Motor Camping

When preparing the ground for an open fire without a fireplace, see that the ground is cleaned bare for several feet around the spot where the fire is to be built. If the surface soil of the ground is humus or in any way resembling peat, it will be best to dig down to the sand clay or rock underneath. At least go down to clear soil and do not build a fire on ground containing vegetable matter. Fire will creep in some of the lighter forms of loam after a prolonged drought, and the camper must make sure that his fire is built upon ground that will not burn.

Usually there will be no difficulty in kindling the fire unless the weather be wet. In this latter event, particularly in a rainstorm, it may be very difficult to start a fire in the open. If the camper has brought along some short pieces of dry wood which he can whittle into coarse shavings, or if he has along a store of dry pieces of birch bark, he may shelter the spot where he means to start a fire under the skirt of his raincoat, get together a few of the driest pieces of wood that he has, and then piling [102]together under the shelter mentioned some of the shavings, light them and as they start to burn gradually add small pieces of the driest wood, sheltering it until it gets well started. Starting a fire under the circumstances just described will not be easy, and several attempts may fail before success is attained. Making a fire in the wet is an art that must be learned through trial and experience like any other art, and is not achieved easily.

When the weather is fair and the ground dry a fire in the open is easily kindled. If the weather be dry and windy, great care must be taken lest sparks or embers from the fire blow away and start up a fire at a distance. It is surprising how far sparks or small embers will carry on the wind and start fires. The camper cannot be too careful with his fire. When he breaks camp and leaves he should not only see that his fire is out, but he ought to get a pail or two of water and drown out the last possible remaining spark. Unfortunately some campers are very careless with the open fires that they kindle. Because they leave fires that seem to be out when they are not, these fires often burn up again after the camper has gone on his way and spread disastrously. For this reason farmers and foresters look with marked disfavor on all open camp fires.

The wise motor camper will keep his matches in waterproof boxes, and will also use wax matches, [103]or at least those whose stems have been well paraffined. In the absence of matches a cigar lighter can be used to start a fire. A somewhat more difficult method of kindling a fire is to use a steel and flint lighting set. Still more difficult to accomplish is to start a fire the way the Boy Scouts do with two pieces of wood. To do this successfully it will be necessary to get one of those fire-making outfits sold at National Boy Scouts Headquarters. There are many Boy Scouts that can quickly, i.e., within a minute, make a fire with one of these outfits, but the scout is rare indeed who can make his drill from a cottonwood root, get his base of harder wood, gather his punk, string his drill bow, and start a fire with nothing but these implements. If the motor camper wants some real fun out of the process of building his fire let him buy one of the Boy Scout outfits for making fire from wood and try, try, try again until he becomes expert at such fire-making. He will feel as proud as Prometheus bringing fire from heaven.

There are two ways of cooking over an open fire. The pot may be slung over the fire from a hook on a pole, or the pan may be set over the fire, resting upon a support underneath. In the latter way the fire may be confined between two green logs and the pan placed across the logs close to the fire. Or a folding wire broiler may be set across over the [104]fire and the stew pan, camp kettle, or coffee-pot put on the broiler.

The beginner usually makes too big a fire. A very small fire, carefully fed as required, will cook better than a large fire which is apt to make a lot of smoke and blacken and burn everything put over it.

The ingenious and resourceful motor camper can cook a great variety of very appetizing food with almost no utensils to help him, using simply an open camp fire. Any one who has been a boy in the country knows how to roast potatoes in hot ashes. If not careful the potatoes will be burned, but probably not so badly as to entirely spoil them for food. But a burnt potato will not taste bad by a camp fire. Why, after the camper has been out for a week he will almost be able to eat, like, and digest gravel.

If the camper has taken along a few packages of prepared self-raising flour, let him cut a green club about four feet long. Then peel off the bark at one end for about the distance of a foot. Next hold or prop the bare end of this club slant-wise over the fire until it is roasting hot. Take some of the prepared flour and mix it with water into a very stiff dough. Mold this dough into a long strip, and when the club is almost burning hot wrap the strip [105]of dough around it. Replace the club over the fire, turning it now and then to prevent burning, and to get the dough cooked evenly. In fifteen minutes or so—depending upon the heat of the fire—you will have as fine a piece of hot biscuit as any one could wish.

For successful camp cooking one should know how to make fresh breadstuffs, palatable soups, good, nourishing stews, and a few tasty desserts. The camper should know also how to make such beverages as tea, coffee and cocoa; how to broil wild meats and fish of all kinds; how to make flapjacks and fritters without burning them or getting them greasy. Furthermore, the camp cook should know how to serve these things without letting them get cold and indigestible.

Speaking of desserts, here is one that is both palatable and corrective. The last word refers to the need of the camper for food that will be slightly laxative to counteract the effects of the concentrated foods that he is likely to use. Take dried apples, apricots, peaches and prunes—all in a dried condition—soak in water overnight. Mix all together, adding water and sugar. Stew slowly for twenty minutes and you will have a tutti-frutti stew that will give a dessert which the camper will eat with rapturous relish. [106]

The most common way of cooking over a camp fire is to cut two forked stakes or small posts and drive them into the ground far enough away from the fire so as to be in no danger of burning. The crotch of each fork is open to the fire, and in this crotch, which should stand a couple of feet up from the ground, a pole an inch or so through is laid. Over this pole above the fire is placed an iron hook, or a couple of hooks, with which the camper has provided himself at a hardware store before starting forth on his tour. From the lower loop of the hook hang the camp kettle or other utensil for cooking.

The dingle stick is another device sometimes used by the motor camper in cooking over his camp fire. This stick is an inch-thick sapling with one end stuck into the ground and the other end adjusted over the fire to a proper height by two forked stakes. Have brass chains with pot hooks attached to hang from the end of the stick. If there are no chains or hooks use forked, short branches with a notch in the lower end to take the bail of a pail.

Two small logs side by side and two short ones laid across underneath them and a small fire of twigs between the logs will do nicely for cooking emergency rations.

Whatever may be said in favor of stoves and the more artificial methods of preparing food for the motor camper, it must be said that food cooked on the open fire will taste best. But, on the other hand, [107]when it rains pitchforks, the little stove in the tent is a friend in need and a friend indeed.

Besides there are not only the state and national forestry regulations that apply to open fires. In addition to these in some states the counties take a hand in the matter, and in one open fires will be permitted, while in the county adjoining they may be taboo.

The two-burner Theroz kit burns solid alcohol that will not melt, and a thirty-cent can of cubes lasts the two burners about an hour. The heat from Theroz is not quite so hot as gasoline, but it can be put out instantly and what remains unburnt may be put away for the next time. Furthermore, any sort of solid alcohol is absolutely clean and sweet, with no appreciable smell. The fuel alcohol stove that is used in a single burner outfit arranged like a gas range is convenient, although not as safe as solid alcohol, and is hot enough to boil water in seven minutes. Such a stove comes with an alcohol reservoir that holds a quart, and the whole outfit weighs about ten pounds.

Returning to the subject of food for the camper, it will be agreed that the menu is largely a matter of personal taste. But there are certain items which are included in every outfit and which are regarded by all as necessities, no matter how widely personal tastes may differ with regard to other supplies. No one can imagine a camp without coffee, and the smell [108]of boiling coffee is as much a part of the camp atmosphere as the rustle of the leaves among the trees.

A popular custom in the West, where so much camping is done, is to measure the coffee—ground coffee is preferable, thus eliminating the coffee mill—a heaping tablespoon to the cup, and two cups to the person, and to tie it up in double cheesecloth bags. The advantage of this is that the coffee is clear and not so apt to boil over. Besides, any unskilled or hurried cook can measure the water and drop the bag.

In the East prepared coffee is coming to be used in preference to coffee in the bean. There are several kinds of this prepared coffee, such as the Mouquin and George Washington brands, which come in cans and are about equal in price and quality. The only difference in quality is that the former of those mentioned is a little more on the order of “French coffee,” namely, it is a little more bitter. This prepared coffee is somewhat more expensive than coffee in the bean, but all that is required to prepare it for drinking is to take a teaspoonful of the coffee, place this in the cup and fill up with boiling water, adding milk, cream or sugar to the taste.

After coffee come flapjacks. “Add water and bake” sounds good even at home, and out in the woods it has a special appeal. There are a number of prepared pancake flours on the market which make light, nourishing flapjacks.

Another important item is eggs. Plainly, they are not built for roughing it; but taken out of the [109]shell and dried they become an altogether dependable article for the camper. Care should be taken, however, in making a choice of an egg powder, for many substitutes are on the market that never had any relationship to a hen. Real egg powder when cooked can hardly be told from the genuine article made from a fresh egg. It can be scrambled or made into an omelet that will be in every way satisfactory.

Both enjoyment and health require a varied menu for the camper. The numerous wayside markets which may be found every mile or so along the main highways afford the camper an opportunity of picking up a variety of supplies which will serve to diversify the camp menu.

To the average person much of the enjoyment of motor camping will depend upon the quality of the meals that are supplied. If the day be started with a good breakfast of steaming coffee, a rasher of crisp bacon with hot flapjacks and crisp fried potatoes, the day is well begun and everything else is likely to pass off delightfully. But begin with dish-water coffee, lukewarm in temperature, soggy, half-done flapjacks, soft, stringy bacon and limp, greasy potatoes, and the rest of the day will be equally distasteful.

The reason why as a rule a man will make a better camp cook than a woman is because he has [110]had no experience as a cook in the use of modern conveniences. The woman who cooks splendidly in the home, with gas range and electric cooking utensils always at hand, is likely to be lost when out camping in the woods she tries to prepare breakfast with the limited equipment of a camp cooking kit, or a camp fireplace. She is still more in the wilderness as an efficient worker if she has nothing more than an open camp fire to work with. But, man or woman, the camp cook can live and learn, and the simpler and cruder the facilities with which to work the more zest there will be in getting the cooking done well. And food never tastes quite so good as when flavored with a dash of wood ashes and the pungent savor of wood smoke from a camp fire.

A camp meal for a party of three or four is comparatively simple to prepare, and it can be speedily and effectively served as well. It need not be elaborate, but it should be hot. Circumstances oftentimes demand that the whole process of preparing and serving breakfast be brief. When the fish are jumping one had almost rather do without his cup of hot coffee than spend twenty minutes making fire and bringing the water to a boil. But when one learns how, he finds that such delay is not necessary. A substantial breakfast of eggs, bacon and coffee can be prepared in from ten to fifteen minutes, and the fire built, even in the rain, within this time limit. Few motorists know the essentials of a successful fire for cooking. A fire that could be built [111]within the limits of an ordinary soup plate will cook quicker than the bonfire that the motor camper usually builds. What is needed is not a big fire for warmth or for drying out wet clothing.

Three or four cobblestones, bricks or even tin cans will do for a fireplace. If no stones, bricks or even cans are at hand, dig a small hole in the ground. All that is necessary is to find something that will support a skillet or frying pan in a steady and even position. A small fire directly under the skillet will work wonders. There is not much heat, but what there is goes right to the spot where it is needed to do the work. The camper soon learns how to make this small fire, feed it bit by bit, and control it even in rain or wind. To be sure of this little fire under all circumstances it will be advisable for the camper to have along with him a few short pieces of dry wood which can easily be split up. Should rain be falling when the fire is being made these small pieces of split wood can be kept dry as they are being fed to the fire by covering them with a piece of rubber cloth or oilcloth.

With a bright blaze started in this the miniature fireplace, the next thing to do is to heat water for the coffee before the rest of the cooking begins. The skillet being clean and free from grease, the water can be brought to a boil without receiving any taste from its container. A quart thermos [112]bottle should be filled with water, and when the fire has been started the water should be poured into the skillet as it rests on the stones over the fire. In a surprisingly short time the water will be hot and the coffee may be made in the skillet, or if a prepared coffee is to be used, the scalding water may be returned to the thermos bottle to be kept hot until the meal, when it will be added to the prepared coffee in the cup. In either case the hot fluid is returned to the thermos bottle. Using the skillet to heat the coffee water will save much time and insure the coffee being in a steaming condition when needed.

The coffee being made, the hot skillet goes back over the fire to receive the bacon, eggs or whatever else is to be cooked. The skillet can be used with equal success for frying, stewing, boiling, or even for making flapjacks, as required. A surprisingly large variety of dishes may be successfully prepared with this simple cooking utensil. In fact a skillful camper needs only a skillet, and finds all other pots and pans simply burdensome. The skillet will serve all needful purposes in cooking.

When the cooking is done the skillet should be wiped free from grease, filled with water and placed over the fire. By the time the meal is over the water will be sufficiently hot to be used in washing the dishes.

Many people feel unsatisfied and uneasy unless they can sit down to their three square meals a day. In the three square meals are included, as a rule, [113]an oversupply of some food elements and an insufficiency of others. This lack of balance in the diet of the average man has much to do with the various ills to which his body falls heir.

Not a little of the benefit to be derived from a motor camping trip will be the benefit derived from the simple fare that will be had on the camping trip. He will get all the more good from it if the party adopts the Indian plan of two meals a day—breakfast and supper, morning and night.

Some wise motor campers sally forth with hampers stuffed with fruit, sandwiches, grape juice, loganberry juice, lemons, sugar, dates, raisins, nuts, olives, powdered cereal coffee, malted milk, evaporated milk, and salt. A small oil stove and some “canned heat” are included. Fresh eggs, cottage cheese, and vegetables that do not require cooking, like lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes and also fruit, can, as a rule, be bought at farmhouses along the way. Bread may be bought as needed. Whole wheat bread also may be bought in some places, for there is coming to be a demand for this real life-sustaining bread.

Stopping in some attractive place with these supplies, thoroughly sustaining and well-balanced meals can be provided with little work. Eggs may be cooked, and cereal coffee made or hot malted milk prepared. This sort of a menu may not seem like [114]a real HE camplike layout, but it will supply a better balance of diet and in addition to the fresh air that the camper gets will do him a vast amount of good both physically and otherwise.

Such a meal consisting of one or two eggs or cottage cheese, a few nuts, whole wheat bread, olives, lettuce, radishes, tomatoes, apples, pears or peaches, with some dates or raisins, will supply the body’s needs and have as sustaining qualities as meats and rich desserts.

A menu of this description will supply in abundance the iron and lime and other mineral salts, as also the life-promoting vitamines. It will in addition give natural encouragement to bowel activity, and the camper will not have to resort to pills for this purpose.

The change from the usual heavy meals to this simpler and lighter diet will do the average man a world of good.

Then, too, while journeying through the country the motor camper may with profit add to his diet from the green growing things which may be eaten raw. The so-called “raw food fiends” have a degree of fact back of their theory concerning the superior value of raw foods from a nutritive standpoint. Children like to eat the tender young peas that they shell to be cooked for dinner. Most country children like to eat raw turnips, those of the white variety. They also like to nibble tender young carrots, and young sweet corn is sweeter and more tender raw than cooked. Let the motor camper [115]try out these foods in the raw. They can be secured from the farmers along the way.

We are aware that most campers will scoff at these suggestions, but if they will test them it will be found that one of the greatest benefits derived will be the laxative effects of this kind of fare.

Those who look upon the suggestions given above as faddish have already found full instructions for preparing the more conventional fare.

Most vegetables may now be bought in the dehydrated form, and these after soaking in water overnight are almost as good as when fresh and form a most desirable addition to the camp menu. As is well known, they have very little weight, and so a large supply may be carried along.

Many prefer powdered milk to the evaporated form for the camp supply box. A supply of sweet chocolate is taken along by many as a quick and satisfying nutriment.

The amount of food to be taken will vary greatly, twelve or fourteen pounds of all kinds per person per week is usually an ample total.

Recipes. The quantities given are for but two people. When the number is greater, corresponding quantities of materials should be used.

Biscuits. There are many brands of prepared flour which contain baking powder, shortening and other ingredients. These flours require nothing [116]more than the addition of enough water to make a soft dough before baking. The baking may be done in a skillet, by simply placing the dough on the bottom of the skillet after greasing and heating. When done on one side the dough should be turned.

If the camper has a reflector oven or a stove oven, roll out or even pat out with the hand the dough to a thickness of half an inch; then with the top of a baking powder can cut out the biscuits one by one and bake until brown. If there be no baking-powder can at hand the biscuits may be roughly shaped with the hand.

If the flour used is not “prepared,” mix in a pan one pint of ordinary flour with a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder. Add a tablespoonful of fat (butter, lard, or other shortening), half a teaspoonful of salt, and three tablespoonfuls of evaporated milk, putting in also just enough water to make a soft dough. Handle the dough as little as possible. Rub flour on the bread board, or, lacking a board, on the bottom of a pan or any flat surface, and then cut out as above. A knife can be used for cutting if nothing else is at hand. Put into a greased pan and place baker before the fire. If there is a good hot fire, the biscuits will be done in about twelve minutes. Stick in a fork, and if no dough sticks to it when withdrawn the biscuits are done.

Flapjacks may be mixed up as biscuits, but the dough should be thin enough to run. This dough is then to be poured or dipped onto the hot skillet, griddle, or pan, baked until one side is done and then [117]turned with a turner, unless the camper is skillful enough to turn his pancakes by tossing.

The prepared flour is by all odds the best for pancakes because all you have to add is water. But if the camper prefers to do his own mixing let him mix as for biscuit, but in addition put in a tablespoonful of dried eggs. A large spoonful of batter will make a moderate sized pancake.

Corn Bread. The best corn bread is made by taking the old-fashioned whole corn meal, and buttermilk or clabbered milk, with baking soda. All that was necessary was to take a quart of buttermilk, a couple of pinches of salt (according to taste), a teaspoonful of baking soda, and then add the corn meal until there was a thick batter. This was then poured into a deep pan which had been greased and baked for half an hour. The difficulty with this recipe is that the fundamental ingredient is unobtainable. The corn meal that can be bought in stores is almost always a bolted, devitalized stuff that is very unsatisfactory for corn bread. In some rural districts one can, once in a while, come across a country miller who grinds the old-time corn meal. If the camper comes across such an one, let him buy some of this meal and try it out as above.

Here is one of the modern recipes for what is called corn bread. Into a bread pan put one half pint of flour and one half pint of corn meal, thoroughly mixed with a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder, and half a teaspoonful of salt, a dessert spoonful of desiccated eggs, a half teaspoonful of [118]sugar, and a tablespoonful of cold pork fat, lard or vegetable substitute. Add three dessertspoonfuls of evaporated milk and sufficient water to make a thick batter. Stir well, pour into a greased pan and place baker before fire of hot coals.

Corn Meal Mush may be made by pouring slowly into a quart of boiling water to which has been added a half teaspoonful of salt, one cupful of corn meal, stirring constantly. If you wish to avoid its being lumpy, better feed in the corn meal through your fingers, so as to scatter it as it reaches the water.

Fish is best broiled. Rub fat on the grid to prevent sticking. If the fish is large remove head and entrails, split down the back and lay on the broiler with slices of bacon or pork placed across. Pepper and salt to suit taste. To fry small fish, put in pan with plenty of bacon or pork fat. Turn frequently to insure thorough cooking. When done spread with butter and brown for a few minutes. To bake small fish wrap each in wet paper and cover in hot ashes.

Squirrels should be broiled, using only young ones. After skinning and cleaning, soak in cold salted water for an hour. Wipe dry and place on a grid with slices of bacon laid across for basting. To fry old ones, parboil slowly for half an hour in salted water and fry in fat or butter until brown.

Rabbits, after being cleaned and skinned, should have the head removed. Then cut off the legs at the body joint and cut the back into three or four [119]pieces. Parboil in salted water. To stew leave in pot, add pepper, a tablespoonful each of rice and beans and a teaspoonful of dried onions. Add water so that the pieces of meat keep covered and boil until the meat will separate from the bones. To fry, remove from the pot when parboiled, sprinkle the meat with flour and fry in butter or fat until brown. Use only young animals for frying. To roast, remove from pot and place in pan, spread a piece of pork on each piece of rabbit, and baste frequently until done.

Game Birds should first be plucked, then cleaned, singed, and the head and legs removed. To fry, cut into convenient pieces and parboil until tender. Sprinkle with pepper, salt, and flour. Fry in pork fat. When done stir into frying pan a half cupful of flour until dark brown, add some of the liquor in which the bird was parboiled and bring to a boil. Pour this gravy over the bird on the dish. To broil, split the bird up back and place on the grid. Baste with drippings from a piece of pork held above on a stick. Cuts of larger birds like ducks or prairie chickens may be sliced off and held over the coals on sticks. To fricassee, cut into convenient pieces and parboil. When tender, drain off the water and sprinkle the pieces with salt, pepper, and flour. Fry some slices of pork and add to the fat some flour, stirring until brown. Pour into this the liquor in which the bird was parboiled and bring to a boil. Put the pieces of bird in a hot dish and pour the gravy over them. [120]

How to Boil Potatoes. This may seem superfluous, but of a truth most campers do not have much success in boiling potatoes, but get a soggy product which is anything but appetizing.

Peel the potatoes and allow them to stand in water for a short time. Then place the pot over hot coals. When boiling add salt and when the potatoes are done drain off the water thoroughly. Put the pot with the lid on back over the fire for a minute. Then, holding the lid on firmly, shake the pot well, and turn out the potatoes. They will be mealy and delicious. To bake potatoes, wrap each potato in wet paper and place in hot ashes until done, which will be in about half an hour—depending somewhat on the size of the potatoes and the heat of the ashes.

To make mashed potatoes, take a cup of dried (dehydrated) potatoes and a cup and a half of boiling water. Boil and stir for three minutes, and then add a dessertspoonful of evaporated milk. Salt, pepper, and butter to taste. To make potato cakes, prepare as above, add a teaspoonful of flour and form into small cakes. Sprinkle with flour and fry in pork fat.

Pork fat is frequently mentioned in these recipes. A vegetarian will perhaps be better satisfied by using a vegetable substitute.

Baking in Clay where clay is procurable gives satisfactory results. Cover bird or fish drawn, or undrawn, with a coating of wet clay a couple of inches thick. Place in live coals and cover with [121]hot ashes. In about an hour the clay will be baked hard. Crack open lengthwise and remove the meat, which will be tender, well-flavored and juicy. If baked undrawn the entrails should be removed after baking. [122]