When there is not time to jerk the meat by this slow process, it may be done in a few hours by building an open frame-work of small sticks about two feet above the ground, placing the strips of meat upon the top of it, and keeping up a slow fire beneath, which dries the meat rapidly.

The jerking process may be done on the move without any loss of time by stretching lines from front to rear upon the outside of loaded wagons and suspending the meat upon them, where it is allowed to remain until sufficiently cured to be packed away. Salt is never used in this process and is not required, as the meat, if kept dry, rarely putrefies.

HOW TO DRESS SMALL ANIMALS

Dressing in this case really means undressing; taking their coats off and removing their insides. In order to prepare for broiling or baking any of the small fur-bearing animals, make yourself a skinning stick, using a forked branch; the forks being about an inch in diameter, make the length of the stick to suit your convenience—long enough to reach between the knees whether you are sitting on a log or squatting on the ground—sharpen the lower end of the stick and stick it into the ground, then take your coon, possum, squirrel, or muskrat, and punch the pointed ends of the forked stick through the thin place behind the heels of the small animal there sketched. Thus the hung animal may be dressed with comfort. If one is squatting, the nose of the animal should just clear the ground.

First take off the fur coat. To do this you split the skin with a sharp knife, beginning at the center of the throat and cut to the base of the tail, being careful not to cut deep enough to penetrate the inside skin or sack which contains the intestines; when the base of the tail is reached, use your fingers to roll back the skin. After the coat is removed and all the internal organs taken out, remove the scent glands from such animals as have them and make a cut in the forearms and the meaty parts of the thigh and cut out the little white things which look like nerves to be found there. This will prevent the flesh from having a strong or musky taste when it is cooked.

ROAST PORCUPINE

When a porcupine has been killed, it should be immediately thrown into the fire, there to remain until all the quills have been singed off of the aggressive hide, after which it may be skinned with no danger to the trapper from the wicked barbed quills.

After thoroughly singeing the porcupine, roll it in the grass to make certain that the burnt quills are rubbed off its skin, then with a sharp knife slit it up the middle of the belly from the tail to the throat, pull the skin carefully back, and peel it off. When you get to the feet, cut them off.

After it has been parboiled, suspend the porcupine by its forelegs in front of a good roasting fire, or over a bed of hot coals, and if well seasoned it will be as good a meat as can be found in the wilderness.

The tail particularly is very meaty and most savory; like beef tongue it is filled with fine bits of fat. Split the tail and take out the bone, then roast the meaty part.

Porcupine stuffed with onions and roasted on a spit before the fire is good, but to get the perfection of cooking it really should be cooked in a Dutch oven, a closed kettle, or an improvised airtight oven of some sort and baked in a bean hole or by being buried and baked deep under a heap of cinders and covered with ashes. Two iron pans that will fit together, that is, one that is a trifle larger than the other so that the smaller one may be pushed down into it to some extent, will answer all the purposes of the Dutch oven. Also two frying pans arranged in the same manner.

Always remember that after the porcupine is skinned, dressed, and cleaned, it should be put in a pot and parboiled, changing the water once or twice, after which it may be cooked in any way you like.

One method is to place it in the Dutch oven with a few hunks of fat pork; let the porcupine itself rest upon some hard-tack, hard biscuit or stale bread of any kind, which has been slightly softened with water.

On top of the porcupine lay a nice slice or two of fat pork and place another layer of soaked hard biscuit or hard-tack on the pork, put it in a Dutch oven and place the Dutch oven on the hot coals, put a cover on and heap the living coals over the top of it and the ashes atop that; let it bake slowly until the flesh parts from the bones. Thus cooked it will taste something like veal with a suggestion of sucking pig.

CAMP COFFEE AND TEA

For every cup of water allow one tablespoon of ground coffee, then add one for the pot. Use cold water and allow it to boil just once, and then remove from fire. Settle with ¼ cup of cold water. Serve hot.

Or bring water to a boil, and then add the ground coffee. Allow it to boil for five minutes, take it off the fire, let it settle and serve.

Tea

Allow one teaspoon of tea for every person, and one for the pot. Pour boiling water over the tea, set it aside in a warm place and allow it to steep for seven minutes. Never boil fresh tea but you may boil old tea leaves for three minutes and that will give you as good a brew as the first method.

TOOLS OF THE MOUNTAIN MAN

KNIVES

There’s something almost mystical in the relationship between a man and his knife. Meriwether Lewis, upon realizing that he’d left his favorite dirk behind when he’d set out on his famous expedition, badgered President Jefferson to have it found and forwarded. President Jefferson, understanding this attachment between and man and his knife, took time to see that the dirk was sent along to the explorer.

A knife represents the simplest of all tools other than, perhaps, the base hammer. It comes in all sizes and shapes. It is a tool purpose-built to accomplish a particular task. It may be used to cut or slash or stab, pare, chop or skin, whittle or scalp. We think of a knife as clever, as it has so intimately to do with the work of our hands. Because of this, we also understand it to be a reflection on and of its owner. You can tell a lot about a person by a quick look at his personal knife.

At the dawn of the golden age of the trapper, knives tended to be of a European pattern and manufacture.

The following are representations of several of the commonest types of knives used by the mountain men.

These are killing knives, intended for fighting and hunting.

Figure a is a war weapon and was nicknamed “Tecumseh’s dagger.”

Figure b is a British army dagger.

Figure c might be called an ordinary or common dagger.

Figure d is larger version of the common dagger.

Figure e is a “Hudson’s Bay camp knife.”

Figure f is an Indian dagger from Washington State.

These are examples of standardized knives of the period.

Figure a is the rusted blade of a bowie knife.

Figure b is an intact rendering of the same knife.

Figure c is a smaller version of a bowie knife. This 8-inch blade was frequently engraved and was much carried by city dwelling easterners seeking a little of that mountain man mojo.

The above are representations of various trade knives of the Northwest.

Figure a is a drawing of a handle-less, 11-inch butcher knife.