For the week-end camper cooking is comparatively easy. Most of the food is prepared at home or purchased en route, and boiled meat, boiled or fried eggs, tea and coffee constitute most of the necessary cooking. The week-end camping trip is sort of a prolonged picnic, and if space is not too much of a factor and the party not too large, very appetizing meals can be planned, containing canned goods, bread, cake or cookies, which will require very little preparation for satisfactory meals.

The regular camping trip of a week or more presents an altogether different problem and necessitates considerable cooking. Everyone is hungry. Out-of-door life certainly develops an appetite and the amount of food a party of healthy persons can consume is sometimes appalling to the cook.

The success of an outing of this character depends largely upon good meals. Poor cooking on a camping trip has caused more unpleasantness among friends than any other discomfort or inconvenience. No matter how patient one is under extreme heat, mosquitoes, or the many annoyances which are apt to arise, everyone will be happy and forget their troubles if the "eats" are good and plentiful. Regardless of how smoothly other things run, if the food is not satisfactory, the trip will be somewhat of a failure. There is one comforting thought, however, which will encourage camp cooks - we all know genuine hunger is not critical and food will taste most appetizing under camping conditions which would not be tolerated at home.

The simplest food is the most appetizing and also the best to eat and prepare. Good coffee will cover a multitude of shortcomings, and put everyone in good humor. To make really good coffee in camp is an art. One of the first essentials is to have the coffee pot thoroughly washed each time it is used. Let it stand open in a sunny place when not in use. This is most important, otherwise the coffee will be bitter. Allow 1 rounding tablespoon of ground coffee for each cup of water used, then allow 1 extra tablespoonful in the pot for good measure. Use cold water and set the pot in a hot place and allow to reach boiling point and boil three minutes, no longer; set in a warm place, but not over the fire, add 1/2 cupful of cold water and let stand 5 or 10 minutes before using. The pot should be tightly covered, even taking care to stop up the spout so that none of the aroma will be lost. The 1/2 cup of cold water is added last to clear the coffee. Egg may be added instead, and if used should be mixed with the ground coffee before adding any of the cold water.

A clear, golden coffee will reward your efforts, which, with canned cream and sugar will be hailed with joy. No matter how weary and tired from a day's tramp, a good cup of coffee will stimulate and rest one.

Baked beans, well cooked, make a good dinner. Dig a hole large enough to hold several stones; heat them very hot, also have a bed of coals. The beans should be soaked over night in sufficient cold water to cover. In the morning drain off all water cover with fresh cold water and bring to the boiling point and cook about 1/2 hour. Drain again. Put a piece of salt pork or bacon in the bottom of the bean pot or iron kettle, add beans, another piece of salt pork or bacon. Mix seasoning of mustard (may be omitted) salt, pepper, and either sugar or molasses, the latter giving the best flavor; add a pint of hot water and pour over beans; then cover beans entirely with hot water; cover closely and set on top of hot coals; put the heated stones on top, pack with dirt and make as nearly air-tight as possible. Let cook all day - about 8 or 10 hours. Be sure and have a kettle or pot large enough to hold sufficient water to completely cook the beans; otherwise they will taste scorched.

If brown beans are preferred, they should be soaked over night also, but they will not require so long a time to cook, and the seasonings should be tomato sauce and onions. A small fireless cooker is a great help on a long camping trip.

A self-rising pancake flour is easy to carry and is most convenient for outing trips. These flours only require an equal quantity of cold water and they are ready to bake. With a small bed of coals, a griddle or heavy frying-pan can be kept at a uniform heat, and if different persons take a turn at frying them, this type of pancake will make an easily prepared meal.

Perhaps the hardest task of all is to make the camp bread, and to be able to make it well is one of the tests of a good outdoor cook. The best utensil for baking in camp is a shallow iron kettle with an iron cover, commonly known as a "Dutch oven." Have a bed of coals, but rake them to one side and set the kettle in the center; put in the bread, cover and heap the coals on top and let bread cook about 1/2 hour. One of the commonest faults with camp cooking is having too much heat; the inexperienced camper builds a big fire which creates a quantity of smoke and makes cooking impossible. Hot coals are needed and a well-built campfire will soon produce them. Avoid having left-overs, for it is not easy to utilize them in camp cookery. Have simple meals, but aim to have food well prepared. Variety at each meal is not essential, but variety is desirable each day. Beans served for several meals in succession are certainly not appetizing.

Potatoes and fish may be wrapped in clean wet paper and cooked in hot ashes.

If canned milk is used allow 1/3 milk to 2/3 water for cooking purposes. When milk is mentioned in a recipe it means fresh milk or canned milk diluted in this proportion.

Any food which is cooked in a frying-pan or kettle can easily be managed over a campfire. If each person will do their share of the cooking and the inevitable dish washing, a camping trip will work no hardship on any one individual.