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pots and pans and cookery stuff

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I'm having a hard time letting go of my old pot set. It's served me, and others well. My cozy doubles as a stuff sack.
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I use all three pots, and never want to leave one home, but one pot meals sounds like lighter travelling, and less time cooking.
So it might be time to test this new arrival. This old dog doesn't mind learning new tricks.
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Of course, convincing myself to leave my folding handle nonstick frypans at home will be another matter. I can't seem to make bannock in anything else; and giving up bannock on canoe trips would be sacrilege, so...

What do you cook with out there?
 

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Brad,

We are in different worlds, man!!
All of my "cooking" takes place at home (or someone else's) long before a trip.
Strictly dried and rehydrated foods for me.
No pans, no pots, no clean up, just have to wait a few minutes.
Along with the lack of a cookset, I leave home the fuel stove, Kelly Kettle only. Boils 1 1/2 liters in minutes and I don't have to carry fuel, and I'll never run out of twigs!
 
What's your old set made of? It looks perfectly serviceable to me.

I use this stuff:

Cookset1NotesLR.jpg


It's a Coleman all-stainless set. When going solo I use the smallest pot, one bowl, an Esbit stove and a windshield for the stove, all of which fits in the small pot. When tandem I bring the 2-qt. pot and another bowl. If using the Coleman stove I'll also bring the wind shield for the 2-qt. pot. I've been using this kit for over 20 years and it's as good as new, and it cleans up nicely from this condition:

035Crkd3Grate2LR.jpg
 
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Brad,

We are in different worlds, man!!
All of my "cooking" takes place at home (or someone else's) long before a trip.
Strictly dried and rehydrated foods for me.
No pans, no pots, no clean up, just have to wait a few minutes.
Along with the lack of a cookset, I leave home the fuel stove, Kelly Kettle only. Boils 1 1/2 liters in minutes and I don't have to carry fuel, and I'll never run out of twigs!
Sometimes worlds collide. Ha! We're gradually moving from fresh to semi. Some fresh (1 onion, 2 lemons...) and much more packaged stuff (Thai or curry) with the carbs of quinoa, rice, pasta...Someday soon we make it all the way to full on dehydrated.
I've seen the Kelly Kettles, and like their efficiency.

Gavia, the old set looks like aluminum, and is perfectly serviceable. It may get retired from time to time, but never tossed.

Keith, I thought I had the only one of these sets in existence!
 
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Brad, it's been sorta quiet around here lately so here goes. Heikki / Vipukirves / Leveraxe. That should do it. Anything else I can do to help let me know.
 
I've got the same ole Coleman set.. Its missing a few bits though.. I since have mostly cooked on a GSI hard anodized cookset with the detachable handle that ensures you can spill all your dinner..:eek: Its kind of tricky to use over a fire..as we did on the Yukon when we had stove trouble. Of course that ole bail Coleman set was at home..
 
What's your old set made of? It looks perfectly serviceable to me.

I use this stuff:

View attachment 410

I have an old nesting SS Coleman Peak 1 set as well - I retired it a while back for a MSR nesting kit, which is now also retired. Now I just carry one of those GSI kettles, a plastic cup, a bowl and an alky stove - I may have to change it up for those dang HVs seen as how I have to boil them in a pot to get them to cook (I still haven't tested it out yet).
 
I have an old nesting SS Coleman Peak 1 set as well - I retired it a while back for a MSR nesting kit, which is now also retired. Now I just carry one of those GSI kettles, a plastic cup, a bowl and an alky stove - I may have to change it up for those dang HVs seen as how I have to boil them in a pot to get them to cook (I still haven't tested it out yet).

What's the capacity of your GSI kettle? My little pot is 1.5 qts and holds my entire cookset when I'm traveling solo. The Esbit stove, wind shield, bowl, and SS mug fit inside it. I have a separate small utensil bag.

Don't sweat the HV. Just cook it a little longer than the instructions say. And when it says to cover with an inch or so of water, don't. Just put in enough water to reach the top of the food, although even that can be a little too much. And don't worry about a cozy either. A towel or shirt works just fine.
 
Poor HV.. I just dump the contents in what I have estimated as boiling water needed in the 1.5 liter pot let sit for prescribed time and then gently reheat again if cold.
I understand the non romance of cold vittles. With time and doing the water estimate gets better and better each time avoiding soup or non immersion of crunchies.

I don't know if the vittles would be happy with a second boil.

I wish Open Country made sturdier pots with bails in smaller sizes. I am sure .75 quart would result in spilled vittles.
 
It's funny, for school we have nothing but kits put together by a variety of manufacturers; i.e. MSR, Coleman, etc. For myself, I'm still using aluminum pots I picked up years ago. The closest thing I have to a kit is from when I was guiding. I purchased 3, 1 qt. aluminum pots & 3, 2 qt. aluminum pots with handles that screw on. I made 3 "kits" out of them, taking the handles off, putting them and their respective screws in a small baggie, and then nesting everything together. Over 15 years later I'm still using this combination when going out with groups of people. If I'm out alone I use a garage sale 1 qt. aluminum pot and smaller 2 cup aluminum pot, replacing the lids with heavy duty aluminum foil, to cut down on weight. This "kit" cost me all of $.50! If I plan on doing any frying or baking on the trip I also have a small fry pan with a folding handle & lid. That opens up more options when it comes to food prep.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...Be well.

snapper
 
What's the capacity of your GSI kettle? My little pot is 1.5 qts and holds my entire cookset when I'm traveling solo. The Esbit stove, wind shield, bowl, and SS mug fit inside it. I have a separate small utensil bag.

Don't sweat the HV. Just cook it a little longer than the instructions say. And when it says to cover with an inch or so of water, don't. Just put in enough water to reach the top of the food, although even that can be a little too much. And don't worry about a cozy either. A towel or shirt works just fine.

It's only 1 qt. It's perfect for MH because that cooks in the bag. I just pre-measure the water and in it goes. I've become pretty proficient at estimating how much alky I need to boil so there is little waste.

I have a couple bigger pots that I'm going to try for the VittleS. My MSR pot is big, maybe 2 qts? I'd like to avoid that. I have a taller, smaller diameter pot that came with my stove stand that looks to be the right size.

I'm thinking I like DuctTape's method - seems to make the most sense and would be the easiest to do with the alky stove because refilling and reheating is sketchy. It will take longer seen as how I will most likely choke down my stove to keep from getting burned Vittles on the bottom of the pot but the longer I wait, the better the food will taste; right?

I've actually been considering carrying the larger pot to use to boil dishwater, so there is some additional functionality.
 
*keeps watching this thread and paying attention to the advice*

alcohol stove is necessary? Or just a "nice to have" item. I've always cooked on the fire or ate cold MRI's.
 
*keeps watching this thread and paying attention to the advice*

alcohol stove is necessary? Or just a "nice to have" item. I've always cooked on the fire or ate cold MRI's.

It's not necessary but makes eating a hot meal a lot quicker. For me fire requires time and effort. I do make them on occasion but the primary function is not for cooking - more or less just entertainment, warmth, light, etc.

Some people don't cook at all. Just eat cold foods. That's fine for a night, I've done it... but for anything more I'm wanting some 'real' food. And after a couple of days of eating dehydrated foods, I'm wanted some REAL food :)

As far as actual types of stoves, many people like canister stoves. Twig burners are nice, but require a bit of work, and even more work if it is damp (or stripping the bottom of a spruce tree). Gas (aka coleman fuel, kerosene, or gasoline) are good for 4 season use. A bit heavy and finicky for just boiling water. Other people use esbit tablets or the like - that just seems too spartan for me... plus the esbit itself seems kind of extra toxic which is stupid because so are petroleum and alky, we are just more used to them. I found alky the best compromise for myself. It isn't perfect, but the stoves are light, the fuel is cheap, and it boils water fairly quickly - in days of yore I was always under the impression that alky stoves were horribly slow and unreliable - I must report that was propaganda, I spend far less time fiddling with my alky stove and boil water as quickly? Well I don't know, maybe? Maybe not? It doesn't seem any longer and I don't have to constantly fuss with the needle valve like I did on my MSR gas stove.

And then of course there are areas, which are rare, that have fire bans. So that means if you want to cook, you have to use something other than a fire or a twig burner. There is a large portion of the Adirondacks where this is the case but it isn't very good for paddling, so I don't find myself there all too often... but if I was to stay overnight there, my alky stove would keep the rangers away ;)
 
I don't know if this is the right place to interject this or not but the talk about if a stove is necessary or not caused me to remember it. Most of us have at one time or another got cold, sometimes seriously cold. Now there's nothing like a warming campfire but often the conditions that lead us to getting cold in the first place, also preclude a real handy campfire, certainly not quickly.

To my mind, that's when a dependable stove can really shine. Glugg down hot tea, coffee or bullion cube and hot water and you've placed heat right into the core where you need it. Keep on with the liquid till you're warm, won't hurt a thing and it'll give the kidneys a flush as well.

Bird's alcohol stove is a well proven idea, don't think you could go wrong with one of those Trangia spirit burners. Was looking on Amazon under "spirit burners" and I found "1-2 people portable outdoor kitchenware set" $46.85 Looks neat!
If I wasn't so wedded to my Optimus OO I might give it a try, I hear that Brad's got money to burn (so to speak) maybe he'll try it out and tell the rest of us what he thought!

Best Wishes, Rob
 
Rob brings up a good point about the tea.

I find myself boiling some water and having a cup during a break along carry trails even on hot days. I'm not sure why, it just tastes good I suppose - ice tea is not an option, and the water I'm filtering is warmish anyway, so the notion of a cold drink becomes only a memory. Building a fire would require lots of time and dousing afterwards - plus in terms of LNT, it's much more invasive. As far as ease of fuel and environmental impact, I tend to think the twig burner is the least invasive - it allows you to do the fire cooking without leaving a scar. Of course if everyone uses twig burners in highly traveled areas, the ground becomes bare and trees start getting stripped, so there probably is a healthy limit. The same can be said for campfires - not needing one can be helpful to highly used areas. I won't light one if wood is scarce... of course I'll often go quite far from my site and drag back largish widow makers in bits to feed my pyromania.

As far as the pot, keep in mind, I'm more often than not cooking for two, and waiting for two rounds on a single stove isn't usually a good option. I'll probably need a liter pot or more. My stove stand has a definite limit, not sure what it is but these HVs might be a real project :(
 
I don't know if this is the right place to interject this or not but the talk about if a stove is necessary or not caused me to remember it. Most of us have at one time or another got cold, sometimes seriously cold. Now there's nothing like a warming campfire but often the conditions that lead us to getting cold in the first place, also preclude a real handy campfire, certainly not quickly.

To my mind, that's when a dependable stove can really shine. Glugg down hot tea, coffee or bullion cube and hot water and you've placed heat right into the core where you need it. Keep on with the liquid till you're warm, won't hurt a thing and it'll give the kidneys a flush as well.

Bird's alcohol stove is a well proven idea, don't think you could go wrong with one of those Trangia spirit burners. Was looking on Amazon under "spirit burners" and I found "1-2 people portable outdoor kitchenware set" $46.85 Looks neat!
If I wasn't so wedded to my Optimus OO I might give it a try, I hear that Brad's got money to burn (so to speak) maybe he'll try it out and tell the rest of us what he thought!

Best Wishes, Rob

HA!! Money to burn. If I employed that millionaire's method of fire starting with $100 bills, I couldn't make a smudge pot. Actually Rob, you make some good points (aside from overestimating the depth of my pockets). We've tripped during fire bans. They're nearly an annual occurrence here in Ontario. And yes, a (mini) roaring stove fire can kinda warm the fingers if held close enough, though never the cockles of my heart. A hot drink can be a lifesaver. It sucks going without open fires when you need the warmth. One trip (fail) with my two sons, we set up camp barely before a storm blew in. My canoe and small tarp as wind and sideways rain break was good, but there was no dry wood to be scrounged. We wound up huddled around an emergency candle, burning in a pot lid propped up against a granite wall. It actually worked! Or at least, that's what I kept telling the guys.
"Ooooh! Can you just feel that warmth!?"
"Um.Sure Dad. Whatever you say."
We did have a small hot meal though.
My twig stove will accommodate an alcohol burner, so I'm considering either a Trangia burner, or making one of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage-can_stove
There are lots of Youtube tutorials around.
I'm not convinced picking up twigs is labour intensive, but gas stoves or alcohol burners might be problem free. At least, I've yet to experience any fiddling or frustration with my old Peak 1. She hates the pressurizing required...
"OH! I hate this thing!"
"Honey, it helps if you pump the tank before balancing a pot of water on the burner. Here, take a glass of wine for a walk down to the lakeshore, while I start supper."
"Fine. Are you sure you can handle it?"
"Of course. Oh wait. I thought it was your turn... to make...supper. Never mind."
 
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I keep sayin'

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It's a little bulky, but very light weight. Even in the worstest of weather, it still performs well.
Hmmm, light weight, incredibly efficient, no need to carry fuel, unending fuel supply...How is it that I haven't gotten everyone to convert??!
 
*keeps watching this thread and paying attention to the advice*

alcohol stove is necessary? Or just a "nice to have" item. I've always cooked on the fire or ate cold MRI's.

Tell me you don't really want to do that. Mr. Bird (l'oiseau) mentions Esbit stoves. Here's what it looks like (scroll about halfway down this page):
http://codabone.net/canoeing/bwca/BW0909_5.htm

Yes, the Esbit is a bit stinky, and it takes quite a strong puff to blow it out, and it leaves a bit of a greasy film on the pot, but it's compact and burns very hot. One fuel tablet will boil a pint of water with about a third of it (the fuel) left over, provided I'm using the wind shield, which was made from a piece of stove pipe.

I also use a Coleman single-burner stove. It's reliable, easy on fuel and quiet, and the flame is very adjustable.
 

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