I just thought I'd try a brew from my Trangia kettle after years in storage.... blech it was gopping !

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All research costs money, whom were they paid by? ;)

Can you imagine the court cases and claims against corporatios and governments if a link was proved? Much more convenient if it just quietly disappears from mainstream cookware, exactly like it has done....
 
Ah, so scientists making a guess as to cause and effect is to be believed as a fact forevermore. But lots of follow up scientists trying to prove it and failing to do so, is not. Got it. Of course, for balance, you should probably wonder if Big Stainless funded the initial research...

Seriously, mate, take off the aluminium foil hat - wearing it really does do bad things to your brain.
 
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No, shan't. I know that aluminium is highly reactive, and there have been some slight doubts about it's safety within the body when ingested. If you choose to put your trust in funded science fair enough, please don't be demeaning when I choose not to.

The fact the kettle in this post managed to undergo a chemical reaction of some sort in storage is good proof of what a stupid material choice it is for food use....
 
You've moved the goal posts; from aluminium causing Alzheimer's to "some slight doubts about its safety". I challenged the understanding of the first belief. You've also chosen to put your faith in science that was presumably also funded by someone, but want me to consider that a relevant argument for one against the other. So, yeah, I think I'm done here. Have a good weekend.
 
I think from what I have learned I should be more careful of plastics in storage given what can leach out of plastics when they age or are subjected to conditions the plastic is not particular designed to exist in.

Seeing as I tend not to leave my trangia spirit burner ' fuelled up ' when it's stored away inside the kettle the only reason I bag it is to stop it rattling about and beating the hell out of the inside of the kettle, that being perhaps I just need to knock up a natty little pouch to store the thing in, perhaps a waxed cotton pouch to catch any spirit burner residue as I tend not to tighten caps down in storage due to the potential for corrosion thread binding.

As to aluminium, given I don't use aluminium for my day to day cooking, I figure the occasional use of it is not going to be a problem but if I can find a better material to replace my Trangia raw aluminium, I might go that way.

I know it appears not to be avaible for the Trangia kettle, but does anyone know anything about the Tangia hard anno cookware or even the Duossal?
 
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I know it appears not to be avaible for the Trangia kettle, but does anyone know anything about the Tangia hard anno cookware or even the Duossal?
Both have a strong following. I prefer Duossal as you can use a stainless scourer if needs be, a bit more durable and likely to last forever. It's a bit heavier- but Trangias are not exactly a lightweight setup anyway. As mentioned, there are plenty of Trangia sized good looking well made stainless kettles available for the £8-9 mark, which incidently is about what you can make on ebay selling off an old aluminium Trangia kettle.... But as you say, you're only using it occasionally, so unlikely to cause a lot of harm even if it has the potential to.

Duossal pan and perfectly nesting stainless kettle:
IMG-20250906-155041-HDR.jpg



You've moved the goal posts; from aluminium causing Alzheimer's to "some slight doubts about its safety". I challenged the understanding of the first belief. You've also chosen to put your faith in science that was presumably also funded by someone, but want me to consider that a relevant argument for one against the other. So, yeah, I think I'm done here. Have a good weekend.

Alzheimer's, safety, goalposts can be wherever you like. Perhaps it just causes rudeness? Or perhaps the science people are right and it doesn't cause Alzheimers. What other health problems does it cause which it hasn't yet been linked to though? I simply don't trust it, especially given the uses it has in medicine in relation to the immune and nervous system. It can't be denied it's quietly disappeared from most cookware.
 
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I have melted the backside out of an aluminium pan on a campfire...was not fun.

I like the lightness, the ease of care, etc., but, it's a pain to cook on. Fine, really fine on a regulated stove if the pan has a laminated base. Otherwise, no, it's so beyond not worth the effort.
The only caveat is that I have both an aluminium girdle (it even says that on the bottom, girdle made in England) well, I did, Son1 nicked it when he moved out 'cos it didn't fit properly on my cooker. It's now over seventy years old (was my Mother in law's ) and he still makes pancakes on it...but it's thick, thick aluminium....and I have an old pressure cooker made of aluminium too. It's an annoyance to clean, inside always looks stained, especially if I've been making something with fruit.

Other than that, I have laminated base stainless steel and cast iron.....even my replacement girdle is cast iron.

I find myself more concerned with the fact that silicon from non stick cookwear is now found in virtually everybody....and everything they haul up in nets from the sea.

 
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From what I remember the surface of aluminium is that it is kind of porous so will pick up colour as that is anodising works but usually after anodising the surface is somehow sealed, I forget how. As to hard anodising, I don't know the process involved in that or how it compares to just bog standard anno
 
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even my replacement girdle is cast iron.

Mine was given me by a (ex land army) neighbour, who inherited it... Used in the Welsh valleys with plenty of age to it!


@Silverclaws2 Aluminium quickly forms a skin of aluminium oxide, which is inert. The issue is when this is abraded, or removed by acidic food.

Anodising is a way of producing a thicker layer in a controlled way, and results in an open structure which dyes can lodge in. Hard anodizing is more durable still, but results in a different structure which is difficult to dye.

It makes a safe cooking surface, is lightweight but needs to be looked after, in terms of avoiding metal utensils and abrasive cleaning. Stainless as in Duossal will take all manner of abuse.
 
With an act of heroism beyond description @Pattree choked back any comment on his fellow correspondent’s aluminium and cast iron girdles.

Edited to grovel.
Apparently a griddle can be called a girdle!!
 
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Mine was given me by a (ex land army) neighbour, who inherited it... Used in the Welsh valleys with plenty of age to it!


@Silverclaws2 Aluminium quickly forms a skin of aluminium oxide, which is inert. The issue is when this is abraded, or removed by acidic food.

Anodising is a way of producing a thicker layer in a controlled way, and results in an open structure which dyes can lodge in. Hard anodizing is more durable still, but results in a different structure which is difficult to dye.

It makes a safe cooking surface, is lightweight but needs to be looked after, in terms of avoiding metal utensils and abrasive cleaning. Stainless as in Duossal will take all manner of abuse.
Yeah I noticed in the case of the frying pan the duossal is near three times the cost of the raw alloy pan with hard anno coming not far behind, where seeing as my little ' 27 frying pan is not in the best shape....I had had it 30 years and some things are not shape they started out as.
 
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"Oh I found aluminium in a Alzheimer victim's brain, it must be the cause"... did you check any others "oh no I did not have any real control subjects"...."oh look there is aluminium every everybody's brain" Yeah but lets not let science get in the way of a scare story!
 
I suspect that it's seen to be like lead.....which we now know not to use for drinking vessels, or paint that kids might chew upon (edges of cots, etc.,)
 
Yeah I noticed in the case of the frying pan the duossal is near three times the cost of the raw alloy pan with hard anno coming not far behind, where seeing as my little ' 27 frying pan is not in the best shape....I had had it 30 years and some things are not shape they started out as.
This Thous Winds stainless 600ml kettle fits inside the 27 set OK. I use the 25 aluminium kettle and have no worries about it but I cook using the non stick or HA pots because it’s easier.


IMG_3454.jpeg
 
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Must agree with Mr. Budd that kettles left to be colonized by spiders can take some effort to get back to serviceable condition. I think the key is not leaving things in storage for years, but getting out and using them.

When I'm at home I use a Trangia kettle every morning on the wood-burner to boil the wife's first few mugs of tea. Being small it boils quicker than a domestic kettle and the wife tends to be tetchy until I've ladled a couple of mugs of tea down her. When the urgency has passed I switch to the 2.5 litre domestic kettle. Anyway after making the first pot of tea the Trangia sits on the cooker until next morning and usually doesn't do anything else. Been doing this for at least twenty years, and although I'm not especially sensitive to things like tainted water you can take it from me that if there was the slightest hint of it I'd have heard all about it long before now...
 
@ged
You must be in a very soft water region.
Seven Tent water mixes with three of sand to make concrete!

When we moved here fifty years ago there was a low profile kettle left on the Rayburn and it was half full of line scale; literally inches thick.

I totally agree with little kettles for quick drinks and big kettles for larger projects such as washing up or filling the steamer.
 

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