CAMP-FIRE COOKS

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6572, 5 February 1925, Page 2

CAMP-FIRE COOKS

qJ. Large numbers of holiday makers are camping out' this year, and the smokes 'of many fires rise on the moorland shore and river. So a word or two on the art of cooking under somewhat novel conditions will not be amiss. In the “first place, before lighting, your fire,) remember to clear away any surrounding bracken, heather, or grass. Many serious fires have been caused by the ack of this elementary precaution. Do not use wood that is green or which feels clammy to the touch, but take a tip from the gipsies and search for dry, dead wood under hedges. In laying a fire, first whittle up some detached shavings on a straight dry stick, until it resembes a kind of miniature Christmas tree. Plant this upright in the ground and surround with any odd bits of dry gorse, stalks of weeds, and withered grass that may be handy, making a little pyramid about six inches high. Now touch off this little pile, and as it blazes up feed carefully with dry wood 'until the fire-has secured a good start. <Jn wet weather it is a good tip to light the first few sticks in the frying pan. The expert woodsman will have his kettle boiling within 20 minutes in any weather.

The best camp-fire cooks rely on the stewpot as well as the frying pan and an, occasional wood pigeon or young rabbit, gently simmered over the fire, forms a pleasing addition to the menu. Potatoes may be roasted in their jackets on hot stones at the side of the fire or under plenty of red-hot ashes. Gipsies have an ingenious method of cooking a chicken. After cleaning the inside of the bird and thoroughly wetting its-feathers, they enclose it in a thick coating of wet clay, and tfien bury it deep beneath a pile of hot ashes under a good fire. After several hours, when the clay is removed, the chicken comes out juicy and delicious under a black coat which peels off like the skin of an orange. Fish can also be cooked to perfection in this manner, and the beauty of it is that the food may be left all day, if necessary, without harm.— The Weekly Scotsman.*