Field service pocket book, 1914 / General Staff, War Office.

Date:: [1914]

Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Field service pocket book, 1914 / General Staff, War Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

96/372 (page 64)

or rcducina the fire. The avcragi: loss by boiling is 15 to 20 per cent. The time required to cook is about 15 minutes per pound of im-at. Vegetables should be plaeed in boiling water with a little salt and boiled quiekly till tender. Potatoes take from 20 to 30 minutes .carrots and pars- nips 20 to 45 minutes. Dried vegetables should be soaked for about 4 hours and then boiled slowly. 4. Stewinrj.—Stewing is not boiling. .411 that is required is a gradual simmering. This will make even tough meat tender and whole.sorae. 5. Frying.—Frying is cooking witli the aid of fats ; in other words, frying is simply boiling in fat. When possible cover the article to be cooked with fat. 6. -Meat may be baked as follows : Dig in the ground a hole of sufficient siz and build a fire in it. After the fuel has become red-hot put m the meat, wrapped in paper in a clay case, or with the skin on, on a thick layer of green grass ; cover it with green grass, hot ashes and earth. Build a good fire over the ni’at and keep it burning for about (5 hour.-'. Unearth the meat and remove the skin. .Meat treated in this way at night will be found cooked in the morning. 7. When fuel is scarce, a good plan is to cook the meat partly in a kettle, and. when the contents are boiling, place the kettle in a box, surround it with hay or other non-conducting material, and close the lid tightly; the contents will go on gently stewing, and should be fully cooked in three or four hours’ time Kecifes. 8. Frihoba.—For a hurried meal the meat can be quickly prepared by cutting it into pieces about the s'z? of a penny, but three or four times as thick. These can then be skewered on a piece of wire or hard wood and roasted before the fire for a few minutes. Stewed beef, mutton, or fowl.—Cut up the meat into thin slices or small pieces, the smaller the better, put a little fat into the bottom of the cooking pot, and wdien hot put in the meat, stir till brown, add a sliced onion, carrot, or turnip season with pepper and salt, add a little Hour and some hot water, stir well, and allow to simmer slowdy till done. Tomatoes, rice and powdered biscuit in lieu of flour may be added. 9. Irish stew.—Ingredients : meat, potatoes, onions, pepper, salt. Peel, wash and slice the potatoes ; peel, clean and cut up the onions, cut up the meat into small pieces, jilace a little water in the kettle and a layer of pota- toes at the bottom, then a layer of meat and onions ; season with pepper and salt, then add another layer of potatoes and so on to the top, potatoes forming the top layer. Barely cover the whole with water and stew gently for about 2 hours. 10. Sea pie.—Ingredients as for Irish stew, with 5 lbs. of Hour and IJ lbs suet or dripping added for every 20 men. Prepare ingredients as in case of stew, cutting the potatoes in slices lengthwise, and cover with paste, making a hole in tlie centre. To make the paste, mix flour and water, roll or beat it out with the hands on a flat surface, adding a small teaspoonful of baking powder for each pound of flour. The paste should be about I inch thick. Time required to cook, about 2 hours. 11. Mutton or beef soup.—For 6 persons. 14 lbs. of meat, 1 onion, 2 carrots. 1 turnip, 0 tablcspoonfuls of rice or barley. Cut the meat up into small pieces, peel and slice the onion, clean and cut up the other vegetables, put a little fat into the camp kettle, fry the meat and vegetables a light brown colour, add 5 pints of water and the rice or barley ; stew slowly for about 14 hours, and take oil the scum ns it rises, season with pepper and salt, and serve. When time does not admit, the frying of the meat and vegetable.s may be dispensed with. Semolina, tapioca, sago, macaroni tomatoes green peas, beans, lentils, A-c., can be substituted for the rice or barley. 12. Beef tea.—Cut up about 1 lb. of lean beef (no fat) into small pieces, put in a kettle, add 2 pints of cold water, boil slowly, removing the scum as it rises, cook for about 2 hours, or longer if time adtnits ; strain and ‘■ervj