To buy in large quant.i.ties at wholesale and pay for the order within ten days is economy. To ship by boat and not by rail, when possible, also saves money. To have a dry, well ventilated store room and an ice room is to save still more. It is possible and feasible to order before camp opens, the necessary dry groceries and canned goods to be used in a camp of 150 during a period of four to five weeks, and to care for same in a comparatively small s.p.a.ce.
The amounts needed can be computed from the amounts necessary for a family of four or six. In fact, the knowledge necessary to provide properly for a family under ordinary circ.u.mstances is of the greatest help in providing for a camp be it large or small. There are many good cook books which specify quant.i.ties for given numbers of people; knowing these, the numbers of campers to be fed per day, the amounts in which various kinds of dry provisions are sold at wholesale, gives one the key to the situation. By making out roughly a week"s menus, a close estimate can be made.
Cereals, flours and meals can be bought by the sack and range in weight from 50 to 100 pounds. Sugar can be bought by the bag or barrel, the latter being better because it is cleaner. Navvy beans, to be used for baking, are sold in bags, 150 or 160 pounds in a bag. Baking powder is bought in 5-lb. tins. Cocoa is bought in 25-lb. drums. Macaroni comes in 22-lb. boxes. Peanut b.u.t.ter in 10-lb. pails. Crisco comes in 6-lb. cans; mola.s.ses in No. 10 tins, 6 tins in a case; tomatoes in No. 10 tins, 6 in a case; apple b.u.t.ter in 30-lb. pails; cod fish in 20-lb. boxes; soap, 1 case of 100 bars; b.u.t.ter in 63-lb. tubs; eggs in a case of 30 dozen; prunes, apricots, peaches in 25-lb. boxes; raisins in 25-lb. boxes; cheese, 30 lbs. (whole cheese); split peas in 60-lb. bag; vanilla in pint or quart bottles; salt, 25-lb. bag; corn starch, 1 package of 2 dozen boxes; soda, cinnamon, nut meg, ginger, pepper and mustard to be bought in small quant.i.ties as needed.
Fresh milk, if obtained from a dairy, is delivered in 40-qt. cans. A quart and a cup per person per day is a good allowance for drinking and cooking purposes. If fresh milk is not obtainable, or can be had only in small quant.i.ties, a good brand of evaporated milk should be kept on hand.
Fresh vegetables are bought either by the pound, bunch, quart, peck or bushel. In so far as is possible they should be cooked the day they are delivered. If, however, it is necessary to buy vegetables at one time for two or three days" supply, use first such things as spinach, peas, beans and corn, for cabbages, carrots, beets, tomatoes and squash are more easily kept and are not so impaired in flavor by keeping.
If fresh meat or chicken is to be served it should be cooked the day it is delivered, or kept on ice until such time as it will be needed. Fresh fish should be handled with great care and not allowed to remain off the ice for any length of time. There are so many wholesome subst.i.tutes for meat that it seems entirely unnecessary for campers to have meat more than once or at most twice a week. In the summer time, it is very heating, and also the meat which is obtainable in small communities is very often not the best quality, to say nothing of being very expensive.
An occasional pot roast of the top of the round, or a roast of lamb, or a piece of corned beef can be used. Fresh fish when obtainable and well cooked is always most acceptable.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE WEAVERS]
Canned meat and canned fish are not recommended.
Care of Provisions
All bags of cereal, meals or flour should be placed in covered barrels, boxes or tubs stood on a platform raised from the floor. Boxes of dried foods such as fruit, cod fish and so forth should be stacked, each kind in a pile and placed on the platform. All tinned goods should be taken out of their cases and laid on shelves. b.u.t.ter, crisco, eggs, peanut b.u.t.ter, apple b.u.t.ter, and so forth, should be kept in the ice house.
Cheese should be wrapped in cheese cloth wrung out in vinegar and kept in a box on a shelf in the store room, not in the ice box.
The handling of fresh milk is something which should be done with great care. After opening a large can, the milk should be stirred with a long ladle which reaches to the bottom of the can. The quant.i.ty of milk needed should be taken out and put in a pitcher. For dipping out the milk use a dipper which has been sterilized by placing it in boiling water and cooled by allowing cold water to run over it. This dipper should not be used for any other purpose than taking milk from the large can and when not in use can hang in the ice room. Milk cans should always be kept covered and no milk which has once been taken out of a can should ever be poured back into it. What is left from the table should be put in a pitcher and stood in the ice house to be used for cooking. Milk which is handled in this way and which comes from a first cla.s.s dairy will keep sweet for three days. It is not essential to keep fresh vegetables in an ice house. If the tops are cut off, vegetables can be kept in baskets in the store room. Under no circ.u.mstances should anything hot or even warm be put into the ice box, as the steam which arises from the combination of cold and heat will decompose food very quickly, or cause it to sour. Anything that is hot and needs to be cooled before placing in the ice box should be covered with cheese cloth kept for the purpose and stood on the store room shelves.
Bread, if bought from a bakery, can be kept in a barrel or on shelves and covered with cheese cloth. The sandwich loaves are recommended as they cut to better advantage in the bread cutter, and are more economical in the long run. These loaves weigh about three pounds apiece and cut into from 40 to 45 slices.
Ice cream salt should not be kept in the store room, but in a half-barrel or tub outside of the kitchen door. Salt causes dampness, which is not desirable. The bag of table salt should stand in a tub or box of some kind. Fruit, especially tomatoes and peaches, should be watched closely as little flies are apt to collect on them.
It is most essential that the store room be swept, the shelves brushed, and everything not of use removed from it every morning. This is true with the care of an ice box or room. Not a day should pa.s.s that it is not thoroughly inspected and all that is not usable removed from it, and the room left in a perfectly clean, wholesome condition. The ice compartment should be washed out two or three times a week before the fresh ice is put into the box.
Do not buy more perishable food than can be properly taken care of and used within a day or two. Watch it closely, pick it over each day and throw out any part which shows signs of decay.
Do not neglect to replenish the larder before supplies are out, as transportation is slow. Do not forget that large quant.i.ties take much more time to cook than small quant.i.ties. Many times meals are not served on time for this reason.
Make a point of weighing, measuring and apportioning. It is economy to do so.
Nail a card in the kitchen on which is given the quant.i.ties of those things which are used constantly and the number of people each quant.i.ty will supply: sugar, b.u.t.ter, bread, cereal, cocoa, dried fruit.
Buy only what is needed and can be properly stored. The second grade of many foods is as good as the first in taste, and as nourishing. It costs less, and many times simply because it is not perfect in size or uniformity.
To buy in bulk is less expensive than to purchase boxed or tinned goods.
This rule for campers pertains particularly to cereals, crackers, meals, flours, sugar, cocoa, raisins, etc.
When buying fresh fruits, vegetables or meat, take advantage of the market, even if it means a quick change of menus. A surplus means low prices.
Having bought what is the best or the best that can be afforded, do not spoil it in the preparation, cooking or serving. A deplorable condition exists in many homes and doubtless camps as well, because the art of provisioning from first to last is not better understood.
The Girl Scout camps must prove that thrift and good food go hand in hand; also that in every department related in any way to our food, which is of such importance to health and happiness, the most approved methods are used.
2. CAMP MENUS AND RECIPES
The condition of one"s health is probably more dependent on what one eats than on any other single thing. Certain foods are necessary to keep the body in good physical condition and certain combinations of foods are not only better for the body but more pleasing to the palate than others. There is a psychology of food which, if studied, is interesting, and which, if applied, is most helpful. How many times _quant.i.ty_ has not satisfied an appet.i.te when _quality_ has. Living in the open creates an appet.i.te, generally for quant.i.ty rather than quality; but this is no reason why the latter should be overlooked.
The facilities for cooking and preparing food for obtaining variety are limited, and for this reason the deficit must be made up in other ways.
Cereals, fats, liquids, fresh vegetables, fruits and sweets are necessary, and a little meat may be added. Starchy foods are used for bulk and should include the cereals, such as rice, hominy, oatmeal, shredded wheat, cornmeal and macaroni, and potatoes.
For fat, b.u.t.ter of the _best_ quality should be used on the table, and crisco for cooking. Liquids, fresh milk, the best that can be obtained, cocoa and plenty of pure water; fresh vegetables, any and all kinds procurable; those which are camp standbys are string beans, beets, carrots, spinach, peas, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, cuc.u.mbers, lettuce.
Fresh fruit, if not too expensive, as it is in some parts of the country, is desirable; otherwise dried fruits must be used--apricots, peaches, prunes, apples. It is sometimes possible to secure fresh berries.
_Lamb_: For small groups buy a leg or hind quarter of lamb for roasting, the shoulder for stews, chops for broiling. For a large group, buy whole lambs and cut at camp; 40 or 50 pounds is enough for one meal. Before cooking, wipe off with a damp cloth and rub with salt.
_Beef_: A pot roast is best. Use the top of the round which can also be used for roasting or making meat pies. Twenty-five or thirty pounds for a pot roast is sufficient for 130 people. When buying beef make sure that it is not too fresh, for it will be tough; also, the fibre should not be coa.r.s.e. The meat should be deep red in color and juicy.
For soup, buy shin beef.
_Fowl_: Chickens are too expensive for camp use. Fowl properly cooked are very nice. Buy those that are fat and yellow in color. Four pounds will serve five campers. Cut the meat from the bones before serving and use the bones for soup.
_Fish_: Fish must be fresh or it is not fit even to be cooked. It should be firm and look fresh. Small fish, cod, halibut or special fish in special localities are good for camp use.
_Sweets_: Simple desserts, such as bread pudding, rice pudding, cottage pudding, apple pudding, Indian pudding, corn starch, blanc mange, ice cream, apple b.u.t.ter and jam, sherbets, chocolate pudding, ginger bread and cookies are used; of course, raw sugar and syrup in moderate quant.i.ties.
_Meat subst.i.tutes_: Baked beans, cheese, eggs.
_Soups_: Soup is wholesome, economical and, when well made, palatable.
It is particularly good on cold days for supper. Vegetable soups without meat, and cream soups are the best for campers.
Save the water in which vegetables have been boiled for making soup; that drained from rice, potatoes, spinach, peas or string beans is best.
The rice water may have added to it tomatoes and seasoning. To potato and spinach water, add milk, thickening and seasoning.
_Breads_: Serve rye bread, whole wheat, graham, corn bread and a limited amount of white bread; too much of the latter is not healthful.
_Menus_: A menu is merely a combination of a few of the above-listed foods prepared in a variety of ways. Do not serve two starches at the same time, or two creamed vegetables, or a starch and vegetables without a sauce or gravy. Bread of some kind, a liquid and a fat are served with every meal. For breakfast there should be cereal, and if desired a stewed fruit, perhaps eggs in some form, but they are not necessary.
Dinner should include one starch, two fresh vegetables and a dessert, or, fish, a starch, one green vegetable and a dessert; or, meat, two vegetables and a dessert; or a meat subst.i.tute, a vegetable, and a dessert. For supper, fresh or stewed fruit, plenty of milk if possible, a sweet, and either cheese, peanut b.u.t.ter, a salad or a soup.
CAMP FOODS