What do you keep in your mess kit?

[Martyn]

Just thought I'd ask and compare a few ideas...

Here's what I have (all inside a Swedish army mess kit..

1 Trangia burner (commercial version - boils faster than the military one)
1 Stainless steel, double skin drinking mug with the handle knocked off
1 small sigg fuel bottle
1/2 kitchen sponge/scourer
1 length of steel wire (to replace the irritating bail arm I hacksawed off)
1 trangia pot holder (needed now I've hacksawed off the bail arm)
1 titanium spork
1 small ferro rod
1 tin opener - army type
1 small bar of soap (to clean the pots)
assorted freezer bags
2x knorr beef stock cubes (knorr lasts longer than Oxo)
1x knorr veg stock cube
1 small tub of crushed, dried chillies
1 small tub of mixed spice (home recipie, for use with just about everything)
20ml bottle of tabasco
20ml bottle of maple syrup
50ml bottle of ghee (or oil of choice)
3 small pieces of freezedried ginger
big bag of salt
1 small tube of white pepper
1 small tube of garlic powder
1 small tube of curry powder
intant coffee (enough for 20 strong cups)​

Questions, opinions or suggestions are most welcome.

 

[TheViking]

Hi...

Depends. If it's a weeklong trip or so in Sweden for example, I bring all the food in the mess kit, which is the same as yours. But the burner and a pack of matches has there place in there under any circumstance!

If I'm out on a 2-3 day trip in my home environment, living from the land, I pack all the small stuff in the mess kit. In a plastic bag so it's easy to pull up all at once. But usually take a little rice too, so if all goes wrong, I'm not starving.

There's actually a lot of space in the pot and you got 2 pots. A big and a small. I carry the mess kit in a cotton shoe bag. :biggthump

 

[Martyn]

Hi...

Depends. If it's a weeklong trip or so in Sweden for example, I bring all the food in the mess kit, which is the same as yours. But the burner and a pack of matches has there place in there under any circumstance!

I included a small ferro rod, as I find I can light the trangia easily and 100% reliably with this, it lasts much longer than matches and i can use to make a campfire too if i need to.

If I'm out on a 2-3 day trip in my home environment, living from the land, I pack all the small stuff in the mess kit. In a plastic bag so it's easy to pull up all at once. But usually take a little rice too, so if all goes wrong, I'm not starving.

I have it divided into condements and long term stuff (in the mess kit), ingredients and stuff that will get consumed within a a week or so (bacon, instant mash, cous-cous, cheese etc) and a couple of complete meals. If I can forrage stuff, I can eek out the ingredients to last longer. If I can find enough food to live on, I can make it palitable with the spices for a loooong time and if I absolutely cant find food, the couple of complete meals will see me through hopefully.

There's actually a lot of space in the pot and you got 2 pots. A big and a small. I carry the mess kit in a cotton shoe bag. :biggthump

Now that is a good idea. :biggthump

The Swedish army kit is new to me and I havent really had chance to try it out yet, but I'm loving it already. The only thing I dont like about it, is it's aluminium. But hopefully that will soon be remedied.

 

[TheViking]

Hi...

The food I carry is usually rice. They take up less space than pasta and has the same energy amount. Then salt, sugar and pepper. It's rare that I take spices with me... Stuff for a brew is also good, be it tea or cocoa.
And a wash kit. :biggthump

 

[Martyn]

Hi...

The food I carry is usually rice. They take up less space than pasta and has the same energy amount. Then salt, sugar and pepper. It's rare that I take spices with me... Stuff for a brew is also good, be it tea or cocoa.
And a wash kit. :biggthump

Any reason for not taking spices? How do you make the bland stuuf tste decent?

Apart from absolutely loving spicy food, I think it also helps mask the taste of foods I might otherwise baulk at and can turn something bland into a gourmet feast. I personally think they're worth the carry - especially as they weigh very little and have an almost indefinite shelf life.

 

[TheViking]

Any reason for not taking spices? How do you make the bland stuff taste decent?

Well, have never managed to cook a tasty 'living from the land' meal... :shock: I don't like nettle soup that much, if so then with a lot of sugar and salt! :roll: Maybe instead of spices i'd add some bouillon cubes.... :biggthump

 

[PC2K]

i can't find that mess kit with the windscreen and stuff... just the mess kit. why doesn;t any one sell it in holland ?

 

[SquirrelBoy]

Nice set up Martyn, has given me ideas for my set too ):

Have a few questions for ya`

1. What size is that Sigg bottle, I guess it fits into the insulated cup too?!

2. By how much time does the commercial burner burn quicker than the military one?

3. What is the pot grabber used for, is it for the large pot?

4. Is the wire used for the hanger, a wire saw? Giving it a double use and saving a small amount of weight?

5. Probably top secret, but care to let on where we can get a stainless set from?

Cheers ! :biggthump

 

[Martyn]

Nice set up Martyn, has given me ideas for my set too ):

Have a few questions for ya`

1. What size is that Sigg bottle, I guess it fits into the insulated cup too?!

2. By how much time does the commercial burner burn quicker than the military one?

3. What is the pot grabber used for, is it for the large pot?

4. Is the wire used for the hanger, a wire saw? Giving it a double use and saving a small amount of weight?

5. Probably top secret, but care to let on where we can get a stainless set from?

Cheers ! :biggthump

1. Not sure what size, prolly about 1/3 litre I think - it's the smallest one they make. Yes, it's a perfectly snug fit inside the stainless cup. The cup was from millets - the ones with the crappy carribiner handles. The cup is good, the handle is pants, but fortunatly is only spot welded on and comes clean away with a good sharp tap from a hammer.

2. Well, I'm not sure, but quite a bit - over a minute on a 0.5 litre boil. The reason I'm not sure, I was comparing the two on the sweedish kit and a home brew kit. Then I swapped the burners round and tried again. Both times, the kit powered by the commercial burner won the rolling boil test. Though I'm not sure my army burner is really working all that well. It may have some wierd fault, but the flames didn't look as even and clean.

3. The pot grabber is used for the big pot (& possibly the little one too with an open fire). I hacksawed off the bail arm, as it's incessant clanking was driving me nuts. So I got some twisted steel wire from B&Q (60p per metre I think) and stuck a couple of hooks on the ends. Now if I want to use it as a billy, I just hook the wire hadle on and I'm good to go. But if I want to use it on the trangia, I need the pot grabber (I spose I could use the wire, but the grabber is nice & secure feeling).

4. See above. Yeah, actually, the pot grabber and wire bail arm are about the same weight as the original steel bail arm, so not much gained or lost in that - I just like it better this way (though you could leave the pot grabber at home to save a couple of Oz if you were inclined).

5. No secret, Gary from Bearclawbuscraft gets em in on the odd occasion - you'd have to ask him what the availability is like, though I think they are not too common. He is the only stockist on the planet I have managed to locate. :biggthump

 

[TheViking]

I hacksawed off the bail arm, as it's incessant clanking was driving me nuts.

:rolmao: :rolmao: Actually laughed when I read it... Yes, I know what you mean! It's a pain in the and is very irritating, but how do I hang it up then. It's very solid though.

 

[Martyn]

:rolmao: :rolmao: Actually laughed when I read it... Yes, I know what you mean! It's a pain in the and is very irritating, but how do I hang it up then. It's very solid though.

You get a length of steel string (shown in the picture), put a couple of hooks on the ends and use that to replace the bail arm, when you want to use it over a fire.

Couldn't be simpler.
:biggthump

 

[Ed]

2. Well, I'm not sure, but quite a bit - over a minute on a 0.5 litre boil. The reason I'm not sure,

I found the civi/commercial version heats up and goes into 'gas ring' mode alot quicker than the army version.

I believe gary picked up the stainless steel version in sweeden....... maybe ask some of our sweedish bretheren if they know of a supplier...

Ed

 

[SquirrelBoy]

Cheers Martyn, excellent info :biggthump

 

[Martyn]

I found the civi/commercial version heats up and goes into 'gas ring' mode alot quicker than the army version.

Definitely.

It's also smaller so allowed me to get all that stuff inside.

 

[Martyn]

...a bit more about the food element I've included. Basically, there is nothing in here to make a meal out of, without getting ingredients from elsewhere - but everything to make just about any ingredients palatable. I carry "food" in other bags, the mess kit is my backpack equivalent of my kitchen and contains food "suppliments" that are hard or impossible to find or substitute. If I am able to regularly catch rabbits and fish, with nothing more than water and the below spices, I will be eating tasty food for months.

From left to right, top to bottom...

Butter oil
Tabasco sauce
maple Syrup
Crushed, dried chillies
Mixed seasoning
Bag of salt
2x Knorr beef stock cubes (bullion cubes)
1x Veg stock cube
3 pieces of freezedried ginger
tube of white pepper
tube of curry powder
tube of garlic granules

Butter oil (ghee), or olive oil
Everything tastes better and goes down easier when it's fried. Would you eat ants eggs if you had to boil em? Butter oil also contains a HUGE calorific value all of it's own.

Tabasco sauce
Delicious on everything. Turns mash potato, rice, cous-cous, pot-noodles, soups & stews into something more palatable.

Maple Syrup.
I dont have sugar in tea or coffe so dont need a drink sweetener, but this stuff is great drizzled over BBQ'd chicken (or sqirrel/rabbit) and with a little seasoning, you have finger licking, sweat Chinese-style nuggets - yum. Nice for sweet stuff too - berries and breads and such.

Dried Chillies
Weighs almost nothing, makes anything into a curry or chillie. Enhances food (or completely masks it).

Mixed seasoning
My own recipie and is actually - garlic bread seasoning, sage, thyme, dried chillies, curry powder, cellery salt, garlic powder, citrus pepper and a few other things in varying proportions. You can add it to soups, stews, sprinkle on fish or over meat, on mash or boil with rice - it's all good.

Knorr stock cubes.
Better than OXO, because you can use bits of a cube and re-wrap the remainder for later. You dont need as much to get a good seasoning and delicious stock for your rabbit, fish or mushrooms.

Freeze dried ginger
With an almost indefinite shelf life, all you have to do is shave off a bit and crumble it in your fingers. The secret ingredient fdor all good indian and chinese food, it makes spicy food aromatic and hots it up a little. Add to flour to make ginger bread - with some berries and maple syrup - a nice sweet.

 

[hobbitboy]

Got one of these beaut's last week. Used it once so far to cook breakfast on when I was camping. Amazing bits of kit! Hail Sweden!!

 

[alick]

Martyn, any pointers on where to get small containers like yours (say 20ml-40ml) in decent quality. I use the smaller 60ml and 100ml nalgene bottles for oil and drinks concentrates, but need something smaller yet robust for spices and the like.

My mess kit is a collection of stainless odds and ends that don't stack, but which I like using. I fill each one with food etc so as not to waste space, then carry in a stuffsack. I use :

An MSR 750ml pan with lid and locking handle. I pack this with rice, packet soup, cous-cous, olive oil etc so that I always have a couple of meals in the kit.

A steel bowl and single wall mug (good quality seagull brand) - the bowl can be put on a fire or stove and used as a second pan, so I carry a pan grip. Cut down scouring pad and washing up liquid in a small contact lens solution bottle. Army style folding can opener too.

I usually carry a 110gm gas cartridge and stove too instead of the trangia burner. Either a himalaya easy fuel (best) or a minute folding stove like the crux. For a day trip, the small stove and an army mug is enough.

On longer trips, I take a rectangular nalgene bottle full of flour for making chapati's and simple campfire bread. I like vesta packet paella too - esp with a dash of worcestershire sauce. Take Paprika and yoghurt and you can make a hungarian goulash with any meat you carry or catch.

Cheers,

 

[Martyn]

Martyn, any pointers on where to get small containers like yours (say 20ml-40ml) in decent quality. I use the smaller 60ml and 100ml nalgene bottles for oil and drinks concentrates, but need something smaller yet robust for spices and the like.

I got mine from here... http://www.hi-peakleisure.co.uk/ they dont have an online thing, but are local tyo me so I just picked em up when I was in there. Food grade, nalgene or some such. About £4 quid for an assorted set of 5 bottles (2 with squeezy nozzles) and 2 tubs.

 

[alick]

Great ! Thanks Martyn, I'll check them out. :You_Rock_

 

[Kath]

Thanks Martyn - that's given me some good ideas for mine. Hadn't thought of using a sigg bottle for fuel and I'd noticed the plastic one that comes with the triangia takes up a lot of space. Now to see if I can fit that much in mine ... ?!?

Mind you doesn't it irritate having to unpack all the stuff out when you use it?? :?: