Edible firelighters.

Jul 24, 2017
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somerset
There are all sorts of tips about using food in various ways, which don't appear in recipe books.
If you have trouble getting up in the morning early for work, take a little Brewers Yeast and a teaspoonful of Kiwi Boot Polish. Mix them together and spread on a cream cracker and eat it, just before you go to bed...


Tastes really foul but it makes you rise and shine... :thumbsup:
Boot polish! = :dead: no??
 
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Janne

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Feb 10, 2016
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The Swedish Army had thick lipstick sized containers with a fat/bees wax mixture.
It had some vitamins added. Primary use was to protect lips, skin.
Excellent also to waterproof boots, and use as fuel in the Trangia ( after a tiny modification of the burner.
Plus, emergency energy food.
 

GuestD

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Feb 10, 2019
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Absolutely!

For best effect though, you need to give the diesel time to soak into the ground properly, you get a gentler flame.

no you need old engine oil for that, preferably out of a Perkins or Gardner diesel.
 
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66jj99

Full Member
Dec 22, 2011
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Bristol
on topic, Brazil nuts, walnuts and Macadamia nuts all burn well. A Brazil can be used as a candle by carving to a point.

Think peanuts for example are about 50% fat.

I didn't realise till recently that both sorts of calories/Calories are measurements of heat energy.

1 is what it takes to increase the temperature of a gram / kilogram of water by 1 degree C.

Food used to be flambed to work out the calorific content.

Interestingly, Calor is the word them Romans and everyone used to use when they said "heat"..
 

Robson Valley

On a new journey
Nov 24, 2014
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Have you got "Cheezies" cheap orange snack food? They make good candles but they stink.
Even stale crisps, as you call them, are a potent & greasy fire starter.

As one 'science' calorie raises the temperature of 1 g water by 1degree Celsius.
It's pointless to waste the energy to boil water. Get it up to 80-90C is OK.
BUT, it takes a whopping 540 calories to evaporate a gram of water.
For a hot drink, get the water steaming not boiling and your fuel supply will last a lot longer.
 

Hammock_man

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May 15, 2008
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kent
Get it up to 80-90C is OK
Never Sir, Never I say... water must be 212 degrees for tea. Good Lord man, we will never make a Damm Good No.1 Char Wallha out of you. Steal the fuel from the next pich if you have to, burn the memsahib's bloomers if one must but 212 it is.
 
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Robson Valley

On a new journey
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Well then, burn the wickets off the pitch. Boiling is enegetically very expensive.
Exactly the same arithmetic kills you quite dead with hypothermia.
 

Janne

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Feb 10, 2016
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You guys are confusing the German Fahrenheit with the Swedish Celsius...

212 F = 100 C.

Should not tea be steeped in water just below boiling?
You tea drinking Brits are the experts!

Coffee should be brewed in water as hot as possible, preferably in pressurised water/ steam above 100C.
 
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Hammock_man

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212 real hot points is the "same" as those new fangled 100 "the earth is round" sissy international points. AND yes I will grant you "just below boiling" but 210 and no less.

( my life, this thread has taken a very strange direction..... even for me !!)
 
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Janne

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Celsius ( Centigrade really) were invented when the German was still weeing his bed!

I used to pour boiling water on top of my tea leaves, but got told off and informed that I was a stupid barbarian by my Scottish dental nurse the first ir secind day I worked in UK

I think this thread started weird, and has become ‘normal’ .
 

oldtimer

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Sep 27, 2005
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On the tea/coffee temperature debate.

I recommend Francis Galton's "Art of Travel, or Shifts and Contrivances in Wild Countries",first published in 1855 and revised and updated 1872. Page 208-211 discusses his experiments in brewing good tea.

If you haven't already come across this book you are missing a treat. Galton was a cousin of Charles Darwin, an explorer of the old school and with the leisure to experiment. The book originated from his realisation that travellers developed their own solutions to common problems and that it would be a good idea to share them - bit like BushcraftUK! His interests parallel ours and you will find many familiar topics in its pages.

I have a hardback copy which is a 1971 reprint by David and Charles and it is also available on Kindle.
 

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