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.