Trangia experiments
Anne Paulson
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
manueljohnacosta
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
MichaelH
review is very helpful, although I usually just pack some homemade
grenola and fruit for breakfast.
michael
Lisa
automotive additive that's really just methanol / ethanol?
Since I bought a Trangia stove this spring, I've been keeping an eye
out for HEET in roadside gas stations, truck stops, etc. They all
have ISO-HEET (red) but not the yellow methanol HEET.
Perhaps yellow HEET is no longer of interest to drivers since gasoline
has ethanol added to it these days?
Lisa
Anne Paulson
it wasn't on the shelf. Hardware stores only carried red HEET. But I
live in a mild-winter area; friends who live where it freezes in the
winter said they have no trouble getting yellow HEET.
Denatured alcohol is widely available in gallons and quarts. Nobody
wants to carry a gallon of fuel, but for a tour lasting more than a
week, starting with a quart isn't ridiculous, especially since alcohol
stoves burn more fuel per unit of heat than gas stoves.
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velomann
since i never bothered with making any kind of simmer mechanism. I use
denatured alcohol. One nice thing about alcohol is it can be
transported in little plastic pop bottles. Just make sure to label
them clearly, since it looks like water.
Brad
easier to make than the soda can style, I think. It works great. I
always hated the smell of the white gas I used in my MSR
Whisperlight. And a friend had the hose on his MSR spring a leak
while cooking. The white gas spraying everywhere didn't catch fire,
but the whole situation made for a few seconds of terror.
Dave Craig
are great stoves. They are quiet, simple and relatively safe to use.
I've got a fair amount of experience using the Trangia in field
settings on my own trips and with students over the last couple of
years, He are some perspectives from my own and my students'
experiences.
I agree with Anne about the smaller set being great for one person.
Depending on your appetite, it can be marginal for two. Heck, my
twenty something outdoor education students find that even the large
Trangia set is just barely big enough for two! That said, Pamela and I
have been using the small set for the last two summers of bike touring
and it has worked fine for us. The secret is in the cooking strategy
and meal planning. With spaghetti, for example, we break the pasta in
half before adding it to the boiling water. We use much less water
than usual and add a little oil to prevent sticking. We bring the
water back to a boil and then take the pot off and put it into a pot
cozy to finish cooking. In the meantime, we use the second pot to
saute' veggies and heat the sauce. Everything ends up being done at
the same time. Garnish with sunflower seeds and cheese. I also usually
rehydrate some sundried tomatoes in a cup with a little boiling water
before starting the spaghetti. These get added to the sauce once it is
heated. I think if we just had spaghetti and sauce, the meal might be
a little light, but we always have appetizers and dessert to round out
the meal.
Carrying fuel in the stove. There's a couple of points to mention.
First, I always carry fuel in my stove - no problem and no leaks. So
do my students. Regardless of what a Trangia employee might have
emailed, the stove lid has an o-ring expressly because the stove was
designed to carry alcohol in it. Inexplicably, SOME Trangia burners
DO leak and others do not. I have one that does and one that doesn't
and none of our 5 student stoves leak. Another crucial point is to
NEVER extinguish the stove with the screw top. Doing so will burn the
o-ring. This damages the seal and the stove will leak. Use the simmer
ring to extinguish the flame. Before I put the screw top on the
burner, I always make sure that the stove is cool enough to touch.
It's also important to screw the lid on tightly before packing it away
in the pot set.
Alcohol fuel - Unfortunately, formulations of denatured alcohol are
really variable - even in the same brand from the same manufacturer.
It varies by batch. It's not as simple as saying one brand smokes and
another doesn't. Trangia advises putting a small amount of water in
the fuel in order to reduce smoking. I've never needed to do this and
I've almost always used the Sunnyside brand fuel. I did once use some
Ace Hardware brand fuel that didn't smoke much at all, but that was
one quart and I can't really say that holds true for all Ace hardware
alcohol without a more substantial field test.
Finally, it's worth noting that Trangia makes an isobutane burner
insert for the stove. There are lighter isobutane cooking set ups, but
I love the Trangia tea kettle and the windscreen and pot stability of
the Trangia cookset. The isobutane unit is also quiet and it's much
more efficient than alcohol. I tend to use isobutane on longer trips
when I have few opportunities for ressupply. One 8 oz, isobutane
canister lasts me (using a pot cozy) for around 8 to 9 days on
wilderness expeditions versus about a liter of alcohol for the same
duration.
Dave
Anne Paulson
> Carrying fuel in the stove. There's a couple of points to mention.
> First, I always carry fuel in my stove - no problem and no leaks. So
> do my students. Regardless of what a Trangia employee might have
> emailed, the stove lid has an o-ring expressly because the stove was
> designed to carry alcohol in it. Inexplicably, SOME Trangia burners
> DO leak and others do not.
I guess I have one that leaks, then. :( I emailed Trangia precisely
because I wanted to understand why my Trangia, with a brand new
O-ring, still leaked. Instead of saying what I wanted him to say-- Oh,
your burner is defective, we'll replace it-- he said don't carry fuel
in the stove. Great.
Bill Gibson
than white gas, when I spilled a little trying to light it with a
flint-stick by showering sparks - knocking it a little, spilling some
alcohol. The windscreen/base caught fire and - melted away the
lightweight aluminum! It looked like an aluminum beverage can someone
threw into a campfire! I was on a fireproof surface, so no general
conflagration, and I was able to purchase a replacement
base/windscreen, so my kit is still in service, but... respect and
care is in order. Matches and lighters work fine. I still think it's a
safer and a more aesthetic full-on cooking kit than anything else I've
used: Svea 123, Primus boxy stove, MSR Whisperlight, and alcohol
burners and kits that are lighter, but much less good in any wind at
all.
Also, I've read some frightening articles on the Backpacking Light
website about the generation of Carbon monoxide by stoves, even and
especially the wonderful Trangia. So inside cooking, as in a tent is
not OK. Maybe in a vestibule that is at least partway open, down
wind...
Mine is a no longer available "duossal" pot set, and I've added on a
billy that fits outside the windscreens, and a pre-heater that really
does speed up the cooking on the bigger pot when needed. Not ultra
light, but like my Quickbeam, I feel like I could go anywhere in
gourmet luxury with it...
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Bill Gibson
Tempe, Arizona, USA
Robert F. Harrison
I'm definitely keeping your recipes on file for those.
Aloha!
Bob
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:
Robert Harrison
rfhar...@gmail.com
statrix.statrix.com
Dave Craig
Here's a site where reviewers mention the same issue I've described -
some stoves leak and others do not:
http://www.buzzillions.com/reviews/trangia-spirit-stove-reviews
Here's a quote from the FAQ's from Trangia's site that probably helps
to prove your stove is defective (http://www.trangia.se/english/
2937.faq.html):
"11. If there is some residual alcohol in the spirit burner after
cooking, can the alcohol be saved in the burner (with the lid closed)
for the next day?
The fuel can be stored inside the burner for the next day (or the next
couple of days), provided that the lid is properly closed and the o-
ring is undamaged. However, it is essential that the burner have [sic]
cooled down completely before the lid is closed. Please note that the
alcohol must not be stored in the burner for a longer period of time."
Seems like the person who emailed you didn't read Trangia's own
literature!
It IS a bummer to have a leaky Trangia. It's frustrating. They are/
were? designed to be carried with fuel in them and it's a nice
feature. Luckily, the burners are about 12 dollars. I replaced my
leaky burner 2 years ago and have over 150 field days with the stove
without a leak. Storing fuel in the stove over a month or more hasn't
been an issue either, though I'll acknowledge there's really not good
reason to do this.
Hope this helps,
Dave
Ginz
manufacturers compact alcohol stoves. If you search through his
videos, there are many devoted to the pros and cons of various alcohol
fuels, dehyrating food for camping trips, recipies and even baking
with a alcohol stove. Have a look!
His new interest seems to be homemade recumbent bicycles.
>
> - Show quoted text -
Backcountry
years, if you are looking for a stainless steel version of a Trangia
(for durability, you can wash it out with sand) you have two options
1) Tatonka Brand Stove, Identical to Trangia in every way but made
from stainless, even the hole for the stove is the same. I found
this out when scouring the net trying to find a SS trangia, as I am
not a fan of Aluminum.
http://intranet.tatonka.com/infosys/infocgi/artinfod.dll?190%5fStainless%5fSteel@1&0
2) Old Swedish army stoves you can still find some of them in
stainless, they work awesome and are cheap. The majority on the
market are aluminum, but some are SS.
http://a1armysurplus.com/images/SWEEDISH-COOKSET-NEW.jpg
Just thought someone might like to know.