A Forest Ranger's Cookbook - Meat

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

PREPARING MEAT

Meat Pie
1 can beef stew
1 small onion cut fine
2 tablespoons butter

Place above ingredients in pan and cook for about 15 minutes.

Make a biscuit dough using:
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons shortening

Mix well together, using finger tips, then ad enough milk, a small amount at a time to make a soft dough. Pat out to about 1 inch in depth and cut into small biscuits. Place close together on top of meat mixture. Bake in hot oven about 20 minutes or until biscuits are nicely browned. Any small amounts of left over vegetables such as carrots, string beans, peas may be added to the stew mixture. Also left over meat, such as ham, roast beef and even fried bacon can be cut in small pieces and added.

Baconized Corn and Macaroni
1 cup macaroni
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sauce (medium)
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/2 canned corn
3 slices bacon

Cook the macaroni until tender in plenty of boiling water, salted. Drain. Add to white sauce seasoning, corn and cooked macaroni. Pour in baking dish and over top lay the bacon cut in squares. Bake 15 minutes or until bacon is crisp.

Italian Ham
1 pound sliced ham
4 small peeled onions
1/2 pint canned tomatoes
pepper

Cut ham an inch thick. Put in a covered frying or roasting pan. Slice onions over the ham. Add tomatoes, a generous sprinkling of pepper and 1/2 cup of water. Cover and bake one hour in a moderate oven, remove ham to platter and make a gravy of the tomato juice and drippings, adding a tablespoon of flour with a little water to a cupful of gravy.

Baked Ham and Sweet Potatoes
Mash 1 1/2 cups sweet potatoes and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add a little canned milk (enough to make potatoes hold their shape) and a teaspoon melted butter. Cut two pieces canned ham 1/2 inch thick and put one in baking pan. Spread mashed sweet potatoes on this and place other piece of ham on top of potatoes.
Mix 1/2 cup of syrup and a tablespoon of butter. Put a few spoons of this over the ham. Do this about every ten minutes and bake for 30 minutes. (White potatoes may be used, also.)

Mulligan
1 can roast beef (cut up real fine)
1 can each of peas, corn, tomatoes, string beans
2 good sized potatoes (sliced)
2 small onions
1 teaspoon salt, pepper and catsup
small lump of butter
Mix all together and cook thoroughly.

Pigs in Blankets
Take frankfurters and fold them in biscuit dough and bake until brown. Make a cream gravy and pour over your pigs in blankets and serve while hot.

Meat Balls or Croquettes
Mix a thick white sauce with chopped meat, cooled, formed into balls. These should then be rolled in flour, dipped in a beaten egg, then rolled in fine dry bread crumbs and fried in deep hot fat.

Meat Pie
1 can roast beef
1 potato (diced)
1/2 can carrots
salt and pepper
1 onion

First line a baking dish with biscuit dough. Next cook the roast beef, carrots, onion, potato, and enough salt and pepper to season it, together. (Add just enough water to cover, cook slowly for 15 or 20 minutes.) Then pour into biscuit lined pan. Cover with biscuit dough and puncture top two or three places. Bake in moderate oven for 25 minutes.

Using Old Bacon or Ham
Trim closely, parboil a few minutes, adding a teaspoon baking soda to about a quart of water, drain, wash off, then fry and much of the strong taste disappears.
If you have an old ham, trim off all outside, parboil in soda as above; then when you boil the ham, add 1/2 cup vinegar to each quart of water. By this method old ham becomes very good.

Beef and Peas
Chop fine the contents of one can of roast beef. Place the chopped beef in a frying pan and cook for about 20 minutes, then add to it the contents of 1 can of drained peas. Season with salt and pepper and cook about 10 minutes longer, then add a teaspoon of butter. Stir well and serve