The Unsung Hero of Camping Utensiles.......

[oldsparkey]

Slow day around here so things are running threw my mind about being able to be a minimal camper...Especially with the cooking stuff and food.

What got me to thinking about this is one trip Oldyaker , Swampy and I were on. We needed to cook up some spaghetti to go with the meat balls and home made sauce oldyaker brought along on the trip. Well the one pot was used to reheat the meatballs and spaghetti sauce so we improvised on cooking the spaghetti. We used swampys coffee pot and ( stop shaking your head and rolling your eyes ) it did a fine job of cooking the spaghetti.

The poor old coffee pot , the unsung hero of camping utensils might just become the hero of camping. I know forgetting one just to make coffee in is a crime with the paddling / camping crew.

1... You can boil water in it. :roll:
2... You can brew coffee or tea in it.
3... You can even cook soup in it.
4... You can cook spaghetti in it and draining the water from the noodles is really easy. :wink:
5... It is the pot with a snout that can be used for a lot of different things.
6... It even has a flip top lid or cover for it , can't lose it.

If a person only had a coffee pot to use when camping it would work for the Oatmeal in the morning , then or splitting the difference ...half of the hot water for tea or instant coffee and the rest for the oatmeal or instant grits.
In the evening something to heat some soup up in , then flip the lid , grab a spoon and enjoy your soup. "O" Make sure you remover the guts in the pot used for perking coffee when using the pot for cooking...... :roll:

Put the pot on a small grill , have the fire and if you were so inclined toss a steak on the grill , you still have the fixens for coffee , stove top stuffing , instant potatoes or even some instant or canned soup to go with it.

There is a lot you can't cook in it ( Bacon and eggs might be a problem and flipping a pancake is dam near imposable :lol: ) but what you can cook with it is worth thinking about , especially all the instant or canned stuff out there for us today.

Chuck.

 

[mike]

Good, well thought out post, Chuck! 8)

Mike

 

[Manjimike]

and you can bail yer canoe with it

 

[oldsparkey]

Not sure about all of you folks but I have been trying some stuff here at the house for camping. One is the new , open , Heat and eat Cambells soups. I still prefer the cans of the condensed soups but trying to figure out a way to have less weight and as good of nutation or better while camping.

As far as the heat and eat healthy choice ones and the chunky ones ......YUCK.... they all have the same flavor , a can.

I would rather have the Quaker instant ( flavored) oatmeal and add some raisins to it ( for geezers , diced prunes ) as a stick to ya ribs meal plus the instant oatmeal weighs a lot less. Besides the clean up is simple .... burn the paper envelope the oatmeal comes in ... No can to worry about and causing critters to come into camp looking for a meal in the empty can.
Then the problem of how to have hot water for both of them and still have some hot tea or coffee without using two different containers for the same thing , boiling water.

Simple , my coffee pot is a 6 cup one , nice and small. Put in the required water for the oatmeal and for my coffee or tea. Heat up the water and then reconstitute the oatmeal ( or any dehydrated meal ) with the required water , while it is soaking , drop the guts in the pot and add the grounds , place it back on the heat. Enjoy a meal and then finish it up with a fresh brewed hot beverage.

This will work with anything that just requires hot water to bring it back to life. Mainly my thought is for an overnight trip or a two day trip but with some planning it could be an extended trip.
Say fresh fish on the grill , the hot water from the coffee pot to bring some instant potatoes back to life and then the coffee or tea. ( The packs of the instant Idaho Potatoes are quite good and come in all sorts of flavors)

 

[Manjimike]

Have a look at freezer bag cooking and pot cozies -

http://www.trailcooking.com/

http://www.trailcooking.com/diy/pot-cozies

and here is my kitchen complete with the yellow cosy -

http://my.opera.com/Manjimike/albums/show.dml?id=403662

Cheers Mike

 

[Kayak Jack]

I have a 1 liter MSR tea kettle that fits inside my nesting MSR cooking pans. I also carry a silver bullet (1 pint thermos bottle) for tea/coffee.

The practice that seems to work well for me is to set up camp in the evening, boil a quart of water & have a cup of tea. (Others will prefer coffee; I find tea to be much more simple and need less equipment.) I de-string a tea bag and put it into the 1 pint thermos, add water, and cap it up. that will be hot tea for breakfast & snacks through the morning.

A tea kettle/coffee pot is used more than all other pans combined. Dishwater is heated to warm - not to burn my dainty hands - in it. As I'm washing dishes, more water is boiled for rinsing. Washed dishes into a mesh bag, boiling water carefully poured over it (try to not pour boiling water into your shoe), move things around to get all surfaces rinsed, arrange so everything will drain, and hang to dry.

When I freshen up/wash my face/take a bath the tea kettle is used again. I try to not cook in that kettle, as I want only water in it.

Some prefer a hot breakfast; I prefer something more simple. I make a batch of Cap'n Jack's Power Bars (recipe on here somewhere (I can re-post if needed), and pre-pack a Ziploc bag with one or two (according to size) for each breakfast, and add a separate sack inside for lunch that has some mix of jerky/nuts/dried fruit. That takes care of two meals for that day, in an almost waterproof bag that is easy to carry in the boat or a pocket.

Lots of guys I camp with are now using a Jet-Boil for heating water. Small, quick, easy, and color coding as it heats tells you a temperature range so you can stop before boiling if you don't want it that hot.

Actually, with a simple, shallow bowl to eat from (a buddy has a wooden salad bowl from a yard sale), a cup to drink from, and a single pan, we can do 99% of everything we need to do for cooking in camp. That's all I needed when I was a kid; why do I have a more complex outfit now? Probably, because it was for sale and it looked good in the catalogue.

 

[oldsparkey]

Have a look at freezer bag cooking and pot cozies -

http://www.trailcooking.com/

http://www.trailcooking.com/diy/pot-cozies

and here is my kitchen complete with the yellow cosy -

http://my.opera.com/Manjimike/albums/show.dml?id=403662

Cheers Mike

The cozies are nice for keeping things warm and I guess even cold if needed.

Harry and Ray have a way of keeping there meals warm...... In the morning when they have there oatmeal , a tradition with them , and if it starts to cool down they will take there Stainless Steel G.I. Mess Kit and place it over or by the fire for a very short time. I have seen them doing the same thing in the evening with some left over chow to reheat it to there desired temperature.
Both of them are in there late 80's and have camped all over the place here and overseas so it is just a habit and what they have gotten use to doing.

********************************************************************************************************************************************************

Link to Kayak Jacks Power Bars........ As he emailed them to me back in the dark ages. July 06.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2642

 

[tx river rat]

I use a coffe pot the same way as Chuck,in fact it is the only utensile I bring.
Coffe pot and the fixings ,a grill cut down just right for 2 steaks, little single burner stove ,propane.
I use metal caned goods for a couple reasons ,one just open set in the edge of the fire and warm it up ,no pot needed, the difference in weight doesnt matter in the yak.
Also with the single burner in wet weather or when I dont want to build a fire I just dig a hole set the stove in it and place the grill over the top .
Nice and simple.
Ron

 

[Kayak Jack]

Here's an updated version:
Cap'n Jack's Power Bars
Dry ingredients: into a large bowl put:
1 cup powdered milk
1 1/2 cups dried fruits - dried cherries or dates or cranberries or what ever you have. Dice up well, thoroughly mix and coat each, individual bit with powdered milk first, then add:
6 cups oatmeal (I prefer the Old Fashioned stuff)
1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, what ever nuts you have around
1 cup sunflower nuts
1 cup unsweetened chocolate bits
1 cup flax seed
1 cup sesame seeds (unhulled best)
Combine all dry ingredients & mix well.
Wet ingredients:
1 cup applesauce (I prefer without High Fructose Corn Sweetener, home made applesauce is best)
1½ cup honey (pre-warming honey helps)
Add wet stuff to dry stuff & mix well. Press firmly into a baking pan w/raised edges (12” X 17”) and bake at 350° about 30 – 40 minutes.
Pre-score w/ pizza cutter into 2” bars, let cool, then complete cutting.
These are a standby for me. Breakfast, lunch, extra day's food. Store in freezer for months. Carry in hot or cold conditions.

 

[oldsparkey]

I use a coffe pot the same way as Chuck,in fact it is the only utensile I bring.
Coffe pot and the fixings ,a grill cut down just right for 2 steaks, little single burner stove ,propane.
I use metal caned goods for a couple reasons ,one just open set in the edge of the fire and warm it up ,no pot needed, the difference in weight doesnt matter in the yak.
Also with the single burner in wet weather or when I dont want to build a fire I just dig a hole set the stove in it and place the grill over the top .
Nice and simple.
Ron

Ron.....

Looks to me like it is a cycle where we start out with the basics , then get more complicated , even graduating to the ridiculous stage ( at times ) and then we regress back to the basics and simpler ways of cooking.

That is the way Joey does it judging from his trip pictures , Joe ( lazyriverguy) 1st thing he does is to get his tripod , grill, ready and then builds a small fire under it and puts the coffee pot on. Swampy just gets a fire going and sets the pot next to it or uses his zip stove , both methods burn wood.
Deppa gets his grill ready with a fire under it and his can of soup is set on the grid to heat up. The gang I go with always gets a fire going and drop a grill over it for the pots and chow. We also use single stoves for individual meals which are handy when sitting under a tarp while it is raining.

If the truth would be known I bet there are a lot of the others that do the same.

As Jack said and I have to agree with him ...... " That's all I needed when I was a kid; why do I have a more complex outfit now? Probably, because it was for sale and it looked good in the catalogue."

I was trying to figure out ways the coffee pot could be used and is not being used for them today. I guess it is like any pot , boiling water or reheating liquids is about it. "O" One other use , add a lot of ice , Gin and very little vermouth , shake it or stir it and when ready pour it out , it has a built in ice strainer. :wink:

 

[seedtick]

don't know about all this coffee pot stuff

piper's dutch oven is hard to beat

 

[oldsparkey]

don't know about all this coffee pot stuff

piper's dutch oven is hard to beat

Now that would make a lot of coffee. :lol:

Yep , you can't beat a Dutch Oven for cooking just about anything. I use them , have two , one was my grandparents and the other was Mom an Dad's but they sure are not for light weight camping , just some really fine eating at a base camp. Or if you spend more then one night in camp before moving on. They do take some time to make a meal in them but that time is rewarded with some good meals.

Even with the Dutch Oven cooking away and making that good meal the one thing that will get everyone out of there sack in the morning is the Campers Alarm Clock , the perking coffee pot , normally followed up with something for breakfast. I don't care how comfortable you are in that bag on a cool morning and want to stay there till noon that smell will drag you out of there by your nose , there is no way you can stay in that sack. Especially if you are camping with a early morning to rise sadist that does this.

Real sadists ( which I have camped with ) have the habit of dropping some bacon on the grid of the grill , over the fire , and cooking it as the coffee perks. Might call it a double whammy on your olfactory senses. :wink:
The smell of the wood smoke , the coffee perking along and then the bacon cooking with that bacon fat sizzling / smoking as it hits the fire and hot embers. Those smells and sounds in the quiet cool of the early morning will raise the dead ( Even Geezer Campers and late sleepers ) from there sleeping bags.

:wink: Getting hungry ?!?!?

Chuck....
One more use for the coffee pot , a alarm clock to get campers up by appealing to there sense of smell.