Trangia + Clickstand - Heat Spreader

[Wayland]

One of the things I had an issue with on my recent trip was the Trangia burning anything that I tried to actually cook.

Great for snowball soup but a pain for anything else.

I decided it needed a heat spreader of some kind so that is what I have set out to make.

Using the base of an old stainless steel dish I folded the edges over with a vice and a hammer before drilling a few holes.

The slots to register the plate on the stove are three holes drilled in line and then tidied up with a file. This leaves a gap of few millimetres between the plate and the bottom of the pan.

For a quick test I just used my Eagle kettle because it is the same size as the pots I use and it was handy.

(Before any smart Alec jumps in to tell me, I know I don't need a spreader for boiling water, it was just a test.)

Nothing like conclusive evidence but the heat certainly appears more even. No hot spot generating all the bubbles.

I'll try it more this weekend coming and let you know how I get on with it.

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Good simple idea.

 

[MartinK9]

Thanks for sharing.

Look forward to hearing about the results.

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Just thinking about this, is it worth exploring a simmer cap re-design ? A cap that covers a 1/4 of the holes, in a star pattern that reduces the heat down and prevents the coning effect to the middle ?

 

[ged]

The two things I don't like about the Trangia-style burners are that they have a very limited fuel capacity and very poor, if any, adjustability. In addition in my experience the civvy one always leaks, although the military one has always been fine. Having said that I like and use them a lot. If the wife's away I'll use one in the kitchen rather than using the electric hob.

If you're going to use a Trangia burner then I find you have to choose ingredients and the method of assembling them to suit the burner. Boil-in-the-bag works of course, but it can be a little expensive and/or not especially appealing and you can't always find what you want. Not being very creative in the kitchen I more or less stick to one main recipe that I know will work with my Swedish army setup with no drama, and add a little variety by ringing the changes with things like hot sauce, mustard, stock cubes and so on.

The basic ingredients are some vegetables (preferably pre-cooked, e.g. canned) heated to boiling in water, then add corned beef or something similar to get what I can only describe as a slushy mush which will probably need a lot of stirring if it isn't to singe a little at the bottom and the edges. By now you should be backing off the heat with the simmer ring (if you have one) to practically nothing, or having the fuel burn out, or removing the pan from the heat. Add cous-cous and seasoning to taste. My taste is until it sets solid, and very spicy. Cous-cous doesn't need any cooking, so after adding it I just wait until it's all cool enough to eat, which is enough time for the cous-cous to absorb all the water from the slushy mush.

I called it 'assembling' because no-one could really claim that it's really 'cooking', but it's quick, hot and tasty, it contains plenty of calories and it isn't burnt.

You can use the small fuel capacity or the Trangia burner to advantage by planning for it to run out before you get to the burnt dinner stage. Although the military version of the burner doesn't have a simmer ring you can use its relatively slow time to bloom to advantage. You can make a simmer ring of sorts for it from a scrap of tin can, or a bit of aluminium or some other bit of junk. If you get it right -- just experiment -- it will stop the burner blooming at all (military or civvy version) and give a very small flame which won't burn food so easily.

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

The real trangia has a high step for the frying pan, which obviously reduces heat. I think the whole point is to manipulate the heat rather than actually not adjust what he is cooking.

 

[Wayland]

Yes you are right there. I prefer to eat real food when I'm out as well as when I'm home.

The Trangia is not my first choice for the job but on the Norway trip I had no choice for some of it.

It's very difficult making a decent sauce with a hot spot right in the middle of the pan and simmering, even with the simmer cap was just a joke so having the sheet just under the pan should produce a hot plate effect I hope.

 

[Wayland]

Worked quite well this weekend. Made a one pot lasagne type thing which only stuck a little round the edges.

I have some thoughts on slight improvements so I'll post up when that is done.

 

[Tiley]

I really like the simplicity of this idea. I have to admit that I only really use the Trangia for boiling water when I'm out and about but this might well provide an effective solution which might push me to being more adventurous with my wilderness cooking...

I'm looking forward to further updates and refinements!

 

[memorire]

Hi Wayland, this is a nice idea.

I have been using a similar trick, but instead of doing a separate piece of kit I just used the Tatonka stainless steel pan. I put it on the Trangia, and then my Stowaway pot in it. It worked great. But it makes sense to make such a spreader, in case I don't want to lug an extra pan with me...

 

[rik_uk3]

Just thinking about this, is it worth exploring a simmer cap re-design ? A cap that covers a 1/4 of the holes, in a star pattern that reduces the heat down and prevents the coning effect to the middle ?

The simmer ring works very well IF you use it with the Trangia setup. The Trangia windshield does a superb job and keeps the heat evenly spread and to be honest the only food I found that sticks is fried food in the aluminium frying pan; I use a non stick one now.

I admire Wayland's efforts but the clickstand is really only good for boiling up water; dressing it up won't help a lot IMHO.

Wayland, I've got a Clas Olson you can have free, its a spare and never used, PM me and I'll post it on to you; you'll get better results with it.

 

[Wayland]

Thanks for the offer Richard but I think I'm fairly sorted with this now.

The hot plate worked well as it is but I have a couple of ideas to just tweak the efficiency a bit.

It's mainly to do with altering the hole sizes to let more heat though towards the edge instead of spilling it around the side.

 

[Fin]

Thanks for the offer Richard but I think I'm fairly sorted with this now.

The hot plate worked well as it is but I have a couple of ideas to just tweak the efficiency a bit.

It's mainly to do with altering the hole sizes to let more heat though towards the edge instead of spilling it around the side.

I think your on the right track with this.

I think the key to the real trangia design is in the bowl shaped pots and wind shield which spread the flame a bit more evenly (hence no sticking when using the pots/ bowls) but sticking when using the flat base frying pan. That, and the fact that the aluminium pots spread the heat more evenly.

A lot of us use the trangia burner (or other equivalents) in modified set ups (like the clickstand or hobo stoves, for example) and flat bottomed, stainless steel billys/ pots - hence the centre hotspot.

I think progressively larger holes towards the edge will have it cracked!

Looking forward to your progress with this - which, like all the best ideas, looks like a simple and elegant solution.

 

[jacko1066]

Thanks for the offer Richard but I think I'm fairly sorted with this now.

The hot plate worked well as it is but I have a couple of ideas to just tweak the efficiency a bit.

It's mainly to do with altering the hole sizes to let more heat though towards the edge instead of spilling it around the side.

Hi Wayland,
great idea mate, quick queston for you, do you think the top plate on the 2011 Honey stove would work in the same way
as your heat spreader? I bought one a couple of weeks ago but not had a chance to use it yet, but as its built to be used with a trangia stove Im intending on buying one (or the tatonka burner) but I also have the swedish army trangia and found exactly the same problem, excellent at boiling water and boilin the bag foods but prttey pants for proper cooking, even with the addition of the Tatonka simmer ring which fits the army Trangia it still doesnt cook to well.
All the best
Steve

 

[Wayland]

I really don't know the Honey stove that well.

Put some pictures up of what you mean and I might be able to make a guess.

 

[jacko1066]

The top plate can be moved down on Any of the 5 slots on the side, so what I was thinking is of I put the top plate on the slots just above the trangia, maybe on the 2nd slots down, with the burner inside the honey stove, it would act as a flame spreader.
What do you think?
Cheers
Steve

 

[Wayland]

It might work but I found my hot spot was mostly in the centre, so I don't know if that would shield that area enough to make much difference.

Mine seems to work by being heated up and then transferring that more even heat to the pot just above it.

 

[andybysea]

Jacko1066 try and use the wood burner plate at bottom in your pic,the other plates warp abit with heat,the wood burner plate is slightly heavier gauge and has the holes in a better postion.