A Forest Ranger's Cookbook - Breads

from The Lookout Cookbook, 1938. U.S. Forest Service, Region One

BREADS

Biscuits
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons shortening
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt

Put all dry ingredients together and cut shortening in with a fork or knife until mixture appears to be as coarse as oatmeal. Add milk, enough to make a soft dough that can be easily patted to 1/2 to 1 inch thick on a floured surface. Cut into rounds and place on greased pan. Bake in a hot oven for 12 to 15 minutes. (A can with the top completely removed makes an excellent biscuit cutter.)

Sweet Potato Biscuits
3/4 cup mashed sweet potatoes
4 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour

Mix mashed sweet potatoes, milk and melted butter. Add remaining ingredients, sifted all together, to make soft dough. Turn out on floured board and toss lightly until outside looks smooth. Roll out 1/2 inch thick and cut with a cutter or take a fruit jar lid and flour it and use it for a cutter, then place them on a greased pan and place in hot oven for about 15 minutes.

Corn Bread
1 egg
1/2 cup corn meal
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 cup of sweet milk
1 tablespoon melted shortening
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix and sift dry ingredients. Then add milk and egg mixed together. Combine the two mixtures mixing well, then add shortening, and pour in well greased pan and bake until done.

Yeast Bread
Before noon boil one medium sized potato. Drain, saving the potato water and mash potato; measure and add enough water to make 1 1/2 cups. While still hot, add to it 1/2 cup flour. Stir well. Let cool till lukewarm, then add 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 yeast cake which has been soaked in 1/2 cup water. Stand in warm place (not too hot) till night.
Then add 1 cup water, 2 teaspoons salt, 3 tablespoons shortening and 3 more tablespoons sugar. Then stir in about 8 cups flour (you may need either more or less flour, as flour varies in texture and moisture content). Turn onto floured board and knead till smooth and elastic. Place in a large well greased pan and cover. Place in warm place.
In the morning as soon as the bread has risen to double its bulk, shape into loaves (this makes 3) and place in bread pans. Let it rise to double the bulk again, then bake in moderate oven for about an hour - or until tapping the top of a loaf of bread with the fingers produces a hollow sound. Take from oven and remove bread from pans. Grease top of loaves lightly and place clean cloth over them.

There are several variations a person may use to give a variety to the bread question. Add chopped prunes, raisins, or making cinnamon rolls from the basic recipe adds a variation besides being healthful. Simply add raisins or chopped prunes to the bread while making it into loaves. Cinnamon rolls may also be made by just adding cinnamon and chopped raisins and sugar, then roll dough up into a round cylinder shaped roll. Then take a knife and cut slices of the dough off, and bake like this after they have raised again. First, you take a piece of bread dough about the size of an unbaked loaf of bread. Roll out into sheet (on a well floured board) until 1/2 inch thick. Spread with shortening or butter or a mixture of both (which has been softened). Sprinkle generously with sugar and cinnamon. Raisins if you want them, but not required. After you have rolled these and cut them, place them in a pan and place in a warm place to raise. When they have raised double in bulk, then bake in moderate oven for 20 or 25 minutes.

French Toast
1 egg
1/2 cup canned milk
1/2 cup water
seasoning

Beat egg, add water and milk. Into this dip slices of dry bread and fry them in hot grease. Serve with maple syrup or jam.

Fluffy French Toast
3 eggs
1 tablespoon milk for each egg
seasoning - salt and pepper to taste

Place fat in frying pan and let heat while preparing toast. Beat whites of eggs until stiff. Beat yolks separately and add milk and seasoning. Fold whites into yolk mixture; dip slices of bread immediately into this and fry in deep, hot fat. Serve with jam or syrup.