Cooking tips, with a trangia

Resealable freezer bags (buy them from your supermarket). The greatest camping / cooking accessory ever! You can keep food (cooked or uncooked) in them. You can put leaky bottles in them to stop the rest of your stuff getting coated in their contents. They make great flexible lunch boxes. You can measure out portions of pasta, rice, cereals etc at home before you go and put each portion in its own bag to make things quicker at the campsite.

You can also...
keep your smaller items such as wallet and phone dry as they're waterpoof.
Use the larger ones as a cheap map case.

Basically they're a great and very cheap accessory!

As for a Trangia...

Bit of a nightmare really. Any chance you can get hold of a cheap gas stove? The basic thing with Trangia's is that you have no control over the heat. You light the meth's (which is not always easy in wind), and just put the bowl over the heat. Therefore plan your meals carefully as you won't be able to a) boil anything quickly, or b) once it is boiling, simmer stuff for ages without it all boiling away.
On the plus side, Trangias have no moving parts to break, and meths is available pretty much anywhere.
Also, if you're packing into a rucksack, make sure you have some sort of bag to put the stove in as the burning meths wil leave a greasy residue on the bottom of your pans.

Hope this helps.

Hi Sharm,

Like 1 said - a trangia? if that is a meths or hex burner get rid! just get a cheap calor gas stove for what.. peanuts in ukp or aud - it is so much easier.

I am not going to be too sure at carrying cooked food in a freezer bag in southern hemisphere summer! since u are in Aus Sharm? that chicken is going to be warm - so u better have a good immune system!

If weight is no object bring the tinned stuff! Packet dehyrdated soup or pasta is good for a nice snack or ready brek (tm) oats in the morning saves boiling for 10 mins (though some of that stuff is mostly sugar). There are a lot a trail food companies out there - some will sell u a day pack of breakfast lunch and dinner though it never is enough for me! and it costs.

It all depends on if u are just at a campground with your RUV/SUV or u are on a trek in the outback [don't make me jealous!! - i mean the trek not the vehicle!].

LOL, I just read the trangia burns ethanol - like my MSR dragonfly [expensive].. probably u are right u dont want to carry gas cannisters in high temps! so ignore me that is a good stove - and ignore 1 - for the Aus summer good choice!

Happy camping.

Top tips for using a Trangia? If you can’t see a flame DON’T check by putting your hand over the reservoir !! The flame can be all but invisible and burns very hot!

And you can vary the cooking temp using a trangia – just move the pan higher or lower over the flame. There are little stepped catches to assist you in this.

Why not try cooking a meal on your trangia at home, so you can get used to it. The last thing you want to find out in the middle of the bush is that you don’t have everything you need or don’t know what you are doing.

Useful for lighting trangias – extra long matches.

There are a couple of threads from a few months ago about trekking food (search TT for trekking food or hiking food and they should come up.)

My current favourites are :

Ready mixed packs of risotto
Ready mixed packs of couscous

Both of these can be adulterated with long lasting cooked meat like chorizo or salami

<blockquote>Quote
<hr> You light the meth's (which is not always easy in wind)<hr></blockquote>

Obviously you havent used Trangia, which for a reason are dubbed storm kitchens. The burner is infinitely better shielded -and stable- than the MSRs etc. Actually : it is shielded - as opposed to practically all other "kitchens".

<blockquote>Quote
<hr> The basic thing with Trangia's is that you have no control over the heat. <hr></blockquote>

Incorrect- there is a regulator cap provided in the basic kit. By regulating the air intake by rotating the stove against/from the wind you also change the effect.

When cooking freezedried foods I boil roughly 2/3 of the water , add the mix ,simmer for the specified time while adding the remaining water. Another way of saving fuel is to add the water (again, 2/3) and the mix for the next meal in a watertight box. After a couple of hours you just need to heat it to eating temperature.

When setting up on heather etc I drain the ground with water so as not to leave scorch marks. On snow you need a support to prevent the stove from melting its way down. Two notched sticks will do. <BR><BR>Trangia isnt just a meth stove either - ports are provided for gas , kerosene and multifuel burners. I use the meth burner in the summer (home) mountains on short (less than 7 days ) and a kerosene/multifuel burner in the winter and above 3000 meters. Kerosene can be bought basically anywhere on the planet where you can buy stuff, gas etc. ...dont think so. <BR><BR>The teflon pans are great - use a wooden spoon (or spork ) to stir without marring the coating.<BR>The titanium pots seems like a great idea but titanium is a very poor heat conductor. Making the actual stove in titanium would have been a better idea. <BR>Hardcore mountain cooks bring an extra potgrasping thingy which is essential if you start to make a large batch of pancakes . <BR><BR>I´ve used Trangia since the day I took over my first backpack from my dad in just about every weather conditions I can imagine except sandstorms. You can use the meth burner in almost all conditions : Ive used used on winter trips at minus 20 even without the the preheater and it did burn - sort of - enough to make breakfast before going over the Torung La at 4400 meters although I now wouldn`t think of doing either without the kerosene burner. AS # 1 points out the only way you can break it is to lose it.
Another point for the plain burner is when you travel : since 9/11 I´ve had a lot of attention given to the kerosene tank (on the x-ray it basicallly looks like a bomb, pressure valves etc..) and I´ve started bringing the meth burner along as a back up. Make sure that tanks and burners are meticulously emptied and dried before entering an airport.

Call me a sook, but the biggest problem that I've had with trangias is all the mess they make on the bottom of the pots! Gas or shellite etc seems to be cleaner, though the stoves are generally more expensive.

Food-wise: if you are seriously into it, get a dehydrator and let your imagination go! Cous cous is wicked because you don't have to cook it for long, meaning you need less fuel.

[quote]but the biggest problem that I've had with trangias is all the mess they make on the bottom of the pots[/quote]

Get pure methanol (as opposed to the common meth-ethanol mix) if you can - much less soot. Agree on couscous : normally I heat the water/oil mix on the frying pan while heating the stew pot. Pre-cooked couscous (the type normally sold in supermarkets etc) needs no boiling time , just swelling time after brought to boil and couscous has been added.

Here in Sweden, where Trangia is made (in a village called Trångsviken, 'the narrow bay', in the central part of the country), we don't generally like gas stoves a lotas they're more dangerous and don't always work. Trangias are often called "stormkök" that means storm kitchen.