HOW TO LAY A GOOD COOKING FIRE
NO matter where the old camper may be, no matter how long a time may
have elapsed since last he slept in the open, no matter how high or
low a social or official position he may now occupy, it takes but one
whiff of the smoke of an open fire, or one whiff of the aroma of frying
bacon, to send him back again to the lone trail. In imagination he will
once more be hovering over his little camp-fire in the desert, under
the shade of the gloomy pines, mid the snows of Alaska, in the slide
rock of the Rockies or mid the pitch pines of the Alleghenies, as the
case may be.
That faint hint in the air of burning firewood or the delicious odor of
the bacon, for the moment, will not only wipe from his vision his desk,
his papers and his office furniture, but also all the artificialities
of life. Even the clicking of the typewriter will turn into the sound
of clicking hoofs, the streets will become canyons, and the noise of
traffic the roar of the mountain torrent!
There is no use talking about it, there is no use arguing about it,
there _is_ witchcraft in the smell of the open fire, and all the
mysteries and magic of the Arabian Nights dwell in the odor of frying
bacon.
Some years ago Mr. Arthur Rice, the Secretary of the Camp-fire Club
of America, and Patrick Cleary, a half-breed Indian, with the author,
became temporarily separated from their party in the Northern wilds.
They found themselves on a lonely wilderness lake surrounded by picture
mountains, and dotted with tall rocky islands covered with Christmas
trees, giving the whole landscape the appearance of the scenery one
sometimes sees painted on drop-curtains for the theatre. Everything
in sight was grand, everything was beautiful, everything was built on
a generous scale, everything was big, not forgetting the voyagers'
appetites!
Unfortunately the provisions were in the missing canoe; diligent
search, however, in the bottom of Patrick Cleary's ditty bag disclosed
three small, hard, rounded lumps, which weeks before might have been
bread; also a handful of tea mixed with smoking tobacco, and that was
all! There was no salt, no butter, no pepper, no sugar, no meat, no
knives, no forks, no spoons, no cups, no plates, no saucers and no
cooking utensils; the party had nothing but a few stone-like lumps of
bread and the weird mixture of tea and tobacco with which to appease
their big appetites. But in the lake the trout were jumping, and it was
not long before the hungry men had secured a fine string of spotted
beauties to add to their menu.
Under the roots of a big spruce tree, at the bottom of a cliff on the
edge of the lake, a fountain of cold crystal water spouted from the
mossy ground. Near this they built a fire while Mr. Rice fashioned a
little box of birch bark, filled it with water and placed it over the
hot embers by resting the ends of the box on fire-dogs of green wood.
Into the water in the birch bark vessel was dumped the tea (and--also
tobacco)!
To the amazement and delight of the Indian half-breed, the tea was soon
boiling. Meanwhile the half-breed toasted some trout until the fish
were black, this being done so that the charcoal or burnt skins might
give a flavor to the fish, and in a measure compensate for the lack of
salt. The hunks of bread were burned until they were black, not for
flavor this time, but in order that the bread might be brittle enough
to allow a man to bite into it with no danger of breaking his teeth in
the attempt.
To-day it seems to the author that that banquet on that lonely lake,
miles from the nearest living human being, was more delicious and more
satisfying than any of the feasts of Belshazzar he has since attended
in the wonder city of New York.
Therefore, when taking up the subject of cooking fire and camp kitchen,
he naturally begins with
THE MOST PRIMITIVE OF COOKING OUTFITS
Consisting of two upright forked sticks and a waugan-stick to lay
across from fork to fork over the fire. Or maybe a speygelia-stick
thrust slantingly into the ground in front of the fire, or perhaps a
saster-pole on which to suspend or from which to dangle, in front of
the fire, a hunk of moose meat, venison, mountain sheep, mountain goat,
whale blubber, beaver, skunk, rabbit, muskrat, woodchuck, squirrel or
whatsoever fortune may send.
CAMP POT-HOOKS
Are of various forms and designs, but they are not the S shaped things
formerly so familiar in the big open fire-places of the old homesteads,
neither are they the hated S shaped marks with which the boys of
yesterday were wont to struggle and disfigure the pages of their
writing books.
If any one of the camp pot-hooks had been drawn in the old-time writing
book or copybook, it would have brought down the wrath (with something
else) of the old-fashioned school-master, upon the devoted head of the
offending pupil. For these pot-hooks are not regular in form and the
shape and designs largely depend upon the available material from
which they are fashioned, and not a little upon the individual fancy of
the camper. For instance the one known as
THE GALLOW-CROOK
Is not, as the name might imply, a human crook too intimately
associated with the gallows, but on the contrary it is a rustic and
useful bit of forked stick (Figs. 60, 61, 62 and 63) made of a sapling.
Fig. 60 shows how to select the sapling and where to cut it below a
good sturdy fork. Fig. 61 shows the bit of sapling trimmed down to the
proper length and with two forks, one at each end. On the upper fork
you will note that one prong is a slender elastic switch. Fig. 62 shows
how this switch may be bent down and bound with a string or tape made
of green bark, and so fastened to the main stem as to form a loop which
will easily slip over the waugan-stick as in Fig. 63. Fig. 62A shows a
handy hitch with which to make fast the bark binding.
When the waugan-stick has been thrust through the loop of the
gallow-crook, the former is replaced in the crotches of the two forked
sticks, as in Fig. 63, and the pot or kettle, pail or bucket, is hooked
on to the lower fork. You will note that the lower fork is upon the
opposite side of the main stick from that from which the switch prong
of the upper fork springs. This arrangement is not necessary to make
the pot balance properly over the fire; the same rule holds good for
all the other pot-hooks.[D]
[Illustration: 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 69A, 70, 71, 72,
73, 74]
THE POT-CLAW
Will be best understood by inspecting the diagrams (Figs. 64, 65 and
66), which show its evolution or gradual growth. By these diagrams you
will see the stick is so cut that the fork may be hooked over the
waugan-stick and the cooking utensils, pots or kettles may be hung over
the fire by slipping their handles into the notch cut in the stick on
the side opposite to the fork and near the lower end of the pot-claw.
This is a real honest-to-goodness Buckskin or Sourdough pot-hook; it
is one that requires little time to manufacture and one that is easily
made wherever sticks grow, or wherever "whim" sticks or driftwood may
be found heaped upon the shore.
THE HAKE
Is easier to make than the pot-claw. It is a forked stick like the
pot-claw, but in place of the notch near the lower end a nail is driven
diagonally into the stick and the kettle hung on the nail (Figs. 67 and
68). The hake possesses the disadvantage of making it necessary for
the camper to carry a supply of nails in his kit. No Sourdough on a
long and perilous trip loads himself down with nails. A hake, however,
is a very good model for Boy Scouts, Girl Pioneers, and hikers of all
descriptions who may go camping in the more thickly settled parts of
the country.
THE GIB
Is possibly a corruption of gibbet, but it is a much more humane
implement. It requires a little more time and a little more skill to
make a gib (Fig. 69) than it does to fashion the preceding pot-hook.
It is a useful hook for stationary camps where one has time to develop
more or less intricate cooking equipment. Fig. 69A shows how the two
forked sticks are cut to fit together in a splice, and it also shows
how this splice is nailed together with a couple of wire nails, and
Fig. 70 shows how the wire nails are clinched.
In a book of this kind the details of all these designs are given not
because any one camper is expected to use them all, but because there
are times when any one of them may be just the thing required. It is
well, however, to say that the most practicable camp pot-hooks are the
pot-claw and the hake.
In making a pot-claw care should be taken to cut the notch on the
opposite side of the forked branch, and at the other end of the claw,
deep enough to hold the handle of the cooking utensils securely.
While the author was on an extended trip in the blustering North land
his party had a pot-claw as crooked as a yeggman, and as knotty as a
problem in higher mathematics. While there can be no doubt that one of
the party made this hoodoo affair it has never yet been decided to whom
the credit belongs--because of the innate modesty of the men no one
claims the honor. This misshapen pot-claw was responsible for spilling
the stew on several occasions, not to speak of losing the boiled rice.
Luckily one of the party was a stolid Indian, one a consistent member
of the Presbyterian church, one a Scout and one a member of the Society
of Friends, consequently the air _was not blue_ and the only remarks
made were, "Oh my!" "Bless my soul!" and "Gee willikens!"
The cook in despair put the wicked thing in the fire with muttered
hints that the fire might suggest the region where such pot-hooks
belong. While it burned and its evil spirit dissolved in smoke, the
Indian made a new pot-claw, a respectable pot-claw with a straight
character, and a more secure notch. This one by its benign presence
brought peace and good will to the camp and showed the necessity of
taking pains and using care in the manufacture of even so lowly a thing
as a pot-claw.
The camp pot-hooks should be of various lengths; long ones to bring
the vessels near the fire where the heat is more intense; short ones to
keep the vessels further from the fire so that their contents will not
cook but only keep warm; and medium ones for simmering or slow cooking.
THE SPEYGELIA
Is not an Italian, but is a long name for a short implement. The
speygelia is a forked stick or a notched stick (Figs. 71, 72 and 73),
which is either propped up on a forked stick (Fig. 71) and the lower
end held down by a stone in such a manner that the fork at the upper
end offers a place to hang things over, or in front of the fire,
sometimes a notched stick is used in the same manner as Fig. 73.
Where the ground is soft to permit it, the stick is driven diagonally
into the earth, which may hold it in place without other support. The
speygelia is much used by cow-punchers and other people in places where
wood is scarce.
THE SASTER
The saster is a long pole used in the same manner as the speygelia.
Meat is suspended from it in front of the fire to roast (Figs. 74½ and
75), or kettles are suspended from it over the fire to boil water (Fig.
74).
TELEGRAPH WIRE COOKING IMPLEMENTS
Many campers are fond of making for themselves cooking utensils
improvised from ordinary telegraph wire. In the old time open
fire-places of our grandsires' kitchen there were trammels consisting
of chains hanging down the chimney on which things were hooked by
short pot-hooks to hang over the fire; there were also rakens made of
bands of iron with holes punched in them for the attachment of short
iron pot-hooks (Fig. 76). With these ancient implements in their
minds, some ingenious campers manufacture themselves rakens and short
pot-hooks from telegraph wire (Fig. 77). By twisting the wire in a
series of short loops, each loop can be made to serve as a place for
attaching the pot-hooks as did the holes in the old-fashioned rakens.
The advantages they claim for the telegraph wire raken are lightness
and its possibility of being readily packed.
[Illustration: 74½, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80]
On one of these rakens one may hook the pail as high or as low as one
chooses (Fig. 78); not only that but one may (Fig. 79) put a small pail
inside the larger one, where later it is full of water, for the purpose
of cooking cereal without danger of scorching it.
[Illustration: 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 88A, 88B, 89, 90]
The disadvantage of all these implements is that they must be toted
wherever one goes, and parts are sure to be lost sooner or later,
whereupon the camper must resort to things "with the bark on 'em," like
the gallow-crook, the pot-claw, the hake, the gib, the speygelia, or
the saster, or he may go back to the first principles and sharpen
the forks of a green wand and impale thereon the bacon, game or fish
that it may be thus toasted over the hot embers (Fig. 80). We do not
put meat _over_ the fire because it will burn on the outside before it
cooks and the fumes of the smoke will spoil its flavor.
According to Mr. Seton, away up in the barren lands they use the
saster with a fan made of a shingle-like piece of wood, fastened with
a hitch to a piece of wire and a bit of string; the wind--when it is
good-natured--will cause the cord to spin round and round. But the same
result is secured with a cord which has been soaked in water to prevent
it from burning, and which has also been twisted by spinning the meat
with one's hands (Fig. 75). Such a cord will unwind and wind more or
less slowly for considerable time, thus causing the meat to expose all
sides of its surface to the heat of the roasting fire in front of which
it hangs. You will note we say in front; again let us impress upon the
reader's mind that he must not hang his meat over the flame. In Fig. 75
the meat is so drawn that one might mistake its position and think it
was intended to hang over the fire, whereas the intention is to hang it
in _front_ of the fire as in Fig. 74. In the writer's boyhood days it
was his great delight to hang an apple by a wet string in front of the
open fire, and to watch it spin until the heat sent the juices bubbling
through the skin and the apple gradually became thoroughly roasted.
THE GRIDIRON
Campers have been known to be so fastidious as to demand a broiler
to go with their kit; at the same time there was enough of the real
camper in them to cause them to avoid carrying unwieldy broilers such
as are used in our kitchens. Consequently they compromise by packing a
handful of telegraph wires of even length with their duffel (Fig. 81),
each wire having its ends carefully bent in the form of a hook (Fig.
82), which may be adjusted over two green sticks resting upon two log
fire-dogs (Fig. 83), and upon the wires, so arranged, meat and fish may
be nicely broiled.
This is not a bad scheme, but the campers should have a little canvas
bag in which they may pack the wires, otherwise the camper will sooner
or later throw them away rather than be annoyed by losing one every now
and then. Figs. 84, 85, 86, 87 and 88 show a little
SKELETON CAMP STOVE
Ingeniously devised by a Boy Pioneer. Two pieces of telegraph wire
are bent into a triangular form (Figs. 84 and 85), and the ends of
the triangle at A are left open or unjoined, so that they may readily
be slipped through the loops in the upright wires, B and C (Fig. 87),
and thus form a take-a-part skeleton stove (Fig. 86). The young fellow
from whom this device was obtained was at the time using an old tin
kerosene-lamp (Fig. 88A) which he forced into the lower triangle of the
stove (Fig. 86), and which the spring of the wire of the triangle held
in position (Fig. 88B).
But if one is going to use the telegraph wire camp stove there is no
necessity of carrying a lamp. The stove is made so that it may be taken
apart and packed easily and the weight is trifling, but a lamp of any
kind, or even a lantern, is a nuisance to carry.
The telegraph wire camp stove, however, may be made by bending the
wires as shown in Fig. 90, but the only object in so doing is to
develop one's ingenuity, or for economy sake, otherwise one may
purchase at the outfitter's folding wire camp broilers for a trifle,
made on the same principle and with legs which may be thrust into the
ground surrounding the fire, as in Figs. 88 and 89, and, after the
broiler is folded in the middle, the legs may be folded back so that
it will all make a flat package. But leaving the artificialities of
telegraph wire let us go back to the real thing again and talk about
laying and lighting a genuine
CAMP COOKING FIRE
The more carefully the fire is planned and built the more easily will
the cooking be accomplished. The first thing to be considered in laying
one of these fires is the
FIRE-DOGS
Which in camp are the same as andirons in the open fire-places of our
homes, and used for the same purpose. But domestic andirons are heavy
steel bars usually with ornamental brass uprights in front and they
would be most unhandy for one to carry upon a camping trip, while it
would be the height of absurdity to think of taking andirons on a real
hunting or exploring expedition. Therefore, we use green logs, sods or
stones for fire-dogs in the wilderness. Frequently we have a back-log
against which the fire-dog rests; this back-log is shown in Fig. 91.
In this particular case it acts both as a back-log and a fire-dog. In
the plan just above it (Fig. 92), there are two logs side by side which
serve the double purpose of fire-dogs and for sides of the kitchen
stove (Fig. 93). Fig. 94 shows
THE LAY OF A ROASTING FIRE
Sometimes called the round fire. The back is laid up log-cabin style
and the front is left open. In the open enclosure the fire is built by
sticks being laid up like those in Fig. 91. The logs on all three sides
radiate the heat and when the meat is hung in front of this, suspended
from the end of the saster (Fig. 74½), it is easily and thoroughly
roasted.
THE CAMP-FIRE
Is built with an eye to two purposes: one is to reflect heat into the
open tent in front, and the other is to so construct it that it may
last a long time. When one builds a camp-fire one wants to be able to
roll up in one's blanket and sleep with the comforting conviction that
the fire will last until morning.
The camp-fire is made with two fire-dogs pushed back against a back
log (Fig. 95A and B), which form the foundation for the camp-fire. Two
upright green sticks C (Fig. 95) are placed in a slanting position and
supported by other sticks, D (Fig. 95), the top ends of which rest in
notches cut in C stick at E (Fig. 95), and the bottom ends of which are
thrust into the ground. Against the upright sticks C, and the logs F
are heaped to form the back of the fire. The fire is then built on the
two fire-dogs AA, and against the F logs, the latter will burn slowly
and at the same time reflect the heat into the open tent front. This
same fire is sometimes used for a baking fire, but the real fire for
this purpose is made by the
BELMORE LAY
Figs. 96 and 97. The first sketch shows the plan and the second the
perspective view of the fire. The stove is made by two side logs or
fire-dogs over which the fire is built and after it has fallen in, a
mass of red hot embers, between the fire-dogs, two logs are laid across
the dogs and one log is placed atop, so that the flame then comes up
in front of them (Fig. 97) and sends the heat against the bread or
bannock.
[Illustration: 93, 94, 95, 96, 97]
At a convenient distance in front of the fuel logs, a waugan-stick is
placed, reaching from one fire-dog to the other.
In wilderness work the frying pan is about the only domestic utensil
carried and is used as a toaster, a baker, a broiler, a fryer, and a
stew pan all combined. In it the Buckskin man and the Sourdough make
their bread, and after the bread has been baked over the coals on the
bottom, it is browned nicely on its top by tilting the pans in front
of the fire and resting their handles against the waugan-stick (Fig.
97). I have seen the baking fire used from British Columbia to Florida,
but it was the explorer, Captain Belmore Browne, who showed me the use
of the waugan-stick in connection with the baking fire, hence I have
called this the Belmore Lay.
A FRYING FIRE
Is built between two logs, two rows of stones, or sods (Figs. 98, 99
and 100); between these logs the fire is usually built, using the sides
as fire-dogs, or the sticks may be placed in the turkey-lay (Fig. 100),
so that the sticks themselves make a fire-dog and allow, for a time,
a draught until the fire is burning briskly, after which it settles
down to hot embers and is in the proper condition for frying. For be it
known that too hot a griddle will set the grease or bacon afire, which
may be funny under ordinary circumstances, but when one is shy of bacon
it is a serious thing. The
ORDINARY BAKING FIRE LAY
Is shown by Fig. 101. In this instance, the frying pans being used as
reflector ovens are propped up by running sticks through the holes in
their handles.
THE AURES
Is a rustic crane made exactly of the same form as are the cranes of
the old-fashioned open fire-places, but ingeniously fashioned from a
carefully selected green stick with two forks (Fig. 102). The long end
of the main branch is severed at A (Fig. 102), care being taken not to
cut through the green bark, B (Fig. 102). The bark of the latter, B, is
then bent over the stub, A (Fig. 102), forming a loop, C (Fig. 103),
which is lashed with green bark to the main stick and slipped over the
upright, D (Fig. 104). The fork at E braces the crane and holds it in
a horizontal position, resting on a stub left on D for that purpose.
How practicable this thing may be depends altogether upon the time and
skill one has at one's disposal. One would hardly use the Aures for a
single night camp, but if one were to spend a week in the same camp, it
would be well worth while and at the same time very interesting work
to manufacture a neat Aures crane for the camp kitchen. The next step
in camp kitchen fires will include what might be termed the pit fires,
which will be described in the following chapter.
You have been told how to select the firewood, make the kindling and
start a fire in the preceding chapter on how to build a fire; all you
have to remember now is that in certain particulars _all_ fires are
alike; they all must have _air_ to breathe and _food_ to eat or they
will not live.
In the case of the fire we do not call the air breath, but we give
it a free circulation and call it a draught. Wood is the food that
the fire eats and it must be digestible, a fire with indigestion is a
fire fed with punky, damp wood carelessly thrown together in place of
well-selected dry split wood which the fire can consume cleanly, digest
evenly, and at the same time give out the greatest amount of heat.
[Illustration: 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104]
To produce a draught the fire must, of course, be raised from the
ground, but do not build it in a careless manner like a pile of
jack-straws. Such a fire may start all right, but when the supporting
sticks have burned away it will fall in a heap and precipitate the
cooking utensils into the flames, upsetting the coffee or teapot, and
dumping the bacon "from the frying pan into the fire."
Be it man, woman, boy or girl, if he, she or it expects to be a
camper, he, or she or it must learn to be orderly and tidy around
camp. No matter how soiled one's clothes may be, no matter how grimy
one's face may look, the ground around the camp-fire must be clean,
and the cooking utensils and fire wood, pot-hooks and waugan-sticks,
all orderly and as carefully arranged as if the military officer was
expected the next minute to make an inspection.
All my readers must remember that BY THEIR CAMP-FIRE THEY WILL BE KNOWN
and "sized up" as the real thing or as chumps, duffers, tenderfeet and
cheechakos, by the first Sourdough or old-timer who cuts their trails.
FOOTNOTE:
[D] The pots will balance better if the notches are on the same side.