FOREST AND STREAM 
June 8, 1912 
forms a sustantial daily diet. It can be eaten 
either cold or warmed up, the last method 
largely increasing its tastiness. Coarse oat- 
bread is somewhat aperient. 
Scotch fisherfolk, anglers, gunners, guardians 
of the moors and heaths, gamekeepers, and so 
forth, find the oat-bread sausage a superb stand¬ 
by. Of all breads, oat-bread is the most warm¬ 
ing—far superior to barley-bread (another well- 
known cereal bread of Northern parallels)— 
hence its advantage for camping in the wintry 
months. It has this great advantage over the 
oat-bread hardtack-—it can be carried loose in 
the pocket, is always cleanly to handle, and is 
non-staining. The ordinary sausage skin or cas¬ 
ing is employed just as for pork sausages, which 
they closely resemble. The filling machine 
stuffs the coarse oat-flour, with some fat season¬ 
ing, into the lengthy casing at a rapid rate. 
They are then sectioned off, by twisting, like 
ordinary sausages, and steamed perfectly in big 
batches. Various Caledonia bakeries in Man¬ 
hattan make them for the numerous hard¬ 
working Andys in our midst. Here are also 
turned out barrels full of the oat-bread flat 
disks, which the tripper to Paris, Scotland and 
Ireland will come across, especially in the latter 
two countries. They are also called bannocks, 
walises, and so forth. The walls or bannock 
cannot, however, be recommended for its keep¬ 
ing qualities for camping parties, as it acquires 
a semi-acrid or rancid taste, besides being quite 
brittle. It is the natural oil-content of the oat 
grain which, on oxidizing, gives this bitterish 
taste. The thrifty Scotch gamekeeper camping 
on the lonely moors- who finds his oat-disk 
supply developing “the bitter-sweet,” uses it 
up gradually by chucking a few now and then 
into the perennially simmering soup-pot. This 
enriches the soup, and every suggestion of 
rancidity is dispelled by and in “the steamy 
vapors.” The rancidest of butter they also eco¬ 
nomically use up for soup enriching—the acrid¬ 
ity disappearing in the steady boil. Soup, like 
charity, covereth a multitude of sins—and 
mysteries! It is well that the camper, to whom 
the narrowing food supply is often a problem, 
should know how to utilize valuable foods which 
he might otherwise be disposed to throw away, 
due to a developed bad taste therein. 
Fortunately, the oat-bread sausage does not 
rancify, due to its protection from air^spoiling 
by the well-nigh impervious casing. This skin 
is also eaten—same as we eat that of meat 
sausages. If kept week after week for months, 
this oat-bread becomes hard as a board almost, 
yet is always edible, even in its cold state. Of 
course, then, fair teeth are necessary, as with 
sailor’s hardtack. 
ITALIAN BALL BUTTER. 
The essential thing in camp life is to take 
along things that have many uses. Italian mili¬ 
tary officers, guides, mountaineers, tourists, 
motoring parties, picnickers, and the like, 
recognize this when they carry the ball butter, 
which is found in the Italian butter and cheese 
trades. This is a pure, unsalted butter, put 
up in ball form, in an envelop of pure hard 
cheese. The butter may thus be preserved 
sweet for years. It is totally different, and bears 
no comparison whatsoever, to the stuff called 
ghee butter, which the much-traveled reader 
may have come across in the Ganges region, 
and overland to the Indus, Euphrates-Tigris, 
and Bosphorus—made by, melting and boiling 
pure fresh butter (the sin of the thing!), thus 
completely driving off its virgin fresh taste, so 
that on cooling it resolves into a semi-granular 
mass like overboiled mutton or beef fat will do, 
and is retailed in Oriental commerce with an 
almost ever-present partly rancid taste. I had 
enough of it in the Ganges delta years ago. 
However, it comes in handy sometimes as boot 
or cart grease! 
Every part of the ball butter is edible—both 
butter and its protecting envelop of pure 
cheese. It is cleanly to handle, can be carried 
loose in the pocket, although, of course, a paper 
covering of any sort is better to prevent—es¬ 
pecially in warm weather—possible staining 
from the cheese envelop, as this cheese con¬ 
tains its natural cream fat intact. There is no 
bulk of any metal container to carry around, as 
with our own preserved salt butter. 
In emergency—for an extempore night light 
in a mountain shack or tent—the Italian 
camper sticks one of the longish wax vestas 
(diminutive candle-matches) into an open ball, 
and, if required, it will burn all night or more. 
Stick in two or three of these little match 
candles, and a small tin bowl of water (enough 
for one’s coffee) can be brought to a heat suf¬ 
ficient for the beverage in a score or so of 
minutes. Rather long to wait, but it’s better 
than nothing, at a shift. If doing other trifling 
chores meantime, the waiting seems to be an 
entirely negligible factor. I have seen this 
done a score of years ago on the Italian 
Riviera; and noticed how, so soon as the water 
showed the first sign of heating up by a slight 
steam arising, the requisite ground coffee was 
dropped atop the water. This spread at once 
over its entire surface, kept the heat of the 
water in. and thus hastened what invariably 
proved to be a cup of coffee of superb relish. 
If the vessel is kept covered by a sheet of glass, 
mica, card, piece of board, or anything handy 
for the purpose, it is surprising what a little 
factor like a couple of extemporized night 
lights can do in heating up the water. 
When empty, the 
ball butter cheese¬ 
covering can be 
used as a makeshift 
cup, and if dried, it 
becomes horn - like, 
and will stand boil¬ 
ing-hot coffee or 
tea, and only slight¬ 
ly soften with the 
heat. Drained and 
dried after every 
such use, it will last 
for months; and 
the thrifty Italian 
camp cook will 
eventually consign 
it to the soup-pot, 
where prolonged 
boiling gradually 
emulsifies it into 
enriching the eve¬ 
ning sopa. 
C.^SING PLUM DUFF 
( SICILIA). 
Another exhibit 
(not illustrated) is 
the peculiar rich plum pudding—the “plum duff” 
of the camper of Southern Europe. It is put 
up in hog bladders, and looks like common 
black pudding. Cut it with a knife, however, 
and you will see it studded with luscious raisins. 
The white spots here and there are not suet, 
but pine nuts—the little and expensive pinoles. 
The cereal flour used is rye; and the very dark 
color of all is due to the use of, not water in 
the making, but one of the pure and almost 
black Italian wines. 
This plum duff can be kept for months. When 
empty, the container can be used as tobacco- 
pouch, or as a makeshift pint cup. 
BREAD FROM MACARONI. 
Good fresh bread is made from macaroni by 
Italian forest and mountain tourists. This sub¬ 
stance is ground wheat reduced to a paste, then 
dried, so it can be used in camp for making 
a splendid soup or dish, or for bread. Soaked 
for an hour or less in warm water, it resolves 
into paste, which is more or less firm according 
to the water added; the leaven is a bit of the 
“sour” left over expressly for a couple of 
days, if no compressed yeast is available. Bak¬ 
ing powder is rejected, because of its disagree¬ 
able “dry”’ taste. This macaroni dough is usu¬ 
ally prepared over night, and hung in a warm 
place in a seamless rawhide thin split-leather 
bag to “rise.” Hot rolls with the coffee in 
the morning are a certainty. What camper will 
say nay to hot rolls on a chilly morning? 
The macaroni sticks are often useful about 
camp, as you can extemporize one as a blow¬ 
pipe for rousing a sluggard fire, or, if having 
no cup handy, for imbibing water from a stream 
when thirsty, which is far better than the un¬ 
dignified going down on all fours, with its 
back-racking strain. 
Flour for bread-making is too much of a 
mess to carry along. It is always soiling; gets 
air-spoiled: whereas, macaroni is a form of 
preserved flour. Besides, on a pinch, you can 
carry a handful of macaroni bits in your 
pocket, and slowly let them moisten in the 
mouth to a paste, when they thus become a 
1. Sun-baked Bread Sheeting (P.ilestine). 2. Smoked Pears CGermania). 3. Fig 
Coffee, unwrapped (Austria). 4. Fig Coffee, wrapped. 5. Brick tea (Russia). 
6. Candle Matches (Italy). 
