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20001118  Sat , Nov 18, 2000 from the web:   Simple Game Preparation

http://www.netside.com/~lcoble/bible/bible.html
THE SURVIVAL BIBLE - A Work in Progress by Richard Perron
     There are not yet pictures.  The author is obviously still working
on this material. Still some good things.   Seems to have read  John
Wiseman    SAS Survival Guide   ISBN 0 00 470 1674
I recognize some of the material, written in this authors own words,
lifted from Wiseman.

     Skinning:
PREPARING LARGE ANIMALS: 
     When too large to elevate may be skinned by starting in the centre
of the stomach and skinning to the centre of the back.
     Spread the skin out on the ground to protect the meat and roll the
animal over and skin the other side.
ALL INTERNAL ORGANS MUST BE REMOVED IMMEDIATELY TO PREVENT BLOATING.
     Big game is usually bled out by the bullet which kills it, however
it is advisable to cut the jugular vein after killing to assure
thorough bleeding, hence better tasting and keeping of meat. Big game
is more easily utilized when it has been cut into manageable chunks.
     Heart, liver and kidneys of all game can be used except for polar
bear and bearded seal as previously mentioned in removal of the liver: 
     BE CAREFUL not to break the gall sack. Incidentally there is no
gall sack in Deer or other Antlered game.

PREPARING ANIMALS #2:
FOOD ODDS AND ENDS: (Deer etc.)
     Some natives roast the bland of young antler of the deer family
when these are in velvet stage. Other esteem the stomach contents of
herbivorous mammals such as caribou for such greens mixed as they are
with digestive acids are not too unlike salad prepared with vinegar.
     Others as desirous of wasting nothing as those packers of sardines
will not bother to open the smaller birds and animals they secure but
pound them to a pulp which is tossed in its entirety into the pot. Even
such ingredient as gall bas among other uses utility as a seasoning.  
     NEARLY EVERY PART OF NORTH AMERICAN ANIMALS ARE EDIBLE.
     Except for the Polar bear and Ringed and Bearded Seal liver which
are poisonous to a certain degree if you eat the liver too rich in
vitamin A.
     ALL FRESHWATER FISH IS GOOD! TO EAT yet beware of pollution. And
don't fish them near town or villages.

PREPARING SHEEP-LIKE ANIMALS:
Follow the instructions for larger animals and then:
1) Split in two down the line of the spine, keeping exactly to the
centre of the backbone.
2) Remove rear leg. Try to cut through the ball and socket joint.
3) Remove the front leg. There is no bone to cut through. Follow the
line of the shoulder blade.
4) Cut of neck. (Off said the king!)
5) Cut off skirt (loose flesh hanging below the ribs)
6) Cut between each rib & between the vertebrae. This gives you chops.
7) The fillet, lying in the small back, is the best meat for
preserving.

CLEANING FOWL OR RABBITS IN THE HOUSE: 
     Here is a trick to help you get rid of all little hair of down
that somehow ALWAYS remain after skinning your rabbit, squirrel or
partridge.
     Take some scotch tape and roll in outward around you hand so that
the sticky part is on the outside then by manipulating this hand duster
carefully you will easily get rid of all the undesirable down and furs.

PREPARING PIG: check rpt 
(NOT KOSHER? BORF!)
     Do not attempt to skin a pig. Gut it first then place it over the
hot embers of a fire and scrape the hair off. Hot water will help
loosen the hair. It should be only just hotter than your hand can bear.
     Water that is too hot will make the hair more difficult to remove.
Pigs attract many parasites: ticks, crab lives and worms so cooking
MUST MAKE SURE of killing them.
     BOILING IS THEREFORE THE BEST WAY OF COOKING PORK.

PREPARING SMALL ANIMALS:
     Follow the basic procedures as for larger animals they all need to
be gutted.

PREPARING ANIMALS: 
     After having killed an animal, wait for it to cool off before
cleaning the carcass. Ticks and parasites will leave this cold body.
     If possible bring the carcass close to stream to help the
cleaning. Here's some tips to help preparing small & medium game. (Not
Elephants nor Dinosaurs!)
     1) Suspend the carcass head down, cut the throat and let the blood
run down into a container, make it boil, blood is very nourishing.
     2) Make an incision around the joints and another in "Y" starting
from the ass, all along the stomach up to the throat. Don't cut the
flesh but only the skin.
     3) Starting at the chest, cut along the front legs.
     4) Cut off genitals organs.
     5) Starting from the ass, remove the skin. Usually the skin
removes as easy as glove when the animal is fresh killed.
     6) Disembowel it, empty it from bottom upward. Do this firmly
while making a round incision to remove the genitals.
     7) Keep the kidneys, liver, heart & fat around the intestines and
clinging to the skin.

ALL MAMMIFEROUS PARTS ARE COMESTIBLES including the brain, eyes,
tongue, & all that is fleshy. Check the heart, kidneys, liver &
intestines to see if not full of worms.
     If the animal was sick, wear gloves to manipulate & prepare the
food, to protect yourself from any contagion, make it cook longer in
that case.

IF MEAT IS VERY WELL COOKED, CONTAGION RISK IS VERY SMALL.
     8) Don't throw away any animal parts. The glands and genitals can
be used as baits for snares or hooks.
     9) When cleaning the interior parts leave no traces of blood. Use
a dry cloth or any kind of dry hay around.


BUTCHERING TIP #?:
     Once you have suspended the deer upside down, using hooks or a
strong stick passed through the tendons of the hind legs, you start the
cutting at the thighs toward the neck.
     You may find the skinning of the thighs a bit tough to do, but it
is easier if you pinch the skin and use a small knife, same thing for
the flank
     In the rear and dorsal region the skin will come off easier,
especially using this method, which is to pull on the skin with your
left hand and press on the flesh with the right hand.
     The opposite pressure helps greatly to do the job. It is also
recommended to wrap your right hand with a cloth to protect the fat
which protects the meat from drying. 
     All will go well up to the neck where it will again get tough
because the skin is very thick.
     For this last operation you may use a wooden-horse (Trojan?) which
is more stable for the deer than when suspended and you can roll more
easily the skin in cutting toward the head.
     You cut the head between the first and second cervical vertebra
which you disjoint one from the other by turning the head on its axis.

THERE ARE 2 METHODS OF BUTCHERING: 
     The first one see the photo is also the most frequent yet the
least useful for deer etc.
     This is why we show you the second one where you don't have to saw
the back bone which is for us a greater amelioration. Even better if
you simply remove the 4 quarters then dissect the loins.
     Nothing is easier with a small & very sharp knife than to remove
from the neck till the tail, the 2 cylinder of meat stuck along the
back bone.     
     You will not loose 1lb of meat and also obtain 2 splendid piece of
meat of about 2 1/2 feet long, perfectly clean.
     You can then cut them in 2 or 3 parts, roll them up in a strong
Al. paper and put them in the freezer for later use, and no need to
keep the bones taking precious space.
     Of course you also have removed the sirloin otherwise the #faux
filets# will have dried up in a total lost. The deer thus cut up lives
you with only the flank for spare ribs, and the neck to make ground
meat, beside the heart, liver & tongue which is used as well.
     Many hunters think that only the 4 quarters are good, they forget
that the sirloin and loins are the superior parts in butchering.
     There are many ways to divide the meat according to your need and
taste as you can see on the photo.
     REMEMBER that it's in the buttocks, loins, and shoulders that you
find roast & beef steaks, if you want to do pemmican use flank, chest,
front forelegs & neck.

BUTCHERING:
DON'T CUT MEAT IN SENSE OF FIBRES, IT WILL GET TOUGH!!!
     No problem with a knife, yet without one, we can best puncture and
tear using a thin-edged rock or jagged end of a dead limb.
     Birds we learn can be dressed (or Undress) in a few moments with
bare hand alone.

SKIN TO SIT WARM:
     Sewing a wide piece about 4 to 6 inches or the entire width of a
rabbit skin for example at the back bottom of your hunting coat, inside
or on the outside with the fur sticking outward.
     This will permit you to sit at ease in warmth, since the skin
would act as cold or wet shield and it is mighty handy to sit at times
cut off from cold or wet spot. 
     This an add on which should be a MUST for all survivors or hunters
to be sewn preferably at home rather than in the wild and wet!
     Other rabbit skins could also be sewn around the wrist area of
your bush or survivor jacket to protect your writs from cold or wet as
well as around each bottom legs for the same reasons.

BUTCHERING, SKINNING & TANNING
MOVE TO THE KILL: 

1) Veteran woodsmen tells us of certain labour saving principles
practised by Indians. 

MOVE YOUR CAMP TO YOUR KILL AND NOT VICE VERSA.
2) If you MUST transport the carcass first reduce the weight by eating
heart, liver, kidneys skull meat, intestines and leg bone marrow.
3) ROLL; DON'T CARRY GAME DOWNHILL. On snow or ice use the pelt of one
animal as a sled to drag another.
Once scraped of fat and stretched between trees a hide can be
green-dried in a day. Spread under a sleeping bag = ideal insulator.

WORKING ON YOUR OWN:
1) Lifting a large animal takes considerable effort. If on your own you
may have to skin and gut the animal on the ground.
2) To prevent the carcass from rolling, cut off the feet of hoofed
animals and place them under it. 
3) Lay the carcass down a natural slope, scoop an impression in the
ground in which to place a collecting tin or other vessel so that the
animal bleeds into it.
4) Follow the same pattern of incisions in the hide then skin the
animal from one side to the backbone, spread out the hide and then roll
the animal on to it to finish skinning the other half- this helps keeps
the meat from rubbing on the ground.

CAN'T MOVE THE DEAR DEER!:
     Now if you can not transport your deer to your camp right away,
you MUST take some precautions such as to lay it on its stomach on some
pieces of wood, so as to raise it to MAKE SURE that it is well
ventilated to dry and cool off.

DON'T HANG IT UP, AND MAKE SURE you cover it very well with many spruce
branches held in place with bigger logs even with a rope if need be.
     Otherwise the scavengers will make it disappear in one day,
believe it or not 5 or 6 crows can clean a deer in one day.

HOW TO CARRY DEER:

THE WORST METHOD IS to tie its legs together and using a 12 foot pole
between the legs you & your partner tries to carry it. The continuous
swinging motion of the deer will nearly kill you.
1) THE TASK IS TWICE AS EASY if you use 2 poles to tie the legs and you
then carry the weight on your shoulders and to avoid the swinging
motion.
2) You just march on the same footstep rhythm or you can use this
different method which is to make a net under the deer using a rope
between the 2 poles in which you carry the deer instead of tying it to
the poles you tie it to the stretcher by the neck.

HOW TO CARRY IT ALONE?: (Call Tarzan)
1) If you are alone and can not get help from the above nor Spock to
beam it up, then first, don't try to drag it on the floor unless the
deer is very small, it will get tangled up everywhere.
2) Don't try to obstinate yourself unless you are Hulk to drag a 175 to
200 pound deer, you only risk the hearth attack.
3) Move your camp to the kill is the logical choice if in emergency
even without it.

TRICK TO MOVE IT IF ALONE:

TO CUT THE WEIGHT IN HALF BY:
1) Try this trick which will cut the weight in half. Search for 2 small
tree about 15 feet long with a trunk slightly bent, if not, cut 2
straight trees that you cut the ends in #bevel# so that they slide
better.
     Place them about 20 inches apart and tie a rope at every foot
between them. Roll your deer on this stretcher stomach upward and
attach it firmly by the legs and the neck so that it does not slide
downward.
2) If your rope is long enough cut a piece which you will attach to the
handles so as to help you to support the weight on your shoulder as
some kind of harness.
     You will then note that a man of average strength can by use of
this method carry a deer of 200 pound without heart attack or total
exhaustion.

REMOVING OF THE SKIN:

BUTCHERING TIPS:

1) Hundred of pounds of meat is lost because the amateurs does not know
how to carve the animal properly, or because he has not opened and
cleaned the animal as soon as killed.
     Or using bayonet type of knife to open an animal thus perforating
the intestine and spoiling the meat to no avail.

BUTCHERING TIP 1: 
1) Too many hunters spoil the taste of the games by using the same
knife to remove the #glands# located on the deer legs and to skin the
deer itself. Correct this error by using a small knife really sharp to
extract the gland.

DEER BUTCHERING:
Deer or Moose meat spoils very fast if left on the ground.
1) So if you can not hang the deer on a tree, drag the body to a dead
trunk & put it on it or upon a tree stump or a group of shrubs would do
it.
     If too heavy push branches under the body & use a branch or pole
as leverage. It does not matter that the hind legs drag on the ground.
2) A good hunter does it in 5 minutes and by dirtying only one hand but
if it is your first butchering, it will take 1/2 hour and you'll be a
mess.
3) Start first by placing the deer in proper position which is down
toward a small slope which will help the cleaning up.
4) Using a rope you will spread open the hind legs by tying them to a
small tree near by. Thus installed the deer offers you its abdomen and
rib cage.
5) It is the abdomen that MUST be emptied of its content if you want to
avoid spoiling the meat. You start by the removing of the genital
organs of the male.
6) To empty a deer, you open the deer from the #sternum# to the tail
base, from the sternum precisely where the bony part of the rib cage
ends.
7) When the opening is big enough to insert the index and the major
finger of your left hand, these fingers will push downward while
lifting strongly the skin upward.
8) Meanwhile the sharp knife turned upward will be introduced between
your fingers and will work downward all the way to the #anus# MAKING
SURE NOT TO PERFORATE THE INTESTINES.
9) You will gradually open the hole about 10 inches on each side. You
will then notice that the #viscera# enveloped in a transparent pouch
have a tendency to come out of the open stomach.
10) You MUST MAKE SURE not to perforate this envelope and to work in
such a way as to let the stomach and the intestines be removed in one
block.
11) Otherwise the guts will come off the pouch and will make your task
much more difficult & messy.
12) You MUST disengage all the pouch (diaphragm) so as to let it easily
come out of the abdomen.
13) In order to help you along, you introduce you open hand between the
skin and the pouch and direct it along the back bone. Then you cut off
the #oesophagi#.
14) It is a gut of about 1 1/2 inch in diameter located at the top end
of the stomach & connected to the #pharynx#.
15) Once this done you grab with your left hand the end of the
#oesophagi# connected to the stomach and you pull firmly downward. The
pouch containing the intestines and guts should come out fairly easily.
16) If the deer is heavy, you can turn it sideways to help the clearing
of the #viscera#. Once they are completely out of the deer you then cut
the #big intestine# as closely as possible from the #anus#.
     Clean all blood and dry it, using dry grass, moss. Now all you
have to do is to detach the liver which has stayed stuck behind the
stomach.

DEER BUTCHERING TIP 2:
     Once at camp with your deer REMEMBER that is preferable to let it
age a bit before butchering it; about 8 to 10 days, the meat will be
much more tender. Of course we assume that you have emptied the deer in
the first place.

AT CAMP BUTCHERING:
1) Once at camp you finish the butchering job by opening the rib cage
to remove the hearth and tongue.
2) Removing the deer of any further scrap and then you hang it up to a
bar located between 2 trees at about 12 feet high, either by the head
or hind legs through which you have passed a pole at the #tendons
d"Achilles#.
     But don't forget to cover it up so as to avoid scavengers etc. Use
a tarpaulin to protect it from snow or rain as well.
3) You finish the opening with the knife then use the axe to open the
thorax by cutting the sternum all the way to the neck.
4) To remove the lungs and the heart; cut the jugular vein which is a
tube about 1 inch in diameter, once cut; insert your fingers and pull
downward and all the breathing system will come out of the thorax.
5) Clean the inside of the deer of the remaining parts of the lungs,
other pouches and of all blood.
6) As for the heart, it will be bled by simply compressing it strongly.
Finally remove the #metatarsiennes glands# located at the bottom of the
#tendons d'Achille# which you use to rub your boots as # 1
waterproofing.

BUTCHERING TIP 3: 
     Whatever is not used either hearth liver, lungs etc. of all game
MUST NEVER be left in the wood but burned since they will give many
diseases to other games, so MAKE SURE to get rid off them.
          WARNING HEALTH HAZARDS DISEASED ANIMALS:
1) There are lymph glands in the cheeks of all animals more noticeable
on large ones. If large and discoloured they are signs of illness.
     Any animal that is distorted or discoloured about the head such as
rabbit with the symptoms of myxomatosis MUST BE BOILED.
2) There is then little risk of infection from eating it. But care
should be taken in preparation when there is a risk.
3) It is ESSENTIAL that any cut or sore in your skin be covered when
slaughtering or handling meat.
4) For if an animal carries disease a break in the skin provides easy
entry to your beautiful body!

PREPARING THE KILL:
1) No part of a carcass should be wasted. Careful preparation will give
you the maximum food value and make full use of the parts you can not
eat. Set about it in four stages.

SKINNING:
1) So that the hide or fur can be for shelter or clothing.
     Pigs are not skinned because they have a useful layer of fat under
the skin. Birds are plucked but not usually skinned.

GUTTING:
To remove the gut and recover the offal.

JOINTING:
To produce suitable cuts for cooking by various methods

BLEEDING:
1) Which is ESSENTIAL if the meat is to keep & without which the taste
is very strong.
2) DO NOT WASTE BLOOD. It is rich in vitamins and minerals including
salt, that could otherwise be missing from the survivor's diet. Cattle
food is an important part of the diet of many African herdsmen.
3) Cannibals who drank their enemies' blood found vision and general
health improved and giddy spells, induced by vitamin deficiency, cured.
4) The blood provided the missing vitamins and minerals. But today with
aids they would drink death & beside the Bible forbids us to drink
blood.

ANY ANIMAL WILL BLEED BETTER IF HUNG WITH THE HEAD DOWN.

1) Tie ropes around the hock (Not the ankle, it will slip off) & hoist
it up to a branch or build a frame, placing a receptacle beneath to
catch the blood.
2) For a frame you need a strong structure. Drive the posts into the
ground and lash them firmly where they cross to make A frame and then
rest the horizontal bar on top. 
3) Bleed the animal by cutting the jugular vein or carotid artery in
its neck. When the animal is hanging these will bulge more clearly &
should be easy to see.

     The cut can be made either behind the ears, stabbing in line with
the ears to pierce the vein on both sides of the head at the same time
or lower down in the V of the neck, before the artery branches.
     Unless you have a stiletto type knife the latter is best. An
alternative is to cut the throat from ear to ear.
4) This has the disadvantage to cut through the windpipe and food from
the stomach may come up & contaminate the blood which you are trying to
save, but if your knife does not have a sharp point it may be
necessary. It is particularly important to very thoroughly bleed pigs.
5) If blood remains in their tissues, which have a high moisture and
fat content, it will speed deterioration of the flesh.

GUTTING:
1) With the carcass still suspended remove the gut and recover the
offal. Pinch the abdomen as high as possible and in the pouch of flesh
you have raised make a slit big enough to take two fingers.
2) Do not stab into the flesh or you may cut through to internal
organs. Insert the fingers and use them as a guide for the knife to cut
upwards towards the anus.
3) Now cut downwards in the same way, using the hand to hold back the
gut, which will begin to spill outwards see PIX #? 112. Cut down as far
as the breastbone. The initial incision, made in the pinched-up flesh,
needs only accommodate two fingers.
4) Cut in the same way as skinning before First up, then down. The back
of the hand prevents the gut from spilling.
5) Let the gut spill out, allow it to hang down so that you can inspect
it. Remove the 2 kidneys and the liver.
6) The chest cavity is covered with a membrane and easily missed in
small game. Cut through the membrane and remove the heart, lungs and
windpipe.
7) Ensure that the anus is clear you should be able to see daylight
through it. Push a hand through with large animals. The carcass is now
clean & you are a bloody mess.

JOINTING MEAT: 
1) Large animals can be quartered by first splitting down the backbone
and then cutting each side between the tenth and eleventh rib.
     The hindquarters will contain steaks rump & filet and the choicer
cuts, the forequarter meat is more stringy and needs slow cooking to
make it tender
2) The cuts into which a carcass is divided will differ according to
the kind of animal and the cook's preference.
1) Fillet or undercut: The most tender meat only 1% is fillet. Ideal
for preserving. 
2) Sirloin: Next most tender. Fat free strips can be cut for
preserving.
3) Rump: Ideal for frying, little cooking is needed. Can also be dried
in strips.
4) Topside: Muscle from the top of the leg. Cook slowly, it tends to be
tough. Cut into cube for boiling.
5) Top rump: Muscle from front of thigh. As for topside. 
6) Silverside: Muscle on the outside of thighs. Good roasting.
7) Hind flank: Belly, ideal for stews & casseroles.
8) Leg: Tough and sinewy cut into cubes and stew.
9) Flank: Muscular extension of the belly. Ideal for stews Usually
tough so needs long simmering to make tender.


10) Brisket: Same as Flank.
11) Shin: Foreleg, best cubed for stews. 
12) Neck: Stews.
13) Clod: Ideal for stews. Contains less tissue than leg. Cook slowly.
14) Chuck and blade: Quite tender but usually cut up as stewing steak.
15) 8 ribs: Ideal for roasting but cook slowly.

HANGING:
1) Offal should be eaten as soon as possible but the rest of the meat
is better hung.
2) In moderate temperature leave the carcass hanging for 2-3 days. In
hot climate it is better to preserve it by cooking it straight away.
3) When the animal is killed, acids released into the muscles help to
break down their fibre, making the meat more tender.
THE LONGER IT IS LEFT THE MORE TENDER IT WILL BE AND EASIER TO CUT WITH
MORE FLAVOUR TOO AND HARMFUL PARASITIC BACTERIA IN THE MEAT WILL DIE.
4) You MUST keep flies off the flesh; if they lay eggs on meat it will
spoil quickly.

OFFAL LIVER:
1) Liver is best eaten as soon as possible. Remove the bile bladder in
the centre.
2) It is quite strong and can usually be pulled off without difficulty-
but be careful, the bile will taint the flesh with which it comes in
contact.
3) If any animal has any disease they will show up in the liver.
4) AVOID any liver that is mottled or covered with white spots. If only
some is affected, cut it off and eat the reminder.
5) LIVER IS COMPLETE FOOD, CONTAINING THE ESSENTIAL VITAMINS AND
MINERALS. 
If eaten raw no food value is lost. It requires little cooking.

STOMACH: (TRIPE):
1) Stomach takes little digesting, so is a good food for the sick or
injured. Remove the stomach contents which make ideal "invalid" food.
2) Wash the tripe and simmer slowly with herbs. The contents may sound
unpalatable but could save an injured person's life for the animal has
done most of the hard work of breaking the food down.
3) Lightly boiled, stomach contents are nourishing and easily
digestible. In some countries pigs are fed nothing but apple prior to
slaughter.
4) They are cooked with the stomach still in. The subtle flavour of
apple impregnates the meat. The stomach is removed after cooking and
the contents used as sauce.
KIDNEYS:
     They are a valuable source of nourishment & ideal flavouring for
stews. Boil them with herbs.
     The white fat surrounding them (suet) is a rich food source.
Render it down to use in the preparation of pemmican.

MELTS:
     They are the spleen, a large organ in the bigger animals. It has
limited food value and is not worth bothering about in the small games
such as rabbits. It is best roasted.


LITES:
     Lites are the lungs of the animal, perfectly good to eat but not
of great food value. Any respiratory complaints will show up in the
lungs.
     Do not eat any mottled with black and white spots. Healthy lungs
are pink and blemish free and best boiled. They could be set aside for
fish or trap bait.

HEART:
     A tightly packed muscle with little or no fat. Roast it or use its
distinctive flavour to liven up the stew.

INTESTINES:
1) They consist of lengths of tubes and are best used as sausage skins.
Turn them inside out and wash them. Then boil them thoroughly.
2) Mix fat and meat in equal proportions and then stir in blood. Stuff
the mixture into the skin and boil them well.
3) Before putting them into boiling water add a little cold to take it
just off the boil, this will counter any risk of the skins bursting.
4) This makes a highly nutritious food which if smoked will keep for a
long time. Dried intestines can be used for light lashings.

SWEETBREADS:
     Are the pancreas or thymus gland, distinctive in larger game. Many
people consider it a great delicacy and it is delicious boiled or
roasted.

TAIL:
Skin and boil to make an excellent soup for it is full of meat and
gelatine.

FEET:
     Feet are chopped off during slaughter but should not be wasted.
Boil them up to make a good stew.
     Clean dirt from hooves or paws and remove all traces of fur.
Hooves are a source of nutritious aspic jelly.

HEAD:
1) On larger animal there is a good deal of meat on the head. The
cheeks make a very tasty dish. The tongue is highly nutritious.
2) Boil it to make it tender and skin before eating. The brain will
brawn and will also provide useful solution for curing hides. All that
is left or the whole head with small animals should be boiled.

BONES:
     All bones should be boiled for soup. They are rich in bone marrow
with valuable vitamins. They can also be made into tools.

PREPARING SHEEP-LIKE ANIMALS:
Follow the instructions for larger animals and then:


1) Split in two down the line of the spine, keeping exactly to the
centre of the backbone.
2) Remove rear leg. Try to cut through the ball and socket joint.
3) Remove the front leg. There is no bone to cut through. Follow the
line of the shoulder blade.
4) Cut of neck 
5) Cut off skirt (loose flesh hanging below the ribs.)
6) Cut between each rib and between the vertebrae. This gives you
chops.
7) The fillet, lying in the small back, is the best meat for
preserving.

PREPARING PIG:
1) Do not attempt to skin a pig. Gut it first then place it over the
hot embers of a fire and scrape the hair off.
2) Hot water will help loosen the hair. It should be only just hotter
than your hand can bear.
3) Water that is too hot will make the hair more difficult to remove.
Pigs attract many parasites: ticks, crab lives and worms so cooking
MUST MAKE SURE of killing them. Boiling is therefore the best way of
cooking pork.

PREPARING SMALL ANIMALS:
Follow the basic procedures as for larger animals they all need to be
gutted.

PREPARING REPTILES:
1) Discard internal organs which may carry salmonella. Reptiles can be
cooked in their skins. Large snake can be chopped into steaks and
provide useful skins.
2) To prepare a snake, cut off head well down, behind poison sacs, open
vent to neck, keeping blade outwards to avoid piercing innards which
will fall clear. Skewer to suspend and ease of skin towards tail.

PREPARING BIRDS:
Birds are prepared in much the same way as animals. Though they are
usually plucked and cooked with the skin on instead of being skinned.
Follow the sequence below.
BLEEDING:
Kill birds by stretching their necks, then cut the throat and hang
head-down to bleed.
Or kill by cutting just under the tongue severing main nerve and main
artery. The bird dies easily and bleeds well.

WARNING ON CARRION:
Handle carrion eaters as little as possible they are more prone to
infection, lice and ticks.

PLUCKING:
It is easiest straight after the killing while the bird is still warm.
Hot water can be used to loosen feathers except in the case of
water-birds and seabirds in which it tends to tighten them.
Keep feathers for arrow flights and insulation. Start at the chest. For
speed you can skin a bird but that wastes the food value of the skin.

DRAWING (REMOVING INNARDS):
Make an incision from the vent to the tail. Put your hand in & draw out
all the innards. Retain the heart and kidneys. Cut off the head and
feet.

CLEANING FOWL OR RABBITS IN THE HOUSE:
1) Here is a trick to help you get rid of all little hair of down that
somehow ALWAYS remain after skinning your rabbit, squirrel or
partridge.
2) Take some scotch tape and roll in outward around you hand so that
the sticky part is on the outside then by manipulating this hand duster
carefully you will easily get rid of all the undesirable down and furs.

RABBIT SICKNESS = DANGER:
1) Tularaemia this sickness is caused by a germ and it appeared in
1968. Men can contact it from sick rabbits by direct contact with his
hands or by breathing the dust from infected wounds, or by tick stings
or by eating the meat not well cooked.
2) So it is recommended to wet the rabbit before skinning it, so as to
avoid the dust and to prevent stings from tick by the use of rubber
gloves and to MAKE SURE it is properly cooked. If the rabbit presents
abscess or running lesions do not eat it but destroy.

PRESERVING PELT:
1) The only good way to keep the skin once its has been cleaned off all
its fat and blood and well washed it is to let it dry in fresh air.
2) When they are dry after 2 or 3 days they can be taken of their board
to which they were nailed to stop the shrinking then they are kept in a
fresh room till ready to use.

SKINNING: REMOVING THE SKIN 
STRIP TEASE TIME!: 
1) Cool off the body as soon as possible and hang it by the head.
2) Using a stick hold open the body so that the air can freely
circulate, spread also the hind leg so that the air can freely
circulate around.
3) REMEMBER to hang the deer by the head then cut the skin around the
neck near the head.
Then cut the skin lengthwise under the neck down to the abdominal
cavity. Next you carve the inside of the legs in such a way that the 2
sides meet together.
Start at the top. Use your knife as little as possible. One can remove
or peel of the skin in big chunk size by just pressing his fist between
the flesh & the skin.
4) Keep on going toward the bottom till you get to the hind legs. This
method will give a clean job leaving hardly any hair on the skin.

SKINNING PART 2:
1) It is easier to skin any animal when the flesh is still warm, as
soon as it has been bled. First remove any scent glands that might
taint the meat.
2) Some deer have them on their rear legs, just behind the knee.
Felines and canines have a gland on either side of the anus.
3) It is wise to remove the testicles of male animals as they can also
taint meat.

BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO REMOVE HIDE: 
Cut firmly through the skin.
1) Make a ring cut around the rear legs just above the knee. Take care
not to cut the securing rope.
2) Cut around the forelegs in the same place.
3) Cut down inside of the rear legs to the crotch, carefully cutting a
circle around the genitals.


4) Extend the cut down the centre of the body to the neck. Do not cut
into the stomach and digestive organs: 
5) Lift skin and insert two fingers beneath, set knife between, sharp
edge outward and draw it slowly down, cutting away from the body.
6) Cut down the inside of the forelegs. Cutting in this way, you avoid
cutting prematurely into the gut cavity.
7) The fingers lift the skin as you go and the knife, sharp edge
outwards, slips in and cuts along. 
8) DON'T HURRY! Don't cut yourself. Don't damage the skin.
9) Taking care will pay dividends later when you want to use the skin.
Now ease the skin of the rear legs, cut around the tail (you have
already cut around the genital area.)
10) As soon as you can get your hand right down the back of the carcass
use your fingers to separate flesh from skin.
11) Now peel the skin from the front legs. You will have a single piece
of hide.
12) As you work your thumbs down the neck they become bloody at the
point where the throat was cut. A strong twist of the head will
separate it. Cut through remaining tissues.

HOW TO SKIN WILD ANIMAL:
1) As soon as the game is killed you hang it to a desired height by the
hind leg and make an incision with a sharp knife at knee height.
2) Then draw a straight line to the #anus# but don't press to hard so
as not to open the animal right away.
3) You will slide the blade between the skin and the flesh while
pulling fairly strongly with one hand with the help of your knife to
cut the flesh that stick too much to the body, using your closed fist
between the flesh and the skin is a good way to proceed.
4) You keep this line right down to the upper part of the ear MAKING
SURE that you don't do any jerking movement.
5) Remove the excess fat and end by a cut on each ear, then pull the
skin down to the nose which you cut then remove the skin completely.
6) As soon as the skin is removed, you will make a cut on the stomach
up to the neck as to empty it completely from its intestine and of all
the lower part.
7) Wash it with fresh water then cut the meat to preserve it as the
food chapter tells you to.
8) As for the skin remove all excess fat and cover it with salt or
#alum# powder or oak bark powder, then roll it and keep it in a cool
place, not damp till the time for tanning 24 hours later.

WORKING ON YOUR OWN:
1) Lifting a large animal takes considerable effort. If on your own you
may have to skin and gut the animal on the ground.
2) To prevent the carcass from rolling, cut off the feet of hoofed
animals and place them under it. 
3) Lay the carcass down a natural slope, scoop an impression in the
ground in which to place a collecting tin or other vessel so that the
animal bleeds into it.
4) Follow the same pattern of incisions in the hide then skin the
animal from one side to the backbone, spread out the hide and then roll
the animal on to it to finish skinning the other half- this helps keeps
the meat from rubbing on the ground.

SKINNING SMALL ANIMALS:
1) Rabbits and smaller animals can be skinned by making a small
incision over the stomach (be careful not to cut into the organs)
Insert the thumbs and pull outwards- the skin comes away easily.


2) Free the legs and twist the head off. If you have no knife available
to make the first incision snap off the lower part of a leg and use the
shard edge of the break to cut the skin.

HOW TO SKIN AN ANIMAL:
1) This operation MUST be done with precision if one wants to keep the
fur and requires much experience to practice on rabbits but you MUST
MAKE SURE that there is no blood on the fur.
2) So in order to do avoid this don't hit the rabbit on the head since
the blood would accumulate at this spot.
3) Your best way is to hang the rabbit with its head down & hit it on
the nose which will cause an haemorrhage death.
4) Skin it right away while you hang it by the back legs on hooks at
30cm distance.
The best tool is a skinning knife but if you don't have one then use a
straight one but MAKE SURE it is real sharp and keep the sharpening
stone near by since its blade becomes dull quickly in the skinning
process. See PIX #? to help along.
5) After you have made the incisions (cuts) the way shown you then
start to pull off the skin till you feel a resistance which is caused
by the #membranes# or tissues which then MUST be cut off as you go
along.
6) Keep on pulling & cutting along but hold firm on the rabbit. Animals
are skinned most of the time all the same way and the skin of the head
and of the legs is usually not removed but a cut is made around them
and the rest of the skin is removed.
7) In order to do the first cut (incision) you start at the sternum and
go down along one of the front leg. The second cut will go along the
other leg.
8) The third cut will go from the hind leg to rejoin the other leg and
the last cut will go into the middle. With a rabbit the skin comes off
with one pull using only the occasional additional cut.
9) However on most other animal the skin only comes off bit by bit as
if it was a sheath which was too narrow.
10) You MUST then pull it off gently and when it resists call the army
by using your knife well sharpened. Go easy so as not to pierce the
skin.
11) The last operation is to cut the skin around the neck and around
the legs.
12) Once you have removed the skin you can remove most of the excessive
flesh but using the back of your knife, the rest of the flesh will come
off when you do the skinning operation.
13) The next operation is the skinning which is to remove all the rest
of the fat or flesh that has clung to the skin or leather.
14) In order to remove these pieces of meat easily dip the skin in a
solution of #borax# or salt.
15) You prepare this solution by dissolving 500 grams of ordinary salt
into 8 litres of water. If you use #Borax# then use 30 gram of #Borax#
for 4 litre of hot water and let it cool off before dipping the skin
into it.
16) The use of a shaker similar to the old washing machine would speed
things up and would also diminish the falling of hair.
17) It is recommended before you dip the skins to stretch them on a
wooden rack while they are still fresh.
18) In order that the flesh is removed easily let the skin soak in the
solution above during one night.
19) (In some cases you may have to let the skin soak a few days, but
experience will tell.)
20) In the morning wash the skin off with clear soft water and let it
dry off. When it is still a bit damp you rub it with salt while
avoiding that the salt comes into contact with the fur. As soon as the
salt has been absorbed make a second one.

21) Fold the skin lengthwise the fur on the outside and roll it and let
it lay down slightly inclined so that the excess of water comes out.
22) The removal of the flesh will be done the day after. For this you
place the skin with its fur under and place it over a round piece of
wood and scrub or scratch the flesh 
off from the skin.
23) Normally one uses a special knife for this but a butcher knife
would do fine as well to remove all emaining pieces of flesh or
#cartilage#.
24) For a rabbit the round wood is a piece about 1.20 meter long and
20cm in diameter which has been split in half lengthwise so as to
present a flat & round surface
25) MAKE SURE that the bark is off the wood as well. Hard wood is much
better than spruce since spruce type usually stays sticky.
26) Make also sure that its surface is well smooth and does not have
knots or bumps.
27) The skin is #racler# with care and uniformly on all its surface. In
order that the skin tanning is well done then the #membrane# that
covers the inside face MUST be eliminated completely.
28) From time to time you scrape the skin with the back of the knife in
order to soften it.


29) As soon as the operation is finished, you wash it in a soapy water
and rinse it carefully but quickly then you dry it by hanging it on a
stretcher.


RABBIT SKINNING NEW METHOD:


A) This method was invented to make skinning as quickly and as simply
as possible.


B) NO KNIFE is required to remove the skin. One uses only his hands to
turn the skin upside down.


1) With the thumb and index, pull on the skin at the point of junction
of the hind legs pushing or inserting your index between the thigh &
the skin, then using your finger as a hook pull downward & rip the skin
down to the groin.


2) Once you have cleaned remove the 2 thighs, grab the skin with both
hands and pull downwards.


3) Once most of the animal body is cleaned remove remove the tail and
skin which have remained between the thighs.


4) Now pull the skin downward again while using your finger by
inserting it between the skin and the flesh in order to facilitate the
clearing of the shoulders.


5) Once they are completely cleared remove pull on the skin of the legs
which will cut itself off easily.


6) Before going any further, you MUST remove the shoulders from the
body carcass so as to avoid getting them soiled with viscera, blood and
shit.


7) Now remove the intestines #viscera. # It is recommended to make the
first cut a bit on the side of the stomach rather than dead on centre,
so as to avoid any perforation to the #viscera.#


8) Completely remove the stomach muscles by cutting along the "filet"
up to the first ribs.


9) You also MUST break the pelvic bone with at the thigh junction in
order to facilitate the cleaning operation.


10) #Degager the "filets"# by cutting along the back bone starting at
the first ribs up to the neck. Proceed the same way by sliding your
knife between the ribs & #"filets".#


11) Now that your #filets# have been removed from the thorax cage, it
is not necessary to remove them completely, they will do so on their
own with the next step.


12) With the knife point break the vertebras at the level of the first
ribs then fold the back bone backward.


13) The body will break in two, the thorax cage containing the
#viscera#, the head & the skin will come together in one piece.


14) You will recuperate all the rabbit meat but for the small muscles
holding the sides.

4) ADVANTAGES OF SUCH METHOD:


1) The small side bones which are often a real nuisance in a meal will
not be there at all.


2) You avoid to touch or manipulate the #viscera#.


3) You don't cut the head thus avoid bloody mess.


4) Real time saving for the whole operation.


RABBIT SKINNING & WINTER TIPS:


The Indians do it this way; they attach one hind leg to a tree then
they make a cut from the #anus# inside the thighs down to the heels.


Then they cut the skin around the leg and they would pull off the skin
like a glove using the knife to cut the root of the ears, around the
eyes, mouth and nose.


In winter if the snowshoes hurt your feet, skin a couple rabbit and put
their skin directly under your feet then put your socks over them.


This skin to skin contact gives you an impression of walking over jelly
but it removes the pain of blisters.


CLEANING THE SKIN: 


Make cleaning and drying the skin easier by stretching it on a frame.
Do not make the holes for the cords too close to the edge.


Remove the fat & flesh by scraping the skin, using an edge of bone,
flint or other rock or even wood.


Take care not to cut the skin. Remove every trace of flesh. Ants and
other insects may help you if you lay the skin on the ground. Keep
watch that they do not start to consume the skin itself.

TO CURE FURS:


Stretch the skin as tight as possible and leave it in the sun to dry
out. All the moisture MUST be drawn from it so that it will not rot.


Rubbing salt or wood ash into the skin will aid the process. Do not let
the skin get wet or even damp, until the process is complete.


Do not leave it where it will be exposed to rain or risk a covering
with morning dew. Keep it absolutely dry.


If little or no sun is available, force dry it over a fire, but keep
the skin out of the flames and use only the heat and the smoke which
will aid preservation. Keep it away from the steam from any cooking
pots.


TANNING: Chk repeat 


1) Skin the animal as soon as dead or as possible.


2) Rake the flesh side of the skin, remove all impurities such as
blood, grease, nerves etc. Be careful for blood spots. Put the skin in
clear water for a few hours to help it.


3) Place in a tanning solution a: 4 lb of salt + 2 lb of # alum# and 3
gallons of water well-mixed cold not warm nor hot. B: 1 gal of water +
1 oz of commercial sulphuric acid + 1 lb of salt.


4) Soften up the skin from time to time & MAKE SURE that it stays
completely under water, if need be use a rock to help.


5) After 24 hours remove the skin, let it drip off on a rope with the
skin flesh side outward.


6) Repeat over again the number 4,5,6 


Take the skin off for good, rinse it and wash it in water containing
1/2 cup of soda a laver# rub, #chiffonner# twist it dry as best as you
can.


7) Let it dry in the air but NOT in the sun for 24 hours.


Stick it to a board, stretch it and nail it down using small nails to
help you in this chore and the hair side under.


When the skin is dry, rub it, #chiffoner#, and make it white using talc
powder. The best skin season runs from October to March.


HOW TO PREPARE THE SKIN (TANNING): 


After having rolled them with salt inside in contact with the fatty
part you wait 24 hours before soaking them in a tanning bath.


After this period you put them for 24 hours in cold water then you
stretch them on a board, the fur inside and the naked parts open toward
free air.


Then you will scrape with a knife all the fat and grease so as to make
the skin as clean as possible.


Then prepare a tanning solution made like so: 1 pound #alum# and 1
pound of coarse salt in 1 gallon of warm water. You soak the skins for
48 hours.


Several times during this time you will stir the whole thing up. At the
end of 48 hours you will tend stretch them again on the boards, stretch
them as much as possible and let them dry partially in a shadowy place
NEVER in direct sunlight.


When the skins are 1/2 dry, you MUST stretch them once more so as to
maintain the maximum pliancy and to prevent the leather to harden.


You then put them back in a new batch of solution as described above.


You then draw them out to make them dry completely as shown before on
boards, (fur on the board) then before all the oil runs out of the
skin, powder them with wood's ashes mixed with saw dust well dry.

When the skins are impregnated of these substances you spread a thick
sheet of paper between each skin and you roll them together before
putting them under a weight of some sort.


After a while you beat them with a small stick, once this done you comb
the skin in #sens du poil# till they get back to normal shape.


CAPT. BRION ABC OF TANNING: P348


There are as many procedures of tanning as there are tanners and each
one thinks he has the best one.

So here is one of them. The advantage is that it does not require the
uses of DANGEROUS chemical giving toxic vapours.


However the uses of rubber gloves are strongly recommended since the
products attack your skin.


Use a big container either of wood, glass or plastic but not of metal
since the chemical ingredients would attack the metal.


Next you dissolve 2.5 kg of salt into 40 litres of water which you
remove from the water as soon as it starts to boil.


MAKE SURE that your water is not alkaloid (hard water) the use of rain
water is best.


Next you dissolve 1 kg of #alum# in boiling water and pour this
solution into the first solution while mixing it with a stick, not with
your hand. The solution thus obtained will be used either cold or hot.


Dip the skin into this solution delicately with a stick twice a day. In
order that the skin is totally tanned MAKE SURE that the solution gets
well into the folds of the skin.


The bigger the skin the longer the tanning time. A rabbit skin would
require 2 days and a sheep 5 to 6 days. A dinosaur? = 1 year or 2?


Tanning permits a skin which if it was not treated would rot quickly.
It transforms a skin into a nice fur or leather which is SOFT, SUPPLE,
WITHOUT BAD ODOUR


In the old days the tanning was done while using tannic acid from
diverse plants or trees nowadays most tanner use #alum#.


To get a skin worth a professional you MUST use patience until the skin
is supple.


After having made the skin soaked into the solution for many days cut a
small piece and check if the colour is well uniformed all over the
skin. If it is uniformed then it is OK.


But if there is a difference between this piece from the side and the
middle of the skin then let it soak again one or two more days.


Don't do the usual beginner error which is to remove the skin before it
is uniformly and entirely tanned.


After the tanning is done, remove the skin from the solution and rinse
it down very well using a hose or in a bucket till the water is clear
and that all the fat and impurity are off.


Now place the skin on a support with its fur on the outside. Avoid to
place the fur in the sun. Place it in a cool place with a breeze so
that it dries well.


After many days when the skin and the hair are still lightly damp, roll
it down while placing the sides facing one another and let it dry for
one night.


If the skin has dried too quickly before it was rolled just damp the
interior side with a sponge and roll it as said.


Work the skin while stretching the skin on a smooth wood bar and
twisting it with your hands. Do this #petrissage# as long as it is
necessary until the skin is real supple.


The Indian women used to bite softly the skins for days, but then again
they had time during the winter and their skins were a marvel of
softness.


In order to help you along using your finger tips while massaging the
skin softly use #huile de pied de boeuf# or corn or cotton seed oil
along your work which will penetrate the leather & make it supple.


To clean a dull fur fill a plastic bag with oat meal

flour or saw dust, place the fur into the bag and 

shake the bag well till this dry cleaning is done. 


It works wonders but don't tell the dry cleaner he will go berserk.
Next brush the fur till it swells smooth down the sides of the leather
skin using rough sand paper rolled into a small piece of wood.


The method is the same whether it is a fur or ordinary leather but if
you desire to remove the hairs then do it, before the tanning operation
is done.


HAIR REMOVING EASIEST METHOD:


In order to this the easiest method is to let the skin soak during 5
days or more, if the weather is cool into a solution of 500 gram of
#chaux# hydrated mixed with 3 litre of rain water into a wood container
(not metal).


Stir it from time to time with a stick and MAKE SURE that this solution
does not come into contact with your skin or clothes since this
solution is #caustique# and risk to burn you. So use rubber glove.


Once the hairs start to peel off, rinse the skin well with soft water
and lay it down on a piece of wood having the ex-hairy surface facing
up. #racler# the skin using the back of your knife to remove the rest
of the hair.


RAW LEATHER HAS MANY USES: 


Raw leather is a leather that has not been tanned usually without its
fur and which has been treated by drying and extension. This leather is
used to make sandals soles, shoe laces, tam-tam head etc.

It has this specific property to retract when drying which makes it
very good to hold tightly any object to which it is attached.


To obtain this raw leather first ask the animal to remove its jacket or
do it for him and #echarner le# as we have seen above from all its
flesh but do not wash it.


Eliminate the hair according to the method above or using ashes from
hard wood mixed with water which makes a kind of acid which will help
you remove the hair.


In order to do this method spread a damp paste of these ashes on the
hairy side of the skin and roll the skin with its hair inside. Using a
weight maintain the rolled skin in a solution of ashes and water.


Don't forget to wear rubber gloves while doing this. Let the skin soak
into the solution till the hairs come off easily #racler# the skin with
the back of your knife to remove the hair.


SHEEP CAUTION:


If you are using a SHEEP skin then the removal of the fat is very
important because the skin will spoil otherwise.


So for that skin you will do a first washing without any detergent
product and rinse it many times using rain water then make a fast wash
using a soft soapy product then you twist the water off and put in on a
frame to dry.


SKIN DRYING FRAME: 


It is made of 4 thick branches made into a rectangle and strongly held
together by criss-crossed leather tongs.


Its dimension MUST be much bigger than the skin that you want to dry in
order to stretch this skin to its maximum. For a dinosaur use Texas! or
JERUSALEM!


Using a nail or a punch you make regular series of holes all around the
skin.


Don't make the holes too close to one another otherwise the skin will
rip apart. For ex. On a sheep skin one would punch holes every 5-6
inch.


Next you attach the skin to the frame using these holes and a leather
tong or a fine rope or salmon fish line going alternatively from the
skin to the frame till all the skin is extended. See pix to help.


Stretch the skin regularly on its sides, bottom and top so that the
skin is well flat.


As soon as the skin is dried you can then #teinter# then you make it
supple on all its surface using a small wooden hammer to pound it down.


Lay the skin over a thick coat of newspaper or on a hard surface but
smooth and you hammer it down with short and oblique (slanted blows).


RAWHIDE PREPARATION: PIX?


Rawhide is prepared more easily. You can dry the green skin in the
shade at odd moments scraping the flesh side as clean as possible with
any dull instrument such as a piece of rock or bone flattened on one
side.


The skin may be conveniently held by stretching across the knee that
portion that is being worked.


Or like many of us you may prefer to leave it tacked or pegged to some
smooth surface where hungry birds will in all probability aid your
efforts.


If you want the rawhide to be soft, you will probably have to wet the
flesh side.


Allow it to dry and then re-scrape the skin, doing this as many times
as may be necessary until the hide is satisfactory pliable.


Care MUST be taken not to dampen the other side if retention of hair or
fur is desired. If this is too long, it may be clipped.

If you want the hair off entirely, that can be easily enough
accomplished when the pelt is first secured by wetting the coat until
it starts to slip, whereupon you can scrape if off in great clumps.


INDIAN LEATHER TREATMENT: 


The Amerindians OJIBWAY'S and others were tanning the leather according
to a process which is still used all over the world today.


They knew that the bark of some trees such as the oak, the Canadian
Spruce, #Sumach# and #epinette# produce a substance particularly good
to protect & make the skin supple.


We now know this to be #tannin#.In order to extract this #tannin# the
Indians would boil several pieces of bark into water and would then
soak the skins into this solution 2 to 3 days for a small piece and for
many weeks with a bigger piece such as Bison, Buffalo. Dinosaur = 1
year.


When the tanning was done they would rinse the skins into the next
river, then they would beat, twist and bite the skins till they became
supple.


Next they would smear them with animal fat in their case bear fat which
would increase its suppleness. Even today the tanning done with Oak
bark is very well appreciated.


The only draw back that this may have, is that the natural vegetal
tanning gives a dark colour to the skin, but who cares when it is home
made by the best artist around which is you of course.


SKIN SMOKING: (Smoke-king?)


This method was more specifically used in the case of deer skins.


The skin was removed from its hair with the use of the ashes water
noted above then they would rub the skin with the brain of the animal
then they would stretch it on a frame to dry up by smoking.

This method would then prevent the skins from moulding later on even
when damp. To boot it gives a golden colour and smells real nice
especially if the wood used is from a fruit tree.


This smoking method can be used for most skins of average weight
including cow and horses but especially good for deer skins. The smoked
leather is well sought for by leather artists.


To smoke a skin as the Indians first dig a hole about 60 cm in diameter
and 30 cm deep. Burn enough wood so as to obtain a thick layer of ashes
and coals.


Next using 4 thin but strong Green branches (don't use dry wood)
construct a kind of support linked at the top by leather tong and onto
which you will then spread the skin which has been previously skinned.
(see above)


MAKE SURE that the skin will not get burned by being too low and too
close to the embers.


Spread some Green wood, onto the fire and watch it over till the
leather obtains the desired colour.


In order to obtain an equal colouring move the skin from time to time.
You simply do this by moving the frame around the fire.


SANDALS HOME MADE: 


Very easy to do. First draw on a piece of cardboard your foot print
adding about 1 cm. all around it.


Next cut into a piece of leather the sole according to your pattern and
affix lacing to the sole thus cut.


Then they will be either nails with rivets or staples or simply laced
using small holes perforated in the sole outside part. translation
needed here 


Note: That the feet are not similar, so MAKE SURE you cut the pattern

for each foot individually and not of the same pattern.


MAKING YOUR OWN MOCCASIN: APACHE STYLE 


They have many forms and were used traditionally by Indians of North
America. Their style would vary from regions to tribes but they all had
several common points.


The upper part was made from tanned leather usually smoked to increase
its resistance and the sole was made from soft supple leather.

The Apache style is made from 3 pieces. Using a heavy leather which is
tanned and oiled(Oil makes it better waterproof.)


And then you cut the pattern on some kind of paper MAKING SURE that
each foot has its own pattern being different one another.


#Batissez les morceaux du patron# and try it out before reporting it on
the leather.


The pattern is made from the left foot you can reverse it to make it
for a right foot but then it is still better to have a pattern for each
foot.


Since the leather is a thick one, it will then be necessary before
sewing it to pierce holes using a nail or a punch (#alene) or one of
those #griffe a trous# sold in leather and art craft stores.


The stitches will be done at the #point de sellier# and the thread will
be strongly pulled after each stitches so that it penetrates well into
the leather.


The stitching as well as being decorative will also be solid and
resistant.


MAKE SURE that the holes pierced into the sole be slightly more spaced
off that those of the #empeigne et du contrefort#.


This difference permits you to compensate or make up for the
superiority of the perimeter of the sole and gives a #effet de fronde#.

Now all you have to do is to make shoe laces as shown above using the
same leather as of the moccasins and then you slide them into the slits
made into the #contrefort# of the shoe.


DRAWING: 


1) Put your foot on a cardboard, a Kraft paper and draw your footsy
with a pen held vertically then draw the pattern of the sole by adding
3 cm to the heel and to the tip and 2.5 cm to the sides and proceed,
behold to do the same for the next footsie.


2) Next you make the pattern of the #empeigne# by adding 0.5 cm to the
largest widest part of the foot (lineAB).


And add 10 cm. to the distance held between your big toe #et le haut du
coup de pied# as seen on line CD.


3) Next the height of the #contrefort# of the moccasin will be of 10
cm. and its length will go around the ankle and override it by 1 cm. on
each side of the #empeigne#. Verify the measures #sur le contour du
patron# of each foot.


4) Using a nail or #alene# pierce holes at 0.5 cm. from the edge of the
soles and of the # contreforts# #et de l'avant de l'empeigne#.


Space them out at equal distance between them with the exception of the
sole where they will be closely made.


5) #La couture au point du sellier# which will maintain the sole to the
#empeigne# will be started at the centre of the #empeigne# then it will
keep on the edges while the stitching which will join the #contrefort#
to the sole will be started in the middle of the #contrefort#.


6) To do a stitching #au point du sellier#, thread a needle at both
ends of the thread.


At the first hole #egaliser les 2 longeurs du fil# and introduce the
needles into the following holes going in opposite direction and then
keep on going that way till it's finished.

BABOUCHE: DICK STYLE!


You can also make Babouche that have the advantage that they don't have
any difference between the right or left foot.


Cut 4 soles into some thick leather following the size of your foot.
Pierce holes all around and sew 2 thickness together.


Into some leather #decouper le dessus du pied et les contreforts#
following the PIX #?.


#Couser chaque dessus du pied sur l'envers starting par la pointe# into
the same holes that those made for the soles. All you have now to do is
to add the heel band.


LEATHER SHOE LACES:


They are made from raw leather cut into thin circular (spiral) stripes
done directly from the skin. Place the skin on a flat board and use a
nail which will form the centre of the #spiral#.


Using a sharp knife held vertically trace the #spiral# starting from
the outside going toward the centre. Once the #spiral# is all done then
you unroll your new shoe lace work of art.


Since nothing is stronger than a rope with 3 thread one can use this
leather laces to make himself one.


If one has the time and needs a rope, all the has to do is to lay the
skin flat on the ground and wet the skin a bit to help you when cutting
it.


LEATHER MAKING:


After cleaning, place the skin in water and weight it down with stones.
Leave it until the fur can be pulled out in handfuls-usually 2-3 days.


Make a mixture of animal fat and brains, simmered over a fire till they
form an even consistency. Scrape the skin on both sides, removing hair,
and grain. Keep it wet.


Work sitting down with the skin over your knees. Keep manipulating it.
Work the fat and brains mixture into the inner side of the still- wet
skin, stretching and manipulating as you do so.


Dry the skin in the smoke over a fire, keeping it well away from the
flames. The smoke sets up a reaction with the solution you have rubbed
in to make the skin supple.


LACES AND LASHING: 


Hide is one of the best materials for lashing and for thongs to lace
things together.


Cut short laces straight from the skin, along its length. To obtain a
greater length cut in a spiral-keep the width consistent or the
thronging will have weak points


SINEW AS THREAD:


The hamstring and the main sinews of the legs-especially of the larger
animals-can be dried and used as thread to stitch hides together for
shelter and clothing.


Recognise them by their strong white cord-like appearance. You can also
function of the bladder is to hold water, so naturally the bladder of a
large animal can be used as a water carrier-so can the stomach. Tie off
the openings to seal them.


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PRESERVING FOOD: 

If food is not plentiful or is likely to be limited 

by season, it is important to ensure that stores keep safely


Micro organisms, such as mould, that spoils food, thrive in warm moist
atmospheres. Deterioration can be delayed by keeping food in cold
places such as caves or by water, but that is only a short-term
measure.


More positive action MUST be taken to ensure long-term preservation.
The main methods to use are drying, smoking, pickling and salting.
Follow that order


Sugar preservers will not keep for very long unless you can vacuum-seal
them, but will keep longer than as soft fruit & alcohol is an excellent
preservative if you set up facilities to do it.


STORING CAUTION TO REMEMBER:


When you have taken time & trouble to preserve valuable foodstuffs,
particularly in areas where food is scarce, take equal troubles in
storing your food.


Do not store in direct sunlight, near excessive warmth or moisture, nor
where scavenging animals may ruin it.


Wrap, where possible, in airtight & waterproof materials or store in
containers such as birch-bark boxes with a good seal.


Label if you are storing several kinds of food and separate to AVOID
cross-flavouring. Check occasionally to see that all is well.


DRYING FOOD: 


Both wind and sun can dry food but, in most climates, it is easier to
force dry food over a fire. Losing moisture shrinks size and weight,
and concentrating on the nutritional value.


Many moulds can grow when there is as little as 16% moisture content,
but few can grow on foods with 5% or less and these will be less
vulnerable to maggots.


Pork, geese, seabirds and other meat with a high fat content are the
most difficult to preserve. It is best to cut off most of the fat and
rub salt into the flesh. Salt is good drying agent. Hang the salted
meat in cool airy place.

TO KEEP MEAT FROM SPOILING ADD ON:


This applies to big game such as bear, moose, deer etc. Once the animal
has been killed, skinned off, gutted out with all its blood well
removed, no trace of blood in the interior part, use a dry cloth or dry
hay to help you.


Now choose a tall tree, remove the lower branches for about 10 to 15
feet minimum from ground. Attach a rope at it peak, bent it down,
attach the rope to the animal carcass that you want to preserve, then
let the tree free to take back its natural position.


The meat will keep for a good period yet the predators will not be able
to reach it, MAKE SURE it is far enough any cliff or close by tree as
well.


How can this meat thus preserve? In the forest, a swarm of flies will
jump on this piece of meat and through their action and that of the sun
and wind.


It will form on this meat a crust up to 2" thick which will be a real
protective blanket air-tight in a couple of hours only.


This meat is completely shut in and will keep up to 2 to 3 weeks in
summer and winter many months.


When you want a piece of meat, take off with a good knife this casing
blanket, and take the meat you need. After a while the flies will have
reclosed the open part.


The next time you will choose another spot to take from until you have
used it off. Of course there is a little lost but all in all it is
better than loose the entire carcass.


FOOD PRESERVING CAGE: 


You need a stream or some running water ways. You built a cage using
big branches and smaller ones to weave some kind of basket which you
immerse at least at 1/2 in water, use stones to weigh it down if need
be and tie it up so it will not go away.

You also need to weave some kind of lid. In this cage you install a
food box with opening at the top for air flow. Then you put in what you
want.


MOSS FOOD PRESERVING: 


This moss was repeated in Plant preserve at times some ways work for
all others not, here we will keep only those pertaining to meat, those
for plants/roots / fruits etc. go with their own as for fish.


Try to put the preserving which work for most into 1 block at or near
top


The moss keeps humidity for a long time thus can be used to keep meat,
fruits or vegetables. (NOT Fish! NO!)


Cover the food with this moss tightly pressed and put them in a damp
box away from predators. Put a bed of that tightly press moss at the
bottom of the box too.


WOOD CHARCOAL MEAT PRESERVING:


From your camp fire, gather the wood charcoal, the big coals that you
let cool off, then once cold use it to preserve your food. All you have
to do is to surround the food of a thick layer of wood charcoal dust
and keep it in a dry place.


When you need the food, wash it in running water and your meat is as
fresh as if you had just killed it. DON'T USE mine charcoal but wood
charcoal


CLAY PRESERVING MEAT: 


Same procedure as wood charcoal. Form balls of meat with a good over
layer of clay that you dry in the fire, when you need it just break the
clay or better, throw these balls in the hot embers.


When the clay balls start to break off, remove them from the fire, the
meat is cooked, all you need is to add salt & pepper.

DON'T FORGET to remove the intestines before putting any wild meat in
preserve, this is VERY IMPORTANT.


PRESERVING MEAT BY DRYING: 


One of the easiest primitive way to preserve meat is done by cutting it
into long thin strips & hanging them apart in the sun. (See #Biltong#?)


Whereupon they will loose most of their water content & become dry &
hard, black and surprisingly sustaining & delicious.


Cut off the fatty portions, slice the meat into strips no thicker than
1/2 inch no wider than 1 inch. You can thread these strips to a wire or
cane but no pieces of meat touch another.


THERE MUST BE FREE AIR CIRCULATION AROUND EACH PIECE.


The strips can be soaked first if one wants in brine or sea water. One
method is to boil down ocean water until it becomes EXTREMELY salty &
while it is still simmering to dip the strips in this.


If no place handy to hang the meat, it can be laid on sun-heated rocks
& turned every hour or so.


DRYING NOTES:


Big meat chunks can be suspended high up in the trees, above the flies
level zone, meaning the zone that has air flow circulation where the
flies don't go, since they fly low.


With this method the meat will dry by forming an air tight crust which
will protect the interior meat.


But be sure that the meat thus suspended don't touch the other chunk of
meat, otherwise it will spoil on contact points. The sun and wind will
dry it. When doing this drying MAKE SURE you start on a hot dry day.

Meat and fish can be dried when sliced in "filet" is spread over birch
flat pieces or even upon flat stones to dry with sun and wind.

It is done only when weather is clear and sunny, the meat is sliced 5"
long, 2" wide and 1/4 inch thick or thinner. But do not cut in the
sense of the fibres or it will be tough.


3 WARNINGS!


FOOD WOOD DRYING SMOKING METHODS:


NEVER USE EVERGREEN WOOD, they will be total lost because, Evergreen
gives oily smoke which makes it unfit to eat even poisonous.


NEVER USE GREEN LEAVES EITHER NEVER USE EVERGREEN AS STICK, SLABS OR
FOR SMOKING:


Green-wood use is evidently BEST for the wet green hardwood that grows
besides streams is in general a particularly functional choice being
even less prone to burn.


Birch does burn readily when green but if care is taken it gives a very
highly rewarding and delicate sweet aroma.


A slab or a flat rock as well can also be heated & used as a hot plate.
NEVER use flat rock from in or near water, they could explode.


SMOKING METHOD # 1 VERY FAST!:


In the ground dig a hole 1m deep on 1/2m wide, at the bottom of which
you make a small fire which you cover over with green wood branches,
but Not Evergreen.


About 75cm above the fire, used an improvised grill. After 1 night of
smoking the meat will keep for 5 to 7 days.


After 2 nights the meat will keep for more than 1 month. When properly
smoked the meat takes the form of a stick twisted and dark colour.


SMOKE DRYING #2: 

Smoking both dehydrates meat & coats it with a protection layer, like
vanishing its surface.


The inside is dry so no condensation takes place and the outside is
sealed against bacteria. Smoking can be best done in a smoke house or a
smoke tepee.


SMOKE TEPEE: 


Drive 3 sticks into the ground to form a triangle and tie the tops
together. Build a platform between them and get a fire going beneath.


SMOKE HOUSE:


As an alternative to the tepee make a square frame of uprights (a) and
crosspiece supporting a smoking platform with the fire beneath & used
in exactly the same was as the tepee.


In both cases meats should be cut into lean-fat-free strips and fish
gutted and filleted.


The strips can be any length but should only be about 2.5cm (1in) wide
& 6mm (1/4in) thick.


SMOKING METHOD #?: 


Get a fire going to produce a pile of hot embers. Have a pile of Green
leaves ready. Leaves from hardwood trees are excellent, especially oak.


But AVOID holly and other toxic leaves and conifers (Evergreen) which
tend to be resinous & may burst into flame.


Do not use grass. Some leaves will give meat an individual flavour;
pimento leaves are particularly distinctive.


MAKE SURE that there are no flames left in the fire and pile the leaves
over the embers.


Cover the whole structure with a cloth to keep in the smoke. If you do
not have a suitable material have boughs and turfs ready to pile
rapidly on the frame and seal it. Leave the structure sealed for 18
hours ensuring that little or no smoke escapes.


If the embers in a smoke tepee burst into flame, there is a risk that
the whole structure may catch alight.


This can be avoided by building a fire in a chamber in a bank p149 with
the tepee erected over the chimney.


This also makes it possible to tend the fire and to ensure a more
extensive supply of smoke, which will be cooler than from a fire
directly underneath. The food will dry slowly & become coated with
smoke without being cooked


SMOKED MEAT OR FISH: 


1) Lay the thin fat-less slice about 1/4" thick on a lattice-work of
green wood, NEVER Evergreen, installed 3 to 4 feet above a slow fire. 


2) Best smoking woods are: Birch, #Aulne, Verne# or Alder, Willow,
Poplar.


3) Dry-hut shape as A wigwam is best to give much smoke. 


4) AVOID to make too much heat or smoke, the heat MUST NOT cook the
meat, or melt the juices. A well dug in river bank or slope permits to
install the fire at good distance & to have a cooler smoke.


5) Smoke till meats dry. Meat or fish can then be eaten by cooking when
ready or Raw smoked state. AVOID to eat Raw fresh water fish, because
of germs.


BILTONG: 


This is a sun-dried meat. Biltong is the Afrikaans name, it is also
known as jerky from the N. American Indian Charqui.


It does not keep as efficiently as smoked meat and should be used only
when smoking is not practicable.


Cut strips, as for smoking, & hang them up in the sun. MAKE SURE that
they are out of the reach of animals and about 2-3m (6-10ft) from the
ground.


It may take 2 weeks for meat to dry & all this time it MUST be kept
dry, so protection from rain MUST be provided.


The strips MUST be turned, to MAKE SURE that all surfaces are
thoroughly dried, and, initially at least flies MUST be kept off so
that they do not lay eggs on the meat.


JERKY MEAT: (Not Jerry meat) 


It is meat cut in strips and dried over a fire or in the sun. Cut the
lean fresh red meat in long wide strips about 1/2 inch thick, hang
these on a wood framework about 4 to 6 feet of the ground.


Under the rack build a small slow smoky fire of any NON-RESINOUS wood.
Let the meat dry in the sun and wind. Cover it at night or in rain. It
should dry in several days, a day or an hour depending how much meat is
to be dried.


REMEMBER ONCE AGAIN:


Not to try and build a smoky fire by piling on green leaves or wet
rubbish other it will be total loss. 


Many an inexperienced meat drier has ruined his meat by making a fire
of green leaves which became saturated with oil leaves.


SMOKE ALONE IS SUFFICIENT: 


The fire should not be enough to cook the meat at all. Its chief use
being to keep flies away from it. When jerked the meat will be hard and
more or less black outside and: 


It will keep almost indefinitely IF it is kept away from dampness &
flies.


It is best eaten as it is. Just bite off a chunk & chew. Eaten thus is
quite tasty. It can also be cooked in stews.


It is very concentrated and nourishing and goes a long way as emergency
ration, but alone it still needs fat if for a long journey.


The fat which will turn rancid should be trimmed off before the drying
operation starts.


A conservative method is to melt the fat, either for later use as a
food supplement or for immediate use in the manufacture of Pemmican.


Dried meat as opposed to Pemmican MUST be packed in an open weave bag.


DON'T wrap or pack it in cellophane or plastic, otherwise the meat will
sweat and mildew.


GOOD SAFE KEEPING:


Sun-dried or smoked meat will keep indefinitely and retains its
original nutritive food value.


You can cook it in stew, as broth or eat it Raw. If Well Smoked it is
Very Good Raw. When using in a stew, it's advisable to soak it for an
hour or 2.


PEMMICAN #?: 


To make it, you start with jerky and shred it by pounding, then take a
lot of Raw animal fat, cut it into small pieces about the size of
walnuts and try these out in a pan over a slow fire not letting the
grease boil up.


When the grease is all out of lumps, discard these and pour the hot fat
over the shredded jerky mixing the two together until you have about
the consistency of sausage. Then pack the Pemmican in waterproof bags,
the Indians used skin bags.


The ideal proportion of lean and fat in pemmican is by weight
approximately 1/2 well dry lean meat to 1/2 melted fat.


It takes about 5 pounds of fresh lean meat to make 1 pound of dry meat
suitable for Pemmican.


It contains all ESSENTIAL minerals and vitamins except vitamin C.


You just supplement this Pemmican with fresh food to supply your need
for Vitamin C. If in good health, you can go about 2 months without
Vitamin C.


PEMMICAN #?: 


This is a nutritious concentrated food made from BILTONG excellent for
provisions to carry with You if you decide it is time to trek to
safety.


You need an equal quantity, by weight, of BILTONG and of rendered fat.
Shred and pound the meat.

Melt the animal fat over a slow fire, without allowing it to boil. Pour
the fat over the shredded BILTONG and mix them well together. 


When cold pack the mixture in waterproof bag. It will keep for a long
time, especially in colder climates.


PEMMICAN: 


MAKE SURE that the meat is cut into thin slices and Without grease,
then hangs into the sun and air, it will dry nicely.


MAKE SURE that the flies are kept off it as much as possible. Once it
is dried it keeps a long time and breaks off like biscuit.


PICKLING MEAT:

The meat is cut into small joints or pieces of about 1/2 pound each and
put into a strong solution of salt water (brine) .


Pickled meat will keep it indefinitely in the brine. When ready to eat
it don't forget it to part boil it before eating it, throw away the
first water then finish the boiling with another fresh water.


PICKLING NOTE: (Marinade)


Whatever is the game, you MUST NOT let it marinade more than 48 hours.
Most often a few hours are sufficient. NEVER use vinegar.


The best marinade is not the one you buy under some fancy name, they
are not worth zip, best to do your own: 1 1/2 glass of wine & 1/2 glass
of oil.


Please use a good wine, for you can't give what you don't have, and a
bad or cheap wine gives bad marinade. Add to it the usual spices or
your own mixture.


PICKLING & SALTING: 


Citric acid obtained from wild limes and lemons can be used to pickle
fish and meat. Dilute 2 parts of fruit juice with one of water, mix
well and soak flesh in this for at least 12 hours.


Now transfer it to a covered, and preferably an airtight container and
with sufficient solution to cover all the meat.


Vegetables with a high water content are difficult to preserve. (Note
that when buried in clean sand, in a dry place, they tend to keep well
for a long time).


Pickling is best for them if no sand available. Alternatively, if salt
is more easily available than citrus fruits, they can be boiled and
then kept in brine (salt water). Boiling kills off bacteria & the brine
keeps fresh bacteria away from the food.


The usual way of MAKING SURE that a brine solution is sufficiently
strong is to add salt until a potato will float in it.

Instead of a potato try a small fruit or root vegetable which fail to
float in salt-free water (not apples they float too easily).


ANOTHER METHOD:


Another method of using salt is to pack tightly layers of salt and
vegetables such as beans and peas, thoroughly washing off the salt when
you need to use them.


DESERT MEAT DRYING:


Many starving desert travellers have waited for game at a water hole,
killed it and often swallowed the meat Raw. One party lived for 6 days
on Raw gazelle meat.


You might think that the meat of any dead animal might go bad at once.
But the desert great dryness stops the process of decomposition.


The Bedouins exploit this fact by cutting game up into strips then
wiping the meat dry, then burying it 6" to 8" in the sand.


There it shrinks in a kind of cured meat which keeps up to 3 years, to
make it EDIBLE you simply soak it in water.


BACKWOODS FOOD KEEPER:


Some hunters have a remarkable success to keep their food by simply
digging a hole about 3 feet deep in the earth into which they put their
food but when you do this beware of the scavengers who smelling the
food will try to steal it of you.


ARCTIC FOOD KEEPING RECIPE: 


Make a thick lard soup using beans & rice, once cooked lay it on a
board outside where it will freeze instantly.


Now using a hammer break it into pieces and put it in a bag and let it
sit outside till ready to go. Once you have gone on a trip & have made
your igloo just warm up one of those chunks, meal served!


FROZEN MEAT: 


In winter meat is kept easily frozen and out of reach of animals. Yet
REMEMBER that meat will spoil if frozen after thawed especially if you
do it more than once.


To AVOID this, before freezing the meat, cut the meat for one serving
or 2 at the time thus you will AVOID spoiling or lost.


Eskimos when they want to thaw their meat, they put the frozen chunks
in their water hole, since this water is running and the hole kept free
from icing the meat thaws fast enough for them to start their cooking.


CAMP LARDER: 


It is simply a platform roofed over with thatch and with the sides
thatched so that it is dark and cool inside. Darkness will help to keep
flies away, coolness to keep food from spoiling.


An excellent improvement to a camp larder is a water tin suspended
above the thatch with a few pieces of cotton rags to siphon water on to
a thatched roof. This is almost a camp refrigerator.


The temperature inside such a larder if built in a shady position and
with good breeze will be safely 20 to 40 degrees below the shade
temperature outside.


OTHER METHOD OF STORING FOOD:


It includes placing it in a hollow log wedged in the crotch of a tree
or suspending it from a bough or making a platform and suspending this
from a branch in a shady position.

ANTS PEST OFF:


If ants are a pest, suspending the platform is one of the best way to
keep them away. If they find the cord you can prevent them from
travelling along to your food by tying a kerosene-soaked rag around the
cord.


HIDING FOOD FROM ANIMALS:


The best way is to suspend the meat to rope between 2 trees. About 10
to 15' above ground, and far from cliff, slope or near by trees which
an animal would use to jump from.


To protect it from birds you can cover it but the envelope MUST be
loose to let the air circulate, so attach the envelope to the rope
itself forming a sort of parachute, tee-pee, around the meat.


TO KEEP FOOD FRESH IN SUMMER:


The small quantities that you want to keep for a day or 2 MUST remain
as fresh as possible. If you have a waterproof container just sink it
under water in a shady place.


If it is too light just add a few stones to weigh it down. Or dig a
hole and after placing your container of food, cover it over with damp
soil in a shadow place.


METHOD #2:


To dig a hole on the water shore or ridge and then to block the
entrance with a big ball of earth.


You can also replace this mud ball by a very thick cloth which you
imbibe (soak) with water each morning. During the day the evaporation
will freshen the cavity behind the cloth curtain.


REMEMBER that your container of wood, metal or plastic in those cases
MUST have a few holes, for air ventilation, otherwise if too damp the
meat will spoil, the container is used to protect it from animals.


Don't throw meat being mouldy or MUSTy, just scrape of the mouldy part
or cut it off and cook the rest of food as usual. Yet I would be very
careful in Tropics to do that, and NEVER with fish.


MAGGOTS ON MEAT = SAFE!:


Meat which has got maggot is also safe to eat, just remove them and
cook it as usual. Maggot is NO danger signal. In fact you can even eat
them safely!


COOKING IN CLAY: 2put-1blok 


Wrapping food in clay is a method that requires no utensils and offers
a tasty alternative even when you have them.


After wrapping in a ball of clay, food is placed in the embers of a
fire. The heat radiates through the clay which protects the food so
that it does not scorch or burn.


Animals MUST be cleaned and gutted first but need not be otherwise
prepared. When the clay is removed a hedgehog's spine or fish's scales
will remain embedded in it.


With small birds the clay does your plucking for you-but feathers
provide insulation and may prevent a big bird from being properly
cooked.


ROOT & VEGETABLE: WARNING!


Cooking Root & Vegetables in this way will remove their skins losing
important food value.


COOKING IN FAT:


Meat can preserved up to 5 to 6 days in summer by preliminary cooking
in fat and then allowing the meat to remain in the fat in which it was
cooked.


The heat of cooking sterilizes the meat and the fat seals the meat
safely away from spoiling. This is a convenient method when meat needs
to be kept for a short period.


PINOLE EMERGENCY SURVIVAL FOOD: (H.Tregellas.) 

Spread a pint of dry sweet corn in hot oven about 350F. which will
perch the corn without burning it.


When the corn is mild brown all over sprinkle 2 tbs. of brown sugar
evenly over the top and heat again until the sugar begins to melt.


Cool the mixture and grind in a food grinder until fine. Place it in a
plastic bag which is then placed in a cotton bag. In emergency place 2
tbs. of this mix in the mouth and wash it down with water.


Supplemented with a handful or 2 of wild fruit, this will keep one
going all day. A pound bag of this mix supplemented with fruit, fish or
plants will keep one going for several weeks in a pinch.


A pound bag alone will sustain one for a week. To render Pinole more
appetising add to the mixture a spoonful of powdered milk and an equal
amount of powdered chocolate.


ROCKHOMINY: (CORN)

(NOT ROCK HOME MINI?)


American Indians sustain themselves on the move against calvary troop
expeditions for months at the time on this ground corn. (Not pop-corn.)


Early settlers used it as a bread substitute on their long journeys
across plains and over snow-covered mountain keeping their pack loads
to a minimum with this basic food supply.


It is hard to beat for lightweight, easy to prepare yet filling means
of meeting dietary needs on the trail. A mouthful with water or eaten
dry will give a comfortable full feeling between meals.


For a hot meal it can be used to make a thick hot mush which will
release its energy gradually and help you along. You can add to it,
whatever you find in the bush as supplement.


The corn kernels are toasted in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes
till they are the colour of crisp bacon. Allowed to cool then crushed
small enough to swallow but not ground to dust.

Parching the corn in the oven bakes out the replaceable water thus
removing the excess weight and pre-cooks the corn to give it a nut like
flavour.


The drying effect of the heat acts as a preservative so there is no
need for special storing precautions.


COOKING FISH/ MEAT WITHOUT 

UTENSILS: 


Even without your frying pan you can cook. Actually the too often
sanctified skillet particularly with grease is one of the deadlier
weapons which the wilderness is affected.


Of course a few cooking utensils make the job easier but not really
necessary. REMEMBER your last BBQ at home. A fat red sirloin which is
forked on a green stick can be broiled over the embers of a campfire.


A fish or meat can be wrapped with onions or wild herbs into a tin foil
then put into embers of campfire, for 10 minutes. Deliciousss even
delirious! Don't forget to pierce a few holes in the tin foil Before
trusting it to the fire, in order to let the steam escape.


Titbits of meat skewered on a green wand, thrust briefly into licking
flames to seal in the juices & then cook not too near the steady heat
of glowing coals are deliciousss!


You can also place a flat stone in the fire and get it nearly red hot.
This hot flat stone should be removed from the fire and dusted clean.


Place the meat to be cooked on it, and the meat will grill perfectly.
You can also pierce the meat or fish with wood pegs on a split log and
place it upward close to fire.


BOILING / BAKING WITHOUT UTENSILS:


In emergency you may want to boil water or cook food in boiling water
without utensils.

This difficulty can be overcome by scooping a shallow hole in the
ground and lining it with your ground-sheet, some newspaper, a shirt or
any material which will hold water.


Build a quick fire of small sticks in which to heat 20 or 30 small
stones each about 2 or 3 inches in diameter. Yet REMEMBER NEVER to use
stones from creek, they will explode.


Then fill the shallow hole with water and when the stones are nearly
red hot, which will take at least 10 minutes, lift them one at a time
from the fire with a pair of fire tongs and gently put them into the
water in the hole.


The hot water will not burn the paper or cloth and 5 or 6 stones will
bring a couple of quarts of water to boiling point in 2 or 3 minutes.


Boiling temperature can be maintained for an indefinite period by
putting other stone singly and removing the cold stones when putting
hot ones in.


BAKING OVEN # 1:


Can be done by making a sort of oven in which you light the fire and
when the stones are "sizzling" hot, draw the fire out of the oven and
place your meat etc. in the heated cavity.


IT WILL COOK PERFECTLY AND CAN NOT BURN BECAUSE TEMPERATURE FALLS ALL
TIME!


An oil drum or large tin if available can be made into a good oven.
Coat it thickly with several inches of clay.


Build your fire in the drum or tin which is used like the stone oven or
set the tin over a trench fireplace & build one fire in the trench and
another one on top of the tin.


BAKING OVEN # 2: 


Another ready-made oven is to fire a hollow log or old stump. When the
hollow is alight place your cooking (covered on top & underneath)
inside.


But you will have to watch your food cooking all the time because the
fire may be too fierce and burn the baking. If too fierce a fire, damp
it off with splashes of water.


THE BEST BAKING IS DONE:


By wrapping the food in either a coating of clay or damp paper and then
burying it in the hot dust beneath your camp fire.


Food can be left for 6 to 8 hours without spoiling if the fire is not
built up. The food will not overcook and will be tender.


THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO COOK FRESH KILLED MEAT WHICH OTHERWISE WOULD BE
TOO TOUGH.


OTHER ADVANTAGES TIME SAVER:


When cooking fish & game by this method it is not necessary to pluck,
skin or draw the carcass.


The intestines will shrivel up and the outer skin whether fur or
feathers will peel off when you unwrap the clay or paper.


BAKING OVEN # 3:


A variation of this method is to dig a hole which is lined with stones.
This hole is fired with a quick fire so that the stone are thoroughly
heated.


When the fire has died down & there is only hot white ashes left, the
food wrapped in clay or mud is placed on the heated stones, and then
the whole covered over with the dirt removed in the digging of the
hole.


In this as the previous method, the food will not be spoiled or be
burnt and can be left for 7 to 8 hours.

BRAZING: 


Dig a hole in form of a shallow basin, carpet it with stones. Upon
these stones place a bed of embers and on those place your food wrapped
in mud or clay.


With this method you can cook fish, meat or tubercles, roots, yams
etc., yet for the meat you MUST cut it in small pieces size of rabbit
leg.


On the food you then add more hot embers then cover the hole with a few
inches of soil. Let it cook for an hour or more if need be.


It is not absolutely needed to carpet or line the hole with stones but
if you do the food cooks faster and more uniform. 


You choose your method according to your need, but in a standing camp
time is well spent in making a good fireplace secure against wind and
bad weather.


EGG: 


An egg can be baked by placing it in the hot ashes of your fire. But
first you MUST pierce the shell and inside the skin to allow the steam
to escape, otherwise the egg will blow up.


BROILING ON A STICK: 


A fish, bird, or small animal (no elephants) can be cleaned & then
impaled in whatever may be most convenient on a green hard wood stick.


The top of the stick itself can be split & reinforced if necessary at
either or both ends of the cleft by its own twisted and tied bark
camped over the food.


Many of us prefer to sear the meat by shoving it momentarily into the
blaze & then hold it over a bed of embers, scraping a few to one side
of the fire if flames are too hot.


For the prime success of such campfire cooking to be most successful is
to cook unhurriedly with the uniform hotness of hardwood coals. Rush =
waste!)


If we have other matters to attend before eating, you can lay the spit
between 2 crotched uprights, prop it over a stone or merely push one
end into the ground, thereafter pausing only to examine & occasionally
to turn the meat until ready.


STEAMING IN HOLE: 


The hole is scooped out of the sand. A fire MUST be already blazing and
in it heating a few (DRY) stones.


Shove the stones into the hole, press a thick layer of some wet greens
growth such as seaweed or damp grass over them, lay on the food, add an
upper sheathing of similar damp vegetation & then fill the rest of the
hole with sand or loam.


Open enough of an inlet with a stick to allow some additional water to
be poured on the rocks & then stamp the topping down compactly.


The food can then be left safely to steam until you are ready for it,
the length of the cooking process depending of many things (size of
rocks, hole, pieces of meat or fish) at least several hours.


It won't burn! Because the heat decreases in this slow cooker dear
Jane!


BAKING IN CLAY: 


Small individuals ovens can be made by covering a fish, a bird or a
small animal with stiff moist clay about an inch thick.


This clay can be worked into a sheet on the ground & then shaped around
the food like dough or the article may be dipped and re-dipped as often
as necessary in a thinner mixture.


Most of us will want to remove entrails first but no scaling, plucking
or skinning should be done, for this will be done in a single operation
when we break open & strip off the hard adobe made by laying the whole
thing in hot ashes above which a fire is burning.


Time required for cooking depends on one's taste. A half hour beneath
ashes & embers readies a one pound trout to my taste.


At any rate when done it will be ready to serve with all the juices
sealed in, an often pleasant relief after the dryness unnecessarily
associated with outdoor cookery.


OVEN IN CLAY BANK: 


If you are to be in a place for a long enough time to merit the effort,
you may decide to make an oven in a clay slope or bank.


You start by hammering a sharpened pole about as thick as the forearm,
straight down into the bank about 3 feet back from the edge.


Then a foot or so down the side of the bank far enough to allow a
sturdy ceiling let us scoop out the size oven you want. A usual way is
to shape it like a beehive with a narrow entrance.


We will dig back as far as the pole of course which we'll then pull out
to form a chimney. We can give the interior a hard coating by smoothing
and re-smoothing it with wet hands.


A small blaze can then be lighted within to harden this lining. It is
very possible that you will be able to find an old burrow to serve as
the basis for such an invention.


METHOD #2??:

Construct a rough form of arched green sticks & daub the wet clay in
thick layer over this.


These successive layers may be allowed to dry in the sun or each
succeeding process can be quickened by small fires lit within.


Baking in such oven is simplicity itself. The oven is preheated by a
fire kindled inside. Fire and ashes are then scraped out.

The food is then laid within on stones or leaves or whatever may be
handy. Both exits opening are tightly closed. One then goes about other
business, the meal will cook without further care.


COOKING IN ASHES:

(Dust 2 Dust & Ashes 2 Ashes?!?)


Many of us have roasted vegetables in the ashes of a campfire by merely
dropping or shoving them out of sight or baring a heated bit of ground
where the vegetable could be deposited and warm ashes & finally embers
pushed over them.



Timing then is a cooking experimentation. Bread stuff is also baked in
this fashion with surprising cleanliness.


First rolling them a little more heavily then usually in flour. Note
that the white of hardwood ashes can replace in equal quantities for
baking soda.


BBQ:


If having enough fat meat to warrant the sacrifice of some nutriment in
exchange for the psychological stimulus of BBQ one may want to allow a
hardwood blaze to crumble to embers in a pit, over which green poles
can then be spread & slabs of meat laid on.


These chunks MUST be turned after a minute or 2 to sear in the juice
which will be further guarded if during the subsequent handling the
meat is not cut nor pierced.


FLAVOUR WILL BE BETTER IF any flames that lick up from time to time are
IMMEDIATELY STOP.


NATURAL CONTAINERS:


Using a stone with a hollow in it, if the stone is small enough built a
fire around it, if big why not preheat it by lighting the fire inside
the hollow.

If you have a container in which you can not put in a fire, then light
a fire in which you have put some stones.


Then when it's hot, put a few clean pebbles into your container to
serve as base, then drop those hot stones into your container which was
filled up first with your liquid.


MAKING A SOUP HOLE:


You just killed a moose and want some hot soup? Scoop a hole using a
dead limb or sharp stick, line this hole with a chunk of fresh hide,
then after adding the water & other ingredients just drop a few clean
hot stones do your cooking while you finish doing the dressing out of
the animal.


HOW TO BEAT BLOW-FLIES:


Meat can be protected from the big-egg-laying Blow-Flies by keeping it
in a dark cold place such as dry cave or by hanging it clear of foliage
upward of 4 yards (4 meters) above the ground.


And to some extend by suspending fresh chunks in the smoke of a small
hard-wood fire until a protective casing is done.


THIRST:


If the truth of the matter is that a healthy human being can get along
entirely without food for a month or 2 under favourable conditions, yet
this is very different if he is without water for much more than a
week.


Water that is very muddy, dirty or stagnant; can be clarified and
sterilized & made quite safe to drink by filtering and boiling with hot
stones.


WATER FILTER!: 


A good filter can be made from a pair of drill trousers with one leg
turned inside out and put inside the other leg.

The cuff is tied and the upper part held open by 3 stakes driven well
into the ground. Fill with dirty water & then drop in the hot stones.


The water will be filter through and MUST be caught either in a billy
or bark dish and poured back until the dirt has been filtered out and
the water is boiling.


BARK DISH OR COOLAMIN: 


One method of improvising a cooking utensil is to make a bark dish or
Aboriginal Coolamin.


A flat piece of bark of a species that will not split easily. The bark
of many trees has this quality ex: Birch, Fig tree etc.


Test first by stripping a small piece of bark from one of the branches
is softened in the hands and then the 2 ends are folded and pinned with
a thin sharpened peg or tied to hold them in position.


A Coolamin can be used for all sorts of cooking with hot stones. It is
necessary to use the bark of green trees for a Coolamin.


If the sap is coloured especially if it is white or whitish and you can
not be sure it is "latex or rubber" be EXTREMELY careful not to get it
in your eyes. Many saps can burn your skin or blind you temporarily.


COOKING:


When food is heated it loses nutritional value-the more the heat the
greater the loss-so nothing should be cooked longer than is necessary
to make it EDIBLE unless it is suspect and being cooked to kill germs,
parasite or to neutralize poisons.


Boiling vegetables destroys their vitamins "C" content & roasting meat
removes its all important fat, but we are used to eating our food
cooked & a hot meal is unsurpassed for raising morale.


It would take great discipline to eat many things raw that you had not
previously considered food, but a frog, grubs, or rats do not seem to
be bad once cooked.

Cooking not only makes many foods more appetising to taste, see and
smell, it softens the muscle fibres in meat, makes protein more easy to
digest and most important it destroys bacteria and parasites that may
be present.


If the ground is lush, animals foods are more likely to carry
parasites. Pigs especially, carry worms and flukes. Thorough boiling
will destroy them, though at the loss of food value.


Some foods MUST NEVER be eaten Raw; nettles and several other plants,
for instance-but should ALWAYS be cooked to neutralize harmful
substances which they contain.


Your particular situation will determine whether to cook or not. If you
cannot face eating something Raw or if food is plentiful but limited in
type, cook it to make it more EDIBLE.


Relieve boredom by varying "cook-King" instructions. Cooking methods
will depend upon the foodstuff & the facilities you have or can create.
Type of fire, utensils support and cooking method MUST all be matched.


COOKING REQUIRES A SLOW HEAT: 


Use the flame of a fire to boil water then let the fierce flames die
down & use embers & hot ash for cooking.


REMEMBER:


NEVER leave your fire unattended when cooking! You cannot afford to
ruin food.


Once having lit a fire, ALWAYS have something boiling on it, unless
wood or water is in short supply for hot water is ALWAYS an asset.


Hot drinks are ALWAYS cheering & you will find a multitude of uses from
sterilizing wounds; to making poultry plucking easier.


Do NOT just balance a can on the fire. If it tips over you could put
your fire out, quite apart from losing its contents. Support vessels on
firm rocks or suspend them over the fire.


COOKING ALL MEATS IN ASHES:


THIS IS AN EXCELLENT MEANS OF COOKING ALL MEATS.


Freshly killed wild duck, pigeons and all fresh meat are tough. If
cooked IN the ashes for 10 to 12 hours the meat however tough will be
tender. (Tend-Her good Cook-King!) 


The meat can not burn because ashes temperature falls all time. This is
an excellent way to cook large fish in camp.


NORWEGIAN POT: (Not the smoking kind!) 

THERE IS NO BETTER WAY TO COOK MEAT & FRUITS OF ALL KIND AS WELL!


Those methods might or could or should go at the top of cooking because
being so good for all types or rpt


Using this hay box you can cook, chicken, lard, beef, fish, vegetables,
fruits.


Hay is a bad heat conductor so, when you put a container filled with
boiling stew or soup etc. into a box filled with hay & that you make it
as air tight as possible using more hay.


The heat comes off so slowly that the food keeps on cooking in the best
of conditions, that is very slowwwly.


So that you don't have to keep checking all the time your food, so
after a few hours in the bush you come to camp & all is ready to eat.


IT NEVER BURNS FOOD. It can only be used for food that need no roasting
or grill.


THE ADVANTAGES:


Finish the cooking without fire and supervision and you need only 1/2
hour to 1 hour of cooking for any kind of meat even the toughest one,
the rest is done by the box.


NOTHING IS LOST: 


IT SAVES FUEL, KEEPS ALL FLAVOUR TO THE FOOD, NO EVAPORATION.


The heat keeps 12 to 18 hours, you can cook the night before & without
any surveillance.


Take a wood or steel box not too small, put at the bottom 7 or 8 layers
of newspaper, take a cardboard etc. and put one half in the centre of
the box, thus 2 compartments. Take some hay and make a tight mattress
at the bottom of the box in the 2 compartments.


It is important that the hay be as tight as possible and both
compartments be well filled of hay.


Keep centre free for your pot in order to have place to put it in the
hay box, if possible wrap the pot with newspaper before placing it in
the hay box, then once the pot is in the hay box, fill the room left
tightly with more hay.


The cooking pot MUST have well-adjusted lid and no air space between
the cushion and the pot lid.

The hay doesn't have to be changed often, with time it shrinks a bit so
you just have to add a little more


Once the meal is boiling, put the your pot quickly into the hay box,
after having made a hole in the middle with your hand.


Cover the pot with a top cushion made from cloth which you have filled
with hay. Then compress the whole thing with heavy stones or bricks.
The hay box can not take fire, don't worry!


Since often time you can't be checking your food all the time then it
is a good way to rid yourself of this task. Keep the hay box in your
tent.

A good stew partly cooked & put early in the hay box will keep on
cooking and be ready for you after several hours of snaring, fishing or
searching.


There is no better way to cook meat & fruits of all kind as well; using
this hay box you can cook, chicken, lard, beef, fish, vegetables,
fruits & NOTHING IS LOST. 


It will cook meat but you will have to give the meat a good start as
well as for the stew that would need 45 min on the fire before being
placed for 3 hours in the hay box, for purrrfect cooking.


One way to calculate the timing, check how much time it would take for
normal cooking, then you divide the operation in two.


The second part is when you put it into the hay box, you add a little
more time for the cooking is slow in the hay box. As for lard, leave it
all night to be ready for the morning.


If you get back late or forget the cooking for a few hours. It won't
burn and will be hot and ready.


Here are some meals that can be cooked that way; boiled chicken, lard,
beef, fish, lamb, stew, rice, vegetables & fruits.


Don't worry from any overcooking it won't happen, the longer = better.
This auto-cooker saves fuel, food value time & effort / money.


If no hay, you can use, wool, cotton, clay or any isolation material.
You can make a smaller box for 1 pot, we showed you 2.


HERE IS SOME COOKING TIME FOR SOME FOOD:


MEAT: 1/2 time cooking & 4 to 6 hours in hay box.


DRY VEGETABLE: 


Soak them the night before, boil them for 30 minutes & 3 to 4 hours in
hay-box.

FRESH FRUITS: Put them to boil then straight in box 1 to 2 hours.


DRY FRUITS: Soak them the night before, make them boil & once boiling
straight in box for 3 to 5 hours.


OATS: Boil 5 min then in box all night. 

SOUP: Boil 15 min then 6 hours in the box.


BOILING:


Cooking in boiling water requires a container. Tin cans and metal boxes
are ideal. Make a handle, hang them from a pot support or use pot tongs
to take them on & off the fire.


Punctures holes in pots can be repaired by hammering in small plugs of
wood- when wet they will expand and stop leaks. If no metal containers
are available, a thick length of bamboo holds liquids well.


Containers can also be made from birch bark but BE CAREFUL that they do
not boil dry.


To cook in a bamboo stem, angle it across the heat of the fire,
supporting it on a forked stick driven into the ground.


Although boiling does destroy some food elements it conserves the
natural juices and retains all the fat -provided that you drink all the
liquid as well as eat the remaining solids.


Each time you throw away cooking water you lose valuable nutrients,
though you will have to discard it, if boiling out toxic substances.


Boiling will make tough and stringy roots and old game softer and more
EDIBLE. It will kill worms and flukes and can even make spoiled meat
fit to eat.


If you frighten a feeding animal from its kill, you can eat the
remaining meat provided that you cut the meat up and boil it for at
least 30 minutes.

If desperate for food any dead animals that are not actually
decomposing can be risked if you use only the large muscle areas. Cut
them into 2.5cm (1in) cubes and boil briskly for at least 30 minutes


Eat only a little, then wait for half an hour to see if there are any
ill effects-most toxins affect the digestive system in that time or
less.


If there are no ill effects tuck in. Part boiling vegetables that you
intend to cook by other means will speed up cooking times.


COOKING TIPS 1:


THE BEST WAY TO PREPARE MEAT FOR EATING IS; TO MAKE IT BOIL, EASY
METHOD AND IT ALSO USES LESS FUEL THAN OTHERS.


If you also drink the broth you obtain all the nutritive value as well.
Thus with a small quantity of meat you can feed many people and no
loss.


To be sure the meat is all well cooked you MUST cut all the pieces in
same size.


Cooking in a frying pan you loose a good part of nutritive value and
you also use much more fuel. This is important when up North where the
fuel is scarce.


Cooking on spit, broiled or roasted, give tasty flavour but GREAT LOSS
in nutritive value & the meat sizes diminish enormously.


You can AVOID this lost partly by placing the meat very close to fire
at the start to form a crust which will retain the juice then by
suspending the meat at one end of the fire and placing a plate
underneath to gather the juice coming off.


COOKING TIPS 2:


Before roasting or broiling any meat bigger than your house cat; boil
it first. Also you MUST broil the meat as fast as possible because on a
slow fire, it would get leather tough.


Big animals MUST be cut in smaller pieces first. When the meat is too
tough, stew it with vegetables.


When you cook meat in oven or broiled use the fat of the animal if
possible, put it on the meat, the heat will melt it all over. Yet
REMEMBER; DON'T WASTE FAT!


COOKING TIP #3:


REMEMBER that the best way to prepare the meat is to stew it and it
takes less fuel & there is very little loss meat or value wise and with
a small quantity of meat you can feed many persons.


COOKING TIP #4:


REMEMBER that Beaver, Bear, Porcupine etc. have better taste when their
fat is off, and the meat is boiled before being roasted or put in stew. 


MAKE SURE not to waste the fat. The muskrat gland MUST be removed
before cooking to give better taste.


COOKING TIPS #5:


ALWAYS boil carrion eaters in case they carry any disease. Boiling will
make stringy old birds tender but you can roast younger ones on a spit
or in an oven.


ROASTING:


Roasted meat cooks in its own fat. The easiest method is to skewer the
meat on a spit and turn it over the hot embers of a fire or beside a
blazing fire where it is hot enough to cook. Continually turning the
meat keeps the fat moving over the surface. 


2 DISADVANTAGES:


Roasting makes a very tasty dish but has two disadvantages. Valuable
fat is lost unless a dip tray is placed beneath the spit. Regularly
baste the meat with fat from the tray.


Roasting by a fierce fire can cook and seal the outside, the inner
flesh remaining undercooked, leaving harmful bacteria STILL Alive.


A slow roast is MUCH preferable and if cooking continues after the
outer meat has been cut off the inner flesh can go on cooking. The fire
should be slightly to one side of food to allow for a drip tray to
catch valuable fat.


COOKING TIPS #6 MEAT:


Meat is best cut into small cubes and boiled. Pork is particularly
suspect in hot climates. Will pig is usually infested with worms and
liver fluke. Venison is also prone to worms.


Put excessively tough meat in a solution of juice from citric fruit for
24 hours. This marinating helps to make it more tender. Bring to boil
and simmer until tender.


OFFAL:


Check liver especially carefully. If firm, odourless and free from
spots and hard lumps it CAN BE EATEN. Boil first, then fry if you wish.
Hearts are best part-boiled then baked.


Brain if not used for preserving hides makes an excellent stew. Skin
the head & boil, simmering for 90 minutes. Strip all the flesh from the
skull, including eyes, tongue & ears.


HANGING: (Hang'm high Boy!)


Offal should be eaten as soon as possible but the rest of the meat is
better hanged.


In moderate temperature leave the carcass hanging for 2-3 days. In hot
climate it is better to preserve it by cooking it straight away.

When the animal is killed, acids released into the muscles help to
break down their fibre, making the meat more tender.


The longer it is left the more tender it will be and easier to cut with
more flavour too and harmful parasitic bacteria in the meat will die.


You MUST keep flies off the flesh; if they lay eggs on meat it will
spoil quickly.


OFFAL LIVER TIP 2:


Liver is best eaten as soon as possible. Remove the bile bladder in the
centre. It is quite strong and can usually be pulled off without
difficulty but BE CAREFUL, the bile will taint the flesh with which it
comes in contact. If any animal has any disease they will show up in
the liver.


AVOID any liver that is mottled or covered with white spots. If only
some is affected, cut it off and eat the reminder.


LIVER IS COMPLETE FOOD, containing the ESSENTIAL vitamins and minerals.
If eaten raw no food value is lost. It requires little cooking.


STOMACH: (TRIPE)


Stomach takes little digesting, so is a good food for the sick or
injured. Remove the stomach contents which makes it an IDEAL "INVALID"
FOOD.


Wash the tripe and simmer slowly with herbs. The contents may sound not
edible but could save an injured person's life for the animal has done
most of the hard work of breaking the food down.


Lightly boiled, stomach contents are Nourishing and easily digestible.
In some countries pigs are fed nothing but apple prior to slaughter.


They are cooked with the stomach still in. The subtle flavour of apple
impregnates the meat. The stomach is removed after cooking and the
contents used as sauce.

INTESTINES #2:


They consist of lengths of tubes and are best used as sausage skins.
Turn them inside out and wash them. Then boil them thoroughly.


Mix fat and meat in equal proportions and then stir in blood. Stuff the
mixture into the skin and boil them well.


Before putting them into boiling water add a little cold water to take
it just off the boil, this will counter any risk of the skins bursting.
(OOPS's!)


This makes a highly nutritious food which if smoked will keep for a
long time. Dried intestines can be used for light lashings.


KIDNEYS:

They are a valuable source of nourishment & ideal flavouring for stews.
Boil them with herbs.


The white fat surrounding them (suet) is a rich food source. Render it
down to use in the preparation of pemmican


MELTS:


They are the spleen, a large organ in the bigger animals. It has
limited food value and is not worth bothering about in the small games
such as rabbits. It is best roasted.


LITES:


Lites are the lungs of the animal, perfectly GOOD TO EAT but not of
great food value. Any respiratory complaints will show up in the lungs.


Do not eat any mottled with black and white spots. Healthy lungs are
pink and blemish free and best boiled. They could be set aside for fish
or trap bait.


HEART:

A tightly packed muscle with little or no fat. Roast it or use its
distinctive flavour to liven up the stew.


SWEETBREADS:


Are the pancreas or thymus gland, distinctive in larger game. Many
people consider it a great delicacy and it is delicious boiled or
roasted.


TAIL:


Skin and boil to make an excellent soup for it is full of meat and
gelatine.


FEET:


Feet are chopped off during slaughter but should not be wasted. Boil
them up to make a good stew.


Clean dirt from hooves or paws and remove all traces of fur. Hooves are
a source of nutritious aspic jelly.


HEAD:


On larger animal there is a good deal of meat on the head. The cheeks
make a very tasty dish. The tongue is highly nutritious.

Boil it to make it tender and skin before eating. The brain will brawn
and will also provide useful solution for curing hides. All that is
left or the whole head with small animals should be boiled.


RODENTS: = FOOD YES!


Rats & mouse (even Mickey) living in woods and desert have a delicious
flesh, particularly good if made into a stew. (Ask a cat!) 


To prepare them, skin them, empty them and boil them at least 10
minutes, cook them with the liver & add Dandelions. Cut off the head
and tail of course.


RABBIT & HARE: (Bugs Bunny excluded!)


Good taste but a little fat. Easy to snare and to kill. To skin it make
an incision behind the head, slide your fingers and bring the skin
backward.


Open the abdomen from up coming down by doing a vigorous incision. That
way in one shot the viscera will come off. Scrape and wash the flesh,
keep the heart and liver if intact.


REMEMBER ALL MAMMIFEROUS ANIMALS ARE COMESTIBLES!


COOKING TIP #?:


NO-NO-FLAME SEEN AT NIGHT:


OVEN COOKING #?:


A hole under the fire, a closed container or clay covering can be used
as improvised oven.


To cook under the fire, spread first at the bottom of the hole a bunch
of hot coals upon which you put the container the water and the food,
cover this one of another layer of hot coals then of a layer of a bit
of earth.


To better retain the heat, lay some stones around the side of the hole,
this cooking has the advantages to protect your food from flies and
bugs ants at night, this fire has no apparent flames.


ROASTING SEEDS & NUTS: 


Put them in a metallic container, let them grill slowly, if not steel
container, flat stones are perfect replacement.


EGGS: 

All comestibles whatever is the development stage, they are one of the
surest food source. Once hard boiled they keep several days.


NATURAL SEASONING:


You obtain salt by boiling sea water. Ashes from Palm tree branches,
White Walnut-tree contain salt which dissolves in water. All you have
to do is to let the water evaporate to obtain a dark colour salt.


COOKING BREAD: 


If possible use SOME sea water because of the salt it contains. Once
you have knead the flour and water into a dough, place it in hole made
in the sand, over the dough place some sand, then cover the whole thing
with much hot coals.


A little experience will permit you to equalize the temperature of the
dough and of the embers so that the sand won't stick.


ANOTHER WAY TO COOK BREAD IS:


To roll it around a Green stick which you have first removed the bark
then put it over a fire.


You can spread some flour on the stick to prevent the dough from
sticking. Bite the stick first to taste the sap, if it is too bitter it
will alter the bread taste.


STILL ANOTHER WAY:


Spread a thin layer of dough on a burning stone. To get a better bread,
use as leaven (yeast) a bit of sour dough.


The secret to make good bread is to knead it a long time that is 20 min
each operation. Also ALWAYS use water having served to cook the
potatoes or beans because of its starch.


FOOD KEEPING ADD ON: 

In the old days, our forefathers use to put their cooked food in
sandstone jars. That food was immersed under oil or fat about 3 fingers
thick.


Those 2 products would make it airtight thus no spoilage. Each time
they would use the food, they would MAKE SURE that the oil or fat would
still recover the food as before. Today one can use the same method but
use plastic containers.



COOKING WITH ALUMINIUM (AL) PAPER MANY ADVANTAGES:


Lazy bachelors or those who hate doing dishes & survivors can very well
use this method to cook. Aluminium keeps the heat stops humidity both
ways & is safe for food.


Meals cook in their juices which is far better nutritive value. You can
cook on wood fire, grill, naphtha or propane gas stove.


First you MUST envelope the meal to cook in the thickest Al paper you
can find, cook it as directed below on hot embers or under hot ashes
for a better cooking.


At the last minute, open it up to permit a browning of the meat. The
possibilities of this cooking are limitless. You can cook individually
many vegetables at the same time. Small bread done that way is
delicious.


COOKING WITH AL. PAPER:


Fruits, vegetables, Tubercles, Yams etc. can be cooked easy with Al.
You can also use Al. Paper to make plates, pots, cups etc.


COOKING TIPS USING ALUMINIUM PAPER:


FOOD TIME NEEDED:


Meat........12 min. Fish.......9 min

Potato.....15 min. Carrots....11 min
Onions......8 min Eggs,bacon..5 min

Bread.......6 min Roast beef..22 min

Boiling water 5 minutes.


Note: Soft wood takes Lesser time.


COOKING ADD ON WILD MEAT:


Wild meat MUST be civilized?!? to better the taste. After the kill, you
MUST take all the blood off, then remove the musk gland if any, if not
then let that meat rest for a day or two.


In order to kill the nerves, you remove the fat before of course. This
is call to make the meat gamy or high (not stone hard). Once gamy, you
boil it for 45 minutes to remove all greasy taste.


Let is soak in according to the weight 6 to 48 hours in a solution of
water and vinegar or better in good quality red wine which you have
added olive oil, onions, butter, laurel leaves salt, pepper, celery,
carrots and parsley, then take it off, let it drip then, it is ready to
start the cooking art French style.


FAT & OILY MEAT SECRET:


The SECRET of preparing fat & oily meat is to make it boil in a lot of
water for 45 minutes before cooking or pickling it.


TRAPPER COOK POT: 

(FOWL or MEAT)


1) ALWAYS let the meat die before starting cooking. (Gamy)


2) Cover the cooking pot of a thin slices of salted lard.

3) Let them roast or broil.


4) Add a bit of cold water, 3" thick for 2 ducks, don't use cold water
it does not mix well with blood. 


5) Add the 2 cleaned Donald ducks and mix all that well.

6) Add salt, onions, pepper. 


7) Let it boil till water has evaporated, even let it slightly burn at
the bottom to give better taste, then add some hot water.


8) Then add more water, just enough to cover the fowl or game.

9) Let it boil till completely cooked, check with a fork at times.


10) Add sliced potatoes.

11) Let it boil 10 minutes.

12) Add some bannock dough.


13) It takes about 20 min. to cook the Bannock dough. When they are
cooked, almost all water is gone, leaving white sauce.

14) Eating time! 


BAKING ON A STICK; BANNOCK:


Baking on a stick is so handy especially when we are preparing only
small amounts to be eaten hot.


The basic recipe for this backwoods bread is: 1 cup of flour, 1
teaspoon of baking powder, 1/4 spoon of salt.


To this you may add depending of tastes & availability a variety of
spices and fruits as well as sugar & shortening or fat.


You'll be heating a peeled green stick of hardwood (NEVER Evergreen)
which may be about as thick as the forearm of a hunting rifle.


The dough you will mould swiftly so as not to lose too much of the
carbon dioxide gas whose function is to make the bread rise, quickly
fashioning a wide ribbon to twist around the stick.


A few stubs on the stick left by not trimming it to smoothly will help
keep the soft mass in place during baking.


TRAPPERS'BREAD or BANNOCK:


A mixture of flour, water, #poudre a pate# and salt. 2 tbs. (18gr) of
#poudre a pate# in a frying pan of flour, mix the flour and #poudre a
pate# in a bowl.


Now add 1 tea spoon of salt (5gr), add water, you need 3 times more
flour than water (3/1). Mix the dough till rather soft and about 2" or
5cm thick.


Grease the frying pan otherwise the dough will get stuck. Cook on slow
fire, to control your heat if on wood stove, place 3 small stones
between the stove and the skillet. Roast the bannock on one side then
on the next.


You MUST be patient to see the result. Restrain your curiosity to
check, for it would prevent the dough of rising.


Cooking time = 1 hour. Some add a pinch of baking soda #soda a pate# to
haste the cooking or maybe to prevent any stomach burn? No panic = good
Bannock!


BANNOCK METHOD #3?:


Stretch the dough and roll it around a dry stick that you turn over hot
embers for 45 minutes, then a gold crust was thus formed and the
bannock not panic, was ready.


Since bread does not keep long, you can cut bread that has become stale
in big slices, then toast them over a fire, thus you will keep it for a
longer time as some kind of biscuits.


FAT & OILY MEAT COOKING:


BEAR: (Not Bare Cooking!)


The best way to remove the greasy taste to the meat is to boil it in a
lot of water for an hour then let it pickle to make stew. This is the
Secret in preparing all meat that is fat & oily!


Bear meat killed in august at the time of blueberries is better than
the July meat by the way.


Bear is cooked like any other game except for the fat that you have to
remove as above. This applies to BEAVERS that you also have to degrease
and boil before roasting, or making a stew.


RABBIT: 


In the 2 or 3 hours following the kill rabbit stays tender. It is the
time for the hunter to make his rabbit pot, after that time you will
have to wait 3 to 4 days before the rabbits becomes tender again and it
would need help from a good marinade.


HOW TO CONSTRUCT A STOVE IN THE FOREST: 


Easy to do it yourself, this stove cooks and gives warmth. You need to
find flat stones of a good size. Then the 1st thing to do is to dig a
hole 2 feet deep by 2 feet across.


You MUST reach the ground, the rocky part. At the bottom you put a good
layer of damp sand which you recover of a flat stone, on the sides you
lay other flat stones standing up and a bit slanted which you
consolidate with more damp sand.


You let at the front a small opening in form of a small trench and you
end your work by putting a big flat stone which will be the top part of
your stove. Then you surround the whole thing with some more wet sand.


In order to get a better draw from your fire, let an opening at the top
of the oven and place your camp so that the stove is at the front of it
about 2 to 3 feet ahead, so that the front of the stove will be facing
the camp door.


Keep a good stone to form the front of the stove and now you will have
a good stove & oven giving good heat and perfect food cooking.


Such a stove is not dangerous, your camp is installed to receive the
wind from the rear, the air flow will remove the annoying smoke but the
nearness of the stove will let a good heat to come in your camp.


SHERPA TEA:


A high fat- yielding drink which is one of the 3 basic fuel sources for
the inner body furnace and FAT is ESSENTIAL IN SURVIVAL.

You mix 1 oz. of powdered milk with 1 oz. of sugar and 1 oz of
margarine with a sprinkle of instant coffee.


The dry ingredients can be mixed prior to your venture & the margarine
carried in a squeeze tube.


Heated in a cup of water the Sherpa tea can be the quick filling
warm-up one needs while waiting his meal to be ready.


TORTILLA: (OLEY!!)


To replace bread on a trail one can convert to Tortilla thus prevent
the same storage problem that preserving regular bread would present.


You just premix the basic ingredients of flour or cornmeal, baking
powder, shortening and salt and store them in a plastic bag all waiting
you for meal time just to add water and cook it to your starving
satisfaction.


Carbohydrate is also ESSENTIAL in your survival, this Tortilla will
give it.

MONK MICHAEL APPLE JELLY:


Use apple or even better #pommette# when they are real small, 3 quarts;
remove the chalice and the tails of those #aigre# & full of juice well
matured cut in small pieces.


Do not peal off nor remove the heart, now add 6 1/2 cups of water and
bring to boil & let it simmer with lid on for 10 minute now smash the
whole thing and let it simmer again with the lid on for 5 or more
minutes.


Now add to those 5 cups a small 2 table spoon of lemon juice then add 7
1/2 cups of sugar and 1 pkg. of CERTO preserving ingredient this will
give you a total capacity of 8 fantastic apple jelly not found in any
store. Very Yummy.


COOKING & Cook-King!:


Don't forget to bring the spices. REMEMBER also to look in our plants
to find some natural spices to help the moral along.


GORP: 


Taking small place and high energy value found in many food stores but
which can be home made. The basic elements are nearly ALWAYS the same
even if there are some other recipes. 


You find chocolate, nuts & dry raisins. Using a #bain-marie# to melt
the chocolate then add the peanuts, then dry raisins, then add the
grounded nuts.


Or granola or other berries or dry fruits of your choice at the rate of
1 handful for each ingredient. Let it cool then break it into chunks &
put it in wax or Al.. Paper.


RECIPES:


Some recipes should be added ex: chilli con carne etc. about 30 max.
this is not a cook book but it helps soup & stew. Etc.


SARASIN PANCAKE:


#Sarasin# pancake recipe for 2 persons this mix should be done at home
before you leave all you then add is 2 table spoon of oil and 2 to 3
cups of cold water and bingo Jane beats Tarzan.

1 cup of #Sarasin Flower# + 1/2 cup of corn flower, 1/2 cup wheat
flower + 1/2 cup of germ wheat, 1/2 cup powder milk + 2tbsp powder
eggs, 2 the spoon of #poudre pate# + 1 tea spoon of salt.


Mix them all well together add the oil and cold water (above) mix all
till you get a thick smooth paste and cook in a hot pan that you have
oiled before, ready when you yell.


INDIAN BREAD: 


1 cup of flour 1/2 tea spoon of salt / 1 Tea spoon of #poudre a pate# 1
tea spoon of sugar or honey / 1 Tea spoon of powder milk / 2 soup spoon
of vegetable oil.


Mix all the ingredients and add 3/4 cup of cold water so as to obtain a
thick paste. Mould it in a bread shape about 2.5cm thick while you knee
the dough as little as possible. Powder it with some more flour & bake
it after these manners.


HOW TO COOK INDIAN BREAD:



1) In a #closed up pot#: Put the bread in a skillet. Next put some
stones in a big cauldron onto which you put the skillet & cover the
cauldron that you put over hot coals for 30 minutes or till the bread
is ready. Check the cooking by sticking into the bread a small twig, if
the twig comes out clean it is ready.


2) In a skillet: put the bread into a hot well greased skillet and hold
it over the fire till you have a crust appearing under the top of the
bread then turn it over to bake another crust.


Next remove the skillet away from the fire but close enough so that it
still takes some of the heat and then let it cool off.


3) #Au four a reflector#: Wrap the bread into aluminium foil and put it
into the oven.


Put the whole apparatus about 20cm from the fire and keep the fire
going on for about 20-30 minutes while from time to time you turn the
bread then remove & go for it.

#GATEAU AU GLAND DE CHENE# :

(Oak usefulness)


2 cups of #gland de chene flour# + 1/2 tbs. salt + 3/4 cup water. Mix
the ingredients and bash them till you have a solid paste. Let it rest
for one hour.


In a skillet heat up 3 tbs. of oil and drop the paste so as to get
cakes about 8cm, lower the heat or put the skillet away from the fire
but not too far and let the cake get a nice tan on both sides. CAN BE
EATEN hot or cold and they will keep for many days.


FLOUR & OTHER WILD SOURCES OF FOOD:


To make flour out of wild plants is quite an experience but if you have
time the experience is well worth it taste wise etc. The easiest
tubercles to transform are those of the #sagitaire et du souchet#
comestibles# .


Smash them up and put the pulp into cold water then close well the
container and shake it good. Next filter it all to get rid off the
fibres and let it #decanter.#


Empty the water, replace the water and start all over again as often as
you need it till the water has lost its viscosity.


Strain the flour and use it as such as a paste with the cold water it
contains already or let it dry up and mould it or smash it up again
with a #pilon# for later usage.


Nuts and #noisettes# make a delicious flour and give oil as well. Grind
them with a stone and let it boil slowly with their shell. Little by
little the pieces of almonds and the oil will float to the surface.


Remove them as they come up and filter them. Let dry the almond pieces
close to a fire then grind them real smooth.


If you love the #beurre de noisettes# all you have to do is to grind
the pieces of almonds into the oil that you have kept.

It is not an easy job to do flour from seeds. Hard to do while using a
#pilon et mortar# even harder if you use 2 stones.


To give an added taste to your wheat flour you can add a handful of
flour coming from the grinding of #seed de quenouilles, d'oseille or de
chenopode blanc.#


First remove the seeds from their kernels either by rubbing them
quickly into your palms as you would do for the seed of #amarante# or
by beating or threshing them with a stick or by stamping them with your
feet in the case of the #pourpier ou bourse a pasteur#. Only keep what
is eatable.


To get rid of #les graines de la balle# take 2 containers and
transverse them several times letting the wind do the sifting job for
you.


In order to help you along if making flour out of seeds, roots or nuts
look closely to the water shore till you find natural rocky pots made
by erosion and use some stone as mortar easy to handle.


PINHOLE:


Parch husked seeds on hot stones by the fire. The heat will cook and
dry seeds without roasting them. This Pinhole will keep well. Eat cold
or re-heat.

Add to stews or place a handful in a mug of hot water-tasty and
nutritious. Dry they will not be properly digested, but they will fill
the belly. It is better to grind them into flour.


FLOUR: 


Grinding flour without a proper mill is hard work but can be done by
pounding with a smooth stone on a hard surface.


Look for a large tone with a depression in the middle to place the
grain in. Use a circling motion as with a mortar & pestle.


ANOTHER WAY TO GRIND FLOUR: 

Is to hollow a tube of hard wood and to pound a stick up and down
inside it on the grain. Mix flower with a little water and knead into a
dough.


Bake into an oven or make into thin strips, wrap around a shave green
stick and cook over hot embers.


METHOD #3?:


Is to make a dough into fist-size balls, flat them and then drop hot
pebble-size stones into the centre and wrap the dough around them.


Lick your fingers before picking up the pebbles-if you are quick enough
the moisture stops the pebble from burning you- or use sticks or tongs
to lift them.


Flour does not have to be made from cereal grains. Use the flowering
heads of Cat's Tails or boil and mash up peeled roots, of Wild Calla
for instance, or EDIBLE barks.


Those that are not harmful Raw can be steeped in water and crushed with
a stick or stone to free the starch. Remove fibres, leave starch to
settle, then pour off the water and you will have your flour.


SAUSAGES:


Thoroughly clean intestines, turning them inside out to wash. Fill with
a mix of half meat with half fat bound with enough blood to hold the
ingredient together.


Tie the ends and boil. Once cooked they can be preserved by cold
smoking in a smoke tepee over a chimney.


GRILLING:


Grilling is a quick way of cooking large amounts of food but it
requires a support-such as mesh of wire-rested over the embers of the
fire.

It should only be used when food is plentiful since it wastes most of
the fat from the meat.


Hot rocks beside the fire can be used as grilling surfaces or food
skewered on sticks and held over the fire.


If no wire mesh is available, make a grid of every green sticks or rest
a long stick on a forked support so that it can hold food over the
fire.


Wrap food around the stick. You can also barbecue meat and vegetables
on a stick supported across glowing embers by a forked stick on each
side.


BAKING NOT BANKING:


You need an oven for baking, but if time and materials are available
this is a good way of cooking. Meat should be cooked on a dish and the
fat which runs out used to baste it.


It is ideal for tough, stringy meat. Cooked for a long time on a steady
heat the meat becomes more tender.


BAKING IS ALSO VERY SUITABLE FOR ROOT & VEGETABLES:


If meat is place in a tin containing a little water to be cooked in the
oven this is a form of braising. Use an oven to cook several different
things at once.


FRYING:


It is an excellent way of varying diet, if fat is available and you
have a container to fry in. Any sheets of metal that you can fashion
into a curve or give a slight tip to will serve.


In some areas, you may find a large leaf which contains enough oil not
to dry out before the cooking is done-banana leaves are excellent
surfaces to fry eggs upon.


Try leaves out Before you risk valuable food on them and if you do use
one, Fry Only over embers not over flames.


METAL BOX OVEN: 


A large food tin or metal box with a hinged lid makes an excellent
improvised oven. Army survivors found an ammunition box ideal.


If the lid is hinged and has a catch on it that you can use as a
handle, you could set it up to open sideways.


It will probably be easier, especially if it has no catch or you have
to improvise hinges, to let it open downwards.


If you place a rock or other support in front, to rest it on, you will
have a convenient shelf. You can ALWAYS prop it closed if there is no
catch for you do not want a tightly sealed fit which could build a Very
dangerous pressure inside.


If no tin or box is available you could make a clay dome, like an
Indian oven. To make it hot set a fire inside and scrape this out
before cooking.


Leave a smallish aperture which can be easily sealed while baking.
Stand the tin on some rocks so that a fire can be lit beneath it.


Build up rocks and earth-or better, clay-around back and sides and over
it, but leaving a space behind for heat and smoke to move around the
back. Use a stick to make a chimney hole from above to the space at the
back.


STEAMING: 


IT DOES NOT OVERCOOK SO IT PRESERVES ALL NUTRITIONAL VALUES. (ESSENTIAL
in Survival)


It is an excellent way of cooking fish and green vegetables. 


HANGI METHOD:

This is another way of cooking without utensils. Like the clam bake of
the USA and traditional Maori and South Pacific methods it involves
heating stones.


It requires kindling, logs and round rocks or stones about the size of
a fist. Do not use soft, porous or flake stones which might explode on
heating.


Dig an oval-shaped hole with rounded sides 45-60cm deep (18-24in) and
place kindling at the bottom.


Lay logs across the hole, place another layer of logs at right angles
to them, inter-spacing them with stones.


Make another layer of logs and build up 5 or 6 more alternating layers,
topping them off with stones.


When the kindling is set alight the logs will burn, heating the stones
above them, until, eventually, all falls down into the pit.


Remove the burning embers and ash. Now, place food on top of the hot
rocks, meat to the centre and vegetables towards the outer edges.


There MUST be a gap between the food and the earth. Lay saplings across
the pit and place sacking, leaves and so forth on top of them, covering
the lot with the earth that you excavated to keep the heat in.


The hole now acts rather like a pressure cooker. After 1 1/2 hour
remove the cover. Your meal is cooked.


BOILING WATER IN A HANGI:


If you have no container in which to boil water you can make use of the
Hangi. Whatever you have collected water in, provided that it does not
melt so that rules out plastic but includes other kinds of waterproof
fabrics, can be gathered up and tied so that the water does not spill
and placed in the hangi. It will take about 1 1/2 hour to boil but the
fabric will not burn through.


USEFUL UTENSILS TONGS: 


Choose 2 branches both with a natural curve and lash them together so
that they want to spring apart at the free ends.


Or use a tapering piece of wood between them under the lashings to hold
them apart. If one has a forked end the grip will be improved. Use for
holding pots, hot rocks & logs.


POT ROD: 


To give more variable access to the fire than a rail over it (a) drive
a sturdy forked stick into the ground near the fire but not so close as
to catch alight. Rest a much longer stick across it with one end over
the fire.


Drive the bottom end of the longer stick into the ground and prevent it
from springing up with heavy rocks.


Cut a groove near the tip to prevent pots from slipping off or to be
safer to tie on a strong hook. 2 or 3 sticks could lean over the fire
at different heights with meat or vegetables attached.


SWINGING POT HOLDER: 


This can be made from two forked sticks and a firm upright driven into
the ground. Bind the branches together so that the forks fit in
opposite directions on the upright.


The cantilever action will maintain the height you set it at, and push
sideways will swing the pot away from the flames. With a longer upright
you could control cooking height also.


VARIABLE POT HOOK: 


Since the distance between the fire and the food will affect the speed
at which the food cooks make this hanging device so that you can
control your cooking.


Cut a strong piece with several branches from a small tree or bush and
trim the branches to 10-12cm (4-5in). Strip off the bark which may hide
a rotten branch.


BAMBOO CUP: 


Cut a section of bamboo just below a natural joint and then cut just
below the next join up. Smooth the edges to prevent splinters.


SPOON: 


Start with a flattish piece of wood and scribe a spoon shape on it with
the point of your knife. Then whittle away to the required shape. Do
not hurry, this will only result in mistakes. NEVER cut towards
yourself or your hand.


BIRCH BARK CONTAINERS:


Use the inner layer of birch bark to make storage boxes or temporary
cooking vessels-which can be used for boiling. Sew or tie them near the
top to prevent unfolding.


An alternative for temporary vessels is to peg the top edges with split
sticks, but you might well spill the contents if the vessels suddenly
unfold.


Make another vessel, but with a larger base, and you will have a lid to
fit over the first. A circle, folded into quarters, will make a cone
shaped cup or a boiling vessel if suspended.


COOKING TIPS #?:


Water boils faster when set above the flames! So you have to hang it
using some kind of tripod otherwise if you set the pot in the fire you
might end up by seeing your pot in the fire which has collapsed while
burning, not counting the risk to burn yourself.


One other way if you have a the pot is to set it as close to the fire
as possible even among the burning coals MAKING SURE that the lid is on
and not the burning type, being so close will make the water boil real
good.


Hot charcoal put under a big vessel will do just as good a job and one
need hot water a lot in camps. If water is plentiful as well as wood
then MAKE SURE you ALWAYS have some hot water boiling or close to the
flame to keep hot.


And REMEMBER that to sterilise water it has to boil for 10 minutes
long. No matter what some may say be safe! 


MERELY MOISTENING YOUR LIPS WITH POLLUTED WATER CAN KILL YOU IF NOT
DISABLE YOU TOO!.


COOKING UNDER THE TENT: 


Now it's raining and cold, so lets go cooking under a tent. FIRST take
in consideration the direction of the prevailing wind.


We start as fig 1 of 2 pickets of 1 m. 30 #enfonce# of 30 cm. in the
soil about, the solidity of these 2 # montants# insures that of the
whole work.


So MAKE SURE that it is solid. These 2 pickets are separated by 1m.25
see M M' At the top you #brele# a T cross.


2 #perches# P are then crossed in A and the opening of the angle is
determined by the form of the tent see small dotted line.# We suppose
here a regular patrol.


Height 180cm width 200cm. At 1 meter ahead of this construction plant 2
other #montants# of 1m.60 or about. fig 2 these 2 #montants# (n n) are
united by a cross piece in V; 2 #oblique# S S' complete the
#charpente#.


A view in perspective is shown in fig 4. All this construction can be
done with light #perches# or bamboo stalks.


Use the green wood as much as possible. The superior triangle formed by
A and the T cross is crossed by a strong stick F fig 1 & 3.

This triangle will be completely closed by sticks one on top of the
other and tightly jointed to prevent smoke to slide under the tent.


In this work fig3 all the knots or inequalities, roughness of the
sticks that would create a draft MUST be cut off with a knife.


Do observe that all the sticks pass on the same side of the small
#montant# in F in reverse from ordinary #clayonage#.


This tent covers a surface 1m X 1m.25 in which centre will be made the
fireplace. The tent is #adosser# to the triangle formed by #perches# P
& fixing the top to point A fig 2 


COOKING FIRE: 


The simplest type of campfire is built by laying some flat DRY rock in
a rough circle. This prevents the fire from spreading to nearby shrubs.


The rocks also give the camp cook a level place to put his pots and
pans (canteen) and reflect the fire's heat to make cooking more
efficient.


In the centre of this rock circle, the cook places a handful of pine
needles, some shredded tree bark or dried grass.


He builds a teepee of tiny twigs over this tinder and crouching down
with his back to the wind, strikes a match.


Cupping this tiny flame between his hands, the camper then touches the
match to the side closes to him, putting the flame up under his tinder
so the rising heat will ignite it.


If he is properly prepared he adds progressively larger twigs &
branches at hand, and he patiently adds them to his fire one or 2 at a
time.


If he piles on too much wood too quickly, the blaze will be smothered
and he will have to start over, so with patience the camper will slowly
build up his fire till it is burning strongly.

The camper who proceeds to pile on half his wood supplies to create a
blazing furnace will find himself forced to stand far back from it,
being toasted on the front of his body while his backside hangs out in
the cold night air.


He can easily AVOID this and save himself the effort of stumbling
around in the dark to gather more wood by building a small fire that he
can squat next to within easy reach to handle his cooking utensil &
stand over to be warmed on both sides at once.


The smaller fire will also save the tired camper the efforts of
scraping a thick accumulation of soot off the bottom of his pot and
will stretch a small wood supply though the night.


One way to make more efficient use of a fire is to lay the rocks in a
keyhole shape.


The blazing fire at the big end of this arrangement is used for heat
and light, while the cook scraped coals from the main blaze into the
smaller end to use in preparing his gourmet specials, reducing soot
scraping even more.


ARMY CANTEEN: 


One more advantage of those army canteens if you have them, included in
it a couple bread plastic bag along, so that you can just shove the
canteen into one of them, after having clean the inside of course.


The extra soot was scraped off on the sand then you just put the cold
canteen into the bag without further worry, or into 2 bags if you
prefer; this avoids cleaning and messing up everything. We say Cold
canteen, for a warm or hot one will melt the plastic. (OOP's!)


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