Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

158 CAMPING AND WOODCRAFTup in cartons. For many It is the last call to supperwhen they have had no dinner and see slight prospectof breakfast. Besides, it is the lazy man's prop onrainy days, and the standby of inexperienced cooks,Erbswurst is composed of pea meal mixed with avery little fat pork and some salt, so treated as toprevent decay, desiccated and compressed into rollsof various sizes. It is much the same thing asbaked beans would be if they were dried and powdered,except that it tastes different and it containsmuch less fat. I understand that the original erbswurst,as prepared by its inventor, Grunberg, includeda goodly proportion of fat; but the articleof commerce that appeared later had so little ofthis valuable component (by analysis only 3.08%)that you could scarce detect it.Nobody can spoil erbswurst in the cooking, unlesshe goes away and lets it burn. All you have to do isto start a quart of water boiling, tear off the coverfrom a quarter-pound roll of this ''dynamite soup,"crumble the stuff finely into the water with your fingers,and boil for fifteen or twenty minutes, stirring;a few times to avoid lumps. Then let the messcool, and go to it. You may make it thin as a soupafter mixing with aor thick as a porridge, or fry itlittle water, granting you have grease to fry with.It never spoils, never gets any *'punkier" than itwas at the beginning. The stick of erbswurst thatyou left undetected last year in the seventh pocketof your hunting coat will be just as good when youdiscover it again this year. Mice won't gnaw it;bugs can't get at it; moisture can't get into it. Ihave used rolls that had lain so long in damp placesthat they were all moldy outside, yet the foodwithin was neither worse nor better than before.A pound of erbswurst, costing from thirty-two toforty cents, Is about all a man can eat In three mealsstraight. Cheap enough, and compact enough, Godwot! However, this little boon has a string attached.Erbswurst tastes pretty good to a hungryman In the woods as a hot noonday snack, now and