tender to a sliver of wood, dust a very small 
amount of salt and pepper over each bird and re¬ 
move from the fire. Make a gravy by thickening 
the drippings with a little flour rubbed quite 
smooth in a tablespoonful of warm water and 
add slowly to the drippings. 
As soon as the birds have been put to roast 
take about half of the cold boiled potatoes, com¬ 
pletely mash them, add one-quarter cup hot 
water, thoroughly mix and add butter about size 
of walnut, in small pieces throughout the mass. 
Form into a flat, round shape about two inches 
thick, cover lightly with grated cheese and put 
into the well greased half of the baking pan and 
put this pan containing the potatoes and biscuits, 
into the reflecter which has been so placed as to 
get good strong heat from the fire. Bake until 
the row of biscuits next the fire turn brown, then 
reverse the pan so the front row will be toward 
the back. 
The plank should be sizzing hot by this time, 
so take four of the trout, which have been split 
open the full length, onto the board, skin side 
against the board, and set back before the fire. 
From time to time baste with a piece of cloth 
dipped in melted butter or with a piece of fat 
pork. If they roast unevenly reverse the board, 
top end down, once or twice. 
Have the four plates, from which the food will 
be eaten, getting warm by standing for a time 
in the dishpan containing hot water. Never serve 
any food on cold plates. 
Let the coffee be “drip coffee” made as follows: 
Put ten heaping tablespoonfuls of ground coffee 
into a thin cheese-cloth bag (large enough to 
hold the ground coffee very loosely), and suspend 
it in the empty coffee pot. Five minutes before 
serving the meal slowly pour ten cups of boiling 
water over and through the coffee (pour twice if 
strong coffee is desired), cover the pot tightly 
and delicious coffee is ready. 
The tea may be made in either or both of the 
following ways. This way, if each of the ladies 
prefers a different strength of beverage: fill each 
cup when at the table with boiling water to which 
is added the quantity of leaves to furnish the 
strength she desires, then tightly cover the cup. 
Or, put loosely within a thin cheese-cloth bag 
one level teaspoonful of tea leaves and suspend 
within a covered pail containing ten cups of boil¬ 
ing hot water, keep the pail tightly covered for 
three or five minutes (according to strength of 
drink desired), then quickly open the pail, re¬ 
move the bag of leaves, re-cover at once and 
serve as wanted. 
It only remains to serve the viands to the 
hungry guests. Take to the table the hot plank 
with the trout on it and serve from this. After 
these have been finished, remove the plank and 
all evidence of the fish, and serve the remainder 
of the meal. 
ELLIS E. W. GIVEN, M. D. 
BAKED PARTRIDGES, BISCUITS, ETC. 
Editor Forest and Stream: I have read with 
interest the camping, or perhaps I should say the 
camp cooking problem, presented in Forest and 
Stream of January 24. 
I have been in the North Canadian woods when 
the problem had been how to get ANYTHING 
to eat; when, tramping with my Indian, trying 
to stalk a lone duck or discover a black squirrel 
among the tree tops that might, if brought to bag, 
ease our hunger and render our ten or fifteen 
mile'tramp to a more propitious hunting ground 
easier or perhaps possible, even the acquisition of 
such a morsel seemed doubtful; but the problem 
(if such it may be called), that your correspond¬ 
ent presents is of a different kind. It appears to 
be how to make the best of a good thing, and 
having enjoyed the fat of the land as well as 
FOREST AND STREAM 
having experienced its leanness when hunting in 
the Canadian woods, I feel myself qualified to 
say something on the subject of your corres¬ 
pondent’s so-called problem, as contrasted with 
a possible visit of the gentleman and ladies to his 
camp if there had been nothing to eat. It re¬ 
minds me of the darky preacher, who, holding 
forth on the miracle of the loaves and fishes, and 
getting things mixed, told his congregation that 
five people were fed with a multitude of loaves 
and fishes, and when told that his hearers could 
see no miracle in that, the Rev. Rastus, after 
scratching his head for an answer said “De mira¬ 
cle lay in de fact dat dose five people didn’t 
bust.” But as your correspondent describes the 
situation as out of the ordinary, difficult and per¬ 
turbing it may not be amiss to give my plan for 
the entertainment of the gentleman and ladies 
with the means at hand as described. 
There is lots of flour and “fixins,” the latter I 
presume means, or at least includes salt and 
baking powder. 
1st.—Make a hole on the ground under the 
camp fire ashes large enough to bury the four 
partridges with room to spare; this can be done 
nicely with a paddle shaped stick whittled out 
with the axe. Fill the hole with red hot coals 
and ashes. 
2nd.—Make a stiff batter or dough from flour 
and water only. Season the birds and lard their 
outsides very thoroughly. Roll up each bird in 
a sufficiency of this dough to cover it entirely, 
about half an inch thick, wetting the dough to 
make it stick where it overlaps or is joined. 
Empty the hole of ashes and coals and put fresh 
hot coals on the bottom to a depth of five or six 
inches with a little covering of ashes; lay the 
birds on this, keeping them about three inches 
apart and the same distance from the sides of the 
hole, then cover them with a thin layer of ashes 
and on top of this pile hot live coals and heap 
up above the level of the ground. 
3rd.—Make a Camper’s bannock. 
Flour 3 cupfuls. 
Baking powder 3 teaspoonfuls. 
Salt half a teaspoonful. 
Lard a tablespoonful. 
Water to make a dough of proper con¬ 
sistence. 
If there is no dutch oven I will presume three 
frying pans. Put the bannock in a frying pan 
with a close cover and bury it in the hot coals 
and ashes until done. 
4th.—Fry the bacon (crisp but not scorched). 
Turn it into a plate and keep it warm. 
5th.—Cut up the cold potatoes and fry in the 
remaining bacon fat with a sufficiency of lard 
added. Turn these out and keep them warm, 
then peel and cut up a sufficiency of the raw 
potatoes and fry them in lard (a raw fry). 
6th.—Make coffee or tea. 
7th.—Take the remaining frying pan and fry 
the trout in lard. An hour has passed since the 
interment of the partridges in their oven and now 
everything is ready. 
With the frying of the trout the bannock and 
the birds should be ready, and when the latter are 
dug out of the ground and their dough encase¬ 
ment cracked and removed the fragrance is some¬ 
thing never to be forgotten. 
As nothing has been said about sugar or milk 
I presume there is none for the tea or coffee. Of 
this I would inform my guests and ascertain 
which they would prefer if served in this way. 
The “vigorous butter” and dried cheese men¬ 
tioned might come in handy for an emergency 
later, if such should arise, but I would rather not 
exploit them on this occasion. 
C. McDOUGALL, M. D. 
205 
GOOD IN FRENCH OR ENGLISH. 
Editor Forest and Stream: Well, the old man 
had quite a task on his hands, and it was so sud¬ 
den, too. 
The time was pretty short, but I should have 
gone to work about as follows: I would have 
made the tenderfoot city man gather a good lot 
of dry wood and attend to making a large fire 
and resultant bed of coals. There is no doubt 
that the ladies would have made very many val¬ 
uable suggestions. They would have set the 
table or “Board” anyway. The city man could 
have brought spring water. Any way to make 
them all responsible for the result and keep them 
busy. They might have been dispatched after 
any berries that were in the neighborhood, also. 
Personally, I should have put the grouse into a 
pot and started them to simmering in hot water. 
There would be something fine coming out of 
that receptacle when I had finished. I should 
then have whipped up a batch of baking powder 
biscuits and prepared them for the dutch or oil 
stove oven to be baked a nice brown. The hard¬ 
est thing in such a case is to have everything 
come on at the right time. The trout about now 
should have been rolled in flour and dropped into 
a big “spider”—an iron one, I hope; in which 
some sweet pork had been frying and which con¬ 
tained about one inch of red hot pork fat. You 
would put a tight cover over the fish thus placed 
on the fire until they were well heated through, 
then finish frying with the lid off. While frying, 
I would have made some lightning motions 
around that “pa’tridge pot” and have taken off 
and strained a cup each of delicious grouse 
bouillon, leaving enough of the broth in the ket¬ 
tle to make a delicious flour gravy, as the butter 
was a little “High.” There would, of course, 
have been at least a dozen of those Murphies 
roasting in their jackets under the coals, and they 
would be about done by that time. My oven 
would show up two tins of fine biscuits then, and 
the fish would be done to a turn. So I would 
have fired off a gun signal for return to camp, 
if any were away after fruit. When all were o*n 
hand, the supper would have been about as fol¬ 
lows : 
Grouse Bouillon en tasse avec biscuits Unede 
Salmo Fontinalis au natural—Maitre de Camp, 
pain de foret 
Potted Partridges, sauce naturelle, Adirondack 
style 
Pommes de terre Rotis en robe de chambre 
Cheese Crackers Demi Tasse Cafe Tea 
Spring Water Tabac 
Now, Mr. Editor, if those ladies had brought 
in fruit, I would have inserted it after the cheese 
on the above bill of fare. 
The “lay out” certainly appeals to me even 
here in New York, and I wish I could have such 
a dinner to-morrow. PETER FLINT. 
SHORT BUT SATISFACTORY. 
Bozeman, Montana, February 5th, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream: I have read the 
“Old Camper” problem, and in answer will say 
that in order to provide a quick and simple meal 
from the material he had on hand, I would pre¬ 
pare a dish of cheesed potatoes, fry the fish and 
a couple of the partridges, make a little brown 
gravy, bake some bread, and give them either 
tea or coffee, or both. 
As he does not name his cooking dishes in de¬ 
tail I cannot say how I would go about prepar¬ 
ing them. R. E. MARTIN. 
(To be continued.) 
