Hot answers tagged

29 votes
Accepted

Suffocation while cooking under an umbrella?

The answer to this is a resounding: No. The main problem with suffocation and cookers is in enclosed spaces where there is no airflow. Suffocation when using a cooker can happen when either the O2 ...
bob1's user avatar
  • 9,739
27 votes
Accepted

Cookware: Why not Copper instead of Titanium, Aluminium or Stainless Steel?

Copper is about the same density as stainless. It is relatively toxic so is always coated for cooking. Copper and copper compounds are used for sea water boat hulls because it kills or repels ...
blacksmith37's user avatar
  • 1,152
18 votes
Accepted

Diet for Long-Term Camping

Stews based on fresh vegetables and pulses (dried or tinned) are as healthy as you like and can be made from only shelf-stable ingredients. With the addition of potatoes or pearl barley you can cook a ...
Chris H's user avatar
  • 26.1k
18 votes

Cookware: Why not Copper instead of Titanium, Aluminium or Stainless Steel?

Copper cookware IS used for cooking (at least, in the mediterranean culture I am native to). For people familiar with this, it is considered obvious that: It is not lightweight at any rate. The ...
fraxinus's user avatar
  • 407
17 votes
Accepted

Can you get burned by boiling water on everest?

Yes boiling water at 70oC will burn you. The above chart is for hot water heater settings and burn/scalding. As you can see from the graph being exposed to 70o C water for about half a second is ...
Erik's user avatar
  • 9,678
15 votes

Stoveless/fireless hiking food suggestions

Here is the list of stuff I would consider taking on longer hikes: trail mix chocolate muesli bars more expensive energy bars are great for really demanding stuff, where energy to weight ratio really ...
Klara's user avatar
  • 890
14 votes
Accepted

How can you tell if roadkill is safe to eat?

For most people to even start considering eating roadkill would mean getting over our personal demon of squeamishness. This thought would not appeal to most. Here are eight (8) important rules to ...
Ken Graham's user avatar
  • 9,619
11 votes

Stoveless/fireless hiking food suggestions

One option, if you still want hot food with no real possibility for starting a fire, would be MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). These include a Flameless Ration Heater that rely on a contained chemical ...
renesis's user avatar
  • 1,668
11 votes
Accepted

What kind of stones should not be used to grind food?

Granite, marble and jade are all common stones used for mortar/pestle combinations. There are probably many other stones that are safe, but you want to avoid the following: anything that is porous ...
furtive's user avatar
  • 6,301
10 votes

What is the easiest way to remove creosote from pots and pans?

Heat up the creosote covered pan. This softens it. Then pour some denatured alcohol on it and scrub it off. I used a scotch bright pad to scrub with the alcohol, and then wiped the now liquid creosote ...
Ben Smith's user avatar
  • 101
10 votes
Accepted

Why do some prefer methane to cook food

This may be a contrary position, but I think methane has actually gone out of favour in many parts of the world (definitely in Europe) as propane and butane have become popular. In fact propane or ...
Rory Alsop's user avatar
  • 24.9k
10 votes

Diet for Long-Term Camping

Can you keep a cooler in your vehicle? If so then you are set. If you have access to groceries you are not limited to camping (prepared backpacking packs) food. Most fresh fruits and vegetables ...
paparazzo's user avatar
  • 7,156
10 votes

Diet for Long-Term Camping

Consider also jarred foods like sun dried tomato, olives etc. Combined with pasta (and maybe a tin of fish) these add flavour and last reasonably well. Cous cous is another grain to consider; it's ...
Rosemary7391's user avatar
9 votes

Why do some prefer methane to cook food

I've never heard of a methane stove for camping but I can give some justification as to why you would not want to use it. Since methane has a much higher vapor pressure at room temperature than e.g. ...
guenthmonstr's user avatar
9 votes
Accepted

Preparing rice and mashed potatoes with warm instead of cooking water

Keep in mind that any water you are cooking with is still liquids you are intaking. A pantry full of dehydrated food is an awesome weightsaver in places were you always have water available but in a ...
Erik vanDoren's user avatar
9 votes

Easiest way to preserve a fishing catch - with cooking or pickling

SALT Before refrigeration salt was the primary means of preserving fish. As you mention in your question filleting them is a a good first step, they should also be dried to reduce the amount of salt ...
James Jenkins's user avatar
9 votes
Accepted

How to manage the risks of sleeping and cooking in a camper van?

The three risks that are relevant here are the risk of fire, suffocation and carbon monoxide poisoning I'll take suffocation first. A gas leak can exclude oxygen to the point that you can no longer ...
Rory Alsop's user avatar
  • 24.9k
9 votes
Accepted

What precautions should I take when cooking smelly food in an area with bears?

You've got most of it down already. Cooking away from your sleeping area is always a good precaution, and never eat or bring food into your tent. A PDF from CapitolRiders.org points out some of the ...
Timmy Jim's user avatar
  • 1,349
9 votes
Accepted

Why couldn't you eat frozen bait shrimp?

Live shrimp are just that, alive. You can use the fact that they are alive to determine that they are reasonably safe to eat. However frozen shrimp do not have that built-in check. The FDA and other ...
coteyr's user avatar
  • 2,810
9 votes

How to improvise or make pot grip / pot handle

A common way in the past was to have a handle similar to a bucket's attached to the pot, often made from a thickish wire (e.g. baling wire). Classically this was called a billycan, and meant that you ...
bob1's user avatar
  • 9,739
8 votes

Stove/fuel setup for harsh conditions

For cooking at cold and altitude, the pressurised liquid fuel stove is your friend. They're expensive and need some skill and care in use (practise before you take them into challenging situations), ...
Tullochgorum's user avatar
  • 11.7k
8 votes
Accepted

Is it safe to add boiling water to Mylar?

Apparently there are various grades of Mylar pouches (one of the companies I work with switched from bags from some Asian seller to a marginally more expensive North-American company because the first ...
Erik vanDoren's user avatar
8 votes
Accepted

How do you smoke salmon in the wild without a smoker?

You make a smoker, all you need to carry with you is some tinfoil. Best tasting fish I ever had was cooked in a tinfoil smoker out in the woods on a winter camp, we lashed together a simple rack like ...
ShemSeger's user avatar
  • 53.5k
7 votes
Accepted

Can you boil water on top of Everest?

The short answer to your question is yes you can get a stove to light and cook your egg on the top of Everest if you really wanted to do it. Backpacking stoves are pressurized All of the backpacking ...
Erik's user avatar
  • 9,678
7 votes

Preparing rice and mashed potatoes with warm instead of cooking water

Honestly you are better off bringing some other form of starch, such as hard tack or saltines or something similar. Take a bite of cracker, and take a sip of water and chew. Rice and rice water, when ...
Escoce's user avatar
  • 4,802
7 votes
Accepted

Baking with backpacking stoves

For pizza, I do it in a frying pan with cornmeal under it to keep it from sticking. A lid helps a little. For corn bread, I make "corn pone", again in the frying pan. You didn't mention regular bread, ...
Kate Gregory's user avatar
  • 12.1k
7 votes

Is there a standard way of marking cooking alcohol containers?

The answer is to not use a repurposed water bottle. Further, use completely different types of containers for fuel and water so you can't mix them up. Back in the day (the 1970's) when white gas ...
Jon Custer's user avatar
  • 1,824
7 votes

Can or should you season titanium cookware?

Seasoning is done for two reasons, To prevent rust/corrosion. To prevent sticking. While titanium can rust, in the process it creates a layer of titanium oxide which creates a protective layer that ...
Charlie Brumbaugh's user avatar

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible