My cooking gear

[froze]

Is that scrapper similar to what they use on cast iron pots and pans?

I can't say for sure since I've only used them on my GSI aluminum pots and fry pan where they work great.  I don't see why it wouldn't work on cast iron.  They are far superior to a scrub pad in that they don't collect food residue and are easily cleaned. Honestly, it's amazing how something so simple can work so well.
[/quote]

I can't get pics to post.  Anyway, there are flat plastic scrapers made for cast iron skillets that I own for scrapping my skillet with, they're cheap and easy to find, so I was wondering if those would work for scrapping a camping pot with? I don't see why they wouldn't work, a scrapper is a scrapper.  I use a nylon scrub pad, but that scrapper you mentioned might be a good add-on to take since the scrub pads wear out pretty fast.

[David W Pratt]

Mostly I boil water for cooking, tea at breakfast, couscous for dinner.  There is a European deli in Burlington and I get air dried pork or beef there.  It lasts fine without refrigeration.  After a couple of weeks the outside may get a little slimy, but a wash with soap and water and thorough drying and putting it in a fresh plastic bag makes it good as new.  Much tastier than freeze-dried stuff.  I suppose a dehydrator to make your own jerky and dried veggies would work.

[hikerjer]

"But I might also throw in a small freeze-dried dinner or a pack of instant noodles."

Good point. Although I don't particular care for them, I always have a packet of a freeze-dried food in the bottom of my panniers or backpack for semi-emergency use like when I'm too tired or conditions are lousy for cooking a regular meal.  It's pretty easy to prepare freeze-dried stuff in adverse conditions.  It's come on handy a number of occasions, although I often go a long time without touching it, but it keeps, so there's no problem.

[davidbonn]

Oh yeah, blatant plug here.

This is a 750ml Ti pot that looks really good and is only $32.

https://evolvedsupplyco.com/supplies/p/the-750-pot

Again, if you are doing boil-water-and-stir style "cooking" this is all you'll need.

[davidbonn]

Garage Grown Gear had a sale and I picked up one of these:



This little gadget lets me (carefully) consolidate partially used fuel canisters.  So you don't end up carrying two or three partial canisters to use them all up, you can carry one nearly full one and puncture the empties and recycle them.

If you were to mooch partially used canisters other cyclists are disposing of you could, in theory, travel considerable distances without purchasing any fuel at all.  And at current crazy prices for fuel, especially the smaller canisters you'd often carry for bikepacking trips, that is a good thing.

[froze]

Garage Grown Gear had a sale and I picked up one of these:



This little gadget lets me (carefully) consolidate partially used fuel canisters.  So you don't end up carrying two or three partial canisters to use them all up, you can carry one nearly full one and puncture the empties and recycle them.

If you were to mooch partially used canisters other cyclists are disposing of you could, in theory, travel considerable distances without purchasing any fuel at all.  And at current crazy prices for fuel, especially the smaller canisters you'd often carry for bikepacking trips, that is a good thing.

Sorry, but you cannot use different brands of fuel according to FlipFuel, they tell you that you should only transfer the same brand to the same brand, so MSR to MSR, but you can't transfer MSR to JetBoil.  Not that it won't work, it's mixing two different fuels could cause a problem.  I don't know enough about this stuff to tell you why a person can't mix two different fuels, but you could probably e-mail FlipFuel and ask them why you can't mix.

[davidbonn]

...
Sorry, but you cannot use different brands of fuel according to FlipFuel, they tell you that you should only transfer the same brand to the same brand, so MSR to MSR, but you can't transfer MSR to JetBoil.  Not that it won't work, it's mixing two different fuels could cause a problem.  I don't know enough about this stuff to tell you why a person can't mix two different fuels, but you could probably e-mail FlipFuel and ask them why you can't mix.

Well, yes, I did reach out to FlipFuel and they "do not recommend" mixing fuel brands.

On the other hand, their advertisements and videos prominently featured on their site all show their product in use mixing different brands of fuel.

I was unable to get a straight answer as to why they do not recommend mixing different brands of fuel.  My own suspicion is that the problem is that even identically sized canisters from different brands have different empty and full weights, and it would be fairly complicated to be 100 percent sure you are not overfilling a canister -- which is a very bad idea.  At best overfilled canisters perform poorly and waste a lot of fuel.  At worst they might explode, although I very much doubt that if used as instructed you could ever get a canister overfilled enough to explode.  Although it would be a fun experiment cooling the receiving canister with liquid nitrogen and heating the emitting canister in very hot (not quite boiling) water.  But like I said if you are cooling the receiving canister in the freezer and heating the emitting canister in the sun you probably can't get to major overpressure.

I've seen this gadget in use in field conditions (again mixing fuel brands) where they cooled the receiving canister in a snowbank and heated the emitting canister in very hot (but not boiling) water in a pan.  Seemed to work just fine.

Given that all of the major brands of canister fuel use a mixture of propane and butane (sometimes isobutane) I can't imagine there is a risk of some kind of chemical reaction between the two compounds.  Somewhat more possible is that since the propane is in solution with the butane, different butane isomers might be able to "hold" more propane, so if you mix fuel types you will "lose" propane and might have a weird kind of overpressure situation.  But that should be mitigated by the fact that if you are just mixing partial canisters, the propane inevitably gets burned off first (higher vapor pressure) and it is hard to imagine (that word again) how you'd end up with too much propane in a recharged canister.

So I'm going to be (carefully) mixing different brands of fuel and I'll see how it goes.  If something really bad happens I am sure to make the news so keep your eyes peeled.

[froze]

Like I said I don't know why you can't mix other cans, but the only thing I can think of is that even though they may use the same gasses, they each have a different percentage of each gas and each use a different type of gas, some use isobutane, some propane, some butane, and they'll use different percentages of each depending on the brand, so maybe mixing two or three different kinds could cause some sort of problem?

common Canister Fuel Mixtures:
MSR IsoPro: 80% Isobutane / 20% Propane
JetBoil: Rumored 80% Isobutane / 20% Propane
Snow Peak: 85% Isobutane / 15% Propane
Olicamp: 75% Isobutane / 25% Propane
Primus: 50% Butane / 25% Iso / 25% Propane
Coleman: 70% Butane / 30% Propane
And there are others

While it’s possible to safely mix butane with other fuels like propane, isobutane, or natural gas in industrial settings, doing so without proper knowledge and precautions can be extremely risky and potentially dangerous, according to one site I read, but that's all I know about it.  Maybe someone else knows more about this stuff.

The only thing I know about the various fuels is that in the warm weather buy whatever is the cheapest; but in the cold climate, you need to use one that has no butane at all.

[davidbonn]

I do not think mixing fuel brands is a serious problem.  Review images on their web site prominently show people mixing fuel brands, video reviews they link to on their web sites also show people mixing brands, and even FlipFuel's own advertising shows transferring fuel between canisters from different brands.  Given that we haven't had a stream of reports of exploding fuel canisters I have my doubts there are any serious risks with the practice.

Your figures do point out a potential issue:  propane has a higher vapor pressure than isobutane, which has a higher vapor pressure than butane.  So potentially if you added fuel from a high-propane source into a canister with a lesser mixture of propane, you could theoretically exceed the pressure limits of the canister.  Like I said before it is exceedingly unlikely you could cause a catastrophic failure of a canister, but most stoves will likely run poorly with the fuel pressure too high.

You can take some reasonable safety steps that will likely keep yourself from dying in a fireball, though:

• Know the empty weights and full weights of the canisters you are using with this device.  Note that these weights vary by brand, and even though the variations are only a few grams, they likely do matter.
• Only do fuel transfers when the total amount of fuel in both canisters is less than the capacity of the receiving canister.
• Always transfer into a fuel canister with the lowest concentration of propane to avoid overpressure.
• Don't continuously fill one canister, it is best to rotate canisters out of service and recycle them after refilling them a few times.

This table is very helpful in determining the amount of fuel in various brands of canisters:  https://imgur.com/tszmIsK

[Ty0604]

Nice set up. I have a JetBoil Flash with a collapsible cup, bowl and UCO Switch Spork that I carry. I use to carry the French press attachment for my JetBoil but the clean up was more than I cared for so now I just use instant coffee. I only use my JetBoil to boil water so the small canister will last me 3 weeks easily doing a single boil a day with the occasional 2 boils.

[froze]

I just use instant coffee.

Do you like instant coffee?  I don't happen to like it, Do you like pour over coffee? 

I used to take an AeroPress, but like you, it took up too much space in a pannier, so I bought a GSI Outdoor Ultralight Java Drip pour-over maker, and it makes much better coffee than instant, at least in my opinion.  It's easy to clean, just shake in reverse firmly and the grounds come flying out, then rinse under water to get the remaining residue out.  The GSI folds flat and will fit under a standard-size fuel canister, and it hardly weighs anything.  Now I can use whatever coffee I want.

[Ty0604]

I just use instant coffee.

Do you like instant coffee?  I don't happen to like it, Do you like pour over coffee? 

I used to take an AeroPress, but like you, it took up too much space in a pannier, so I bought a GSI Outdoor Ultralight Java Drip pour-over maker, and it makes much better coffee than instant, at least in my opinion.  It's easy to clean, just shake in reverse firmly and the grounds come flying out, then rinse under water to get the remaining residue out.  The GSI folds flat and will fit under a standard-size fuel canister, and it hardly weighs anything.  Now I can use whatever coffee I want.

Not particularly. I’m just lazy and I add enough creamer to make it tolerable.

My sister once asked me do you want some coffee with your creamer?

I’m going to Google what you have and check it out though. I’m riding OTET in May and would love some normal coffee.

[froze]

I just use instant coffee.

Do you like instant coffee?  I don't happen to like it, Do you like pour over coffee? 

I used to take an AeroPress, but like you, it took up too much space in a pannier, so I bought a GSI Outdoor Ultralight Java Drip pour-over maker, and it makes much better coffee than instant, at least in my opinion.  It's easy to clean, just shake in reverse firmly and the grounds come flying out, then rinse under water to get the remaining residue out.  The GSI folds flat and will fit under a standard-size fuel canister, and it hardly weighs anything.  Now I can use whatever coffee I want.

Not particularly. I’m just lazy and I add enough creamer to make it tolerable.

My sister once asked me do you want some coffee with your creamer?

I’m going to Google what you have and check it out though. I’m riding OTET in May and would love some normal coffee.I fou

You can also watch videos on YouTube too.  GSI makes a plastic cup which I don't use because my mess kit came with a smaller measuring cup to which I attach the GSI coffee maker, then I heat the water up in a stainless cup and simply slowly pour the water over the grounds.  I use a medium grind with mine, I pre-grind the coffee and put it into a zip lock bag, if I'm going to be gone longer Then I simply go to a grocery store and buy a small bag of pre-ground coffee, most pre-ground is medium ground anyway, so no problem.

The GSI weighs just 10 grams!  I've been using mine for 3 seasons, and it still is in great shape despite it looking seemingly fragile, it isn't.

I found a pretty good video on how to use it, but the guy in the video uses a paper filter, you do not need that whatsoever, it was designed not to be used with any filters.  Watch videos on how to make a pour over if you don't know how, it's the same method you would use with the GSI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNnH9ysfo8g

[UncaBuddha]

I have used this spiral pour over coffee maker in airplanes with great success. You have to carry filters but it makes cleanup as easy and removing the spent filter and throwing it in the trash.
https://www.outlandusa.com/p/soto-helix-coffee-maker?utm_source=google_shopping&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&campaign_id=18134227586&adgroup=&matchtype=&device=c&devicemodel=&placement=&adposition=&gad_source=5&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuO6o_9rQhAMV2FFHAR3lvADSEAQYBSABEgIy9fD_BwE

[davidbonn]

I consider most instant coffee, e.g. Starbuck's Via or similar, to be a caffeine transport system and not coffee per se.  But for the light weight and simplicity I use them on most trips, if only to get me charged up enough to get on the road and get somewhere for a real cup of coffee.  It is much less nasty with a splash of milk or half and half.

Until the last fifteen years or so, if you were traveling around most of Europe, all you could generally count on was instant coffee.  Some people there even seemed to prefer it!

Sometimes I use an ancient (dating to 1987) one-cup gold filter system that was my only coffee maker at home until about ten years ago.  It makes great coffee and is efficient in its use of ground coffee.  Cowboy coffee, if you know how, can also make great coffee but with the cost that you'll use more coffee to make a cupful.

Sourcing appropriately ground coffee on journey in sane quantities can often be a challenge.  You certainly don't want to be hauling around a two-pound tin or a one-pound bag of ground coffee.  Smaller sample sizes are sometimes available.  I found one sample packet is about five mornings of coffee with the gold filter (again the gold filter is extremely efficient, a loving spoonful makes a decent cup and a half).

I can't find any equivalent of the one-cup gold filter that I bought at the Starbuck's in Pike Place Market in 1987.  So I'm hanging onto it!