Camp Vegs
EVERY CAMPER KNOWS beans and every camp cookee knows his onions, and maybe his garlic, so we'll not go into this subject beyond our depth by suggesting that too much of a good camp dish like canned beans flavored with wild onion is plenty and it had better be varied by a can of those delicious bean sprouts we learned to like from the chop suey tossers. Or try a semi-fresh veg such as wilted lettuce by just pouring on some bacon grease and a spot of vinegar; or a more elaborate: 6 SLICES BACON, CHOPPED 1/4 CUP VINEGAR
More a camp cook's argument than a formal recipe, but the wilted-lettuce method inside it works exactly as described and needs only a few notes.
- CookeeCamp slang for the cook, or the cook's assistant on a larger outfit. "Knows his onions" is period idiom for competence, not an instruction.
- The hinge: the grease must be hotWilted lettuce fails when the fat is merely warm. Render the bacon, then pour the fat over the leaves while it is still sizzling so it collapses them on contact; add the vinegar to the hot pan first if you want the dressing to spit less.
- Proportions for the simple versionThe recipe gives none; a common modern ratio is two to three tablespoons of bacon fat to one of vinegar for a large head of leaf lettuce, though the book's own listed amounts (six slices of bacon to 1/4 cup vinegar) are far more sharply acidic than that. Cider vinegar suits it better than distilled white.
- Use a soft lettuceLeaf, butter or romaine hearts wilt properly. Iceberg turns watery rather than tender, and modern bagged salad mixes are too fine-cut to survive hot fat.
- Wild onionForaged alliums are easy to confuse with death camas and other toxic lookalikes, which grow in the same ground and lack the onion smell. If there is any doubt about identification, use a scallion or a dry onion from the pack.
- Canned bean sproutsWidely stocked in the mid-century and now scarce. Drain and rinse them; fresh mung sprouts are common in supermarkets and want no more than a minute in hot fat.
- BaconModern supermarket bacon is generally wetter and leaner than the dry-cured pork and salt pork common in camp outfits of the period, so it renders less fat. Six slices may give only about three tablespoons; start with eight if you want dressing to spare.