Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts Part 58

Dessicated eggs, concentrated soups.

Powdered milk.

Wheat flour, cornmeal, etc., macaroni.

Rice, oatmeal, hominy, etc.

Dried beans, split peas.

Dehydrated vegetables.

Dried dates, figs, raisins.

Orange marmalade, sugar, chocolate.

Nuts, nut b.u.t.ter.

"Although this table is good in its way, it is not a fair measure of the relative value of foods. Even the solid part of some foodstuffs contains a good deal of refuse (potatoes 20 per cent), while others have none.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIVE QUART PAIL TO NEST CANS]

"_Nutritive Values_--The nutritive elements of foodstuffs are protein, a little mineral matter, fats, and carbohydrates. Protein is the basis of muscles, bone, tendon, cartilage, skin and corpuscles of the blood. Fats and carbohydrates supply heat and muscular energy. In other words, the human body is an engine; protein keeps it in repair; fats and carbohydrates are the fuel to run it.

"Familiar examples of proteids are lean meat and white of egg. The chief food fats are fat meat, b.u.t.ter, lard, oil and cream. Carbohydrates are starchy foods (flour, cereals, etc.) and sugar (sweets of almost any kind).

"The problem of a well-balanced ration consists in supplying daily the right proportion of nutritive elements in agreeable and digestible form.

The problem of a campaign ration is the same, but cutting out most of the water and waste in which fresh foods abound. However, in getting rid of the water in fresh meats, fruits and vegetables we lose, unfortunately, much of the volatile essences that give these foods their good flavor. This loss--and it is a serious one--must be made up by the camp cook, changing the menu as often as he can by varying the ingredients and the processes of cooking.

"_Variety_ is quite as welcome at the camp board as anywhere else, in fact, more so; for it is harder to get. Variety need not mean adding to the load. It means _subst.i.tuting_, say, three 5-pound parcels for one 15-pound parcel, so as to have something 'different' from day to day.

"_Digestibility_--We must bear in mind the adage that 'we live not upon what we eat but upon what we digest.' Some foods rich in protein, especially beans, peas, and oatmeal, are not easily a.s.similated, unless cooked for a longer time than campers generally can spare. A considerable part of their protein is liable to putrefy in the alimentary ca.n.a.l, and so be worse than wasted. An excess of meat or fish will do the same thing. Other foods of very high theoretical value are constipating if used in large amounts, as cheese, nuts, chocolate.

"_Food Components_--Let us now consider the material of field rations, item by item.

"_Bacon_--Good old breakfast bacon worthily heads the list, for it is the campaigner's standby. It keeps well in any climate, and demands no special care in packing. It is easy to cook, combines well with almost anything, is handier than lard to fry things with, does just as well to shorten bread or biscuits, is very nutritious, and nearly everybody likes it. Take it with you from home, for you can seldom buy it away from railroad towns. Get the boneless, in 5 to 8 pound flitches. Let canned bacon alone; it lacks flavor and costs more than it is worth. A little mould on the outside of a flitch does no harm, but reject bacon that is soft and watery, or with yellow fat, or with brownish or black spots in the lean.

"_Smoked Ham_--Small ones generally are tough and too salty. Hard to keep in warm or damp weather; moulds easily. Is attractive to blow-flies, which quickly fill it with 'skippers' if they can get at it.

If kept in a cheesecloth bag and hung in a cool, airy place a ham will last until eaten up and will be relished. Ham will keep, even in warm weather, if packed in a stout paper bag so as to exclude flies. It will keep indefinitely if sliced, boiled or fried and put up in tins with melted lard poured over it to keep out air. * * *

"_Canned Soups_--These are wholesome enough, but their fluid kinds are very bulky for their meager nutritive value. However, a few cans of consomme are fine for 'stock' in camp soups or stews, and invaluable in case of sickness. Here, as in canned meat, avoid the country grocery kind.

"_Condensed Soups_--Soup powders are a great help in time of trouble--but don't rely on them for a full meal. There are some that are complete in themselves and require nothing but 15 to 20 minutes'

cooking; others take longer, and demand (in small type on the label) the addition of ingredients that generally you haven't got. Try various brands at home till you find what you like.

"_Cured Fish_--Shredded codfish and smoked halibut, sprats, boneless herring are portable and keep well. They will be relished for variety's sake.

"_Eggs_--To vary the camp bill of fare, eggs are simply invaluable, not only by themselves, but as ingredients in cooking. * * *

"When means of transportation permit, fresh eggs may be carried to advantage. A hand crate holding 12 dozen weighs about 24 pounds, filled.

"Eggs can be packed along in winter without danger of breakage by carrying them frozen. Do not try to boil a frozen egg; peel it as you would a hard-boiled one and then fry or poach.

"To test an egg for freshness, drop it into cold water; if it sinks quickly it is fresh; if it stands on end it is doubtful; if it floats it is surely bad.

"To preserve eggs, rub them all over with vaseline, being careful that no particle of sh.e.l.l is uncoated. They will keep good much longer than if treated with lime water, salt, paraffine, water-gla.s.s or any of the other common expedients.

"On hard trips it is impracticable to carry eggs in the sh.e.l.l. Some campers break fresh eggs and pack them in friction-top cans. The yolks soon break and they keep but a short time. _A good brand_ of desiccated eggs is the solution of this problem. It does away with all risk of breaking and spoiling and reduces bulk very much. Desiccated eggs vary a great deal in quality, according to material and process employed.

Desiccated eggs made of the yolks are merely useful as ingredients in cooking.

"_Milk_--Sweetened condensed milk (the 'salve of the lumberjacks') is distasteful to most people. Plain evaporated milk is the thing to carry--and don't leave it out if you can practicably tote it. The notion that this is a 'baby food' to be scorned by real woodsmen is nothing but a foolish conceit. Few things pay better for their transportation.

It will be allowed that Admiral Peary knows something about food values.

Here is what he says in _The North Pole_: 'The essentials, and the only essentials, needed in a serious Arctic sledge journey, no matter what the season, the temperature, or the duration of the journey--whether one month or six--are four: pemmican, tea, s.h.i.+p's biscuit, condensed milk.

The standard daily ration for work on the final sledge journey toward the Pole on all expeditions has been as follows: 1 lb. pemmican, 1 lb.

s.h.i.+p's biscuit, 4 oz. condensed milk, 1/2 oz. compressed tea.'

"Milk, either evaporated or powdered, is a very important ingredient in camp cookery.

"_b.u.t.ter_--This is another 'soft' thing that pays its freight.

"For ordinary trips it suffices to pack b.u.t.ter firmly into pry-up tin cans which have been sterilized by thorough scalding and then cooled in a perfectly clean place. Keep it in a spring or in cold running water (hung in a net, or weighted in a rock) whenever you can. When traveling, wrap the cold can in a towel or other insulating material.

"If I had to cut out either lard or b.u.t.ter I would keep the b.u.t.ter. It serves all the purposes of lard in cooking, is wholesomer, and beyond that, it is the most concentrated source of energy that one can use with impunity.

"_Cheese_--Cheese has nearly twice the fuel value of a porterhouse steak of equal weight, and it contains a fourth more protein. It is popularly supposed to be hard to digest, but in reality it is not so if used in moderation. The best kind for campers is potted cheese, or cream or 'snappy' cheese put up in tinfoil. If not so protected from air it soon dries out and grows stale. A tin of imported Camembert will be a pleasant surprise on some occasion.

"_Bread Biscuits_--It is well to carry enough yeast bread for two or three days, until the game country is reached and camp routine is established. To keep it fresh, each loaf must be sealed in wax paper or parchment paper (the latter is best, because it is tough, waterproof, greaseproof). Bread freezes easily; for cold weather luncheons carry toasted bread.

"_Hardtack_ (pilot bread, s.h.i.+p biscuit) can be recommended only for such trips or cruises as do not permit baking. It is a cracker prepared of plain flour and water, not even salted, and kiln-dried to a chip, so as to keep indefinitely, its only enemies being weevils. Get the coa.r.s.est grade. To make hardtack palatable toast it until crisp, or soak in hot coffee and b.u.t.ter it, or at least salt it.

"Swedish hardtack, made of whole rye flour, is good for a change.

"Plasmon biscuit, imported from England, is the most nutritious breadstuff I have ever used. It is a round cracker, firm but not hard, of good flavor, containing a large percentage of the protein of milk, six of the small biscuits holding as much proteid as a quarter of a pound of beef.

"_Flour_--Graham and entire wheat flours contain more protein than patent flour, but this is offset by the fact that it is not so digestible as the protein of standard flour. Practically there is little or no difference between them in the amount of protein a.s.similated. The same seems to be true of their mineral ingredients.

"Many campers depend a good deal on self-raising flour because it saves a little trouble in mixing. But such flour is easily spoiled by dampness, it does not make as good biscuits or flapjacks as one can turn out in camp by doing his own mixing, and it will not do for thickening, dredging, etc.

"Flour and meal should be sifted before starting on an expedition. There will be no sieve in camp."

"_Baking Powder_--Get the best available powder, put up in air and damp-eight tins, so that your material will be in good condition when you come to use it in camp. Baking soda will not be needed on short trips, but is required for longer ones, in making sour-dough, as a steady diet of baking-powder bread or biscuit will ruin the stomach if persisted in for a considerable time. Soda also is useful medicinally.

"_Cornmeal_--Some like yellow, some prefer white. The flavor of freshly ground meal is best, but the ordinary granulated meal of commerce keeps better, because it has been kiln-dried. Cornmeal should not be used as the leading breadstuff, for reasons already given, but johnnycake, corn pancakes, and mush are a welcome change from hot wheat bread or biscuit, and the average novice at cooking may succeed better with them. The meal is useful to roll fish in before frying.

"_Breakfast Cereals_--These according to taste, and for variety's sake.

Plain cereals, particularly oatmeal, require a long cooking, either in a double boiler or with constant stirring, to make them digestible; and then there is a messy pot to clean up. They do more harm than good to campers who hurry their cooking. So it is best to buy the partially cooked cereals that take only a few minutes to prepare. Otherwise the 'patent breakfast foods' have no more nutritive quality than plain grain; some of them not so much. The notion that bran has remarkable food value is a delusion; it actually makes the protein of the grain less digestible. As for mineral matter, 'to build up bone and teeth and brawn,' there is enough of it in almost any mixed diet, without swallowing a lot of crude fiber.

"Rice, although not very appetizing by itself, combines so well in stew or the like, and goes so well in pudding, that it deserves a place in the commissariat.

"_Macaroni_--The various pastes (pas-tay, as the Italians call them) take the place of bread, may be cooked in many ways to lend variety, and are especially good in soups which otherwise would have little nouris.h.i.+ng power. Spaghetti, vermicelli, and noodles all are good in their way. Break macaroni into inch pieces and pack so that insects cannot get into it. It is more wholesome than flapjacks and it 'sticks to the ribs.'

"_Sweets_--Sugar is stored-up energy, and is a.s.similated more quickly than any other food. Men in the open soon get to craving sweets.

"Maple sugar is always welcome. Get the soft kind that can be spread on bread for luncheons. Syrup is easily made from it in camp by simply bringing it to a boil with the necessary amount of water. Ready-made syrup is mean to pack around.

"Sweet chocolate (not too sweet) has remarkable sustaining power.

"When practicable, take along some jam and marmalade. The commissaries of the British Army were wise when they gave jam an honorable place in Tommy Atkins' field ration. Yes: jam for soldiers in time of war. So many ounces of it, subst.i.tuted, mind you, for so many ounces of the porky, porky, porky, that has ne'er a streak of lean. So, a little current jelly with your duck or venison is worth breaking all rules for.