I dont know if this idea has been posted previously theres so much about Swedish Army cook sets on the site I couldnt read them all so with no sign after 5 pages I just scanned the headings of the remaining posts.
Necessity, is the mother of invention, so they say. It certainly prompted some R&D on my long serving Swedish Army Trangia/SVEA (SAT) set following a week of cold over-nighters a few months back.
Brought back into service after some disappointment with the Brit Army Hexe replacement even the SAT struggled to get up to heat quickly in the early hours even with internal fuel level set correctly and pre-heater trough in use (known issues with alcohol stoves in low temps!). The near freezing water drawn from a local source seemed to take ages to boil.
Discussion about ground heat-sink from the burner and insulation options followed. That resulted in acquisition/construction of an insulation mat made from a plumbers mat (B&Q £6) and a (stainless) preheat dish from a coffee container (Dunnelm £1.99) a perfect fit in the bottom of the windshield. Bloom and boil times became notably reduced. Hot beverages and boil-in-bags were knocked up more speedily.
Those mods (and plenty of time to talk during the task in hand) prompted the question of what else might be done to improve the SAT, driven by the question(s) - What-if?
What-if no alcohol?
Widely known (and practised?) the windshield can be used to burn heat any suitably combustible material, containing it and focusing the heat a practice made perhaps more acceptable with the stainless dish in situ to act as a base/ash pan.
What-if no Boil-in-bag(s)? Specifically what-if only raw, uncooked food is available?
One of the shortcomings of alcohol stoves is the limited degree of simmer control. The civvy version (Trangia) of the SVEA burner can be fitted with a purpose made simmer-ring and used to reasonable effect but it doesnt fit the larger military version. Yes, the Tatonka simmer ring does fit over the SVEA burner but in some cases doesnt adequately shut off the covered jets. A bloke on UToob suggests that this can cause thermal run-away and result in a dangerous overheating and conflagration of the alcohol in the burner. (The least that it does is use more fuel than necessary).
Of course you could resort to the use of natural material(s) in the windshield, if available/permissible etc but note that to cook a meat stew through you will need about an hours worth of fuel.
A potential alternative solution which provides a long duration simmer option, uses mostly existing SAT components, still fits within the pots and limits the draw on fuel was created as follows:
A spare burner lid for a mil burner was sourced; A jewellers alcohol stove was sourced; (Ebabe £11) The adjustable wick section was unscrewed; The top section of the jewellers stove fuel tank was cut out; A hole was cut in the mil burner spare lid and the adjustable wick section inserted and locked into place using the cut out tank section. An extra long wick was installed in the adjuster.
Cooking: The burner unit is used in the normal way to bring water (with veg) to the boil and to seal (fry) the meat in the SAT top pan (note the extra upper holes and tent peg supports through the wind shield for the top pan use and the extra holes in the base for tent peg supports to improve stability during cooking). With all ingredients brought (and kept) to high heat the burner is doused with the normal cap and ensuring that the flame is totally extinguished the wick burner/adjuster is screwed onto the SAT burner, lit and adjusted as appropriate. (Bottom tent pegs facilitate easy removal of windshield for changeover; additional windshield holes/pegs aid best position for wick/simmer setting).
It takes a little while for the (covered) pot to come back up to simmer but it will then happily bubble away. From one SAT burner filling a small stew (see below) was cooked (60+ minutes) and there was still fuel left in the burner.
The mods are fairly cheap; they dont affect the original use; they are compact; they can be used even when no natural fuel sources are available; use (should) leave no ground sign; the stove hardly needs be attended whilst in the simmer phase; the versatility of the SAT is extended. (After use the adjustable wick section is sealed in a plastic bag inside the pot during carriage).
Test meal ingredients: 250 millilitres of water; 300 grams meat (beef/lamb/rabbit etc); 3 small potatoes; carrot; 1 parsnip; ¼ turnip (Swede down south!); ½ small onion; 1 stock cube; ! tablespoon pearl barley; 1 teaspoon maize oil; 1 sachet of Marmite! Meat and veg were cubed and separate zip-lock bagged before departure. (The meat was rolled in flour).
IMHO this makes an already excellent field cook set even better.
If you click on a phot it should enlarge enough for you to read any captions.
Necessity, is the mother of invention, so they say. It certainly prompted some R&D on my long serving Swedish Army Trangia/SVEA (SAT) set following a week of cold over-nighters a few months back.
Brought back into service after some disappointment with the Brit Army Hexe replacement even the SAT struggled to get up to heat quickly in the early hours even with internal fuel level set correctly and pre-heater trough in use (known issues with alcohol stoves in low temps!). The near freezing water drawn from a local source seemed to take ages to boil.
Discussion about ground heat-sink from the burner and insulation options followed. That resulted in acquisition/construction of an insulation mat made from a plumbers mat (B&Q £6) and a (stainless) preheat dish from a coffee container (Dunnelm £1.99) a perfect fit in the bottom of the windshield. Bloom and boil times became notably reduced. Hot beverages and boil-in-bags were knocked up more speedily.
Those mods (and plenty of time to talk during the task in hand) prompted the question of what else might be done to improve the SAT, driven by the question(s) - What-if?
What-if no alcohol?
Widely known (and practised?) the windshield can be used to burn heat any suitably combustible material, containing it and focusing the heat a practice made perhaps more acceptable with the stainless dish in situ to act as a base/ash pan.
What-if no Boil-in-bag(s)? Specifically what-if only raw, uncooked food is available?
One of the shortcomings of alcohol stoves is the limited degree of simmer control. The civvy version (Trangia) of the SVEA burner can be fitted with a purpose made simmer-ring and used to reasonable effect but it doesnt fit the larger military version. Yes, the Tatonka simmer ring does fit over the SVEA burner but in some cases doesnt adequately shut off the covered jets. A bloke on UToob suggests that this can cause thermal run-away and result in a dangerous overheating and conflagration of the alcohol in the burner. (The least that it does is use more fuel than necessary).
Of course you could resort to the use of natural material(s) in the windshield, if available/permissible etc but note that to cook a meat stew through you will need about an hours worth of fuel.
A potential alternative solution which provides a long duration simmer option, uses mostly existing SAT components, still fits within the pots and limits the draw on fuel was created as follows:
A spare burner lid for a mil burner was sourced; A jewellers alcohol stove was sourced; (Ebabe £11) The adjustable wick section was unscrewed; The top section of the jewellers stove fuel tank was cut out; A hole was cut in the mil burner spare lid and the adjustable wick section inserted and locked into place using the cut out tank section. An extra long wick was installed in the adjuster.
Cooking: The burner unit is used in the normal way to bring water (with veg) to the boil and to seal (fry) the meat in the SAT top pan (note the extra upper holes and tent peg supports through the wind shield for the top pan use and the extra holes in the base for tent peg supports to improve stability during cooking). With all ingredients brought (and kept) to high heat the burner is doused with the normal cap and ensuring that the flame is totally extinguished the wick burner/adjuster is screwed onto the SAT burner, lit and adjusted as appropriate. (Bottom tent pegs facilitate easy removal of windshield for changeover; additional windshield holes/pegs aid best position for wick/simmer setting).
It takes a little while for the (covered) pot to come back up to simmer but it will then happily bubble away. From one SAT burner filling a small stew (see below) was cooked (60+ minutes) and there was still fuel left in the burner.
The mods are fairly cheap; they dont affect the original use; they are compact; they can be used even when no natural fuel sources are available; use (should) leave no ground sign; the stove hardly needs be attended whilst in the simmer phase; the versatility of the SAT is extended. (After use the adjustable wick section is sealed in a plastic bag inside the pot during carriage).
Test meal ingredients: 250 millilitres of water; 300 grams meat (beef/lamb/rabbit etc); 3 small potatoes; carrot; 1 parsnip; ¼ turnip (Swede down south!); ½ small onion; 1 stock cube; ! tablespoon pearl barley; 1 teaspoon maize oil; 1 sachet of Marmite! Meat and veg were cubed and separate zip-lock bagged before departure. (The meat was rolled in flour).
IMHO this makes an already excellent field cook set even better.
If you click on a phot it should enlarge enough for you to read any captions.
