Part 19
Pots and Kettles.--Cooking apparatus of any degree of complexity, and of very portable shapes, can be bought at all military outfitters'; but for the bush, and travelling roughly, nothing is better than a light roomy iron pot and a large strong tin kettle. It is disagreeable to make tea in the same pot that meat is boiled in; besides, if you have only one vessel, it takes a longer time to prepare meals. If possible, take a second small tin kettle, both as a reserve against accidents and for the convenience of the thing. An iron pot, whose lid is the size of the crown of a hat, cooks amply enough for three persons at a time, and can, without much inconvenience, be made to do double duty; and, therefore, the above articles would do for six men. An iron pot should have very short legs, or some blow will break one of them off and leave a hole. Iron kettles far outwear tin ones, but the comparative difficulty of making them boil, and their great weight, are very objectionable. A good tin kettle, carefully cherished (and it is the interest of the whole party to watch over its safety), lasts many months in the bush. Copper is dangerous; but the recipe is given, further on, for tinning copper vessels when they require it. Have the handle of the kettle notched or bored near the place where it joins the body of the kettle, so as to give a holding by which the lid may be tied tightly down; then, if you stuff a wisp of grass into the spout, the kettle will carry water for a journey.
Damaged Pots.--A pot or kettle with a large hole in its bottom, filled up with a piece of wood, has been made to boil water by burying it a little way in the earth and making the fire round it. A hole in the side of a pot can be botched up with clay or wood, so as not to leave it altogether useless.
Substitutes for Pots and Kettles.--It is possible to boil water over a slow fire in many kinds of vessels that would be destroyed by a greater degree of heat. In bark, wooden, skin, and even paper vessels, it is quite possible to boil water. The ruder tribes of the Indian Archipelago use a bamboo to boil their rice: "The green cane resisting the fire sufficiently long for the cooking of one mass of rice." (Crawfurd.) If, however, you have no vessel that you choose to expose to the risk of burning, you must heat stones and drop them into the water it contains; but sandstones, especially are apt to shiver and make grit. The Dacota Indians, and very probably other tribes also, used to boil animals in their own hide. The description runs thus: "They stuck four stakes in the ground, and tied the four corners of the hide up to them, leaving a hollow in the middle; three or four gallons of water, and the meat cut up very fine, were then put in; three or four hot stones, each the size of a 6-lb. cannon-shot, cooked the whole into a good soup." To a fastidious palate, the soot, dirt, and ashes that are usually mixed up with the soup, are objectionable; but these may be avoided by a careful cook, who dusts and wipes the stones before dropping them in. The specific heat of stone is much less than that of water, so that the heating power of a measure of stone is only about one-half of that of an equal measure of equally hot water.
Graters are wanted to grate jerked meat. A piece of tin, punched through with holes, then bent a little, and nailed to a piece of wood, makes a good one.
Sieves.--Stretch parchment (which see) on a wooden hoop, exactly as on a drum-head; let it dry, and prick it with a red-hot iron, else punch it full of small holes.
Plates, to carry.--I have travelled much with plates, knives, forks, etc., for three persons, carried in a flat leather case like a portfolio, which hung from the side of the cook's saddle, and I found it very convenient. It was simply a square piece of leather, with a large pocket for the metal plates, and other smaller ones for the rest of the things; it had a flap to tie over it, which was kept down with a button.
Cups.--Each of the men, on a riding expedition, should carry his own tin mug, either tied to his waist or to his saddle. A wooden bowl is the best vessel for tea, and even for soup, if you have means of frequently washing it: tin mugs burn the lips too much. Wooden bowls are always used in Thibet; they are cut out of the knots that are found in timber.
Spoons.--It is easy to replace a lost spoon by cutting a new one out of hard wood, or by making one of horn. (See "Horn.")
Fireplaces for Cooking.--The most elementary fireplace consists of three stones in a triangle, to support the pot. If stones are not procurable, three piles of mud, or three stakes or green-wood driven into the earth, are an equivalent. Small recesses neatly cut in a bank, one for each fireplace, are much used, when the fuel is dry and well prepared. A more elaborate plan is to excavate a shallow saucer-like hole in the ground, a foot or eighteen inches in diameter, and kneading the soil so excavated into a circular wall, with a doorway in the windward side: the upper surface is curved, so as to leave three pointed turrets, upon which the cooking-vessel rests, as in the sketch. Thus the wind enters at the doorway, and the flames issue through the curved depressions at the top, and lick round the cooking-vessel placed above. The wall is sometimes built of stones.
Trenches and Holes.--In cooking for a large party with a small supply of fuel, either dig a narrow trench, above which all the pots and kettles may stand in a row, and in which the fire is made--the mouth being open to the wind, and a small chimney built at the other end;--or else dig a round hole, one foot deep, and place the pots in a ring on its edge, half resting on the earth, and half overlapping the hole. A space will remain in the middle of them, and through this the fire must be fed.
Esquimaux Lamp.--The cooking of the Esquimaux is wholly effected by stone lamps, with wicks made of moss, which are so carefully arranged that the flame gives little or no smoke. Their lamps vary in size from one foot and a half long to six inches. Each of the bits of moss gives a small but very bright flame. The lamp is all in all to the Esquimaux; it dries their clothes, and melts the snow for their drinking-water; its construction is very ingenious; without it they could not have inhabited the arctic regions.
Ovens.--Bedouin Oven.--Dig a hole in the ground; wall and roof it with stones, leaving small apertures in the top. They make a roaring fire in and about the oven (the roof having been temporarily removed for the purpose), and when the stones (including those of the roof) have become very hot, sweep away the ashes and strew the inside of the oven with grass, or leaves, taking care that whatever is used, has no disagreeable taste, else it would be communicated to the flesh. Then put in the meat: it is a common plan to sew it up in its own skin, which shields it from dust and at the same time retains its juices from evaporating. Now replace the roof, a matter of some difficulty, on account of the stones being hot, and therefore requiring previous rehearsal. Lastly, make the fire again over the oven and let the baking continue for some hours. An entire sheep can be baked easily in this way. The same process is used for baking vegetables, except with the addition of pouring occasionally boiling water upon them, through the roof.
Gold-digger's Oven.--The figure represents a section of the oven. A hole or deep notch is dug into the side of a bank, and two flat stones are slid horizontally, like shelves, into grooves made in the sides of the hole, as shown in the figure; where it will be observed that the uppermost stone does not quite reach to the face of the bank, and that the lower-most stone does not quite reach to the back of the hole. A fire of red-hot embers is placed on the floor of the hole; and the bread about to be baked is laid upon the lowermost stone. Lastly, another flat stone is used to close the mouth of the oven: it is set with its edge on the floor of the hole: it leans forward with the middle of its face resting against the front edge of the lowermost stone, a narrow interval being left between its top and the edge of the uppermost stone. This interval serves as a vent to the hot air from the embers, which takes the course shown in the figure. The oven should be thoroughly heated before the bread is put in.
Baking between two stones.--For baking slices of meat or thin cakes, it is sufficient to lay one large stone above another with a few pebbles between, to prevent them from touching. Next make a large fire about the stones until they are thoroughly hot; then sweep away the embers, and insert the slices.
Ant hills as Ovens.--Where there are no stones of which ovens may be built, and where there are old white-ant hills, the natives commonly dig holes in the sides of the ant hills and use them for that purpose.
Clay Ovens.--I have heard of a very neat construction, built with clay, in which grass had been kneaded. A fire was lit inside, to dry the work as it progressed; while the builder placed rings of clay, in tiers, one above the other, until a complete dome was made without mould or framework. Time was allowed for each ring to dry sufficiently, before the next one was added.
Baking beneath a camp fire.--A small piece of meat, enough for four or five people, can be baked by simply scraping a tolerably deep hole under the bivouac fire; putting in the meat rolled in the skin to which it is attached, and covering it with earth and fire. It is a slow process of cooking, for it requires many hours; but the meat, when done, is soft and juicy, and the skin gelatinous and excellent.
"Meat, previously wrapped up in paper or cloth, may be baked in a clay case, in any sort of pit or oven, well covered over, and with good economy." ('Handbook of Field Service.')
Baking in Pots.--A capital oven is improvised by means of two earthen or metal cooking-pots, of which one is placed on the fire, and in it the article to be baked; the other pot is put upon its top, as a cover, and in it a shovelful of red-hot embers.
Bush Cookery.--Tough Meat.--Hammer it well between two stones before putting it on the fire, and again when it is half cooked, to separate the fibres. I have often seen people save themselves much painful mastication, by hammering at each separate piece of meat, before putting it in their mouths.
Rank Meat.--I have spoken of this, in another section, p. 200.
Kabobs.--Broil the rib-bones, or skewer your iron ramrod through a dozen small lumps of meat and roast them. This is the promptest way of cooking meat; but men on hard work are not satisfied with a diet of nothing else but tough roasted flesh, they crave for succulent food, such as boiled or baked meat.
Salt Meat, to prepare hurriedly.--Warm it slightly on both sides--this makes the salt draw to the outside--then rinse it well in a pannikin of water. This process extracts a large part of the salt, and leaves the meat more fit for cooking.
Haggis.--Hearne, the North American traveller, recommends a "haggis made with blood, a good quantity of fat shred small, some of the tenderest of the flesh, together with the heart and lungs, cut or town into small skivers; all of which is put into the stomach, and roasted by being suspended before the fire with a string. Care must be taken that it does not get too much heat at first, or it will burst. It is a most delicious morsel, even without pepper, salt, or any seasoning."
Theory of Tea-making.--I have made a number of experiments on the art of making good tea. We constantly hear that some people are good and others bad tea-makers; that it takes a long time to understand the behaviour of a new tea=pot, and so forth; and lastly, that good tea cannot be made except with boiling water. Now, this latter assertion is assuredly untrue, because, if tea be actually boiled in water, an emetic and partly poisonous drink is the certain result. I had a tin lid made to my teapot, a short tube passed through the lid, and in the tube was a cork, through a hole in which a thermometer was fitted, that enabled me to learn the temperature of the water in the teapot, at each moment. Thus provided, I continued to make my tea as usual, and to note down what I observed. In the first place after warming the teapot in the ordinary way, the fresh boiling water that was poured into it, sank invariably to under 200 degrees Fahr. It was usually 180 degrees, so great was the amount of heat abstracted by the teapot. I also found that my teapot--it was a crockery one--allowed the water within it to cool down at the rate of about 2 degrees per minute. When the pot was filled afresh, of course the temperature of its contents rose afresh, and by the addition of water two or three times repeated, I obtained a perfect mastery over the temperature of the pot, within reasonable limits. Now, after numerous days in which I made tea according to my usual method, but measuring strictly the quantity of leaves, and recording the times and the temperature, and noting the character of tea produced; then, taking as my type of excellence, tea that was full bodied, full tasted, and in no way bitter or flat, I found that this was only produced when the water in the teapot had remained between 180º and 190 degrees Fahr., and had stood eight minutes on the leaves. It was only necessary for me to add water once to the tea, to ensure this temperature. Bitterness was the certain result of greater heat or of longer standing, and flatness was the result of colder water. If the tea did not stand for so long a time as eight minutes, it was not ripe; it was not full bodied enough. The palate becomes far less fastidious about the quality of the second cup. Other people may like tea of a different character from that which I do myself; but, be that as it may, all people can, I maintain, ensure uniformity of good tea, such as they best like, by attending to the principle of making it--that is to say, to time, and quantities, and temperature. There is no other mystery in the teapot.
Tea made in the kettle.--Where there are no cups or teapot put the leaves in the pot or kettle, and drink through a reed with a wisp of grass in it, as they do in Paraguay. If there are cups and no teapot, the leaves may be put into the pot, previously enclosed in a loose gauze or muslin bag to prevent their floating about. A contrivance is sold in the shops for this purpose; it is made of metal gauze, and shaped like an egg. A purse made of metal rings would be better, for it would pack flat; but the advantage of muslin over metal apparatus is that you may throw away bag and all, and avoid the trouble of cleaning.
Tea made in tin mugs.--A correspondent assures me that he considers the Australian plan of making tea to be preferable to any other, for travellers and explorers; as it secures that the tea shall be made both well and quickly, and without the necessity of carrying kettles on horseback. Each person has a common tin quart pot and a pint pot, slung to his saddle; the tea and sugar are carried in small bags. The quart pot requires very little fire to make it boil. When it begins to boil, it is taken from the fire, the tea is dropped in, and the pint pot is placed on its top as a cover. When the tea is ready, the sugar is dropped into the pint, and the tea is poured from one pot to the other till it is mixed. The pint is always kept clean for drinking out of, but not the quart, for the blacker it is, the sooner will the water boil.
Tea made over night.--To prepare tea for a very early breakfast, make it over night, and pour it away from the tea-leaves, into another vessel. It will keep perfectly well, for it is by long standing with the tea-leaves that it becomes bitter. In the morning simply warm it up. Tea is drunk at a temperature of 140 degrees Fahr., or 90 degrees above an average night temperature of 50 degrees. It is more than twice as easy to raise the temperature up to 140 than to 212 degrees, letting alone the trouble of tea-making.
Extract of Tea and Coffee.--Dr. Rae speaks very highly of the convenience of extract of tea. Any scientific chemist could make it, but he should be begged to use first-rate tea. The extract from first-rate tea makes a very drinkable infusion, but that from second-rate tea is not good, the drink made from the extract always a grade inferior to that made directly from the leaves. By pouring a small quantity of the extract into warm water, the tea is made; and, though inferior in taste to properly made tea, it has an equally good effect on the digestion.
Extract of coffee is well known. I believe it can be made of very good quality, but what is usually sold seems to me to be very much the contrary and not to be wholesome.
Tea and Coffee, without hot water.--In Unyoro, Sir S. Baker says, they have no idea of using coffee as a drink, but simply chew it raw as a stimulant. In Chinese Tartary, travellers who have no means of making a cup of tea, will chew the leaves as a substitute. Mr. Atkinson told me how very grateful he had found this makeshift.
WATER FOR DRINKING.
General Remarks.--In most of those countries where travelling is arduous, it is the daily care of an explorer to obtain water, for his own use and for that of his caravan. Should he be travelling in regions that are for the most part arid and rarely visited by showers, he must look for his supplies in ponds made by the drainage of a large extent of country, or in those left here and there along the beds of partly dried-up water-courses, or in fountains. If he be unsuccessful in his search, or when the dry season of the year has advanced, and all water has disappeared from the surface of the land, there remains no alternative for him but to dig wells where there are marks to show that pools formerly lay, or where there are other signs that well-water may be obtained.
Short Stages.--I may here remark that it is a good general rule for an explorer of an arid country, when he happens to come to water, after not less than three hours' travelling, to stop and encamp by it; it is better for him to avail himself of his good fortune and be content with his day's work, than to risk the uncertainty of another supply.
Purity of Watering-places.--Make no litter by the side of watering-places; and encourage among your party the Mahomedan feeling of respect for preserving the purity of drinking-water. Old travellers commonly encamp at a distance from the watering-place, and fetch the water to their camp.
Signs of the Neighbourhood of Water.--The quick intelligence with which experienced travellers discover watering-places, is so great that it might almost be mistaken for an instinct.
Intelligence of Dogs and Cattle.--Dogs are particularly clever in finding water, and the fact of a dog looking refreshed, and it may be wet, has often and often drawn attention to a pond that would otherwise have been overlooked and passed by. Cattle are very uncertain in their intelligence. Sometimes oxen go for miles and miles across a country unknown to them, straight to a pond of water; at other times they are most obtuse: Dr. Leichhardt, the Australian traveller, was quite astonished at their stupidity in this respect.
Trees and ordinary vegetation are not of much help in directing a traveller to water, for they thrive on dew or on occasional rain; but it is otherwise when the vegetation is unusually green or luxuriant, or when the vegetation is unusually green or luxuriant, or when those trees are remarked, that are seldom seen to grow except near water in the
## particular country visited, as the blackthorn-tree in South Africa.
Birds.--Some species of birds (as water-fowl, parrots, and the diamond bird) or animals (as baboons) afford surer promise; but the converging flight of birds, or the converging fresh tracks of animals, is the most satisfactory sign of all. It is about nightfall that desert birds usually drink, and hence it often happens that the exhausted traveller, abandoning all hope as the shades of evening close in, has his attention arrested by flights of birds, that give him new life and tell him where to go.
Tracks.--In tropical countries that have rainy and dry Seasons, it must be recollected that old paths of men or wild animals only mislead; they go to dry ponds that were full at the time they were trodden, but have since been abandoned on becoming exhausted.
Other Signs.--Well-water may be sought where the earth is still moist, though arid all around, or, failing that, where birds and wild animals have lately been scratching, or where gnats hover in swarms.
To find the Spring--From the number of birds, tracks, and other signs, travellers are often pretty sure that they are near water, but cannot find the spring itself. In this case the party should at once be spread out as skirmishers, and the dogs cheered on.
To probe for Well-water.--It is unusual, when no damp earth can be seen, but where the place appears likely to yield well-water, to force an iron ramrod deep into the soil; and, if it bring up any grains that are moist, to dig.
Pools of Water.--For many days after there has been rain, water is sure to be found among mountains, however desert may be their appearance; for not only does more wet fall upon them, but the drainage is more perfect; long after the ravines and stream-beds are quite dry, puddles and cupfuls of water will be found here and there, along their courses, in holes and chinks and under great stones, which together form a sufficiency. A sponge tied to the end of a stick will do good service in lapping these up.