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.