Pathfinder canteen set

[captainhastings]

So I recently picked up the canteen set.
The stove the cup thing the water canteen.
Slightly puzzled how you use it all. So you heat up your curry in the mug. You want cup of coffee so you could boil the water in the canteen but if it’s full you’re going to have to boil the lot when you only want a cup full. Or you have to wash out the cup you just cooked your curry in some how which will mean wasting water. Am I missing something thing ? Also if you want cow boy coffee that throws another spanner in the works. Either way you at least need a mug

 

[HillBill]

It can do many things. It doesn't mean its supposed to do them all at the same time.

Cook your curry... while eating, boil your water, use some boiled water to clean your mug.. make a brew with the rest? Its not supposed to be a range cooker.

 

[Chris]

Boil in the bag or freeze dried meals are the best option here. Food heats up in the bag and you eat it out of the bag so that you don’t get your mug dirty.

 

[TeeDee]

So I recently picked up the canteen set.
The stove the cup thing the water canteen.
Slightly puzzled how you use it all. So you heat up your curry in the mug. You want cup of coffee so you could boil the water in the canteen but if it’s full you’re going to have to boil the lot when you only want a cup full. Or you have to wash out the cup you just cooked your curry in some how which will mean wasting water. Am I missing something thing ? Also if you want cow boy coffee that throws another spanner in the works. Either way you at least need a mug

I think this will become clearer with practice - its an admin / process skill , you'll over time learn what you need and in what order and what the most efficient way to achieve that.

HillBills comment about it not being a Range cooker did make me laugh - but thinking more about it its more about using the tool you now have in a variety of smaller ways to achieve that larger outcome - and its more about admin skills and honing down a series of actions.

That all makes it sound abit science based - its just adapting to a simple system.

 

[captainhastings]

Thanks for the info folks I will give it a go. I have a trangia 25 but it’s a different ball game and size

 

[Ozmundo]

Add a large Wildo folda cup. This can fit over the canteen lid and under lid of whatever pouch you keep it in. Failing that in with the food.

I usually carry plastic canteens so boil and cook in the metal cup. Heat water, decant some into the foldacup for a brew. Stick boil in the bag/pasta into the metal cup, 8-10 minutes cooking whilst drinking tea.

As a system it does work better for boil in the bag or pre-made stuff, I have freezer bags of spagbol portioned out.

I’ve occasionally used the stove top to grill but I’d rather carry a frying pan and do bacon egg and sausage that way.

I have yet to try baking biscuits or bread in the cup but there are guides on the internet.

 

[Falstaff]

Most of the smaller systems seem to be based on/envisages boil in the bag meals. All well and good, but I'm a bit wary of what chemicals are coming off the plastic bag, that I then drink in my coffee with the boiled water. Same issue with the non-stick pots and pans that proliferate now, and aluminium. I try to stick to stainless steel but sometimes needs must.

 

[Ozmundo]

You don’t drink the water you boil an MRE etc in. It’s usually in the instructions not to. Much like not cooking tinned food in the can.

Brew up first.

I boil about 2/3 mug, 1/3 then goes for drinking and the remainder is about right depth for most boil in the bag meals.

Now I must get out a Prince’s chicken curry & rice. Needs extra spicing though!

 

[Harold Godwinson]

Wow seems I've been doing it wrong these last 43 years... But now I've read what an expert thinks I will have to, ignore it and carry on as I always have... 35200 BAOR troopers can't all be wrong

 

[TeeDee]

Wow seems I've been doing it wrong these last 43 years... But now I've read what an expert thinks I will have to, ignore it and carry on as I always have... 35200 BAOR troopers can't all be wrong

Don't sit on the fence.

 

[Chris]

You don’t drink the water you boil an MRE etc in. It’s usually in the instructions not to. Much like not cooking tinned food in the can.

Brew up first.

I boil about 2/3 mug, 1/3 then goes for drinking and the remainder is about right depth for most boil in the bag meals.

Now I must get out a Prince’s chicken curry & rice. Needs extra spicing though!

We always used to and it hasn’t done me any harm.

*squawks like a bird*

Regarding the cooking in a tin, is the food not already cooked in the tin at the factory? Or is it about not heating it directly on a fire?

 

[Herman30]

A food tin is not supposed to be heated up so do anybody have any idea what the heat does to the lining inside the tin? I sure don´t. Never have and never will heat tin can of food. If heating is required then empty the can in a pot first and then heat up.

 

[Pattree]

There have been trips long long ago where “cooking” consisted of sticking an open tin of beans on a Camping Gaz stove and stirring. It usually resulted in an interesting culinary gradient from cold beans at the top, warmer as you dug down to the burned layer. We survived!

I don’t know the Pathfinder set but it sounds as if the decisions required are similar to those for us who use the M40/44 mess kit. Just carrying a separate mug solved all my problems.
Or
Give me a Kelly Kettle with its two nesting mugs and I’m away.

Anyone who has a kit that they enjoy working with has their own way of using it. It’s an experiential mystery voyage of discovery.

The only rule is that there shall be no rules.

Edited to add:


I hadn’t realised that the Pathfinder, is a copy of the M40/44.

What’s the problem??? I don’t use boil in the bay food, I cook from scratch. Protein, sausage, curry etc in the smaller pan first.
Carbs in the big pan - spuds, rice, pasta. . Little pan on top of big one keeps protein hot. At the appropriate time other veg layered on top of the spuds. Job done.
Brew before or after or between protein and carbs - water in big pan.

So many choices increased by a little Kuksa. Alternatively the well known folding 6dl kuksa fits perfectly when folded upside down into the top of the big pan for transport. Takes up virtually no room.

Pee Ess,
Only curious
Just noticed that the Pathfinder big pan has two strengthening ridges like the aluminium 44. Is the steel thinner than the original. SS M40 has one ridge.

 

[Ozmundo]

It may be like “don’t eat from Aluminium , it will poison you” which was from an outdated study.

My younger colleges were taught specifically not to consume the water from boiling their ration packs because of residue on the outside of the packet.
Meanwhile my old mate “I remember the Berlin airlift” probably eats the packaging too. Possibly this helps to suppress his brain tapeworm.

I thought the tinned food was cooked in it at the plant. But this may not be how its done now.

Modern tins are lined with plastic/bpa. This can get into the food if the tin is heated. There is also the potential to leach metal/chromium into the food.
I don’t know if this is all tins or what the probability is. I’ve got a metal cook pot so may as well use it.

 

[Falstaff]

I often use an old sweetcorn tin with carpet tape on the drinking edge. On short stops I put it on the hexy/other cooker for hot brew water. It's over 20 years old now and does not seem to ever had any plastic lining like many modern tins. I like using it because it fits over the end of my Sigg bottle with space for bits like a lighter, it all fits in a single side pouch just right.