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A Forest Ranger's Cookbook - Household Suggestions

Read These Basic Camp Cooking Tips Before You Start

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

  • One of the foundations for all good cookery is cleanliness. Dishes and cooking utensils should be thoroughly washed with plenty of soap and then thoroughly scalded with boiling water before drying.

  • When you have those baking powder biscuits all ready for the oven, press a tiny piece of butter down into the center of each - then note the improvement when you eat them.

  • Grease top of kettle when cooking fruit or candy and it will not boil over.

  • Cut hot bread or cake with a hot knife to prevent crumbling.

  • A few drops of vinegar added to the boiling water in which an egg is to be poached will prevent the egg from breaking.

  • If soup is too salty, add slices of raw potato. Boil and remove.

  • Before heating milk in a saucepan, rinse pan in hot water and it will not scorch so easily.

  • To prevent cheese from molding, wrap in a cloth wrung out of vinegar. Then roll in paper.

  • In cooking vegetables: Cover those that grow under the ground. Leave uncovered those that grow above the ground.

  • By dropping cake batter two or three times on the table, after it has been put in pans, you will remove all of the air in the batter, and therefore, you will have a finer textured cake.

  • If the oven hasn't any gauge on the front of it to tell you the temperature of your oven, just put either bread or white paper in the oven. If it turns brown quickly, the oven is too hot for most things; if it turns brown in about five minutes, then this is a moderate oven.

  • Do not put macaroni in cold water and allow to start cooking, because it will stick.

  • A pinch of soda stirred into milk that is to be boiled will keep it from curdling.

  • When you go to remove a cake from the pan and it has a tendency to stick, turn the pan upside down and lay on the bottom of it a cloth wrung out of cold water. After about five minutes the cake can be removed without its crumbling to pieces.

  • If you set a dish of water in the oven when the cake is baking, you will find that there will be no scorching or burning of the cake.

  • When cooking beans, first soak them overnight in water, then in the morning place them in salt and boiling water and boil for 1/2 hour. You can also place a little soda in the second water. Then they are ready to fix for the meal.

  • In order to sour milk, when a recipe calls for sour milk and you haven't any on hand, just open a can of milk and put the milk where it is warm, let this set until it is sour.

  • To have a custard pie of an even, nice brown when cooked, sprinkle a little sugar over the top just before putting into the oven.

  • When you suspect that your cooking has been scorched because you have neglected it for just one moment too long, lift the vessel holding the food quickly from the fire and stand it in a pan of cold water for a few minutes. In almost every case the scorched taste will entirely disappear.

  • In making bread or rolls put a saucepan of boiling water into the oven. The steam will keep the crust smooth and tender.

  • To get rid of ants place lumps of gum camphor in their runways and near sweets infested by them, or scrub shelves and drawers with strong soap, or inject gasoline, or place preserves, cake and other sweets attractive to ants in places where they can get them, then cover with gasoline, or kerosene.

  • When cooking green vegetables a small portion of soda added to the boiling water just before putting in the vegetables will keep them in fresh color.

  • When boiling green vegetables add a lump of sugar to the water; it is as effectual as soda and perfectly harmless.

  • Boiling liquids may be turned into glass without breaking the vessel if you press the bowl of a spoon on the bottom while filling.

  • Tough meat may be made tender by pounding, slow cooking, or laying it a few minutes in vinegar water.

  • Before heating milk, rinse out the saucepan with a little hot water. This prevents milk from sticking to the bottom of the pan. (Never boil milk; it toughens the food materials.)

  • "To cream": means to mix or cut shorting and sugar together.

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