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

time or utensils, and these methods will be given here. Plain Baked Fish. Dig a hole in the ground eighteen inches deep and large enough to contain the fish; build a fire in it and let it burn to coals. Remove the coals, leaving the hot ashes in the bottom, on which place a thick layer of green grass. Put the fish on the grass, cover with another layer of grass; then rake back the coals and loose earth and build a small fire on top. In an hour the baking will be complete, the skin will peel off and leave the flesh clean. A fish prepared this way need not be scaled, but only disembowelled, as the scales will come off with the skin after it is cooked. Stuffed Baked Fish. Only a large fish should be cooked in this manner, as it is hardly worth the trouble to stuff a small fish. Prepare a stuffing of bread or cracker crumbs, with enough butter or lard to make the mixture moist. Season with pepper and salt, and chop up with it one onion, and a little summer savory or sage, if desired. Clean and wipe the fish dry, put in the stuffing lightly and then sew up the opening. Lay the fish in the bake-kettle or Dutch oven, rub it all over with butter or lard and dredge it with flour, meal or some of the dry crumbs left over from the stuffing. Or, lay thin strips of fat salt pork or bacon on the top. Pour a little boiling water into the bottom to prevent the fish adhering, close the bake-kettle and put it into the fire among the hottest coals. In a very hot oven it should be done in forty minutes. Remove the bake-kettle several times before it is done to baste it. When cooked, serve with the following Fish Gravy. Put the bake-kettle back on the fire after the fish is removed; stir into the gravy left, gradually, two tablespoonfuls of flour. Let it boil up once, season with pepper and salt, and pour over