Canoe and Camp Cookery: A Practical Cook Book for Canoeists, Corinthian Sailors and Outers

to cook it. The surest way to avoid lumps is to mix the meal first with cold water enough to make a thin batter, and then pour this batter into the pot of boiling water (slightly salted) very gradually, so as not to stop the boiling process. Sufficient of the batter should be stirred in to make a thin mush, and the latter should then be boiled until it is of such consistency that it will hang well together when taken out with a spoon. The longer it is allowed to boil the better it will be, and if long boiling makes it too thick, add more boiling water. It can be advantageously boiled two hours, but is eatable after twenty minutes' boil. If it is sprinkled into the pot of boiling water dry, do so very gradually and stir it constantly to prevent its lumping. Fried Cold Mush. Cut cold cornmeal mush into slices half an inch thick, and fry on both sides in boiling pork fat or butter. Or, dip each slice into beaten egg (salted), then into bread or cracker crumbs, and fry. If fried in lard add a little salt. Oatmeal Mush. Is made the same as cornmeal mush, but must always be sprinkled dry into the pot of boiling water. Johnnycake. Make a thick batter by mixing warm (not scalding) water or milk with one pint of cornmeal, and mix in with this a small teaspoonful of salt and a tablespoonful of melted lard. Grease your bake-tins (described in Chapter I.) thoroughly with lard or butter, set the Johnnycake batter in one, cover over with the other, and bury the oven amongst the hot coals and ashes of the camp-fire, heaping the coals around it so as to have an equal heat on all portions of the oven. In twenty minutes dig out the oven, open it with the pliers and test the Johnnycake. It should be thoroughly baked in a good fire in from twenty to thirty minutes. If the meal is mixed with scalding water it will be lumpy and difficult to work