"But potatoes take so long to cook--"
"Not the way I"m going to cook them; only ten minutes. You can peel four and slice them very thin, and put them in cold water, and then peel and slice an onion while I open the meat and boil the kettle for coffee.
Then I"ll show you how to make a:"
TEN-MINUTE STEW
4 potatoes, sliced very thin.
1 onion, sliced thin.
1 can of tinned meat (not corned beef).
Salt and pepper.
1 rounded tablespoonful of flour.
1 large cup of cold water.
Put the potatoes on to cook in a saucepan of boiling salted water.
Then put the onion in a hot frying-pan with a tablespoonful of pork or bacon fat, and fry brown. Put the flour in the cold water and stir till it is smooth, and mix this with the onion and stir it up; when the potatoes are done, drain them and add next, and then put in the sliced meat and heat; do not boil.
By the time this was done, the coffee was ready too, and the nice hot stew was served with large cups of the coffee and plenty of bread and b.u.t.ter. With a second cup of coffee and crackers and cheese, their guests had made an excellent supper.
The next morning, Jack got up extra early, because he knew everybody would be anxious to go fishing. So he soon had the kettle boiling and the breakfast started, and cooked it all by himself while the men dressed. The princ.i.p.al dish was:
FRIED SALT PORK
Slice thin and put in a frying-pan with enough warm water to cover; stir it around till the water begins to simmer, and turn this all off and drain the pork. Then fry till crisp. Put this in a hot dish near the fire while you make the gravy.
1 tablespoonful of flour.
2 cups of boiling water.
A little pepper.
Put the flour in the grease in the frying-pan, and rub till smooth and brown; add the water slowly, stirring all the time, and then the pepper; when smooth and a little thick, pour over the fried pork.
With this he had pancakes, plenty of them, which were delicious with the pork gravy, and on these, with plenty of coffee, the men said they could get along very comfortably till dinner-time.
For dinner they had some of the fish they caught, broiled, with boiled potatoes; and, for dessert, corn-cakes and maple-syrup. For supper Jack took the fish left from dinner and made:
FISH-b.a.l.l.s
1 pint of cooked fish, picked up small.
1 quart of hot mashed potato.
1 tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter.
A little pepper.
Beat all together till very light, and make into b.a.l.l.s the size of an egg. Have ready a pail of very hot fat, and drop in two b.a.l.l.s at a time and cook till light brown; take them out; keep hot; and put in two more, and so on.
After this, he had something which had taken a long time to make, but he did not mind it.
FRIED CORN-MEAL MUSH
1 rounded tablespoonful of salt.
1 quart of yellow corn-meal.
4 quarts of water.
Bring the water to a hard boil in a kettle over the fire; mix the meal with enough cold water to make a thick batter (this is to avoid lumps). Drop spoonfuls of the meal into the water gradually, so it does not stop boiling; when all is in, stir steadily for ten minutes. Then put a cover on the pot and hang it high over the fire so it will cook slowly for one hour; stir occasionally so it will not burn; then pack tightly in a pan and let it get perfectly cold and firm. (The best plan is to let it stand all night if you can.) When you wish to use it, slice it, and fry in very hot grease in the frying-pan till brown.
The next day the men left, after saying they had had a fine visit and had never had such good things to eat in camp. Then Jack and his father had a quiet time till the guide appeared once more, his boat full of stores and his pockets crammed with newspapers and letters; and in the end of his boat he had a small sheet-iron stove. That they quickly set up under the edge of the lean-to where, if it rained, it would not get wet and rusty.
"And now, Jack," said his father, rubbing his hands, "you shall taste my baked beans. I may say without boasting that they will be the very best you ever ate in your life. Women may be able to cook ordinary food, but it takes a man to cook beans--and I"m the man!"
Jack laughed, and said he wanted to learn how so he could beat his father making them, and he watched carefully everything that was done.
BAKED BEANS
Pick over a pint of beans and throw away all that are shriveled and poor. Wash the rest and put them in cold water to cover them, and let them stand all night. The next day, put the beans in fresh water and gently cook them half an hour, skimming them occasionally.
In another kettle, put a piece of salt pork as large as a man"s fist; cover it with water and let it cook till the beans are done.
Then drain the water off both, and cut the pork in two pieces; slice each piece part way down, leaving the lower portion solid.
Put one piece in the bottom of an earthen dish, and pile the beans around and over it, and put the other piece on top. Mix
1/2 teaspoonful of salt.
1/4 teaspoonful of pepper.
1 tablespoonful of mola.s.ses or sugar.
1/2 teaspoonful of dry mustard.
Pour this all over the beans and cover the pan; put in the oven, and bake at least two hours; uncover and brown during the last twenty minutes. If the beans get very dry, pour on half a cup of boiling water when they are half done.
"Aha!" said Father Blair, as he put the pan in the oven when they were ready to bake. "Those will be simply fine. Now we could have made them by putting them in a kettle over the fire and baking them so, or we could have buried the kettle in a hole in the ashes; but they are really better done in an oven if one happens to have one. And, anyway, I needed a stove to bake biscuit in, so that"s why I got one. I think we will make some for supper, too, and put them in when the beans come out. The name of the one big biscuit I"m going to make to-night is:"
CAMPER"S BREAD
1-1/2 pints of flour.
1-1/2 rounded teaspoonfuls of baking-powder.
1/2 teaspoonful of salt.
2 rounded teaspoonfuls of any kind of fat (lard is best).
1/2 pint of cold water.
Put the baking-powder and salt in the flour; mix well and then rub in the lard till there are no lumps left and it does not stick to the pan; add the water, a little at a time, and stir with the spoon till smooth. Grease a pan and put the dough in in rather a thin layer; smooth the top and bake, till, when you put in a sliver of wood, it comes out clean. Eat while warm; do not cut, but break into pieces.
"Now I could have cooked this just as I could have cooked the beans, without the oven. I could have put it in the frying-pan in a bed of hot ashes and covered it and put ashes on top and let it cook till done; but it"s better to cook it this way if you can, because it"s lighter and browner. When you want regular biscuits, all you do is to make the dough into little b.a.l.l.s, and be sure you put flour on your hands before you try it, Jack, or you"ll get into an awful mess. And then you put them in the pan and just bake them till they are done."
"I like the big loaf," said Jack. "It"s more like real camp cooking; biscuits are for a house."
"And now we are going to have something extra good to-day--green corn on the cob. I tell you that"s a luxury for campers! How will you have it, boiled or roasted?"
"Both," said Jack, who liked corn immensely.
"Very well, but one way at a time, young man! We will have it boiled this noon, and we will roast it over the coals to-night."
BOILED CORN
Have a deep kettle full of water boiling hard; take off the husks and silk, and boil the ears hard for twenty minutes; serve with b.u.t.ter and salt.