To make bread, or bannocks, or “dampers”, the usual way is to mix flour with a pinch or two of salt and of baking powder, then make a pile of it and scoop out the centre until it forms a cup for the water, which is then poured in. Mix everything well together until it forms a lump of dough. With a little fresh flour sprinkled over the hands to prevent the dough sticking to them, pat it and make it into the shape of a large bun or several smaller buns.
Then put it on a gridiron over hot embers. Or sweep part of the fire to one side, and put the dough on the hot ground left there and pile hot ashes round it and let it bake.
Only small loaves can be made in this way.
Bread can be made without any oven at all. Twist the dough around a stick and bake it over glowing embers.
Pan Bread
Another very good way is the following:
Make a moderately stiff dough with these ingredients: 1 teacupful flour, I pinch salt, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder. Make a frying pan hot and grease it well, put in the dough and stand it near the fire. In a few moments the dough will rise and stiffen. Then prop the pan up sideways till it is nearly upright on its side in front of the fire, and so cook one side of the flat loaf. Then turn it over and cook the other side. You can see whether it is properly baked by shoving a splinter of wood through it. If the splinter comes out without any dough sticking to it your loaf is baked through.
“Twist”
Still another way is to cut a stout club, sharpen its thin end, peel it, and heat it in the fire. Make a long strip of dough, about two inches wide and half an inch thick (about 5 x 1 cm) and wind it spirally down the club. Plant the club close to the fire and let the dough toast, just giving the club a turn now and then.
Baking Oven
If real bread is required, a kind of oven should be made, either by using an old earthenware pot or a tin box, and putting it into the fire and piling embers all over it. Or make a clay oven, light a fire inside it, and then, when it is well heated, rake out the fire, and put the dough inside, and shut up the entrance tightly till the bread is baked.
Cleanliness
Old Scouts take special care to keep the kitchen particularly clean. They are careful to clean their cooking pots, plates, forks, knives, very thoroughly. They know that if dirt and scraps of food are left about, flies will collect.
Flies are dangerous , because they carry disease germs on their feet, and if they settle on your food they often leave the poison there for you to eat—and then you wonder why you get ill.
For this reason you should be careful to keep your camp kitchen very clean, so that flies won’t come there. All slops and scraps should be burned or thrown into a properly dug hole, where they can be buried, and not scattered all over the place.
Patrol Leaders are responsible for seeing that this is always done. Remember, “A Scout is clean”.
PATROL PRACTICES IN COOKING
Scouts should be able to cook before they go to camp. Teach them the most important things, such as cooking potatoes and porridge, meat and vegetables. These can be practised during the winter.
Practise mixing dough and baking twists and dampers.
Make a hay-box and use it.
Make your own linen ration bags.
Patrols should compete in preparing menus, working out quantities, etc.
Bring raw rations on a hike, make a fire and cook your own meal.
Experiment with different types of fire places until you arrive at the one you think most suitable for your Patrol Cooking. Then try making a number of the kitchen gadgets shown on page 136.
CHAPTER IV
TRACKING
CAMP FIRE YARN NO. 11
OBSERVATION OF “SIGN”
Noticing “Signs” - Details of People - “Signs” Round a
Dead Body - Details in the Country
Use of Eyes, Ears, and Nose by Scouts
Night Scouting
“SIGN” is the word used by Scouts to mean any little details, such as footprints, broken twigs, trampled grass, scraps of food, a drop of blood, a hair, and so on—anything that may help as clues in getting the information they are in search of.
