Lobscouse

Boil corned beef as above (if very salty, parboil first, and then change the water), about thirty minutes before it is done add sliced potatoes and hardtack.

Slumgullion

When the commissariat is reduced to bacon, corned beef, and hardtack, try this sailor's dish, described by Jack London: Fry half a dozen slices of bacon, add fragments of hardtack, then two cups of water, and stir briskly over the fire; in a few minutes mix in with it slices of canned corned beef; season well with peppei and salt.

Dried Beef, Creamed

Slice 3 oz. of dried beef into thin shavings, or chop fine. Pour over it a pint of boiling water, and let it stand two minutes. Turn off water, and drain beef dry. Heat a heaped tablespoonful of butter in the frying-pan; then add the beef. Cook three minutes, stirring all the time. Then pour on *4 pint cold milk. Mix 4 tablespoonfuls milk with i teaspoonful flour, and stir into the beef in the pan. Add an egg, if you have it. Cook two minutes longer and serve at once.

Canned Meats

Never eat any that has been left standing open in the can. It is dangerous. If any has been left over, remove it to a clean vessel and keep in a cool place.

Canned corned beef and the like should not be eaten cold out of the can if you can help it. Place the can in water and boil it about ten minutes: the meat is more wholesome this way.

Cured Venison

" Cut off the worst of the blackened casing and slice into steaks an inch thick. Dredge these with flour, salt, and pepper, and lay in hot bacon grease in a frying-pan. Pour in a small cup of water, cover tightly, and allow to steam until the water is gone. Then remove the cover, and brown." (Kathrene Pinkerton).

Cured Fish

Salt Fish requires from twelve to thirty-six hours' soaking, flesh downward, in cold water before cooking, depending on the hardness and dryness of the fish. Change the water two or three times to remove surplus salt. Start in cold water, then, and boil until the flesh parts from the bones. When done, cover with bits of butter, or serve with one of the sauces given in the chapter ©n Fish.

Broiled Salt Fish

Freshen the flakes of fish by soaking in cold water. Broil over the coals, and serve with potatoes.

Stewed Codfish

Soak over night in plenty of cold water, or one hour in tepid water. Put in pot of fresh, cold water, and heat gradually until soft. Do not boil the fish or it will get hard. Serve with boiled potatoes, and with white sauce made as directed under Fish.

(2) Put two tablespoonfuls of butter in a pan; when melted add one tablespoonful of flour, stirring constantly; then a cup of rich milk and some pepper; then half a pint of desiccated codfish. Stir until boiling. Serve on toast, if you have light bread.

Codfish Hash

Prepare salt codfish as above, When soft, mash with potatoes and onions, season with pepper, and fry like corned beef hash.

Codfish Balls

Shred the fish into small pieces. Peel some potatoes. Use one pint of fish to one quart of raw potatoes. Put them in a pot, cover with boiling water, cook till potatoes are soft, drain water off, mash fish and potatoes together, and beat light with a fork. Add a tablespoonful of butter and season with pepper. Shape into flattened balls, and fry in very hot fat deep enough to cover.

Smoked Herrings

(i) Clean, and remove the skin. Toast on a stick over the coals.

(2) Scald in boiling water till the skin curia up, then remove head, tail, and skin. Clean well. Put into frying-pan with a little butter or lard. Fry gently a few minutes, dropping in a little vinegar.

Smoked Sprats

Lay them on a slightly greased plate and set them in an oven until heated through.

Canned Salmon, Creamed

Cut into dice. Heat about a pint of them in one-half pint milk. Season with salt and Cayenne pepper. Cold cooked fish of any kind can be served in this way.

Canned Salmon, Scalloped

Rub two teaspoon-fuls of butter and a tablespoonful of flour together. Stir this into boiling milk. Cut two pounds of canned salmon into dice. Put a layer of the sauce in bottom of a dish, then a layer of salmon. Sprinkle with salt, Cayenne pepper, and grated bread crumbs. Repeat alternate layers until dish is full, having the last layer sauce, which is sprinkled with crumbs and bits of butter. Bake in very hot oven untrl browned (about ten minutes).

Canned Salmon On Toast

Dip slices of stale bread in smoking-hot lard.. They will brown at once. Drain them. Heat a pint of salmon, picked into flakes, season with salt and Cayenne, and turn into it a cupful of melted butter. Heat in pan. Stir in one egg, beaten light, with three tablespoonfuls evaporated milk not thinned. Pour the mixture on the fried bread.

Sardines On Toast

Fry them and give them a dash of red pepper. They are better if wiped free of oil, dipped into whipped egg, sprinkled thickly with cracker crumbs, fried, and served on buttered toast.

(2) Drain and remove skins from one dozen sardines, put a tablespoonful of butter in the pan, with two teaspoonfuls anchovy paste, and a little tabasco. Lay the sardines carefully in the pan. When well heated through, serve each on a tiny strip of toast.

Eggs. Desiccated Egg

The baker's egg mentioned in the chapter on Provisions is in granules about the size of coarse sand. It is prepared for use by first soaking about two hours in cold or one hour in lukewarm water. Hot water must not be used. Solution can be quickened by occasional stirring. The proportion is one tablespoonful of egg to two of water, which is about the equivalent of one fresh egg. Use just like fresh eggs in baking, etc., and for scrambled eggs or omelets. Of course, the desiccated powder cannot be fried, boiled, or poached.

Fried Eggs

Have the frying-pan scrupulously clean. Put in just enough butter, dripping, or other fat, to prevent the eggs sticking. Break an egg with a smart but gentle crack on the side of a cup, and drop it in the cup without breaking yolk. Otherwise you might drop a bad one in the pan and spoil the whole mess. Pour the egg slowdy into the pan so that the albumen thickens over the yolk instead of spreading itself out like a pancake. The fire should be moderate. In two or three minute? they will be done. Eggs fried longer than this, or on both sides* are leathery and unwholesome*

Scrambled Eggs

Put into a well-greased pan as many eggs as it will hold separately, each yolk being whole. When the whites have begun to set, stir from bottom of pan until done (buttery, not leathery). Add a piece of butter, pepper, and salt. Another way is to beat the eggs with a spoon. To five eggs add one-fourth teaspoonful salt. Heat one tablespoonful butter in the frying-pan. Stir in the eggs, and continue stirring until eggs set. Before they toughen, turn them out promptly into a warm dish.

Scrambled Eggs, Fancy

After turning in five eggs as above, add a cupful of canned tomatoes, drained and chopped quite fine; or, chopped ham or bacon instead of tomatoes.

Plain Omelet

It is better to make two or three small omelets than to attempt one large one. Scrape the pan and wipe it dry after each omelet is made. Use little salt: it keeps the eggs from rising. Heat the fat in the pan very gradually, but get it hot almost to the browning point.

Beat four eggs just enough to break them well; or, break into a bowl with four tablespoonfuls milk, and whip thoroughly. Add a little salt. Put two heaped teaspoonfuls of butter in the pan and heat as above. Pour egg into pan, and tilt the pan forward so that the egg flows to the far side. As soon as the egg begins to set, draw it up to the raised side of the pan with a knife. Beginning then at the left hand, turn the egg over in small folds until the lower part of the pan is reached, and the omelet has been rolled into a complete fold. Let the omelet rest a few seconds, and then turn out into a hot dish. Work rapidly throughout, so that the omelet is creamy instead of tough. It should be of a rich yellow color.

Ham Omelet

Cut raw ham into dice. Fry. Turn the beaten eggs over it and cook as above. Bacon can be used instead of ham.

Fancy Omelets

Take tender meat, game, fish, or vegetable, hash it fine, heat it in white sauce (see page 325), and spread this over the omelet before you begin to fold it; or they can be put in with the eggs. Jam, jelly, or preserved fruit may be used in a similar way (two tablespoonfuls, say, of marmalade to six eggs).

Rum Omelet

Beat three eggs, add a very small pinch of salt, a teaspoonful of powdered sugar, a slice of butter, and a tablespoonful of rum. Fry as described above. Lay the omelet on a hot dish, pour around it one-half tumberful of rum that has been warmed in a pan, light it, and serve with its blue flame rising round it.

Poached Eggs

Put a pint of water in the frying pan, with one-half teaspoonful of salt. If you have vinegar, add two teaspoonfuls to the water: it keeps the whites from running too much. Bring the water to a gentle boil. Break the eggs separately into a saucer and slide them into the water Let the water simmer not longer than three minutes, meantime ladling spoonfuls of it over the yolks. Have toast already buttered on a very hot plate. Lay eggs carefully on it. Eat at once. This may be varied by moistening the toast with hot milk.

Eggs, Boiled

Eggs are boiled soft in two and one-half to three minutes, depending upon size and freshness. If wanted hard boiled, put them in cold water, bring to a boil, and keep it up for twenty minutes. The yolk will then be mealy and wholesome. Eggs boiled between these extremes are either clammy or tough, and indigestible. To boil eggs, soft, if you have no watch: put them in cold water and set the pot over the fire. Watch the water; when it begins to sing slightly, or when the first little bubbles arise, the eggs are done to a turn.

Eggs, Roasted

This can be done by covering the eggs with hot ashes and embers, but the shells must be cracked a little at one end to prevent them exploding.

Eggs. Stirred

Make half a cup of rich gravy. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a pan and add the gravv. When hissing hot. stir in five beaten eggs until they thicken. Season with half a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, sprinkle with parsley, and serve on toast.