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Cavewoman Breads, Dumplin's and Mush
THE BREAD PROBLEM has become as nothing in a modern family. No one thinks about the constant miracle of the loaves that appear on the table at every meal, and plenty of housewives, competent to feed their households well, have never made a loaf of bread, or even a batch of biscuits.
In trailer and organized cabin-camping, weekend cruising, or any other outdoor living in communication with stores, there is no more lack of bread than at home. But just as soon as one is well away from the source of supply, the bread difficulties multiply almost in geometrical proportion with the distance, especially if the supplies must be packed, brought by canoe, horseback, or other difficult means. Once in the wilderness the crying need is breadbread-bread-three times a day. Always presuming there is flour, baking powder, and salt, with corn meal for variety, half the battle is won if there is also an oven, which presupposes an oil stove and a supply of kerosene. This is baking luxury indeed, for such an oven turns out not only perfect breads, but a constant variety, if recipes are at hand. A folding aluminum reflector baker will do wonders, too, in baking biscuits and all sorts of small breads, even cakes and pies, by reflected heat before the campfire (costs $7 and weighs 3 pounds). Even the Dutch oven borrowed from the home kitchen offers many possibilities for baking. The aluminum Dutch oven also weighs 3 pounds but it isn't much good for breads, and the proper iron one, which is indispensable for a permanent camp but impossible for tripping, weighs 11-12 pounds.
The camper with only primary equipment and far away from civilization is the fellow most up against the bread problem for he must either learn to make ash cakes, skillet biscuits and such, or eat pancakes every meal.
From long experience in camps of all kinds we consider the bread question one of the most important, hence we have tried to include at least one recipe for each different kind of camp, and variety for luxury outfits.
Baking Hints-When, and if, the camp cook needs them. 1. With a one or two-burner alcohol or kerosene stove, you might just as well lug along a portable oven to put on top of it. Folding ones, made especially for camping, are quite reasonably priced and easy to transport. Incidentally, all such ovens will work beautifully over a charcoal fire pot if oven is set on a grill or otherwise arranged so that the draft of the fire is not interfered with. And they will also bake if set on 4 corner stones for legs over a good bed of hardwood coals which you will be able to keep at a steady heat at least 12 minutes to turn out biscuits or cookies. Your chief trouble will be to have the heat just right. If you are not enough of a cook to judge the temperature of your oven by thrusting your bare fist into it for a second, it is best to take along a little oven thermometer, the kind that hangs from the oven rack. And here is the check list for it:
Slow oven. 250°-325° (custards, sponge cakes, meringues) Moderately slow.325°-350° (sponge cakes, soufflés, meringues) Medium oven. 350°-375° (layer and loaf cakes, cup Moderately hot. 375°-400° Hot 400°-450° cakes, drop cookies, baking powder loaf bread, and to finish the baking of pies) (sliced and rolled cookies) (corn breads, muffins, yeast breads and sour dough; also to start pies) Very hot. .....450°-500° (baking powder biscuits, potatoes, pastry) But if you have forgotten an oven thermometer, or dropped it in the lake, the old wives' flour test can always be tried until you get the hang of how big a flame you need to make the required temperature. Sprinkle a very little flour in a dry pan, set it in your oven, and leave it there exactly 5 minutes. If the flour turns tawny, tan, or very light brown, the oven is slow. If it turns a golden brown, the oven is medium. If it turns dark brown, the oven is hot. A very hot oven will turn the flour dark brown in only 3 minutes. 2. A folding oven, generally called a reflector oven, that is set up before a fire and cooks by reflected heat, is easy to handle, for one can see exactly how fast everything is baking and can move it nearer or farther from the fire, as may be necessary while the baking is going on. In fact it is fun to use such an oven for that reason, and one learns a lot from watching the process besides. We once had a local tinsmith make us a tin one from a rough diagram we drew. He charged us very little and we baked hundreds of biscuits and much corn bread in it over several seasons in Floridabut it didn't fold, and was a bit of a nuisance to carry. All Scouts and Campfire Girls now know how to make a reflector oven out of a 5-gallon gasoline can. As in all other serious campfire cooking, the fire must be well established with plenty of hot coals. The wind must carry the heat toward the reflector oven, but remember that if the wind is too high, it will carry ashes as well. The oven should be set up long enough to heat its sides, and for you to judge if it is the right distance from the fire-try the flour test described above until you have some experience. If you need to add wood while baking is going on, put it underneath the coals of the fire so it will burn without flaming up. 3. The secret of turning out skillet and Dutch oven breads lies in having plenty of ashes and hot coals, without any flame. Corn meal is easier to manage than flour, for primitive corn breads do not rise; and quick breads, usually of wheat flour, must have the tricky baking powder which requires a high even temperature, hard to maintain without scorching the crusts. If you are carrying only an aluminum or sheet iron frying pan, both of which conduct heat much more rapidly than an iron skillet, then you must be all the more careful to keep your bed of coals within bounds. Each one of these utensils has its own ornery cantankerousness that you conquer only after stooping over it dozens of times. A new frying pan, skillet, or Dutch oven will always give trouble anyway, until it is broken in. So give this part of your equipment some service at home before trying to camp with it-at least cook off the badsmelling varnish that's put on to protect the shiny new look of pans.
Grease the outside well before starting to use over the campfire. Then it will always be easy to wipe the ashes and soot off with grass and leaves. 4. Baking pans for the oven should be greased with butter if you wish to be sure of a crisp under crust. But Dutch ovens and frying pans for campfire baking should be greased with fat or bacon grease, for butter will cause crusts to burn more easily. 5. Have fire or oven ready, pans greased, everything in order for quick action before starting to mix baking powder breads, for the dough will lose lightness every second it has to stand around waiting. 6. Take good care of all materials used for baking, for they spoil in camp much more quickly than at home.
Make sure the baking powder can is tightly screwed down after each using. And keep salt in an airtight tin or jar.
Transport and keep flour and corn meal in watertight containers. Some years ago the father of one of us Browns was out for two weeks with a hunting party that carried its flour in the original cloth sacks stowed in panniers hung from both sides of a packsaddle. The hunters started to ford a deceptive stream and suddenly the horses were swimming. The flour sacks got well drenched, and the party had to camp at once to bake up all the flour before it should spoil. They made nearly two weeks' supply of biscuits, which grew harder and more flinty as the days passed. But flour must not only be kept from getting wet. It must be guarded against the dampness of ordinary outdoors. Take out of the container only enough flour for a meal and close up the container quickly. Many a recipe does not work in camp or on a small boat because the flour is already too damp to accept the liquid supposed to go with it.
Double care is required for all prepared flours containing baking powder. Pancake mixes, biscuit mixes, gingerbread mixes, etc. quickly lose their lightness after exposure to air or dampness.
For short time camping, paraffined food bags will do and are cheap. For repeated use, there are more expensive moisture proof cloth bags and transparent "sealsacs" with zippers. All of these are sold by camping outfitters.