Expedition Cooking

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Booger

Booger

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Dorsetshire
I would have thought this subject would have been well covered, but I can't seem to find anything..

Anyway, would some of you wise old men who have done plenty of travelling abdvise me on how you cooked.

I quite like the look of the cooker housing from http://www.mobilestoragesystems.fsnet.co.uk/cooker-housing.htm

as it seems it would be an easy way to make a quick coffee on the side of the road without unpacking the back, but then it does look like it would rattle alot !

Your thoughts...
 
Booger said:
I would have thought this subject would have been well covered, but I can't seem to find anything..

Anyway, would some of you wise old men who have done plenty of travelling abdvise me on how you cooked.

I quite like the look of the cooker housing from http://www.mobilestoragesystems.fsnet.co.uk/cooker-housing.htm

as it seems it would be an easy way to make a quick coffee on the side of the road without unpacking the back, but then it does look like it would rattle alot !

Your thoughts...
Click to expand...

I carry a 'coleman duel fuel' twin burner stove and wouldnt use anything else!

The whole thing is compact the size of a briefcase gives off a tremendous heat and will run all day on a pint of petrol.

I can buy petrol anywhere and have no big gas cylinders to lug about or stupid crappy little ones to run out half way through cooking my camp meal!

I couldnt rate the coleman more highly, however it does run on petrol and therefore need both respect and the knack to light it...

...as for a brew, my 'kelly kettle' always gets that job..!
 
or you could go the trangia route, stood me in good stead throughout central and south america
 
carpy said:
or you could go the trangia route, stood me in good stead throughout central and south america
Click to expand...

I think Trangia's are the bollox, I own one and have used it to death in the past (stock - not with that stupid gas attachment!), however they are only a single burner, so limited as to what you can cook on them in terms of a full meal for more than one person. If I were cooking out of my backpack - trangia for sure. With the payload of my truck... the coleman wins for me!

I also carry a cast iron dutch oven, and a steel tripod which I welded up outa some rods and a bit of chain, when I get the chance to light a fire, i'll cook over that with the dutch oven.
 
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Thanks, those are all valid points. Think I'll go with the twin burner... And if there is space, a dutch oven, or potjie pot for luxury meals..

Although as my landy is diesel powered, a petrol powered cooker would mean that I'd need to carry a bottle of petrol.. (may as well carry a gas cylinder - cause I could use that for showers too)

Unless Gas is hard to get hold of on the road ?

Anyone been to Africa with Gas ??? was it hard to get refills ???
 
Booger said:
Thanks, those are all valid points. Think I'll go with the twin burner... And if there is space, a dutch oven, or potjie pot for luxury meals..

Although as my landy is diesel powered, a petrol powered cooker would mean that I'd need to carry a bottle of petrol.. (may as well carry a gas cylinder - cause I could use that for showers too)

Unless Gas is hard to get hold of on the road ?

Anyone been to Africa with Gas ??? was it hard to get refills ???
Click to expand...

I would seriously look to compare a gas stove to the coleman petrol stove before you part with your hard earned.

In a real test when the weather is windy or against you, the design of the coleman with it's built in windbreak, huge heat output and recessed burners works a treat, beats anything I've ever used, hands down!

I understand the Petrol/Diesel thing, I have to do the same, but it's not an issue for me. A 5 litre plastic can of petrol will last you for a few weeks, if it were only used as cooking fuel.

And pack a dutch oven, there's nothing quite like cooking up yer dinner on an open fire!
 
I concur with the Coleman Burners. they are way superior to gas ones. The heat generated is a lot better. I replaced all the gas ones at our Venture Unit with the Coleman ones and they are a lot better then the camping gas double burners.
 
For hot drinks I have a 12v water urn in the back of my landy. For cooking I have a twin burner gas stove. I'd like to replace it with a coleman but at the moment can't justify the cost. Hopefully my gas stove will go tits up soon so I have an excuse to replace it.




Maybe I should let disco71 borrow it:rolleyes::D
 
ratty said:
For hot drinks I have a 12v water urn in the back of my landy. For cooking I have a twin burner gas stove. I'd like to replace it with a coleman but at the moment can't justify the cost. Hopefully my gas stove will go tits up soon so I have an excuse to replace it.




Maybe I should let disco71 borrow it:rolleyes::D
Click to expand...

oi I nearly choked on my rolo donut coz of you :doh:
 
tis true colemans are good. if they can heat up a meal in the brecons and norway - im sure they will manage wherever us lot find outselves going be it russia or africa. and i reckon itll be easier to get hold of than gas in the more remote places, and easier to store in jerry cans than big cannisters
 
Gas is a tricky one as the regulators change from country to country. As above I to use the coleman setup. burns nice and strong wether your cooking at -9 or +35 degrees. Always a good heat.

I carry the double burner and the single sportster stove along with a kelly kettle and cast iron hardware for open fire cooking.

When you say you have to carry petrol, you only need to hold 5L or less. I filled a 5L jerry can for 4 weeks in Morocco and maybe used a litre at most. You can pick up Petrol from most places (I hear its hard to find in the DRC), how refined it is i dont know, always take a spare generator and a litre of colemans white fuel with you. Shouldnt have any problems this way. As with Battenburg, you cant beat using a kelly kettle and cast iron stuff on an open fire. I picked up a big frying pan at Eastnor, so looking forward to using that :D

All this ofcoarse, depends on the level of cooking you see yourself doing. Some folk like to spend a while with fresh produce etc and cook up a storm. Others are happy with ration packs! depends what you want to achieve. for the latter, you would only need a trangia.

G
 
I think I have been talked into the coleman liquid fuel stove...

In defence of gas, some of you may have been comparing butane burners to liquid fuel, and it seems butane is very bad, but propane doesn't suffer from the same setbacks (altitude & cold) as butane.

As for speed, there is coleman propane burner with side flaps and a boil time of 4:55 secs, as opposed to the 4:00 of the liquid stove, so not too much worse.

Coleman International - Propane Range

What swung it for me though was the thought of trying to get gas refils in Africa, so I think I'll be taking the liquid burning stove...

Do also like this Cadac Safari Chef Deluxe LPG as it replaces big pot, big pan, bbq, stove, and oven... I mean what would be better than a roast chicken in the middle of the bush ??
 
ive not even started on the cooking part of kitting out, proberly due to the care free sort of cooking that i do,and that would be bbq the whole time.

out of 90% of my camping all my cooking has been done on open fire and the other 10% with a cadac skottel braai.(the best for a fry up)

for heating up cans i simply place the can in some coals and just use rule of thumb as to how hot you whant it,usually about 5 mins before meat comes off,or if ive had too many beers and fergotten about the tin and its swelled up opening is a bit trickier but with the beer in one and a screwdriver in the other puncture the can and stand back and watch the fountain,,,yes be warned contents are hot and the spray hits every thing in sight,a good laugh but very messy situation.

as for the kettle i travel with an old tinny and tripod,i might upgrade to a 12v kettle this time,and as for a pot ive got and old cast iron that my mom gave me and use that over the open fire.
i will be buying a new cadac skottel as im sticking to whaqt i grew up with as for gas cylinders im bringing one 5kg and think that should be enough for my needs of a 20min cook every 2-3 day per week and can get a refill in malawi and that should hopefully see me through to cape town. as for the rest of europe i plan to use as much of camp site facilities as possible so as not waste my own till necessary.

something that i would recomending is weber bbq have a type of grid that you place your meat in close it down and then locks on the handles, these are more the type of "south african braai thing" which you can buy at most b&q or atlantics outlets for little money but a worth while investment.

thats my 2cents worth of thought for now and is proberly the way ill end up packing my rig
 
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a couple of points with a coleman stove.

The older ones are made from a slightly thicker metal so ebay maybe you friend?

I found an old metal box ( it was an old deed box from a law firm) which was just the right size to put the coleman on top. I welded 4 dome nuts to the top of it to act as locating dowels.

This setup works an absolute treat, (but I soon learned that the metal box was the wrong place to store any cooking utensils). The box is now my landys 'kitchen junk draw' the weight of the box and stuff inside holds the stove firm and the coleman fits like a glove on top, giving just the right height for stirring a pot while sitting in a folding chair. it also raises the stove off the ground which allows the fuel tank to always hang perfectly square.
 
johnnyafrica said:
out of 90% of my camping all my cooking has been done on open fire and the other 10% with a cadac skottel braai.(the best for a fry up)
Click to expand...

I think during my childhood most of the food I ate was cooked on a skottel :D My old man loved that thing.

I was actually looking at skottels on the cadac web site when I found that safari chef, which for not much more storage space than a skottel, gives you many more cooking options. The only thing it lacks is the curvature of the skottel, and obviously curvature is important for good eggs. So there is another product (carri chef) that has a curved grilling surface like a skottel, might be an option.

So anyway, I'll be taking a gas cylinder for hot showers and luxury cooking with the safari chef. And use the coleman for everyday brews and heating simple meals. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with heating cans in a fire and covering yourself in scalding hot food, but I'm a bit of a gyrl when it comes to slumming it :D

Thanks for the tips on the coleman Battenberg, I'll look on ebay !
 
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