Bread

It may be well to carry enough yeast bread for two or three days. It helps out until the game country is reached and camp routine is established. Hardtack (pilot bread, ship biscuit) is a last resort, and can be recommended only for such trips or cruises as do not permit baking. It is a cracker prepared without salt or grease, and kiln-dried to a chip, so as to keep well. He who can eat it without grumbling may be said to have filed his teeth.

Flour

The plain kind is best. The self-raising is easily ruined by moisture, and will not do for thickening, dredging, etc.

Corn Meal

Some like yellow, some prefer white. In either case it is much the best when freshly ground. A welcome change from hot wheat bread or biscuit, and can be served variously as johnny cake, pancakes, or mush. Useful to roll fish in, before frying.

Rolled Oats

This, and other breakfast cereals, according to taste, and only for variety sake. Nutritive value low, in proportion to bulk.

Rice

Deserves a higher place as an all-round food than our people generally give it. Beats all other cereals in sustaining power plus digestibility. Can be cooked in many ways, and all of them are easy. Combines well with almost anything else, and so lends variety. Packs well and keeps well.

Macaroni

Nutritious, but bulky. Good in soups and stews. Break it into inch pieces and pack so that insects cannot get at it.

Baking Powder

Get the best, made with pure cream of tartar. It costs more than the alum powders, and does not go so far, bulk for bulk; but it is much kinder to the stomach. Baking soda will probably not be wanted, as it requires buttermilk in baking, except for sour-dough. Occasionally needed for other purposes.

Salt Pork (Alias Middlings, Sides, Bellies, Old Ned, Et Al)

Commendable or accursed, according to how it is used. Takes the place of lard and butter on very light marching trips. Nothing quite equals it in baking beans. Savory in some boiled dishes. When fried, as a pièce de resistance, it successfully resists most people's gastric juices, and is nauseous to many. Purchasable at most frontier camps.

Breakfast Bacon

Better for most purposes than salt pork. Seldom obtainable outside of towns. Get the boneless, in 5 to 8 lb. flitches. That which is sliced and canned is a poor substitute either in flavor or wholesomeness.

Smoked Ham

Small ones generally are tough and too salty. Hard to keep in warm or damp weather; moulds easily, and is attractive to blowflies. It is best to get both bacon and ham unwrapped, and sew them up in cheesecloth yourself; then you are sure they were not mouldy to start with.

Dried Beef

Cuts from large hams are best. Of limited use in pick-up meals. A notorious thirst-breeder. Not comparable to "jerked" beef, which, unfortunately, is not in the market.*

Canned Meats and Poultry of all descriptions are quite unfit for steady diet. Devilled or potted ham, chicken, tongue, sausage, and the like, are endurable at picnics, and valuable in emergencies, as when a hard storm makes outdoor cooking impossible. Canned corned beef makes a passable hash.