DEHYDRATED NAVY BEANS In preparing dried bean meal one uses ordinary navy beans which are cooked in the usual way and then baked in an oven. By spreading this product out in a broad flat bottomed pan and continuing the baking or drying out process in the oven the moisture is all driven out and only a crumbling crust remains. This is pulverized and packed in tight fitting tins or in waterproof sacks. It is used as a soup or gruel. Common baked beans which come in tins from the corner grocer may be put into the broad bake tins and thoroughly dried and packed away. As beans are hard to boil in high altitudes you can prepare them at home by parboiling without salt in the water, drying well and later using by cooking as usual in salted water. JERKED MEATS In the palmy days of the “late lamented wild west” the Indian hunters preserved meats by a method called “jerking.” The flesh would be cut into strips and laid on light wooden racks in the sun or in the smoke of a camp fire until dry and hard. This would be packed away and used in the winter time much the same as we use the dried beef of the butcher shops of today. You can preserve meats--steaks, game, or fish--this way or after the improved method of Dr. Hornaday of the New York Zoological Garden. He takes meat cut into strips and works well into the flesh a mixture of salt 1 pound, allspice 1⅓ tablespoonsful and black pepper 1½ tablespoonsful. Then he hangs it up by a string in the sun if the air is dry as in the mountains or, if not, in a camp fire smoke protected from the wet. It can be eaten uncooked and tastes fine after a month or so has passed. ERBSWURST One of the best concentrated foods for campers and one admirably suited for use as an emergency ration is Erbswurst--a meal preparation used by various European armies. As it is hard to get except from grocers of the larger cities or sporting goods dealers one can well make it at home as follows:--Procure common dried peas and navy beans and dessicate them after cooking as suggested above (see paragraph on Dehydrated Navy Beans). Of the pea meal use one pound; of the bean meal 1¼ pounds; bacon chopped fine and dried, and onions pulverized, of each ⅛ pound. Mix all together and run through the grinder again, dry and pack away. It is used to make a thick soup and is very nutritious. EVAPORATED EGG POWDER