The Cook

The cook is the keynote of happiness or unhappiness.  Get a good cook, professionally and morally, one who understands that he is not in camp for a vacation.  A capable cook will take care of fifty boys without any assistance, except what help the boys may render in the preparation of vegetables.  For years two cooks have looked after the meals of 175 to 200 boys in the camps conducted each season by the writer.  The wages of the head cook or chef range from two to three dollars and fifty cents a day.  Some camps secure cooks from the hotels and restaurants, others from the lumber camps.  No matter where he is secured, be sure that he is clean, in person, in habits, and in speech.  Do not permit boys to loaf about the kitchen.  In the planning of menus, food value and variety must be considered.  The following represents the staple articles of food for a boys’ camp.

[Illustration:  Commissary department camp Becket]

Suggested list of dishes for boys’ camps
Breakfast

  Fruit:  Bananas, raspberries, blueberries, cantaloupes, apples,
  stewed prunes, applesauce, baked apples, stewed apples, stewed
  apricots, stewed figs.

  Cereals:  Oatmeal, Shredded Wheat, Cream of Wheat, Toasted

  Corn Flakes; corn meal mush and milk, Hominy Grits, Puffed Rice,
    Wheatlets.

  Eggs:  Fried, boiled, scrambled, omelette, poached on toast.

  Meats and Fish:  Bacon, meat hash, meat stew, chopped meat on
    toast, codfish cakes, creamed codfish, fried fresh fish,
    creamed dried beef, fresh sausage.

  Vegetables:  Potatoes-Baked, creamed, mashed, browned, German
    fried; baked beans.

  Drinks:  Cocoa, milk, coffee (only occasionally), pure water.

  Bread:  Toasted bread, corn bread, muffins, biscuits, hot cakes.

Dinner

  Soups:  Old-fashioned vegetable soup, bean soup, clam or fish
    chowder, corn chowder.  Thick soups are preferable for camps.

  Meats:  Roasts—­beef, lamb, chicken.  Stews—–­beef, lamb, Steak,
    Fricassee of chicken, fricassee of lamb, haricot of lamb,
    pot roast of beef, Hamburg steak, corned beef, boiled ham, meat pie.

  Fish:  Baked, fried, boiled; escalloped salmon, salmon croquettes.

  Vegetables:  Potatoes—­mashed, boiled, French fried, browned. 
    Cabbage.  Corn—­stewed, escalloped, corn pie, corn on cob.  Peas—­
    creamed with carrots.  Lima beans.  Summer squash.  Tomatoes—­
    stewed, escalloped, au gratin with tomatoes.  Apple sauce, creamed
    onions; cabbage slaw.  Greens-spinach, beet tops.

  Desserts:  Ice Cream-vanilla, chocolate, strawberry (preserved),
    raspberry, lemon, coffee, caramel, peach, pineapple (shredded),
    orange, lemon.  Sherbet—­lemon, orange, pineapple, raspberry.  Rice
    pudding, plain with fruit sauce, rice with raisins.  Tapioca pudding
    with apples or fruit.  Bread pudding.  Cottage pudding, lemon sauce or
    fruit sauce.  Banana pudding.  Sliced peaches with cream.  Pie-apple,
   blueberry, blackberry.  Cornstarch pudding.