and gardens should be taught to return as
much to the soil as possible. All greenstuff, trimmings, leaves and
so on, should either be dug in or placed to ripen in a compost pit
and used as fertilizer when digging over the land. Sticks and wood
should be burned and the ashes added to the pit because rotting wood
in the soil attracts insects and so must be avoided. Such enrichment
is valuable in any situation, but will be found to work marvels in
lightening heavy clays and in bringing fertility to poor, porous soils.
In our experience the most productive gardens have been those with
‘made soils’ which have been enriched for generations. Dr. Poore’s
experimental garden, dressed regularly with dry closet-soil, brought
in over £56 per acre, the crops being ordinary orchard and bush fruit,
asparagus, potatoes, green stuff and flower all grown in the open, no
glass being used and very little labour available.”

And now we must pass on to the keeping of stores—of stores of
vegetables and dry goods and things in constant requisition for the
kitchen.

It is easy to make a series of store closets with deep boxes that are
lined with zinc, turning the tops to face outwards, fitting in shelves
if required, and then making a door to fit. These boxes can be piled
one over the other, all facing the same way, and a curtain can cover
them all if they are in any way unsightly. Dry goods and groceries
generally require keeping in a temperate place, therefore these and
linen and clothing can fill this series of damp-proof boxes. But when
it is a question of storing fresh vegetables and fruit, potatoes,
dried meat, dairy stuff, liquors and so on, an outside storehouse is
imperative, also in hot weather all food must go into some cool place
to keep it from insects and the atmosphere.

It is a comparatively easy matter to dig out a pit some feet away
from any tent or building, to dig it out of the earth in a shaded and
protected spot, and then to brick the sides and build them up to a
sufficient height above so as to make the whole depth of the sunk pit
some eight or ten feet. Roof over the top of the pit with corrugated
iron, and if there is heat or frost to fear make a thatch over this.
Make one or two steps down into the pit and arrange also some shelves
as seems convenient. If such a storeroom rises but a little way above
ground and is protected at the top, it will be found to be of even
temperature all the year round, admitting neither frost nor heat. It
should be ventilated by perforating holes round the roof, but need not
have light admitted except by the door. Failing the possibility of
digging out and building such a storeroom, remember that pits in the
ground lined with a collection of leaves or dry twigs and well covered
over with earth and more branches, make excellent keeping places for
stores of roots and fruit. There is no better preservative than Mother
Earth.

A good deal of meat, especially pork and beef, will have to be salted
and dried for use at different times, and while salting and pickling
are comparatively easy processes, needing only watching and frequent
rubbing and turning, the later processes of curing and drying by smoke
are more difficult, and for this purpose it is well to build a curing
house.

A smoke-curing house for hams and bacon may be made with two
large-sized packing cases. Remove the top and bottom of one of the
cases. From the other case remove one board at the top, the middle
board; also cut a fairly large square hole on one side, large enough
for any one to put head and shoulders through. With the boards that
are cut away form a door by nailing batten on the inside or outside,
and fasten to the box by means of hinges at bottom and catches at
the top. If no hinges are at hand use stout pieces of leather, even
the uppers of old boots will do. The catches are merely small, flat
wedges of wood about the length of the middle finger, and as broad as
two fingers. Nail or screw them in the middle on the box just above
the flap door. By turning to left or right they will fasten the door
firmly. Inside the top box fasten a series of rods, say six inches
apart and six inches below the top. Over the long slit formed by
removing one board as directed form a slanting roof with two boards
kept in position by fastenings at each end. Nail pieces of netting from
the edges of the slanting roof to the box. You thus provide ventilation
and prevent insects from creeping in. Pierce the bottom of this case
with a number of holes. Now choose for the site of the curing house
sloping ground, dig a trench 18 inches deep and 6 or 7 feet long. Cover
over the trench with flattened stones or bricks well packed together
with earth. Over the top opening of this trench place the first case
that had the top and bottom knocked out, and on this fix the second
case. Suspend the hams and bacon inside the top case and then fasten
the door tightly. At the lower end of the trench light a fire with wood
refuse and sawdust, but avoid using pine or any resinous wood. The fire
must be kept smouldering and the smoke will find its way up the trench,
through the lower box into the curing chamber above, escaping very
gradually by the ventilation outlets. Peats are best of all for keeping
in a smoke fire. The smoking should be kept up for from three to five
days, according to the amount of meat inside the curing chamber.

Before placing the meat in this chamber it should be wiped dry after
curing it with rubbings of dry salt, or by a mixture of saltpetre,
black pepper, sugar and common salt. This may have been rubbed in for a
week or ten days before the smoke cure was begun. If hams are intended
for long keeping sew them up in cloths after curing with salt and
before smoking them. Pieces of beef lightly salted and dried by smoke
can be kept almost indefinitely, but they should be soaked and scraped
before using for food.

Biltong, or Jerked Beef as it is called in the United States, is a
handy way of keeping meat for a length of time and is easily prepared.
It is made by cutting the raw beef into slices, sousing the slices in
sea water, then drying them hard in the sun. It can be kept threaded on
spikes of wood, and when required the slices are taken off, soaked and
washed, and laid in a frying-pan, with a little oil or other fat, and
covered with plate, cooking over the fire for about an hour. A spoonful
of vinegar put in the pan would tender the meat and improve the flavour.

The converse to a smoke house would be an ice house, but wherever there
is any dairying done this little place will prove a great boon, and it
can be provided all the year round in most Colonies by taking a little
forethought. In many places ice can be carried from lakes and ponds
in the winter and stored for use in summer, and failing ice a fall of
snow may be utilized, for snow that is packed into blocks and sluiced
over with water will soon harden into ice. For storing it dig a deep
hole, 4 to 8 feet deep, and build into this a house with walls of
double thickness; the outer one may be of logs, the inner one of rough
boards. Pack the space between the boards with sawdust, shavings or tan
bark. The flooring should be of rafters placed close together about a
foot above the ground. See that this open space is well drained. This
can be done by digging a sloping trench a foot or two at the bottom
and filling up with loose stones. The door of the house should also
be double and packed with sawdust. The roof, which should come well
above the hole, should slope and be composed of rafters well boarded
over and covered with thick thatch of straw or fern. The thatch should
project well beyond the walls but leave a ventilating space all round.
Ice in blocks covered with sawdust can be kept in a quantity in this
house, or blocks of ice at the bottom will make a cool storeroom of it
for milk and butter in the summertime. Its main object, however, is to
keep a store of ice for the dairy itself.




IV

THE STAFF OF LIFE

  Making Bread—Oven and Hearth-baked Bread—Patent Yeasts for
  Travellers’ Use—Quick Bread; the Damper, Pancake, Flapjack, Chupatty,
  etc.—Dumplings and Pie-crusts—Uses for Dry Bread, etc.


Bread is one of those things for which civilized man craves, and even
in the most out-of-the-way places he is loth to exist without it. The
many substitutes for bread rarely satisfy an Englishman, and he is
driven to find some way of making a solid loaf. Nevertheless to bake
bread presents a difficulty which can only be overcome by building an
oven such as before described, or by using hot flat stones; the latter
way of baking is as good as any when a little practice has shown how
to do it skilfully. But the baking is only one difficulty; another
and more serious one is to find a yeast wherewith to make a dough.
German and other dried yeasts are usually to be bought in towns or from
stores, and wherever there is a brewery barm can be got, but there are
also dried and compressed yeasts that are put up in cakes for the use
of travellers, which the outgoing colonist might procure, probably,
at a ship chandler’s stores. Yeatman’s Yeast Powder is one of these.
But failing any way of procuring dried yeasts there is another way of
making a liquid yeast that is sure of producing a sweet and wholesome
bread. For this the dried Bavarian hops are required, which are to be
bought in packets from the chief English stores (they are known as
the Phœnix brand), a packet of which will last a considerable time.
A handful of these hops is boiled in water in a saucepan until the
goodness has been extracted, then strained off, the hops thrown away,
and the liquid returned to the pan with a spoonful of sugar, salt, and
one or two tablespoonfuls of flour. These are stirred together and
boiled up—never mind if it is a little lumpy—and then left to ferment.
The mixture is ready for use the following day and will keep good for
about ten days or a fortnight. In using, mix enough of this liquid
with sufficient flour to make a small soft ball—technically called a
“sponge,” setting this in the middle of the panful of flour which is
intended for the bread. When this sponge has risen a little make the
dough by adding to it warm water slightly salted, and working in the
rest of the flour gradually until it can be kneaded with the hand and
forms a large ball of dough, not too stiff and yet not too soft. This
is then set to rise again in a warm place, and will take some five or
six hours. Some people mix up the yeast and flour and water straight
away and let one rising suffice. Either way should produce a light
and wholesome dough. About four tablespoonfuls of the liquid yeast (or
an ounce of dried compressed yeast of another kind, stirred to smooth
paste with water), a large tablespoonful of salt and four pounds of
flour, will make a nice quantity of bread. The amount of water depends
a good deal on the kind of flour, but the result must be a rather firm
dough; if too little water is put in the bread will be stiff and dry,
if too much it will be puffy and full of holes.

The dough can be mixed in the evening and left to rise all night,
provided the pan containing it be set in a warm, sheltered place. The
next morning, as soon as the oven has been made hot, or as soon as the
hot stones of the hearth are ready, take up the dough, divide it and
shape lightly with floured hands into loaves and bake them. The point
to bear in mind is that while dough takes several hours to rise, it
takes little harm by waiting until the oven is ready for it; but as
yeast after it has been mixed with water ferments very quickly, the
dough itself should not be made till the whole process of making it can
be done right away. The science of the thing is that the introduction
of yeast into the moistened flour causes carbonic gas to form, and
the formation of these bubbles makes the dough swell out until the
fermentation being finished the gas would cease to form and the dough
would sink back, having lost its lightness. When the dough has about
doubled its proportions, we stop the formation of the gas by baking
the bread. Patent dried yeasts operate more quickly than do liquid
home-made yeasts, and six hours is quite long enough to allow for the
rising. Liquid yeasts might be given a little longer.

If bread is made twice a week, the loaves should be made larger, and
for taking out on journeys round flat cakes, made not too thick, are a
convenient form; likewise for baking on the hearth these will be the
handiest and cook the best. A round and rather thick ball of dough, cut
across the top with a blunt knife, will give the Coburg loaf, which is
a good shape for baking in an oven.

Combinations of flour and maize meal, or of rice and flour, oatmeal and
flour, and so on can be tried when a change is wanted. Where eggs and
milk are procurable, there is a delicious American bread which is made
by mixing two cupfuls of maize meal with every one of ordinary white
flour, adding a little salt, two eggs and a cupful of milk to every
three cups of the combined flours, with a spoonful of baking-powder
rubbed in before moisture is added. This mixture is shaped into loaves
and baked in tins—old biscuit tins floured inside will do quite well.
The same mixture could be transformed into a cake of quite excellent
quality by rubbing into the flour a little butter or lard, and a few
raisins and spice and sugar.

Excellent light buns for supper are quickly made by rubbing a little
baking-powder into flour, adding salt, sugar and a few currants and
spice, mixing with milk to a stiff dough, rolling out on a board,
cutting into triangles and baking on flat hot stones, on both sides. Or
if the milk has soured, mix a little soda with it and make up into a
dough with flour alone and bake in the same way.

The Australian Damper is really a thick, plain pancake, often merely a
handful of flour made into a stiffish batter with water and a little
salt and baked over the embers of a wood fire or on the hot stones.
But the correct way of making Damper is to take a flat board or a
dried sheepskin on which to knead. On this the flour is poured from
the sack and sprinkled with salt. A hole is made in the middle of the
heap of flour into which water is slowly poured, the right hand being
kept moving round and round working the flour and water together to a
thick, adhesive dough. This is then kneaded on the floured board until
a firm ball is the result, and then with the hands a flat pancake is
made about two inches thick. The embers are cleared away to leave a
flat, bare place and the damper is lightly dropped upon it and covered
with leaves, then the embers are raked back and it is left for about
an hour, when it will be baked crisp and brown. A frying-pan without
a handle might be inverted over the damper if the ashes were dirty.
Fresh eggs beaten up with milk and used instead of water would make a
richer and crisper and more nourishing damper. Scotch oatmeal added to
a little flour, or the oatmeal alone mixed as for dry oatcake and baked
on the hot stones, would be a more nourishing substitute for bread than
is damper alone.

The Flapjack is a similar kind of thing to the damper, but it is fried
in a pan, with very little fat, that is to say, only enough to grease
the pan, and fried on both sides. If made with cornmeal or buckwheat
and mixed with milk and eggs, it becomes a very palatable thing, and
has the merit of being quickly prepared. These pan cakes are just the
thing for eating with sugar-cane syrup or molasses.

A Cornmeal Pone is made with a quart of Indian meal, a teaspoonful of
salt, a little melted lard and enough tepid water to make a soft dough.
It is moulded lightly with the hands into an oblong mound, higher in
the middle than at the sides, is brushed over with melted lard and dry
flour, and is baked in hot oven rather crisply and broken into pieces,
not cut. A broad leaf is laid over and under the pone if it is baked in
the ashes.

A Johnny Cake requires two cupfuls of buttermilk, a teaspoonful of
soda, and two of salt, a good bit of butter melted soft, and enough
Indian meal to make the cake so that it can be rolled out on a board
to an inch in thickness. It is baked on the stones or in the oven in a
shallow pan, and is then broken into pieces and eaten with butter.

Buckwheat Cakes want the true Buckwheat flour, and to every four
cupfuls a little salt and enough milk to make a thin batter, also a
spoonful of yeast to every cupful of flour. The mixture is beaten well
and left to rise overnight, and is then fried in greased pans on both
sides, and eaten with syrup.

The Chupatty is another form of thin or hastily made bread, and is
generally made with Indian meal. If made with ordinary white flour,
rub in a saltspoonful of salt to every half-pound, and mix to a light
dough with cold milk. Cut this dough into pieces about the size of an
egg, roll each piece into long, thin strips not more than an eighth of
an inch thick. This is best done with the help of a floured board and a
rolling-pin or smooth bottle, as the secret of making nice chupatties
lies in the rolling. It should be rolled out at least six times, then
the strips are placed on a baking tin and baked in a hot oven for
about ten minutes. This is as crisp as water biscuit, and is very
digestible. Where a dry biscuit or cake is wanted for a journey the
chupatty is very useful.

Any bread that has become stale can be freshened by dipping it in water
and putting into a hot oven to steam through for a few minutes.


Dumplings and Pie-Crusts

When baking bread and making a stew or boiling meat with vegetables,
small pieces of the dough can be broken off and dropped into the pan
to form dumplings. If yeast or baking-powder has been worked into the
dough the dumplings will be light though plain, but if they are wanted
a little richer they should be made with chopped suet mixed with flour
and water.

The ordinary plain suet dumpling requires half as much chopped suet as
flour in weight, and a little salt. It is mixed with either water or
milk to make into a stiff dough—it is lightest when somewhat stiff—and
if tying it up in a cloth to boil in water allow room for the pudding
to swell. Boil a suet dumpling for two hours at least; it will not
harm by being boiled longer. These plain dumplings are wholesome and
excellent food especially in a cold climate, and should be eaten with
syrup or butter and sugar. Sugar is, indeed, one of the most necessary
items on the colonist’s bill of fare. The plain suet can be varied by
mixing with it stoned raisins or currants or by using syrup in place of
milk to mix the ingredients, adding a little ginger for flavour. Or the
suet paste may be rolled out and spread with jam or soaked dried fruits
and treacle, rolled up again, wrapped round with a cloth and boiled in
fast boiling water, or folded in a buttered paper and steamed, for a
couple of hours, making a light and appetising roll pudding. Or again,
the paste may be rolled out and used to line a basin, the interior
being filled with sliced apples and other fruits and sugar, covered
with a top crust, then tied over and boiled for as long again. Or the
centre may be filled with pieces of steak cut small and rolled in flour
and seasoned with salt and pepper, a little water put in to make gravy,
a top crust put on, and tied down, and this boiled for about four hours.

If the colonist has built him a good oven and is ambitious of making
pastry, having a fond recollection of jam tarts and apple pies as made
at home, let him take a nice clean board, and put into a basin say a
couple of pounds of flour, two big spoonfuls of dry baking-powder, a
teaspoonful of salt, and into this flour rub lightly about a pound
of lard or good dripping, rubbing till the flour feels like dry
breadcrumbs in his hands. Mix this to a stiff paste with cold water,
then cut off portions and roll out on a floured board. If a proper
rolling-pin is not at hand a bottle will answer the purpose.

If it is a fruit pie that is contemplated, fill a dish with pared and
sliced apples, or plums washed clean, or other fruit, cover well with
sugar, add a little water and then cover with a crust that has been
rolled out to about half an inch thick. Make a little hole in the top
for the steam to escape, and pinch the edges well and cut them round
even with the edges of the dish. Put into an oven that is very hot
and bake long enough to cook the fruit well, shielding the crust if
necessary with paper. Fruits like blackberries, bilberries, damsons,
etc., want well cooking, and should be partly done before the crust is
put on. Where no pie-dish is at hand, roll out a sheet of paste and
heap up the cut or picked fruit in the centre, with the sugar, and then
fold up the paste to make it like a valise and pinch the edges well.
Bake it on a greased tin.

The good old-fashioned turnover or pasty is ever welcome, and needs
but to have a piece of paste rolled out to a convenient sized round,
and on half is spread the jam, mince, or fruit, and the other half is
turned over, the edges pinched together, and it is baked on a tin in
hot oven. The Cornish pasty has sliced potatoes, shred bacon, a trifle
of onion and pepper and salt, and is folded over and baked in the same
way. These are delicious to eat hot. When making a meat pie, cook the
meat well before putting on the pastry crust.

This plain short pastry is all that any colonist will require, at
least until an elaborate kitchen equipment is at his service, but if
he objects to rubbing in the shortening with his hands, he may mix
the flour and water to a stiff paste, roll it out on a floured board,
spread the shortening on this with the blade of a knife, fold up and
roll out again at least twice. This way saves using the hands.




V

THE DAY’S FOOD AND WORK

  Popular Ideas about Food Values—Kind of Food Required in
  Health—Concentrated and Bulk Foods—Initial Preparations for Cooking,
  etc.


There are a good many vague notions current about food which it is
well to set right before we come to the actual work of cooking for
making ready a meal. For instance, people are content, as a rule, to
take what comes handiest, or to choose what is most customary, rather
than have the trouble of thinking out or of choosing what might really
make a meal of better value. Reliance on what is customary may easily
lead to great monotony and to narrowness of ideas. In some cases, of
course, monotony is perhaps inevitable, that is to say the material is
perforce the same, and can only be varied by bringing the imagination
into play in order to make its manner of presentment more varied. A
man, for example, writes to us from Canada (he is pioneering in the
Far West, let it be understood), and says that his meals consist of
beef and potatoes, varied by potatoes and beef. Another writes from
the Australian bush and declares there is nothing to be had but tea,
damper and mutton, mutton, damper and tea. Both cases are doubtless
exaggerations, but they show the monotony that may exist when there
is little time to give to thought about meals. But on the other hand,
people who have almost limitless resources at command, as in England,
show little more imagination when it comes to planning a week’s meals
for a family, year in year out, and monotony is their complaint also.

Then we speak of “nourishing food,” of dishes that are “rich,”
“indigestible” and so on, and of drinks that are “too strong” and “too
weak,” often without quite knowing what we wish to express.

All food is “nourishing” when properly combined and proportioned; if
we get an excess of one thing, of fat, for example, or of sugar, it
is “too rich” because less easily assimilated. As it is only by what
is digested and assimilated that the body is nourished, it is easy to
understand that two foods which contain the same amount of nutriment
will not be equally nutritious unless both are equally digestible.

What is wanted, speaking roughly, for proper nourishment and upkeep of
the bodily system, is a daily sufficient yet not excessive supply of
flesh-forming and heat-producing food, enough to repair the constant
slow wastage that goes on. This waste, it is easy to understand,
is increased when the body is actively engaged in hard labour and
lessened when it is resting or doing sedentary work. The whole science
of feeding lies in obtaining a right proportion of the two classes
of food in the diet. An excess of either class, unless excreted, is
stored up as fat. The reason we cook at all is that we may bring raw
materials into a state in which they can be digested easily, and
also that we may make those judicious mixtures which shall combine
flesh-forming and heat-producing substances ready to be assimilated
in the best possible way. There is no one perfect food that will do
this for adults, as there is for infants who find all they require in
milk. The adult body is only perfectly supplied by a mixed diet, and as
regards the selection of materials one of the best and safest guides
to take is the individual appetite under normal conditions. Appetite
will generally suggest the kind of food the body is needing and will
generally indicate when a sufficiency has been taken, also it will show
by “loss of appetite” when food is not required and what kind of food
is distasteful.

Feeding the human body is very like feeding a fire; combustion is
slow but steady and is made more rapid when the draught of air is
increased—that is, when the lungs are inhaling and exhaling more
deeply as in hard labour. The energy expressed by movement, labour,
exercise or play corresponds to the burning of the fire, and is made
up for by adding more fuel, and what part of the fuel is not consumed
is thrown away as ashes are taken away from the grate. How thoroughly
the food taken in is consumed must therefore depend a great deal upon
its digestibility. That which is raw, hard, lumpy or tough will take
long to assimilate, or indeed may be finally excreted as unassimilable.
We assist assimilation when we mince or grind down the food to fine
proportions—hence mastication. After it is swallowed the digestive
juices set to work upon it and make it fit for absorption into the
system. In addition to cooking food to make it tender and in addition
to mastication, we further assist the work of digestion when we add
condiments and flavours to it, because these help to increase the flow
of the gastric juices and stimulate the activity of the digestive
organs.

We cannot obtain more heat or more muscle by eating special foods for
the purpose. Flesh-forming and heat-producing foods must be taken
together for each to do their work properly, but we can and do increase
the proportions of one or the other according to the kind of work
we are doing and the kind of climate we are living under. An extra
cold atmosphere calls for more heat to make up for what is given off
by radiation from the surface of the body as well as by increased
respiration. Therefore fat and sugar must take a very prominent place
in the diet of those who live in cold countries, farinaceous foods
likewise. Meat and vegetables are needed where much muscular work
is being done and where a stimulating diet rather than a heating
one is wanted. A good deal of liquid food and water is needed when
perspiration is excessive and where outward heat dries the skin.

Appetite is again the best guide to follow under these different
conditions, for Nature prompts and suggests what she is needing by
means of appetite and taste. Appetite is also the best individual guide
as to quantity, for it is rarely that two people will eat exactly the
same amount in the same circumstances. Some appear to eat too much,
and others too little, but if we judge results by weight, where that
remains fairly constant, the quantities consumed merely correspond
with their requirements. It is when an excess of fat is stored up in
the system that the supply may be taken to exceed the demand. Yet this
again is not altogether a reliable criterion to go by; it, in fact,
puzzles many as it puzzled Dr. Johnson and his faithful Boswell.

Talking of a man who had grown very fat so as to be incommoded by his
corpulency, Dr. Johnson said, “He eats too much, sir.” Said Boswell,
“I don’t know, sir; you will see one man fat who eats moderately and
another lean who eats a great deal.” Johnson: “Nay, sir, whatever may
be the quantity a man eats, it is plain that if he is too fat he has
eaten more than he should have done. One may have a digestion that
consumes food better than common; but it is certain that solidity is
increased by putting something to it.” Boswell: “But may not solids
swell and be distended?” Johnson: “Yes, sir, they may swell and be
distended, but that is not fat!”

As regards food materials, all fibrous and tough substances cannot
be separated from the rest, nor is it necessary to separate them. A
certain amount of bulk food is needful for the organs to work upon,
and even if it is eventually excreted it still cannot be done without.
Highly-concentrated foods, like extracts and essences and tabloids,
will not satisfy the ordinary healthy appetite, and even if they did
satisfy it they would end in weakening the organs of the body through
want of sufficient work and exercise. Tissues and fibres can, however,
be made soft and tender, and therefore much more easily digestible, by
proper cooking. It should be remembered that the tissues of animals
and vegetables toughen as they get older, while birds and meats that
are freshly-killed are not so tender as when well hung. Wild birds and
young animals are tougher than maturer and fattened ones.

The initial processes of preparing food will present more difficulties
to the colonist, perhaps, than the actual cooking. The very first
process of all, that of catching and killing the animal or bird, is
less troublesome to contemplate than the process of skinning, cleaning
and cutting up; still, of course, it comes first.

All animals and birds which are killed by shot must have the blood let
out as soon as possible; it is usual to suspend them to drain this
away. Then the skin is drawn off, the abdominal and thoracic viscera
are removed, likewise the head and tail, and the animal is laid open
by cutting down the breast line. In large animals like oxen and sheep
by cutting through the middle of the back bone the carcass is divided
into two equal parts, called sides, and the sides are again cut up
into joints after quartering. The anterior portion is known as the
fore-quarter, the posterior as the hind-quarter. In small animals like
lambs the whole of the quarter is considered as one joint.

In cutting up a side of beef the usual method followed is according to
the following diagram:

[Illustration:

  _A._ Rump.
  _B._ Buttock.
  _C._ Shin.
  _D._ Buttock Steak.
  _E._ Aitchbone.
  _F._ Sirloin.
  _G._ Ribs.
  _H._ Chuck Ribs.
  _I._ Clod.
  _J._ Shin.
  _K._ Shoulder or Bladebone.
  _L._ Brisket.
  _M._ Thin Flank.
  _N._ Thick Flank.
  _O._ Gravy Piece.
]

A young ox gives the best beef, but bull beef is dark in colour with
a coarse grain. If beef is to be tender it should be hung as long as
weather and climate will permit of, but should be looked over every day
and moisture wiped off. Any part which is touched with flies should
be rubbed over with cloths wrung out of vinegar. If any part seems
slightly tainted rub powdered charcoal over it, or black pepper.

The most suitable uses of the different parts for cooking are as
follows:

  Sirloin and Ribs, prime roasting joints.

  Rump, for cutting into steaks for grilling.

  Buttock, for stewing steak, or for boiling fresh.

  Round or Buttock, for salting and boiling.

  Thick and thin Flank, salting, boiling or baking.

  Shins and Gravy Piece, for soups.

  Chuck Ribs, for second quality steaks.

  Bladebone, for braising and stewing.

  Clod, boiled or stewed.

  Brisket, for salting and pressing, or for baking with potatoes.

  Tail, for stewing and soup-making.

  Tongue, for salting, boiling and pressing.

  The Skirt makes delicious stews and rich gravy.

  Beef Kidney is tough and too rich to use alone, but a little added to
  other stews is excellent.

  Liver too coarse to use except for feeding animals.

  Knuckles and feet make stiff jelly.

Mutton does not cut up into so many parts, but is simply divided into
leg and loin (or if the loin is undivided it makes a “saddle,”) and the
fore-quarter makes breast, shoulder and neck pieces.

Veal is similarly jointed to beef but is much smaller, and the whole
round of the leg is called the fillet and is cut in thick portions or
slices; the loin includes the rump, and the neck is really included
with the ribs. The breast of veal is excellent as the gristly parts
easily soften, and the knuckles which correspond to the shin and leg of
beef are much more tender and gelatinous.

As pigs are killed at different ages and the larger and fatter animals
are usually cured and dried for bacon, the smaller pigs are cut up very
similarly to mutton and lamb. The hind-quarter gives the leg and hind
loin, the fore-quarter the “hand” or shoulder, foreloin, spare ribs and
neck, while the head is split into two “chaps.” When made into bacon
the side is cured whole and the leg becomes the ham, the shoulder half
the gammon. The breast gives the part known as “streaky” bacon, and the
back and ribs, flank and collar are sold at varying prices.

Certain portions of the interior organs of the carcass are useful for
food and quite digestible. The tongues, for instance, which when cut
away from the root part can be salted and pickled, then boiled or
dried, make an excellent dish. The sweetbreads in young animals are
very delicate, and after first boiling them in salted water for a few
minutes they can be fried or stewed to make a savoury dish. The kidneys
are removed from the fat in which they are embedded and split open and
lightly fried or grilled, or beef kidney is added to stews of other
parts of beef. Ox tails after skinning and jointing make an excellent
savoury stew or very nourishing soup. Sheep’s liver is edible when
properly cooked, but lamb’s and calf’s liver are better and not at all
tough when fried and stewed afterwards. Ox liver is not fit for human
food. The hearts of very young animals alone are edible, and even then
are somewhat tough.

The best suet is that found round about the kidneys, and this fat can
be removed in large pieces, which if kept dry will remain sweet for
a week or two and is used for making puddings and crusts for pies.
The other interior fat of the animal (both of beef and mutton) can be
melted down and clarified by pouring into jars containing a little
boiling water, then it is useful for all frying purposes and many other
things. The interior fat of the pig is also melted down, but it yields
lard, a pure white and soft fat that is as edible as butter. This
should be run into tins whilst warm and covered with paper when cold to
keep it from the air.

Rabbits are split open to let out the blood and the entrails removed
directly they are killed, and being thus paunched they can be slung on
a stick and kept for some time before skinning, although the fresher
they are the more easily will the skin be removed. To do this make an
incision down the length of the body, and draw the skin backwards,
bringing the legs up first and ending by pulling the skin over the
head. A rabbit can be turned round for boiling, or be cut into joints
for stewing. Hares are treated the same way except that hares are not
boiled, but they are often roasted. A better way is to cook a whole
hare in a casserole or braising-pan, as the meat is very dry, but the
best way of all is to cut it in joints and cook it in a deep stone jar,
with red wine and small vegetables and a little fat pork.

Fowls are plucked most easily by first dipping them bodily into
boiling water, but this renders the feathers unusable for any other
purpose. Plucking is quickly accomplished if the feathers are pulled
the reverse way from that which they take naturally, and after cutting
off the head, splitting the neck to remove the gullet and windpipe, an
incision at the lower end makes it easy to empty the fowl by drawing
out the entrails and organs; wash out with clean water afterwards, then
bind together the legs and tie down the wings to the sides, and the
fowl is trussed quite sufficiently for ordinary purposes. The reason
for fastening wings and legs to the sides is to prevent these from
shrivelling and getting too dry by cooking. As the meat of fowls and
indeed of most birds is very lean it is an improvement to wrap them
in some thin leaf fat, or to cook a piece of fat bacon with them if
braising or roasting, or even if boiling them.

The meat of wildfowl is drier and leaner than that of the domestic fowl
and wild ducks are a little fishy in flavour. Prairie hens are plump
as a rule but also lean, and most small wild birds are tastier and
more tender if they are wrapped in thin slices of fat before cooking.
Quick cooking is best for those that are small and young, but fowls of
uncertain age are better slowly stewed or boiled.

The flesh of fish contains more water than that of meat or fowl, but it
is light and digestible and nourishing when fresh, and plump fish are
invariably of primer quality than thin ones. Most fish want scraping
as well as washing, and it is well to cut off the heads and remove the
entrails; in some kinds like mackerel and herrings they are split open
and scraped clean, while in flat fish cutting off the heads and fins
suffices. Large fish like salmon and cod have a good deal of interior
to be removed before they are cooked and the heads are left on if
preferred.

Where a little curing house has been set up as before described,
herrings which have been cleaned and split open can be lightly salted
and smoke-dried, and thus the colonist can make his own kippers. Small
haddock can also be cured and smoke-dried, mackerel likewise.

Surplus fish can be kept by first cleaning and then salting them
and packing down in a barrel, but smoke-curing is a better way of
preserving them, and in the log-hut kitchen they can hang in strings
from the rafters.

Oysters, clams, mussels and shellfish that are eaten without cooking
should be very fresh indeed for it to be trustworthy. Oysters are
wholesome and easily digested and are rightly considered a delicacy,
and in some places they are plentiful enough.

Lobsters, crabs and shrimps want boiling in salted water until they
turn a bright red colour, and when cold they are broken open and the
flesh picked out. An iron cauldron or saucepan is best to boil them
in. All these should be killed by cooking; that is they should be
alive up to the time they are boiled, as if not perfectly fresh they
so quickly decompose and may easily set up ptomaine poisoning. There
are circumstances and places where shellfish are a valuable article
of food, however, and in moderation they do much to vary a diet that
without them would be monotonous and unappetising. A liberal washing
in clean water should be given to all creatures that are taken from
salt water pools and shallow places. But the same careful cleansing is
necessary in the case of freshwater fish, too, especially that taken
from ponds, as they are apt to taste of mud unless well soaked and
scraped before cooking.

The initial preparations for cooking which vegetables require make
many people forego their use altogether, yet although troublesome
enough there is nothing about them that is half so disagreeable as the
preparatory work of preparing meat and poultry for cooking. A liberal
washing, a scraping or paring, perhaps coring and dividing and cutting
up—and that is practically all there is to do except in the case of
peas which want shelling, or of beans which want stringing and slicing.

Almost without exception, the edible roots want paring after washing
before cooking them in any way whatsoever. The rind is not intended
to be eaten and is tough in all except very young roots. While the
actual nutritive value of roots, tubers and green vegetables is low,
their health value is high, and they are both a welcome and valuable
addition to the diet, and whenever a garden patch has been secured the
colonist’s first thought will be to grow his own vegetables, and as
great a variety of them as he can.

Potatoes are the most nutritive of all vegetables and rank next to
bread in value, but artichokes have a higher nutritive value than even
potatoes, and should be freely cultivated especially where there is a
pig to be fed, as pigs thrive rapidly and produce fine bacon when fed
upon these tubers.

The next most important vegetable to the potato is the onion, and this
is one of the best of nature’s medicines, too. But after skinning an
onion the root bit should always be cut out before cooking in any form.
Cut away the hard fibres from cabbages before boiling them and boil
rapidly in salted water. Never cook outer leaves or woody parts and
fibres of anything; all such parts should be returned to the ground as
its share of the proceeds, for they make the most valuable manure.

When gathering cabbages or lettuces, and things of like nature, if
not ready to make use of them for a few hours, leave the roots on as
they will keep fresh and crisp a much longer time. If on account of
frost these have to be dug up and brought under shelter, also leave
the roots on, but let them be kept covered with sand or soil and in
a dry place. Carrots and turnips keep well in a sand heap. Celery is
another excellent vegetable for the colonist to cultivate wherever it
will grow; it is good in all climates and will stand a good deal of
frost, and is most wholesome eaten either in a natural state or cooked.
Here again, eat only the best parts and let the rest be returned to the
ground.

Dried fruits are extremely useful where fresh fruits are hard to
procure, and the nutritive value of dried fruits is relatively high
in proportion to their weight. They are a form of concentrated food,
easily portable and satisfying, but their value is increased when they
are soaked in water for some hours and then cooked. But dried raisins,
dates and figs are excellent for eating without other preparation,
while prunes and apples are better after soaking and stewing.




VI

COOKING FISH, MEAT AND VEGETABLES

  The Reason Why in Roasting, Boiling, Baking and Stewing—How to Fry,
  Braise, Grill, etc., and Use of Condiments and Seasoning.


Every one likes to know the “reason why” any particular method is
recommended or pursued, and if we cannot give the correct scientific
explanation of any process used in the kitchen we can at least give the
reason for its being followed. And once we know the reason for a method
we are independent of any necessity for slavish following of other
directions, because success or failure will be the result of right or
wrong in the method, not of a defect in the recipe.

For instance: The principle of Roasting is that of cooking by radiated
heat; Baking is a combination of radiated with air-conducted heat.
Hence roasting is done before an open fire and baking is done in an
oven.


Roasting

The joint should be hung not too near the fire to begin with, in order
that sufficient fat may exude to moisten the surface; after a few
minutes, however, it is brought closer that this moisture may become
encrusted so as to keep in the gravy. The joint is kept moving in order
that it may cook evenly on all sides, and when it is cooked through
steam will be seen rising from it.

Now, in place of having a revolving spit and a roasting jack, a
substitute can be made by forming a sort of cradle for the joint out
of thin wire and suspending this from a nail or hook. It is well to
suspend the wire cradle with a piece of twine from the hook or nail as
twine will revolve with a twist of the fingers, but wire will not. The
fire, whether it is one built on the ground or in a fireplace, must
have burnt through clear red before the joint is placed in front of it.
In the old cottages in Scotland where a wide-throated chimney and open
hearth with flat stone constitutes all the cooking range there is, it
is common to see a big nail projecting from the chimneypiece, while the
joint is tied in a cradle of string and suspended from the nail, on a
level with the hottest part of the fire. Everybody passing by gives a
twist to the string and so the joint moves round and the result when
done is a perfect roast. The fat that drops is caught by a tin set on
the flat stone of the hearth, and a batter mixture poured into this
is baked by the time the meat is ready for eating. It would be quite
possible to manage something of this type in a log-hut kitchen, but in
tent or camp it would be better to bake rather than roast meat.


Baking

In Baking meats—or in baking anything else for that matter—the greatest
heat is needed at first, in order to give the same shock of surprise
that frying gives to anything that is plunged in hot fat. The reason
for this is to form a crust as quickly as possible and prevent the
escape of the juices. An oven that is only just warm will dry the
surface without forming this crust, but one that is thoroughly hot
will bring the juices up to the surface and make a brown coating very
quickly. In the same way pastry or bread will rise when plunged into
good heat, but remain white and heavy if the oven is cool. To know
whether an oven is hot enough for baking it can be tested by spreading
a little dry flour on a piece of tin and putting it in the oven for a
few minutes. If it does not brown the oven is too slow; if it browns
readily it is hot enough for meat. Pieces of thick white paper will
prevent the surface of anything from scorching.

It is usually reckoned that beef and mutton take from twenty to
twenty-five minutes per pound for both roasting and baking; veal and
pork want half an hour per pound, but a fowl or pheasant should not
require longer than fifteen minutes per pound weight.


Paper Coverings

There is great advantage in using a paper wrapping when cooking meat or
fish on hot stones or in a furnace oven. If a paper bag is greased and
folded up tightly it will keep in all the steam and flavour, allowing
nothing to be wasted, and proves a very cleanly way of cooking, and
saves much washing-up and scouring of tins and pans. In true Paper bag
cookery, now much used in gas ovens and English ranges, the bag is made
of a special paper, grease-proof, nevertheless where the right kind of
bag is not available wrapping up in ordinary white paper is much better
than nothing, but always grease the paper first. Shape the paper, or
the bag, so that a hollow forms at the bottom, into which the fat and
gravy collects. This facilitates dishing up, as a cut with a knife will
let this through into a tin held underneath.


Boiling

Now as to Boiling meat. Sometimes we boil it in order to extract all
the goodness as for soup, sometimes for the sake of cooking meat or
fish in this special way. In the first case it should be put over a
slow fire in cold water, and when it has reached the boiling-point be
withdrawn and allowed to cook without boiling again, and cooking a very
long time in this way much improves the flavour of broth or soup. But
when the meat is intended to be eaten, the water into which it is put
should nearly boil when it is first put in with its vegetables, and
then be brought rather quickly to the boiling-point, drawn away, and
kept boiling very gently indeed. Never on any account let it boil fast,
still it must _just_ boil or else the meat will not cook. Fast boiling
ruins the soup and toughens the meat. When rice is added to broth, it
is washed and put in about an hour before the soup is finished; when
barley is put in, it can be added as soon as the broth boils, as it
takes longer to soften. A fair-sized piece of meat with vegetables will
take from two to three hours to boil it well. For Scotch broth the
vegetables are chopped small and the barley and these boiled together
with the mutton.

When boiling fish the water should be at the boiling-point when it is
put in, but only just reach that point, or rather not quite reach it
afterwards. The water should be salted, and a few drops of vinegar will
help to keep the flakes of fish firm. Fish should simmer till the skin
shows signs of cracking, then it is sufficiently done. Fish that is
boiled fast is flavourless and ragged. But a pudding or anything cooked
in a mould may boil as fast as you please.

Some vegetables are better for putting to cook in cold water, others
must have boiling water. Dried vegetables and some potatoes want cold
water, and dried peas and beans want long previous soaking. Green
vegetables and green peas, on the other hand, want plunging into fast
boiling salted water and to be kept boiling fast. Potatoes and some of
the other root vegetables will steam better than they will boil.


Stewing

There is no doubt that Stewing is the ideal way of cooking all tough
meats and old birds. Stews want slow cooking and close covering to keep
in the steam, and need several hours to do them well. A stew should be
mellow and have plenty of gravy. The best plan is to bring the contents
of the stewpan to boiling-point rather quickly, then to set the pan or
jar in a corner of the oven or hearth, where it will have gentle heat
for a long time. Unless it reaches the boiling-point once, however, it
will not start cooking. After it had reached the boil however it could
be set in the Hay-box Oven or in a hole in the ground, and would go on
cooking all right for many hours without harm.

Recipes for different stews are given in the next chapter, but the
principle of making a stew savoury and nourishing and tender is grasped
when we understand that it is necessary to bring it to full heat, that
is boiling-point early, then to let it cook well below that point for
several hours. Tough meat should then become quite tender, and the
gristly pieces soft and glutinous. A little vinegar added to a stew
helps to make the meat tender, and seasoning makes it savoury.

A little vinegar added to a stew of game draws out the flavour, and
likewise some pickle added to one of venison or dried meat greatly
improves it. So, too, does a little red wine.

Fish stews are excellent, and this method of cooking makes very
palatable the coarser kinds of river or pond fish. After being scraped
to free it from scales, and after washing well in water, it should
be dried and cut into pieces of a convenient size, rolled in flour
and sprinkled with salt and pepper, packed into the stewpan with a
little vinegar or the juice of a lemon, and with several small pats of
butter, then covered down closely and stewed for an hour or so. Omit
the vinegar when cooking the more delicate kinds of white fish, adding
only salt and butter, and perhaps a little milk. If liked, a little
grated cheese can be sprinkled over a stew of white fish.

A way of greatly improving a plain stew is to first fry the meat and
vegetables which compose it, frying them sufficiently to brown them,
but not enough to cook them properly; the cooking is done by the
stewing, but the frying gives a savouriness which nothing else can.
Onions and carrots and potatoes fried before they are added to a stew,
for instance, make it very much richer than if put in raw. Rinse out
the frying-pan with boiling water and add this to the stew. Such things
as liver and bacon, kidneys, giblets, etc., should always be fried
lightly before stewing them.


Frying

The object in Frying is to form a savoury and brown crust on the
outside so as to keep in the juices within. Hence, as before said,
a shock of “surprise” is given by plunging the article to be fried
into boiling fat, and cooking it quickly so as to have it juicy and
succulent within. On this account we choose things that do not need
long cooking for cooking by frying methods. Small things like cutlets
and chops, slices of fish and bacon, made up rolls of minced meat, and
so on, and things that we can dip into batter and roll in flour or
breadcrumbs are fried. But we also fry fresh fish that has been split
down the back and laid flat, and small birds which want light and quick
cooking. The pan and the fat must be very hot, and when dry frying
(that is, frying with a pan that is only just rubbed with fat) is
chosen, as for a fried beefsteak, frequent turning over and great care
to do it quickly and yet without scorching, is needed.

Pour off any fat used for frying into a jar containing a little boiling
water. This will clear it and leave it as a cake on the top which can
be lifted off and used several times over.


Braising

Braising is a combination of baking and stewing. Really the
braising-pan should hold hot coals on the top as well as be surrounded
with them, and a tightly-covered vessel set within the ashes of a wood
fire, with embers covering the top, would furnish an ideal braise. It
is a capital way of cooking when there is only the hearth available,
for the piece of meat is put inside the deep pan, with a little fat
but no water, and the cover is put on and fastened down, the whole
thing being smothered in hot ashes or embers. It can be left for some
hours, and may be set aside to become cold before opening the pan. A
large piece of meat braised would take four or five hours to cook well.
A leg of pork, for instance, covered with a little fat taken from the
breast, cooked in this way is delicious; so, too, is a leg of mutton.
The braising-pan may be of iron that is enamelled or merely tinned
inside, or of glazed earthenware. The difference between a braise and
a stew is that for a stew the meat is cut up in pieces, vegetables are
usually added, with seasoning and a little water to make gravy, and
long cooking in a corner of the oven is necessary, while for a braise
the joint is left whole, vegetables are generally omitted and the pan
is buried among the ashes.


Grilling

Grilling or Broiling is a method used for cooking small steaks or
chops; small fish split and laid open; small birds treated the same
way, and requires a very hot red fire, with a grill that is somewhat
like a magnified toaster. The thing that is grilled must be turned over
and over very frequently, to cook both sides quickly and lightly, and
it should be cooked through in a few minutes.

Combinations of cooking methods like frying and stewing, as just
mentioned, give better results sometimes than one method alone. For
example, sausages that are first boiled and then fried are twice as
succulent and savoury as when only fried. A piece of bacon first boiled
then baked is likewise much improved.


Condiments

Salt, which toughens meat if added at the beginning, can be put in just
before the cooking is finished, but meat that has been salted long
enough to preserve it is usually tender after it has been boiled. Salt
arrests decay, and while it toughens the fibres it helps to draw out
the juices, so that its action is helpful in certain conditions and a
hindrance in others. Pepper helps to keep game and poultry sweet, and
gives piquancy to any dish. Sauces and wines should never be added
except at the last moment or their effect is lost. The practice of
adding sauces and much seasoning is not to be commended. The object
of all cooking is to bring out the flavour of the thing cooked, not
to add another to it, except that other flavour is indispensable as a
complement.

A Boiling-pan, a Braising-pan, a Frying-pan and a Stew-pan or
casserole, with a roasting spit, might be considered the full
complement of any kitchen. Less can be made to do, but more would not
really be necessary, unless the more meant, shall we say, a supply of
paper bags?




VII

SIMPLIFIED COOKERY RECIPES


General directions have been given with regard to cooking of meat and
vegetables, making soups, and so on, in the previous chapters, but for
handy reference the colonist will like to refer to the recipe itself as
he wants it and when he wants it.


Soups and Broths

GAMEKEEPER’S BROTH.—Strain off clear about a quart of stock obtained
by stewing the bones of game, poultry or rabbits with any meat bones
available. Brown scraps and trimmings of meat will have made this stock
richer and deeper in colour. Fry till brown a few small onions and
carrots, and in the same fat any scraps of game or meat that seem good.
Add these to the strained stock and mix with the rest of the fat in the
frying-pan a little flour, some pepper and salt, stir up well and thin
with a few spoonfuls of the stock, then add all to the remainder and
boil up once. A little red wine would, of course, make this richer, but
is not necessary.

OX-TAIL SOUP.—Joint the tail and place the pieces in a deep stone jar
with peeled onions, say three or four, as many carrots, and some salt
and pepper. Fill up the jar with water. One tail should make three or
four pints of strong soup. Stew in a corner of the hearth or oven for
four or five hours, and serve a few pieces of meat with the liquor. It
is not necessary to thicken the soup, but if it is preferred so, it can
have a little flour and dissolved butter rolled together and stirred
into the hot liquor gradually, and boiled up once.

SHEEP’S HEAD BROTH.—Wash the head well and put on in a pan with cold
water, a good spoonful of salt, a large cupful of well-washed barley,
some onions and turnips, carrots and leeks if to be had, and a piece
of celery likewise, and boil very gently for at least three hours. Add
cold water always, say two quarts to one head. A little fresh parsley
chopped small will give a very nice flavour to the broth, put in when
cooked.

SCOTCH BROTH.—The neck and other lean parts of mutton make the best
broth, and should be cut small enough to serve a little meat in each
plate. Turnips and onions are cut into small pieces and put in with
the meat in liberal quantity. A little salt and pepper, and some fresh
green peas when in season are added when the rest of the broth has
boiled, and pearl barley, previously washed and soaked in cold water,
is put in with the first vegetables as it takes long to cook. Boil two
hours.

GRAVY SOUP.—Parts of lean beef, such as the shin and tougher pieces of
the leg, with any large bones broken in pieces, make the best gravy
soup. The meat should be cut into pieces and put into a deep jar with
the bones, and just enough water to cover well. Put in a spoonful of
salt and a few peppercorns and leaves of any sweet herbs available, but
no vegetables save one or two onions. Cook very slowly indeed, never
allowing it to boil hard. After cooking about six hours, strain off,
let it get cold to enable any fat to be skimmed off, then warm up as
wanted. It should be a rather deep colour and very strong and clear.

RABBIT OR HARE SOUP.—The bones and larger joints, heads, and so on,
without any blood, of course, are put on to cook in cold water, and
with them put onions and carrots. Cook a long time, then strain and
pick off any nice bits of meat to return to the stock. Mix a large
spoonful of flour with cold water, also a teaspoonful of salt and half
one of pepper, and same of sharp sauce if available. Stir into the hot
liquor and boil up for five minutes.

BEEF BOUILLON.—Take a nice piece of fresh beef, say two or three pounds
weight; put it on in a pan with warm water rather more than enough to
cover it. Bring it up to the boil quickly, and as soon as it boils add
pared carrots and parsnips—no turnips—onions, leeks and celery, as many
as the pan will hold, then let all boil _very gently_ for three hours
or so. The beef and vegetables can be eaten as a dish after the soup
has been taken off clear. The latter is most reviving and appetising as
well as wholesome. The point is not to let it boil hard, and to keep
the broth clear and well-flavoured.

FISH SOUP.—The water in which a large fish has been boiled will make
a foundation for good fish soup, straining it clear then returning to
it flakes of fish carefully picked from skin and bone, and a little
minced onion and parsley. Melt a small pat of butter and stir into
it some white flour till quite smooth, then a little cold milk, and
pour into the stock. Add pepper and salt at discretion, and bring to
boiling-point. Small fresh white fish are sometimes boiled in the
stock till quite soft and the whole strained through a colander, then
finished off as indicated.

POTATO SOUP.—Boil three or four large potatoes after peeling, and when
done mash them down to a pulp; chop finely a large onion and fry it in
butter or lard, but do not let it brown. Dredge a little flour on to
this, then add a teaspoonful of salt and a little pepper and stir up
with the mashed potato, and thin down with milk to make it like cream,
stir well till it boils and serve.

Soak white haricot beans for twelve hours, and then boil them until
they will mash down smoothly, and treat exactly as above, and an
excellent white soup will result.

ONION BROTH.—Peel, slice thinly and boil, several white onions, using
a deep saucepan and enough water to cover them well. When quite tender
and soft stir in half as much milk, and a large spoonful of cornflour
or barley meal, with butter, pepper and salt enough to season well, let
it boil up a minute or two and serve.

Or bone stock can be used instead of water, leaving out the milk.

The water in which ham or bacon has been boiled will make excellent
foundation for peas or lentil soup. Pea flour is less trouble and quite
as satisfactory as using dried peas, but if the latter are preferred
let them soak at least twelve hours before boiling in this liquor. Boil
till soft, then crush through a colander with wooden spoon and season
the puree well, adding a little butter also. If too thick, thin down
with either milk or water, put in a spoonful of fresh mint chopped or
of dried and sifted herbs.

Treat lentils in just the same way, except that they will not need the
previous soaking that dried peas do.

If pea flour is used, mix it well with cold water first, boil the
stock and stir in the paste when it is hot and boil well, stirring
frequently; season and add the herbs or mint as before.

If fresh green peas are used, they need no soaking, only boiling till
very soft, mashing and thinning down with stock.

PUMPKIN OR VEGETABLE MARROW SOUP.—Pare, split down and take out the
seeds from large marrows or from portions of ripe pumpkin. Boil in
enough water to cover well until quite tender, then rub through a
colander. Melt some butter and mix with it a large spoonful of flour,
and stir this into the marrow, thinning down with a little boiling
milk, adding salt and pepper and a spoonful of sugar, a little spice if
liked, and boil till all is smooth as a custard.

TOMATO SOUP.—Cook half a dozen large tomatoes in a little butter, after
cutting them in slices and some slices of peeled onion. Cook till
tender, and rub down with wooden spoon or pass through a colander. Add
enough clear bone stock to make the required quantity of soup, and salt
and pepper, with a teaspoonful of sugar also. Then finally stir in some
butter and flour mixed together to a smooth paste, boil well and serve.

Mixtures of vegetables like turnips, parsnips, artichokes and potatoes,
with onion to make a savoury flavour, make an excellent white soup.
Carrots and tomatoes and onion go well together for a soup that is made
up with bone stock.

It is an improvement in all these soups to use _baked_ flour where
flour is mentioned, as this gives the soup a richer flavour. To make
it, spread a little white flour on a sheet of paper and bake very
slowly in a cool oven, then keep in a tin.


Boiled, Baked and Fried Fish

BOILED FISH (which is never really _boiled_ but is cooked just under
the boiling-point) is done after much the same method, no matter what
the kind of fish. It is better when boiling large fish to wrap them
in a piece of clean calico or muslin as the thinner parts get cooked
before the thicker are done, and with a wrapping it is easier to lift
the fish out without breaking it. Cook in water that is well salted,
and if the fish is a white one, like cod, add a little vinegar to the
water.

Another way of boiling fish is to lay it in a dish with just sufficient
stock—fish stock by preference—to cover it, with a few small onions
round it and a little wine or vinegar added.

After boiling, drain the fish well and serve plenty of nice sauce
separately, and boiled potatoes left whole. A large cod, boiled whole,
with plenty of mealy potatoes and a dishful of parsley or egg sauce
will make an excellent meal.

In boiling portions of fish, like middle cuts, it is better after
draining to take away skin and all bones and then serve it in flakes
masked under a sauce. It is a neater and more appetising way than to
have each one leave a mess of skin and bones on their plate, and a very
pretty dish can be made by sprinkling a little grated cheese or parsley
on the top and browning the dish before serving.

Watch fish carefully while it is boiling, and as soon as it shows signs
of parting from the bone it should be drained. If boiled too long all
its flavour is gone, and if boiled too fast it will be raggy and yet
tough. Small fish like fresh herrings and mackerel, likewise soles and
plaice, all of which are very nice when carefully boiled, should rather
be _poached_, much as one would poach an egg.

BAKED FISH.—The best way of baking any fish is to do it in a paper
wrapping. If the right kind of paper bag is not to be had, wrap it in
white notepaper, having buttered this first and put a little pat of
butter inside with a sprinkle of pepper and salt. Close up tightly and
bake in a rather hot oven and serve in its paper case if possible.
If a large piece of fish is baked in a paper bag the wrapping can
be pulled away when it is safely landed on the dish. Small fish are
delicious when baked in a paper case, and all the flavour is kept in
and the natural juice of the fish as well. This is a clean way of
cooking when the oven is nothing but a flat hearthstone, only care must
be taken that the paper wrapping cannot catch alight.

FRIED FISH.—A clear hot fire is the first consideration when frying
anything, then a clean hot pan, some good fat such as rendered suet
or lard, and not too much of it, and the fish must have been well
dried after cleaning, then rubbed with flour. If cleaned an hour or
two before they will be cooked, the fish should be dipped in milk and
coated with flour, then left to dry, in this way a crust forms on them
which browns quickly when fried, and is little if at all inferior to
the more troublesome method of frying what has been coated with beaten
egg and dipped in crumbs of bread. The rough and ready way of flouring
fish after drying and then frying in hot fat is quite satisfactory
when flavour counts for more than appearance, but you cannot fry fish
_without_ first coating them with dry flour.

Another way is to make a batter with an egg, a little flour, salt and
milk, making it rather thick, and dipping the fish into this, then
putting them at once into hot fat. This, too, is an easy method and
a nice crust forms on the outside of the fish which keeps in all the
flavour.

Flat fish, like soles, flounders and plaice, are the best for frying,
or slices cut across a large fish.

The fat in the pan must be very hot indeed, which is told by a faint
blue smoke rising from it.

GRILLED OR BROILED FISH.—This is the camp ready way of cooking
freshly-caught fish, and very good it is. After cleaning and emptying,
the fish is split down the back, rubbed lightly with oil and laid
on a grid and held over the coals. It wants a little skill to grill
well, and not to burn the fish, but if quickly cooked in this way,
turning frequently on both sides, the result is excellent. Herrings
and mackerel broil well, so do trout and some of the small river fish.
A pat of butter, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and a few drops of
vinegar are all the sauce that is needed.

Sufficient directions for roasting, boiling or braising meat have
already been given, so that we may pass on to savoury dishes, among the
best of which are—


Hotpots

For a LANCASHIRE HOT-POT take about a couple of pounds of lean beef
and as many potatoes and several onions. Cut the beef into small pieces
about an inch square and roll these in flour that has been liberally
seasoned with salt and pepper. Pare the potatoes and cut them in very
thick slices; peel the onions and chop roughly. Make a layer of beef,
onions and potato alternately in a stewpan just large enough to hold
the whole quantity comfortably without leaving much space. Pour in
enough water to barely cover, then put on the lid and set in a moderate
oven for quite two hours, to simmer well but not boil. It should be
very tender and lightly browned on the top. Serve in the same pan. The
flouring of the meat keeps that more tender and makes the gravy richer.

For a HUNTER’S HOT-POT take any game or rabbits, and after cleaning and
skinning, joint them and roll in seasoned flour, then form layers of
rabbit, onion, whole potatoes or pieces of turnip or other sweet roots,
and fill up with warm water, closing tightly and stewing for two to
three hours or even longer. Venison would be good stewed in this way.
Game birds are better stewed without vegetable additions, but with a
little pork or bacon cut in strips and put with them. Flour well all
the same.

For IRISH STEW take the neck and breast of mutton and cut in
convenient sized pieces, flouring well in seasoned flour as before, and
lay in a deep stewpan with whole onions and potatoes, as many as the
stewpan will accommodate. Put in less water, only enough to cover the
bottom well, then lay a plate face downwards on the top before putting
on the cover of the pan, and cook in good oven for three hours. The
plate helps to keep in the steam and to keep the top of the stew from
browning.

For making a Hot-Pot with breast of veal or lamb, as sometimes it is
possible to do in the spring or summer time, the meat is cut in strips
and across in short lengths, is floured and put in a deep jar with
a few very young onions, some herbs like mint and parsley, plenty
of seasoning and a spoonful of vinegar, as well as sufficient water
to just barely cover the whole. The vegetable additions are cooked
separately, although a few boiled green peas might be put into the pot
just before serving.

A VEGETARIAN HOT-POT is very savoury when no meat is procurable, and a
mixture of vegetables, such as carrots, onions, potatoes, turnips and
so on, should be pared, cut into neat rounds and fried well in clear
fat till all are lightly browned, then sprinkle with pepper and salt
and dredge flour over very lightly, put the vegetables in the stew
pan, rinse out the frying-pan with hot water, add just a tablespoonful
of vinegar or sharp sauce, and pour over the rest. Cover down closely
and stew for an hour in the oven. A little American green corn taken
from the husk and put into a vegetable stew makes it very nice.

A bottle of curry powder would be of great assistance to a camp
cook, as a spoonful of this stirred into a stew or a sauce would
make a wonderful difference to the savouriness of the dish, to stews
of mutton especially, and of vegetables without meat. After frying
the vegetables, let the curry powder be stirred into the fat in the
frying-pan and mixed with that and the flour, then a little hot water
or stock added, and just cooked a little before pouring it into
the stewpan. The addition of an apple or a ripe tomato, or failing
everything else a spoonful of vinegar, will give the desirable flavour
of acidity which a curry should have.


Fried Steak and Onions

In making this very favourite dish it is well to remember that the best
results are gained by combining frying and stewing, that is, frying
first and stewing for a short time afterwards. Only so do you get the
mellow flavour and the full savour which frying should give. Thus,
cut the steak into small squares and flour well, then fry in a little,
not much, hot fat, on both sides, rather quickly, so as to brown well.
Then lay the pieces of steak as they are done at the bottom of the
stewpan. While these are being fried a quantity of onions can be peeled
and sliced up, and with a little more fat added they are put into the
frying-pan after the meat is finished. Toss them frequently to brown
lightly all over, and to make them thoroughly tender cover for five or
ten minutes with a plate large enough to fit the frying-pan, and so let
them steam through. Then add to the steak, rinse out the pan with warm
water, add pepper and salt to it, and pour over the onions, cover the
stewpan down closely and set in a corner of the fireplace to simmer
for an hour or so. Then the dish will be found both appetizing and
digestible.


Calf’s Liver, Pig’s Fry, etc.

In frying liver follow the same method as just described for steak,
only cut the liver or the pig’s fry into slices, not too thick, and
flour very thoroughly, frying till just lightly browned. Fry some bacon
afterwards which has been cut into strips, and add to the liver; then
fry the onions as before, season them and add with a little stock to
rinse out the pan, and cover the stewpan and cook for an hour or more
in the corner of oven or fireplace.

When frying Mutton Chops coat them with flour first, as this keeps the
outside from getting dry. Make a nice gravy to go with fried chops by
adding a very little flour to take up the fat in the frying-pan, some
spoonfuls of sharp sauce, salt and pepper and a little stock or water,
boiling this and serving it with them. It takes but a minute or two to
make gravy, and it makes a great deal of difference to the dish and its
value.

After frying anything like bacon or ham it is an improvement just
before it is quite finished to cover it over in the pan with a plate
and let it steam through for five minutes, thus making it very tender.


Toad-in-the-Hole

Beat four tablespoonfuls of flour and two eggs, and a saltspoonful
of salt, together with a little cold milk, adding more milk when the
batter is perfectly smooth, enough to make it like thick cream. Cut
about a pound of beefsteak and one or two kidneys into small pieces,
lay them at the bottom of a well buttered baking dish or pie-dish,
sprinkle with salt and pepper, and then pour over them the batter.
Set the dish in a hot oven, but shield the top to keep from scorching
before the meat is done through. Mutton chops or sausages can be
substituted for the beef and kidney, and mushrooms help to give a nice
flavour. Australian tinned mutton or American corned beef may be used
this way also and make a very savoury dish, though less savoury than
fresh meat, of course, and therefore where cooked meat is used a little
gravy should be made separately and poured over the portions as they
are served. Fresh meat can be lightly fried before covering it with the
batter, to make it more savoury.


Beefsteak, Kidney and Mushroom Pudding

A plain suet crust made with half a pound of beef suet chopped, a pound
of flour and teaspoonful of salt, rubbed together and mixed rather dry
with cold water, then rolled out twice before lining the mould with
it, is the first step towards making this pudding. Grease the mould
well, line it with crust rolled to about half an inch thick, and cut
out a piece for the top to fit exactly. Then proceed to fill with steak
cut into small squares, each one rolled in flour mixed with salt and
pepper, and add a few pieces of ox kidney cut small, and mix with
the meat some peeled mushrooms if these are to be had, or oysters if
these are available, and failing either the pudding will be very good
without them. Fill level with the top, wet the edges of the crust and
pinch down the covering piece, after pouring in sufficient cold water
to nearly but not quite cover the meat. Then tie down with a cloth,
or screw on the cover of the mould, whichever kind of mould is used,
and plunge it into a deep pan of boiling water, and keep boiling very
fast for four hours—certainly not less than three. If making a larger
pudding give it still longer time to boil. The moulds with screw on
covers are much to be recommended, as when using a cloth, however
carefully this is tied over, some of the gravy and goodness of the
pudding is apt to ooze through into the water. Take off the cover, bind
a clean cloth round the mould, and serve, or turn it out into a deep
dish if preferred.

Where mutton is more plentiful than beef, lean parts, chops trimmed
from all fat, and kidneys cut in half, with mushrooms, or without them,
would make another delicious pudding.

Mushrooms alone, plenty of them, liberally sprinkled with pepper and
salt and floured, might be packed inside a mould lined with suet crust,
and a few strips of bacon or salt pork put with them, then boiled for
a couple of hours, and a very savoury pudding would result.

When boiling beef or mutton with vegetables, as before directed, small
balls of this plain suet crust dropped into the broth when it boils
and cooked for an hour or so, are, in the opinion of many people, a
great addition to the dish and certainly help to make it a little more
substantial.

The same crust lines the mould when sliced apples, plums, berries
and wild fruits are used for the filling, with sugar added, and when
boiled this turns out an excellent pudding. Boil always two hours. A
suet crust improves with long boiling, but is not at all good when too
little done.

For a JAM ROLL make the crust in the same way, rolling it out to about
a quarter of an inch thick, in a long strip of ten or twelve inches
wide. Spread with jam, or treacle, with chopped fruits, soaked dried
fruits and syrup, or anything that is available, and then begin at
one end and roll up, not too tightly, pinching down the edges to keep
it compact. Take a cloth, wring it out of hot water, sprinkle lightly
with flour, and place your roll pudding across one corner, fold over
the sides towards the middle, then roll up neatly and securely, but
again not too tightly, as the pudding wants room to swell, fasten
securely, and plunge into fast boiling water, and keep boiling without
intermission for two hours. Unroll from the cloth and serve on hot dish.

A plain boiled suet pudding may be boiled in a cloth, or in a greased
mould tied down, and served with hot treacle or cane syrup, or white
sauce in which some spoonfuls of jam have been boiled, sweet sauce with
wine, and so on, or with the gravy from meat.

The plain pudding may be made richer by adding currants or a liberal
quantity of stoned raisins to it, or mixing with it treacle, marmalade
or jam, and then boiling and serving with sauce.

Golden Pudding is of the same type, but may be called the Sunday
edition of the weekday variety. It is made by mixing the same plain
ingredients with eggs instead of milk or water, adding a little
baking-powder to the dry flour first, then a spoonful of orange
marmalade and two of clear sugar syrup, and after mixing and putting
into a buttered mould this is boiled for two hours and served with a
sweet sauce containing a suspicion of something spirituous—whatever
Sunday rations permit of!

While on the subject of boiled puddings, it will not do to leave out a
recipe for Christmas Pudding, as there may be occasion for the colonist
to make his own some day.

Equal quantities (whatever the weight, this depending upon the size
of pudding required), say, half a pound each of stale crumb of bread
grated finely, flour, suet minced, currants and stoned raisins and
sugar; mix these together first, then add two ounces of candied fruit
shred small, half a packet of mixed spice and teaspoonful of ginger, a
teaspoonful of salt, four eggs and quarter of a pint of brandy or rum.
Mix thoroughly and keep for two or three days before boiling, then put
into moulds and tie over closely, and boil five hours.

To simplify this, leave out the candied fruits and spices, using only
the plainer ingredients and all raisins can be used instead of currants
if preferred. A pound of figs cut very small might take the place of
any other fruit, and the spirituous liquor can be omitted altogether,
using milk in place of it.

Equal quantities, say half a pound, of stoned and chopped raisins, suet
and flour, mixed together with cold milk, and boiled for four or five
hours, make a very excellent substitute for a rich plum-pudding.


Baked Milk Puddings

It is a mistake to put eggs in baked milk puddings, except it be when
a custard is required. A deep dish makes the best puddings of this
type, and the heat at which they are cooked must be only moderate; they
do exceedingly well on the flat stones in front of a fire or in the
hearth after a fire has been swept away, or at the bottom of a clay
oven as mentioned in the early chapters of this book.

Wash whole rice and barley very thoroughly before using, then allow
three large tablespoonfuls of either to each pint of milk used. Roughly
speaking, it is sufficient to cover well the bottom of the dish that is
used. Add sugar and a little salt and spice if liked, then pour in the
milk—cold—and stir up well and set to cook.

Tapioca is done the same way, but is not washed before using. Tapioca
is more nourishing than either rice or barley. Sago makes another
change, and is also very nourishing, and hominy is likewise good,
though it is improved by preparing as ground rice, namely, by boiling
in a saucepan with the milk first, till stiff, and when cool one or two
eggs and a little spice are beaten in and the mixture is poured into a
buttered dish and baked till just brown on the surface.

Macaroni is broken into inch lengths and thrown into boiling salted
water and cooked till just tender, then drained, mixed with one or two
beaten eggs and a little milk, with grated cheese, pepper and salt, or
instead with a little sugar and spice, poured into a buttered dish and
cooked till firmly set.

Or, after boiling till tender, and draining from water, it can be
returned to the saucepan with plenty of butter and grated cheese,
pepper and salt, with either a little cream or some tomato sauce,
and after tossing with a fork cover down and leave to simmer for ten
minutes, then turn out into a dish and eat with a fork.


Batter Puddings

To make a light batter, good either for baking as a Yorkshire pudding,
for boiling to eat with sauce, or for frying as Pancakes, allow to
every egg two large tablespoonfuls of flour, half a saltspoonful of
salt and a breakfast-cupful of milk.

When mixing, break the egg first into a basin, add the salt, then the
flour and a quarter of the milk, then beat well and briskly, so as to
work out all traces of lumps, and gradually beat in the rest of the
milk. A little water as well as the milk makes the batter lighter than
one made with all milk. Increase the proportions according to the size
of pudding or the number of pancakes required.

This batter can be poured into a shallow baking tin containing some
hot fat—for a Yorkshire pudding—and baked rather quickly in hot oven,
or poured into a buttered mould which it will three-parts fill, tied
down and boiled or steamed for two hours, or taken by small cupfuls and
poured into a well-greased frying-pan and turned over as it sets and
browns.


Omelettes

For an omelet the freshest of eggs will be needed, and they are broken
on to a plate, salt and pepper added and not more than a tablespoonful
of milk; this is lightly beaten with the blade of a knife until just
mixed, then poured into the pan, which contains butter that is on the
point of turning brown. Leave to set, then pass a knife round the edge
and underneath, fold one half over the other and slip on to a hot dish.

If a cheese omelet is wanted, add some spoonfuls of grated cheese to
the mixture and cook as just directed.

If minced herbs or mushrooms are added, put the herbs with the eggs,
but cook the mushrooms in a separate pan with some butter, and just
before folding the omelet over slip in the cooked mushrooms between.
Fried giblets and livers and strips of bacon are introduced in the same
way to make another variation.


Cheese and Stale Bread

By grating the bread and cheese and mixing these with an egg, salt and
pepper and just a little milk, the mixture can make a kind of pancake
in the ordinary way, or be baked in a buttered pie-dish in the oven as
a savoury pudding.

Supposing there are some stale crusts and a bit of dry cheese, but no
eggs or butter. Pour a little boiling water, or better still a little
boiling milk, over the crusts in a dish and leave to soften, then put a
little ale or cider into a frying-pan, slice up the cheese very thinly,
lay it in the hot liquor, and while it is getting hot through beat up
the soaked bread with a fork, add a sprinkle of salt and then put all
into the frying-pan and toss up till the whole is thoroughly light and
hot through.

Another way is to pour milk over broken crusts and set these in a dish
inside the oven and when hot to cover thickly with grated or sliced
cheese, salt and pepper enough to season well, and return until just
browned on the surface.

If very dry crusts of bread are dipped in milk and baked between two
plates, then spread with butter and toasted cheese, they make a very
relishable supper.


Using Tinned Provisions

In place of fresh milk condensed milk makes excellent milk puddings,
batter puddings, bread, and so forth. If using the sweetened milk leave
out sugar mentioned in the recipes. Do not add too much water to the
milk.

Corned Beef can be cut into small squares and lightly fried, then
served inside a wall of mashed potato, with a tomato gravy made and
poured over. Or served inside a batter baked in dish as mentioned in
Toad-in-the-Hole.

Make a curry sauce by using some bone stock, or stock made by
dissolving a soup square, adding to it a good spoonful of curry powder
or paste, a little salt and pepper and tomato or Worcester sauce, and a
spoonful of baked flour mixed smooth with dissolved butter. Boil up and
allow to simmer. Fry till very brown some thinly sliced onions, dredge
with seasoning, and fry also slices of corned beef in same pan after
the onions are done. Place all in the curry sauce and leave to simmer
for half an hour, then serve with boiled rice or mashed potato.

Tinned Australian mutton chops can be added to a stew of onions and
potatoes when these have partly cooked, and with plenty of seasoning
make a very palatable Irish Stew.

Tinned Rabbit is improved by having a little curry added to the
gravy after it has been made hot and by cooking it gently to mix the
flavours. Some boiled onions and white sauce accompany tinned rabbit
excellently well.

Tinned Fruits and Vegetables can be made hot and served with cooked
rice or custard sauce, according to what they are, and whether sweet or
savoury. Tinned peas, for instance, and tinned mushrooms, go well with
rice and a curry sauce; tinned tomatoes, cheese, pepper and salt, are
tossed together and fried for a few minutes.


Kitchen Wrinkles

Fill all saucepans with cold water as soon as done with and set aside;
when ready to wash them heat the water and it will be easy to scour
them with soda and sand. Never leave a pan to be dry before washing, as
it will be ten times harder to clean and probably require scraping.

Pour all fat that has been used for frying or baking into a jar
containing a few spoonfuls of boiling water; this clarifies the fat and
causes all crumbs and sediment to fall to the bottom. The fat can then
be lifted off in a cake and used over and over again.

Soup that has been over-salted can be corrected to some extent by
putting in raw potatoes and bringing up to the boiling-point again—not
letting the potatoes break up and spoil the colour of the soup.

Raw potatoes are one of the best preventives of scurvy, and can be
eaten if they are grated, while plain boiled potatoes, eaten hot or
cold, are the best corrective in a diet that contains too much salt
meat.

Sliced raw onions placed about in saucers are excellent disinfectants
where there is infectious sickness about; change at least every day and
substitute fresh onions. Small-pox and other fevers have been kept away
by having onions hanging in the room. Saucers of slaked lime are also
good disinfectants, particularly where there is any damp or bad smell
about.

To take the stains from steel knives clean first with damp earth, then
rub with a cork and some emery powder and methylated spirit, or with
powdered wood ash.


To Boil Rice

Rice is so often badly-cooked that the Black Man’s way of boiling it
may be worth quoting. He says—

“Wash him well; much wash in cold water; rice-flour make him stick.
Water boil all ready, very fast. Shove him in; rice not burn, water
shake him too much. Boil twenty minutes. Rub one rice in thumb and
finger; if all rub away him quite done. Put rice in colander, hot water
run away through; put cold water through him, then put back in pan,
cover him and keep hot, then soon rice all ready. Eat him up.”

       *       *       *       *       *

Vegetables which have strong flavours, such as green cabbage, nettles,
turnip-tops, and so on, should be drained from the first water, then
returned to the pan with fresh boiling water. They will be much more
easily digested if this is done.




VIII

PRACTICAL HINTS FOR THE HANDY MAN


Mosquitos, Gnats and Wasp Stings

When camping out, these troublesome insects can inflict much torture,
and one way of keeping them out of a tent is to hang up a piece of raw
meat outside it for them to settle upon. To paint freely woodwork and
canvas with petroleum and ordinary oil mixed together is another way of
keeping insects at a distance. For the stings themselves, a mixture of
common soda and salad oil mixed together is a great means of allaying
the irritation. Pull out the sting if it is still visible and bathe
with warm water and common salt, then with oil and soda. Rubbing the
body freely with oil or fat is a preventive of insect bites, and it is
said that those who will eat spices freely, particularly cinnamon, will
never be bitten.


Screening Sun-Rays

Where light is wanted yet the sun’s rays must be kept out, of cellar or
room, the best way is to mix whitewash and ordinary blue, coating the
window with this inside. When afraid of sun-rays on the head remember
not only to protect the head itself but also the nape of the neck and
the spine. A thick pleat of something in the lining of the coat or
shirt and high collar are very necessary in order to guard these nerve
centres both from excessive cold and heat.


Roof-Fire Risks

Roofs, more especially those covered with shingles, boards, tarred felt
or any form of thatch, are a source of danger from fire. An excellent
and simple way of protecting them is to run a fairly large pipe,
with small perforations all along its course, along the ridge pole,
connecting it with the house water supply if in town or with the water
cistern in the country. By turning a tap, which should be controlled
from a place easily got at, the pipe is filled with water which escapes
through the perforations and covers the whole roof with a thin sheet of
water. This will extinguish sparks from passing locomotives or a forest
conflagration, and prevent fire from both internal or external heat. In
hot climates the system can be employed for cooling the roof.


Waterproof Putty

A plastic waterproof paste is often useful. It can be prepared by
almost anyone anywhere by taking a piece of ordinary cheese, steeping
it in water until quite soft, then rubbing and kneading it well with
about half its weight of quicklime. With this you can put in panes of
glass, stop up cracks, and make wooden cases waterproof.


Cutting Glass

When without a glazier’s diamond make a stout wire or thin iron rod red
hot and draw a line with it, very lightly, where you want the glass
cut; unless it is very thick glass it will snap off quite easily. And
for opening a bottle that is too tightly corked, instead of breaking
the neck and splintering the glass, take a piece of string and soak it
in turpentine, tie it tightly round the neck of the bottle where you
wish it broken off, then set fire to the string, and the glass will
snap off easily at the heated line.


Rust on Tools

It is not an easy matter to remove rust from tools without damaging
them. Better by far is to preserve your tools from rust. Professor
Olmstead, of Yale College, gave the following recipe for keeping tools
from rusting, which deserves to be more widely known: Melt together six
to eight parts of lard to one of resin and stir till cool. It will
remain semi-liquid. Rub on tools or any polished surface in a very thin
film. It will protect the metal from damp and can easily be rubbed off
again when the article is wanted. The resin prevents the oil or lard
from becoming rancid. When too thick, thin down with benzine.


Re-sharpening Files

Files that are constantly in use soon become clogged and will not work
properly. The material that clogs them should be washed or dissolved
out. Sawdust can be got out by steeping in hot soap-suds. For iron
filings use a very dilute solution of sulphate of copper. For copper
use dilute nitric acid. For zinc dilute sulphuric acid. Use all acids
very weak, then wash well and dry thoroughly.


Nailing Boards

Many people in putting up boards will nail one after the other, making
a complete job of each board. But this is not the right way. First nail
the board down on one side, the starting side, let us say the left.
Next place the second board in position and nail down the left. This
done, nail down the right side of the first board. Now place board
three in position, nail down its left side, then the right side of
board number two, and so on right along. The object of this is to get
the boards close together and so make a compact job of it. They are
practically wedged in close to each other. To obtain the best results
do not drive the nails straight down but at a slight angle, right and
left. Boards nailed thus cannot be shaken loose. But in nailing up
cases that have to be opened again, drive the nails straight in as
that makes lifting up with a screwdriver much easier. To rub nails
and screws with vaseline, a tin of which should always be kept in the
tool-box, makes them much easier to drive in and prevents rusting.


Gates Without Hinges

Hinges are one of the weak points in gates of all kinds, especially
heavy wooden ones that have to undergo much hard wear and tear; they
are apt to break and cannot always be replaced. Say you have a three
or four-barred gate, with vertical bars longer than the horizontal.
The top and lowest bars of the gate must project beyond the horizontal
and should be pierced with round holes. The gate is hung by having its
end post passed through the hole in the lower bar; the top bar is then
placed in position and the top of the gate post passed through its
hole. The intermediate bars are nailed to shorter posts which do not
come higher than the level of the top of the gate. A gate of this kind
will swing easily provided the holes are made large enough.

Another gate is more like the swinging section of a fence, and is
intended to block watercourses which run dry, at certain seasons. On
the other hand if the fence is brought down too low or made too solid
it may be swept away when the water rises. The method is to construct a
string hurdle, planned so as to stop gaps, with a strong and long top
bar. This top bar just rests in bifurcated posts on each bank or side,
the posts forming a sort of V-shaped rest. If necessary, this top bar
can be rivetted to the posts and the bottom of the hurdle weighted with
stones. If not weighted, however, the result is that the watercourse is
fenced over but the hurdle swings when the water rushes through without
being carried away and falls back into position as the stream subsides.


Watches as Compasses

All watches are compasses, and this fact may help any one out of a
difficulty when uncertain of their bearings. All that has to be done is
to point the hour hand to the sun. The south lies exactly between that
point and the hour twelve; thus at six o’clock the exact south will be
found at the point marked three on the dial.

If the way has been lost and bearings cannot be taken either from an
elevation or by a compass or watch, and a watercourse can be found,
follow that downwards; it will at least prevent travelling in a circle,
and most likely lead to some habitation.


Substitute for Coffee

The grains of corn, such as wheat or oats, make an excellent substitute
for coffee if dried and browned on tins over a fire and then bruised
or ground up. So do small beans of the haricot variety. They may be
crushed between stones and then roasted in a pan over the fire, and
boiled with water, the liquor being poured off clear. All raw fruits
and root vegetables like potatoes are preventives of scurvy, and dried
fruits like peaches and apples are excellent sustaining food on a
march, while dried raisins are better than all.


To Make Limewash

Mix quicklime in a bucket with hot water and glue. If for disinfecting
purposes add a little carbolic solution. Care must be taken not to let
a splash get into the eyes, and if by accident it does so, bathe the
eyes at once with warm water and vinegar. The acid neutralises the lime.


To Make Whitewash

Put some whiting into a pail and add powdered dry size. Pour on boiling
water till the mixture is as thick as cream, and to keep it white add
a little common washing blue. A tint of salmon pink or terra-cotta
is obtained by mixing some Venetian red with the whiting. Whiting is
easier and safer to apply than limewash, but is no use for disinfectant
purposes.


Suggestions

Agates are sold for sixpence by tobacconists and can be kept with a
piece of tinder in a little tin box, to use instead of a flint for
procuring a spark from steel.

The burning-glass taken from a telescope and held over tinder in hot
sunshine will cause it to ignite.

Firewood should be looked for under bushes, as the driest and easiest
to light is always found there. Old tree roots make excellent firewood.
Large logs make the best fire when placed transversely and built in
with smaller wood.

When obliged to sleep on the ground scrape a hollow for the hip bone to
rest in and another for the shoulder, then much better rest is obtained.

A piece of mackintosh should always be taken with any rugs, but failing
mackintosh a piece of tarred or painted canvas is excellent for keeping
out damp. Brown paper is an excellent non-conductor of heat, and if
placed between rugs and blankets makes one worth two in warmth. A bag
filled with grass or dry earth makes a good pillow. Thick quilts or
rugs with sheets of wadding quilted in between them are better for
bed-coverings than blankets when camping out, and are lighter to carry.

Take care to keep the extremities warm when in cold climate. Increase
the warmth of knitted woollens by lining them with thin flannel or
silk, and cut the legs from stockings that are worn out at the feet and
use these for covering the arms. Keep the mouth covered if you would
keep warm in keen frosty weather, as this prevents rapid evaporation of
the heat of the body. The Red Indians knew this, and one of them seeing
a white man suffering from cold once remarked to him, “You no keep your
breath warm and so, you cold.”

Much sugar should be consumed in cold climates, and eating sweets
freely is much to be commended. Toffee can be made easily over a
camp fire at night, and is wholesome faring for anyone. Chocolate
is excellent food likewise, and peppermint candies are good for
stimulating digestion and warming the stomach.

A thick dressing-gown is a great comfort in either hot or cold
climates; it can be worn while day clothes are airing or drying and is
a better sleeping dress than night clothes when travelling.

During cold weather, after washing the body, rub well with oil to help
to keep the skin soft and free from sores. A horse-hair flesh glove to
use for a vigorous dry rub is better than too frequent washing in water.

Grease the soles of shoes when much walking has to be done, and a layer
of grease between the foot and shoe is a great preventive of foot
sores. The harder the ground the thicker the socks or stockings should
be.


A Summary of Useful Things

A mincing machine, a small sewing machine, English-made steel knives
(plated knives are in common use in Canada, but they are apt to be
very blunt). Kitchen tools, horn spoons and enamelled plates and cups.
Small pair of bellows. A leather roll containing chisel, gouge, files,
nippers, screwdrivers, gimlet and hand saw, with a few nails and
screws—this is as indispensable as a “Housewife,” although the latter
article must not be left behind. A can-opener and strong clasp-knife,
some strong glue, a shoemaker’s reel of thread and some cobbler’s wax,
and tin of vaseline, are all excellent if not absolutely indispensable.


_Printed by_ BUTLER & TANNER, _Frome and London_.



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