Awesome review Anne! I must also vouch for trangia. I've taken it on a couple of backpacking trips with my boyscout troop and it would work well for the amount of people we were cooking for. Those pancakes and biscuits sound awesome. Might have to try that on one of the overnight trips we do. -Manny
On Aug 11, 9:19 pm, Anne Paulson <anne.paul...@gmail.com> wrote: > I recently bought a Trangia stove with the pot and frying pan set. > Rivendell sells this fine product and recommends it for campouts. > Based on my recent experimentation, I concur. Here's a report on my > experiments: > > Water for a cup of tea boils quickly. I didn't time it, but something > like four or five minutes, perfectly fine for a camping breakfast or > for an afternoon warmup on a long cold ride. And unlike my MSR white > gas stove which roars like a freight train, the Trangia is completely > silent. > > But what about actual food? I tried pancakes, made with Krusteaz > buttermilk pancake mix, on a sub-24. I brought along some Krusteaz in > a ziplock. At the campsite, I mixed it with enough water to make a > pourable batter, just stirring so that most but not all the lumps were > gone (why yes, I do bring along a wire whisk when camping, why do you > ask?). I used the Trangia without the simmer ring; pancakes cook > fairly quickly. I made two or three little pancakes in the frying pan > at a time, turning them over when the bubbles popped. Results: > Delicious. I spread them with Nutella. > > Emboldened, I moved on to a biscuit. For this, I used a homemade mix > of 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup powdered milk, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 > teaspoon salt,1 tablespoon Crisco. I mixed the dry ingredients > together, then cut the Crisco in using two knives. (If I made a bigger > batch, I'd mix in the Crisco in the food processor with six or eight > quick pulses.) I took about 1/3 cup of the mix, and mixed in just > enough water to make a stiff dough. I formed it into a biscuit-shaped > round about half an inch thick, and cooked it in a lightly greased > frying pan, covered with a makeshift aluminum-foil lid. I had to > experiment with the simmer ring setting. The first time, I had it set > in the completely open position, but that resulted in burned outsides > and gummy insides. The simmer ring about half covered worked better. I > cooked it about eight minutes on the first side, turned it over, and > cooked it around five minutes on the second side. Result: delicious. I > was home this time, so I put on butter and honey, but a biscuit like > this would be good with dinner too. > > The biscuit mix would work well for pancakes too-- just add an egg if > you have one, plus enough water to make a pourable batter and maybe a > bit of sugar if you happen to have any. Then cook and enjoy. > > The small cookset, which is what I have, is really only adequate for > one. I was able to boil spaghetti for one (about 1/6 lb) successfully, > but when I tried spaghetti for two there wasn't enough room in the pot > for the noodles plus the water to cook them. For two people, I > recommend the bigger cookset. Cooking for a group of four or more, I > recommend a gas stove. > > Here's the recommendation: If you do sub24s, buy a Trangia. They're > simple, they're light, the whole cookset packs up in one neat small > package*, they burn HEET** and denatured alcohol***, both readily > available. > > * The Trangia comes with a screwtop so that if there is still fuel in > the stove when you're finished cooking, you can snuff it out, let it > cool down, then screw on the lid. However, unfortunately, you can't > transport the stove (say, in your panniers) with alcohol in it, > because it will leak, even with the screw top. I emailed Trangia to > ask, and that's what they told me. So use up all your fuel in the > morning. > > ** HEET in the yellow container. The red container HEET is the wrong stuff. > > *** but do not buy Sunnyside brand denatured alcohol, the house brand > of Tru Value hardware stores. It smokes. > > -- > -- Anne Paulson > > My hovercraft is full of eels -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
