Process Essay

Northern Cooking

        By no means am I a master chef, nope no culinary expertise here.  But for the most part I can hold my own in a kitchen.  As long as Emeril doesn’t show up…   But sometimes you don’t always get that perfect kitchen to cook in.  Sometimes you lose a lot of those comforts that you call “necessities” and are left with just some odds and ends to work with to make a meal.  Well that’s how camp cooking usually turns out in our neck of the woods.  We work with what we have, and knock on wood, haven’t been dissatisfied yet.  It’s really quite a feeling to come into a kitchen at camp, and see the food piled high that you just made; mounds of pancakes, home fries, eggs, bacon and sausage.  All prepared on a tiny wood stove in the corner of a cramped 10’x14’ room.  What could be better?  Well, if you really want to try, I can show you.  But you’re not going to like it.  I’ll take you from gathering supplies to getting the cook space prepped all the way to cooking and the finished product on the table.  Ready, Set, Go.

        First we have to gather whatever supplies we need.  Most of the time it’s whatever we can get our hands on.  Sort out what cooking utensils we might actually use, and make sure everything is clean. (By the way, dishes with no running water are REALLY fun to do.)  Every time, the selection seems to be different there.  Sometimes we can find everything we need, and others we’re forced to make some trips back out to town.  After a while though we get it sorted out.  A fry pan or two, maybe a few mixing bowls, assorted spoons, forks, knives and spatulas, all to help the cause.  Lastly there were measuring devices, cups and spoons.  Now where did we put those..??  Oh well, we didn’t need them anyway.  Instead I’ll just grab some plastic dixy cups, and start translating the recipe to ounces.  Does that look like about half to you?

        The woodstove did not start out as my preferential cooking heat surface, that’s for sure.  The prep time alone would turn most people away.  To start I have to get a nice even fire going and let it build up heat as it burns down to embers, preferably using a hard wood that has substantial density, but anything works.  Once I have a bed of embers to work with, I add two more medium size pieces of wood to maintain temperature for the following 20 minutes roughly.  I then add a small amount of wood more every 15 or 20 minutes until finished.  Now I'm ready to get cooking.  I load up all of my gear on a table beside the stove and prep to cook.  By this time it’s roughly 90-95F anywhere on that side of the kitchen, and right where I'm going to be for the next 40 minutes. (My favorite part)  Now when I actually got a chance to inspect it in detail, there really isn’t much cook-space on the top of the woodstove I was working with.  On that tiny little thing there’s barely enough room for a 13” cast-iron pan, and maybe another 5” one.  No chance for two 13 incher’s though, and too bad, they would easily half the time it takes me to do a standard quadruple batch of lemon zest buttermilk pancakes.

        Now comes the fun part.  Just me, two fry pans, a gallon of slightly lumpy pancake batter (from scratch), and 93 loving degrees all to myself.  That little stove may have seemed to be kicking off a lot of heat for the cabin, but as far as cooking went, things weren’t so great.  There was some trial and error, but I got the hang of it.  By the end of the weekend I gotten it down to a nearly a science.   Pour in; wait for bubbling after about two minutes, and then flip and seer on the other side until golden.  Just repeat 32 times and you’re finished!  I'm sure if you can master a full pan flip you could make some seriously big pancakes.  After the pancakes are done I just cycle cooking in the big pan the sausage and bacon.  Lastly I finish with a big egg scramble loaded up with veggies and cheese.  Also I made sure and kept everything covered with aluminum, because it took so long to cook everything, the pancakes would have been cold by the time the eggs were done!

        What an ordeal.  Although I have to say I'm getting better at it, and it can turn into fun after a while if you get some help.  And the reward is definitely worth it.  Getting to see those happy faces stuffing themselves on good food you worked on is great.  Even more so when you plan ahead and delegate dish duty to someone else!  Bella my Chessy doesn’t complain either, because there is never a short supply of leftovers when we cook at camp, plus she is always quick on the draw when she sees somebody spill on the floor.