into a thick mass, adding a little soda.  Bake in the fire on a chip or flat stone.  The trapper’s ground is generally in the neighborhood of lakes or streams, and fresh fish are always to be had.  They may be cooked in a manner which would tempt a city epicure; and when it comes to the cooking of a fresh brook trout, neither a Prof.  Blot nor a Delmonico can compete with the trapper’s recipe.  The trout is first emptied and cleaned through a hole at the neck, if the fish is large enough to admit of it; if not, it should be done by a slit up the belly.  The interior should be carefully washed and seasoned with salt and pepper; and in the case of a large fish, it should be stuffed with Indian meal.  Build a good fire and allow the wood to burn down to embers; lay the fish in the hot ashes and cover it with the burning coals and embers; leave it thus for about half an hour, more or less, in proportion to the size of the fish (this may be easily determined by experiment); when done, remove it carefully from the ashes, and peel off the skin.  The clean pink flesh and delicious savor which now manifest themselves will create an appetite where none before existed.  All the delicate [Page 233] flavor and sweet juices of the fish are thus retained, and the trout as food is then known in its perfection.

By the ordinary method of cooking, the trout loses much of its original flavor by the evaporation of its juices; and although a delicious morsel in any event, it is never fully appreciated excepting after being roasted in the ashes, as above described.

The other method consists in rolling the fish in the Indian meal and frying it in the frying-pan with a piece of the salt pork.  Seasoning as desired.

Partridges, ducks, quail, and other wild fowl are most delicious when cooked in the ashes as described for the trout.  The bird should be drawn in the ordinary manner, and the inside washed perfectly clean.  It should then be embedded in the hot coals and ashes, the feathers having been previously saturated with water.  When done, the skin and feathers will easily peel off, and the flesh will be found to be wonderfully sweet, tender, and juicy.  A stuffing of pounded crackers and minced meat of any kind, with plenty of seasoning, greatly improves the result, or the Indian meal may be used if desired.  A fowl thus roasted is a rare delicacy.  A partridge, squirrel, pigeon, woodcock, or any other game can be broiled as well in the woods as at home, using a couple of green-branched twigs for a spider or “toaster,” and turning occasionally.  For this purpose the bird should be plucked of its feathers, cleanly drawn and washed, and spread out by cutting down the back.  Venison, moose, or bear meat, can be deliciously roasted in joints of several pounds before a good fire, using a green birch branch as a spit, and resting it on two logs, situated on opposite sides of the fire.  The meat can thus be occasionally turned and propped in place by a small stick, sprinkling occasionally