Canoe and Camp Cookery

PREFACEA book in the writer's possession, entitled "Camp Cookery," contains the following recipe:"Boiled Green Corn.-Boil twenty-five minutes, if very young and tender. As it grows older it requires a longer time. Send to the table in a napkin."The writer of the above is a good housewife. She cannot conceive that anybody will attempt to boil green corn who does not know such rudiments of the culinary art as the proper quantity of water to put into the pot and the necessity of its being slightly salted and at a boil when the corn is put in, instead of fresh and cold; and, like the careful cook that she is, she tells the camper to send the ears to the camp "table" in a "napkin."The faults of the above recipe are the faults of all recipes furnished by the majority of books on out-door life. They do not instruct in those rudimentary principles of cooking so important to the outer who has eaten all his life no food except that furnished him ready for instant despatch; and they commend to the camper dishes that require materials and utensils for their preparation which are seldom at hand in the field and forest.The object of this little volume is to give to the Corinthian cruiser and the camper some practical recipes for simple but substantial dishes, in such a manner that the veriest novice in the art of the kitchen may prepare palatable food with no more materials and paraphernalia than are consistent with light cruising and comfortable camping. The first part, "Canoe Cookery," instructs in such dishes as the limited outfit of the canoeist or camper who "packs" his dunnage afoot will admit of, while the second part, "Camp Cookery," deals with the more elaborate menu that can be prepared when ease of transportation will allow the carriage of a more extensive supply.Few of the recipes given are original with the compiler. Some have been obtained from trappers and hunters, others from army and navy cooks, and a few from cook books; but all have been practically tested in camp or on a cruise by the writer, whose pleasure in out-door cooking is only equalled by his delight in out-door life.