Build a fire between these logs, making sure to place the logs
parallel to the direction of the wind.
A pit may be dug, with a sloping bottom, and across this may be placed
the pots, and if iron rails are available, the utensils may be placed
on these. For longer stays this pit may be lined with stone. Stones
retain the heat and less wood is required. Four trenches radiating
from a central chimney will give one flue whatever may be the
direction of the wind. (For more specific data on the subject of fires
and camp cooking, see Manual for Army Cooks--U.S.A.--also notes in
i.d.r., pp. 154-155.)
Make a rule never to allow food to remain in tin cans after opening
them. Remember to place kitchen near available water supply and
furthest from latrines, horse picket lines, or dumps of any kind.
Sanitation comes last in the thoughts of the enlisted man, but it is
no less important for that.
The first requisite is cleanliness. Food receptacles must be scoured
and covers and cracks in tin ware scraped as well as scalding the tins
themselves. Have boiling hot water in tanks (galvanized iron ash cans
are good) for men to wash mess kits in after meals. One can should
contain soapy water so as to cut the grease from the dishes, and the
second tank should contain clean, boiling water for scalding the kits.
Scraps of food should be scraped from the mess tins before immersing
them in water, otherwise washing water becomes filled with small
particles of food. Wiping cloths will greatly add to the convenience
of the men and takes but a short time to make them clean and fit for
use again.
Care must be exercised over three kinds of waste:
(1) Garbage.
(2) Kitchen slops.
(3) Excreta.
Garbage can be burned in the kitchen fires. It should never stand
exposed to the air, but should be tightly covered in iron cans, and
should be disposed of every twenty-four hours. Kitchen help have an
aversion to prompt disposal of garbage and need watching. Fly traps
should be made of muslin and used freely about the kitchen.
Kitchen slops, fats, greasy water, etc., must be drained into covered
pits, never allowing them to be tossed on the ground around the cook
tent. A hole dug and partially filled with stones with a barrel placed
upside down on them, makes a very good receptacle for kitchen slops.
The barrel should be placed so that the inverted top will be a little
way beneath the surface of the ground. A hole should be bored in th
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