Determining the dimensions:
- If the box will be made of wood - quarter inch or 5/16 stuff (pine)
- The cover should be two inches deep
- The handle that the box will be carried by should be a thin, wide, flat strap tacked to the cover.
Packing your Box
How to avoid spills.
To ensure that the items carried in the box do not mix or spill, I recommend using several water-tight tins. The Consolidated Fruit Jar Company, 49 Warren Street, New York, makes tin screw-tops for jars and canisters that are water-tight. Send for several of these tops, of assorted sizes, and have a tinsmith make the tin cans of the dimensions you need, so that they will nest well in the box. The same company also offers a pint or quart earthen jar with a water-tight screw-top, so that your butter can be kept sweet for a long time in hot weather. This can be wrapped in a net and lowered to the bottom of the river or lake without fear of leaking.
Determining which ingredients to pack.
Coffee, tea (or cocoa), sugar, flour (or meal), rice and alcohol can be carried in the tin cans. (A special screw-top is made for fluid cans.) Pepper and salt are in small spice boxes with two covers, the one underneath being perforated. Eggs are safest carried in the tins with the flour, coffee and rice; bread and bacon (or salt pork) are wrapped in macintosh and put near the top of the chest; the vinegar goes in a whisky flask (mark it to avoid mistakes), and canned goods, condensed milk, baking powder, etc., in their own cans.
How to pack essential utensils for cooking.
The alcohol stove and utensils necessary to cook a meal should go in the box, such as coffee pot, cup, fork, knife, spoon, frying pan and plates. I would recommend selecting a smaller-sized coffee pot with a handle and the lip riveted. If soldered, they are likely to melt off. Cups or plates should be made of tin or granite ware. Make sure the fork and knife have their sheaths of leather inside the box cover. The plates should nest in a frying pan with no handle and fasten it inside the chest cover by two buttons, so that it may be easily released. The knife and fork have a sheath for a pair of small blacksmith's pliers so it can serve as a handle to the frying pan and a lifter for everything on the fire, and can always be kept cool. A three-quart tin or granite ware pail is needed for stews, and two smaller ones may be nested in it: one two-quart and one three-pint capacity. Put the can of condensed milk in the smallest pail. It will be out of the way and won't make the rest of the things in the chest sticky. If you carry potatoes, onions or other vegetables, always have enough in the chest for three meals. The extra ingredients, such as vegetables, extra bread, crackers, flour, meal, pork or bacon, etc., should be carried in waterproof bags, and they can then be stowed wherever necessary to properly trim the canoe. These waterproof bags may be used also for clothing and blankets. They are made of unbleached muslin, sewn in a lap seam, with a double row of stitches. When sewn, they are dipped in water and slightly shaken to remove the drops, and then while wet a mixture of equal parts of boiled oil, raw oil and turpentine is applied to the outside with a brush. This takes about a week to become thoroughly dry, and then another coat is put on without dampening the cloth, and if a little liquid drier is added to the mixture. This coat will dry in four or five days. Having prepared several bags, the provisions, clothing, blankets, etc., are put in the bag, and its mouth is inserted in that of another bag of the same size, the latter being drawn on like a stocking as far as it will go. If several bags are used instead of one or two large ones, the canoe can be trimmed and packed to better advantage.
Do not forget to pack basic foods.
Condensed milk is a good thing, but condensed coffee, condensed eggs and condensed beef are abominations. Self-raising or Hecker's prepared flour, wheat, rye, Indian or Graham, is easily made into bread and slapjacks. The directions come with the packages. Pilot bread will keep an indefinite time, and is not so unpalatable as hard-tack. Indian meal is very nutritious and easily made up, as it requires nothing to lighten it; scald it before using when it is not fresh. Canned tomatoes, corn, fruits, beans, soups, salmon, etc., are easy to prepare, and can be stored as ballast in the canoe. Mr. Hicks, of the Toronto Canoe Club, prepares certain kinds of food in cans for ballast as follows, according to the American Canoeist:
"Get a number of flat square tin cans made like oyster cans, of a handy size to lie under your floor boards. Then cook a turkey, some chickens, a sirloin of beef, etc. Cut the hot meat up into large dice-shaped pieces, and put it in the tins hot, then pour melted fat in till the tins are full, and then solder them tight. Get as much meat in as you can before putting in the fat. Put up fruit in square flat cans in the same way. There is your ballast, and heavy stuff it is. When the provisions run short let the crew feed on the ballast. The preparation described is far more nutritious than canned corned beef, is more palatable, and will keep indefinitely, that is, throughout a very long cruise."
I have not tried this method of preserving ingredients, but the theory is excellent and I don't see why it wouldn't work as stated. Read about what William Whitlock shared about Canoes and Their Management. The Brunswick canned soups are most affordable, easily prepared, and as wholesome as any, but I have known squeamish canoeists who would not use them because they didn't like the looks of the powder used to preserve them. Dried beef, corned beef, lemons, and sardines make good additions to a meal. Potatoes, onions and other vegetables should be purchased in route as needed, if possible.
How much of each article of food to take on a cruise.
Here is the exact amount of ingredients that I carried on a week-long cruise I took last autumn. I did not run short of anything at the end of the week, but I had not enough ingredients left for three square meals:
- 1 lb. sugar (cut loaf)
- 1/8 lb. tea
- 1 lb. flour
- 1-1/2 lbs. crackers
- 1/2 lb. lard
- 1/2 lb. rice
- 1/2 lb. bacon
- 3/4 lb. coffee
- 1 lb. butter
- 1 can condensed milk
- 3 loaves bread
- 3/4 peck potatoes
- 1/2 peck meal
- 1 pint molasses
- 2 oz. pepper
- 1 bottle pickles
- 1 bottle yeast powder
- 1 qt. salt.
How to Select the best Portable Oven
These should not go in the chest, as they will resist anything dirty that they come in contact with. Butter, I have found, keeps better in its jar outside of the chest, along with a small jug of molasses and a jug of fresh water, if cruising on the "briny." There is no perfect canoe stove. The "flamme force" is probably as good as any. It takes up a little more room than the folding "pocket" variety and it does not give more heat; but it burns for a longer time. Plus, it is not top-heavy when a heavy pot or pan is set on it. For cooking in large utensils have three of these flamme force alcohol lamps. Light them and place them side by side and you can cook a dozen slapjacks at once on a big griddle this way, if you like. Danforth, the fluid man, makes a small canoe stove that would be preferable to all others if his fluid were obtainable at all the corners of the earth that canoeists frequent; but unfortunately it is not. Beware of "folding stoves" to use ashore and burn wood in. They are the greatest possible nuisances, smutty, red-hot and cumbersome. Don't carry an oil stove. But if you really must, put the nasty thing in a large bucket, and only remove it from this receptacle when absolutely necessary.
PaddleTV has shared a great video on how to choose the right gear and how to dress for your canoe trip.
Don't forget about other camping basics needed for your canoe trip.