why carry a stove

[tx river rat]

Ok before I get mobbed here,I am realy serious,my reason are bad weather and coffee in cold weather inside a tent. Now before you take my statement wrong I own about ten stoves.
Camping I always cook over an open fire.
Ron

 

[jdupre']

Nothing wrong with an open fire. It's kept men warm and fed for a few thousand years. All you really need in the way of cooking utensils can be fashioned with a pocket knife on site. I use two cooking methods- alcohol stove for quck stuff and steel grill over the fire for everything else.

Joey

 

[islandpiper]

TRR........you MUST be looking for a fight.....

I have had complex stoves, simple stoves, stoves that use bottled gas, stoves that burn liquid gas.......twig stoves, spirit stoves, sterno stoves......and even more.

It's part of the game to find one that works the best, most of the time, cheapest, fastest, hottest, and SAFEST.

Up north i used a Svea 123 for DECADES.......they burn hot and have a good simmer. They run in sub-zero weather when most normal people are home and crazies like us are out skiing or snow shoeing and ice fishing. Here in Louisiana I have learned to use and trust the simple spirit burners and the last trip i left the Svea home.

Not everyplace lets a person have an open fire. Sometimes the wood is just plain wet. At times it is too damned dark to pick up sqaw wood and start a fire.

Man, I love a cup of coffee, fast, in the early morning. If we ever get out paddling together we can drink beer and talk about this.

piper

 

[oldsparkey]

A lot of the cooking I do ( solo) is over a fire , the same when the guys are along , most of the chow is done over a fire.
A stove is a blessing if you are stuck in the tent when it is raining or under a tarp and want something hot to eat. The rest of the time is when there is a burning ban on and you have to use a stove and not an open fire. Or just plain lazy and want a hot meal , quick and easy , the stove wins and for me it is the alcohol burner. A simple , effective and quick way to have a hot meal.

Whatever you do , don't have a open fire on a wood chickeee or you will be sleeping in the canoe. :lol: :lol: :lol: Not to mention a lot of ticked off Rangers looking for you.

It is quite simple to cook a steak ( or any meat ) over a fire , find a nice ( green ) palm frond , cut it and then split the end and whittle the two sections to spear points , separate ( spread them apart) them and stick a steak on them and roast it over a fire like a big flat hot dog.

Chuck.
PS. Two Coleman double burners , a single propane burner , , a Zip (wood ) Stove , several alcohol burners , The Israeli survival stove , and a couple of grills , plus a MSR whisper light.

 

[islandpiper]

Chuck, our buddy Jack has looked all over the AuSable and can't find palm fronds. Up there Steaks are round and come off the Bratwurst Cow anyway.

piper

 

[tx river rat]

JD and I sound about alike
My stove is used for extremes, firebans,storms where I need to cook inside the tent,or like Chuck and I having hot coffe in the tent during the Brazos storm.
One thing is a luxuary,morning coffee,I set my stove inside the tent with coffe cup and pot ready to go ,in the mornings from my sleeping bag reach over and light it when the coffe perks the chill is off the tent sure is nice on a cold morning.
I always camp with tents that have floors sealed ,keeps out the critters,so that kncks out any stove that gets hot on the bottom,cooking inside a tent I dont want liguid fuel are anything that can spill ,so my stove of choice is a single burner propane,used them from sea level on the coast to 10,000 ft in the moutains.
Ron

 

[oldsparkey]

JD and I sound about alike
My stove is used for extremes, firebans,storms where I need to cook inside the tent,or like Chuck and I having hot coffe in the tent during the Brazos storm.

Ron

That coffee and the warmth of your tent was worth a million bucks that morning after the storm marched threw the campsite. I was one cold , wet and miserable puppy and those two items sure warmed me up , later the dry outfit helped , when I got the stuff out of that one dry bag of mine.
A shot of Bourbon in my cup of the HOT coffee and a dry cigar was a nice touch , made the morning a lot better. Now as far as those couple of inches of water in the bottom of your tent , well ...Heck you still had a tent to stay in. :roll:

Chuck.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Chuck, our buddy Jack has looked all over the AuSable and can't find palm fronds. Up there Steaks are round and come off the Bratwurst Cow anyway.

If I'm going to do a steak on a fire, I put it directly on the coals. Better steak, simpler method.

 

[tx river rat]

Chuck, our buddy Jack has looked all over the AuSable and can't find palm fronds. Up there Steaks are round and come off the Bratwurst Cow anyway.

If I'm going to do a steak on a fire, I put it directly on the coals. Better steak, simpler method.

Yuk
Ron

 

[Kayak Jack]

Maybe a difference is, Ron, in the northwoods we have hardwood trees like hickory, oak, maple, ash, etc. So, we don't have to use a conifer wood with that piney flavor.

I wouldn't waste meat on a pine fire. Spam would go well there, topped with gritz. :wink:

 

[oldsparkey]

Maybe a difference is, Ron, in the northwoods we have hardwood trees like hickory, oak, maple, ash, etc. So, we don't have to use a conifer wood with that piney flavor.

I wouldn't waste meat on a pine fire. Spam would go well there, topped with gritz. :wink:

No one with a grain of seance cooks anything over a pine fire unless you want it to taste like turpentine. :roll: Believe it or not we have Oak , Maple , Hickory and other hard woods to use , even dried palm fronds or the boots off the Sable Palm Tree. ( the part of the frond that stays attached to the tree)

Down here if the cook puts the steak on the ashes we usually say he has had way to much hooch to drink , since he dropped it.

Chuck.
Heck we even have charcoal briquettes. Yes , I know some cooks say the only way to do a steak is to lay it on the coals , not me , I hate eating ashes. Besides someone invented something called a grill to hold the meat over the heat. :lol:

 

[tx river rat]

We have every tree you mentioned,( hardwoods) plus a few that you dont have. The favorites in TX are mesquite,hickory and pecan.
Oh and a little sidenote you can cook on pine and not get a bad taste if you build a good hot fire and dont cook till it is burned down to coals.
Somebody drop my steak in the fire we are going to talk. :twisted:
Ron

 

[gbinga]

Oh and a little sidenote you can cook on pine and not get a bad taste if you build a good hot fire and dont cook till it is burned down to coals.Ron

Done that. Once you have nothing but glowing coals, it's all the same (charcoal). Doesn't matter what kind of wood you started with. I think hardwood works better, if it is available. Density, I suppose.

I've heard of cooking steak directly on the coals but never tried it. Seems like a messy proposition.

George

 

[Kayak Jack]

Fanning off ash makes a difference. Sears it nicely, juicer than on a stick or a grill.

 

[Bellybuster]

http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page.as ... 0733,40996

wonder if you boys have ever seen a Kelly Kettle. Great way for quick morning coffee

 

[Kayak Jack]

... or a Thermette. http://thermette.com/index.htm

 

[islandpiper]

No kelly kettles. Just THERMETTEs . yup, great tools.

piper

 

[Bellybuster]

same idea I see

 

[Kayak Jack]

Nice buckets for heating water. In this photo, we're demonstrating the efficacy of blue, plastic water heaters too. I believe the dutch oven holds a few, itinerant cornish game hens that came winging down through camp. Piper San downed them with his .22. Joey helped with his blow gun, and I with an atlatl and dart.

Piper San had an advantage. Not the gun. With his eyes, he sees 32 images apiece. So, he had a bigger flock to shoot at than did either I or Joey.