Beginners guide to eating outdoors when cycle camping

[Julian]

Do you need a volunteer to be control group?

[jsabine]

oats - or at least most varieties - are in themselves GF, though they do contain a protein which can trigger an adverse reaction in a minority (<10%) of people with a gluten intolerance.

One day I'm going to lock myself in a room with a packet of chocolate hobnobs and do SCIENCE to find out if I'm one of the <10%.

While commending your spirit of scientific enquiry, hobnobs are about a quarter wheat flour. Not quite as much for chocolate ones (about a sixth: the chocolate's a quarter), but still - bastards.

#killjoy

[Wowbagger]

Do you need a volunteer to be control group?

Wouldn't that be more accurately described as a "Lack of Control Group"?

[nikki]

Do you need a volunteer to be control group?

Wouldn't that be more accurately described as a "Lack of Control Group"?

 

I'd need to replicate the results at least 3 times before I could draw any reliable conclusions. Julian, I'd have to trouble you for repeat experiments. Hope that's okay...

While commending your spirit of scientific enquiry, hobnobs are about a quarter wheat flour. Not quite as much for chocolate ones (about a sixth: the chocolate's a quarter), but still - bastards.

Ooh! The gits!

Anyway, I think I'm getting the hang of this outdoor cuisine now...

[Pedaldog.]

Bar of choklit is definitely NOT Glutton Free!

[nikki]

Bar of choklit is was definitely NOT Glutton Free!

 
Fixed that for you...

[Cudzoziemiec]

I realised that those microwave meals from stupormarkets can be quite easily tipped into a cooking pot and heated up over a stove. Kwikaneasy.

If however, you discover after tipping the pasta-filled cheesy delite into the pot that your matches are all damp and you can't light the stove, so end up eating it cold — for breakfast, too — then it really is disgusting.

[Kim]

I realised that those microwave meals from stupormarkets can be quite easily tipped into a cooking pot and heated up over a stove. Kwikaneasy.

Agreed.  Good for touring, when you don't want to have to cart ingredients that would otherwise last for multiple meals about with you, and minimises the washing up.

As for damp matches, always have a backup.  I tend to carry a firesteel with the stove and an emergency Mk 1 cigarette lighter in the toolkit, both of which seem greatly superior to matches.

[Vince]

Or just use the camp site's microwave.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Also, I've yet to find a successful use for the fork part of a spork.

[Butterfly]

Also, I've yet to find a successful use for the fork part of a spork.

Mini sporks are better - they don't have the serrated edge so are nicer to eat with. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

I think it comes down mostly to eating foods (while camping) which are just as easy to spoon as to fork (that's not meant to be a euphemism) and that even though a plastic spork is tough plastic, it's still plastic cutlery.

[JBB]

Also, I've yet to find a successful use for the fork part of a spork.

Takeaway fish and chips?

[Kim]

A true spork only has one end...

[Cudzoziemiec]

Also, I've yet to find a successful use for the fork part of a spork.

Takeaway fish and chips?

The BRITON'S true finger food.

[rodgers73]

Any idea how many pots of pasta I could cook on a Trangia using 500ml of meths? Ambient temp would be around 20 degrees C.

(I'm talking about enough for just me, not a family meal)

Appreciate there's an element of guesswork involved but have never cooked and camped for more than a day or two at a time and now I'm planning 2 weeks of it.

[Kim]

Any idea how many pots of pasta I could cook on a Trangia using 500ml of meths? Ambient temp would be around 20 degrees C.

Cook a pot of pasta and see how much fuel's left in the burner?

I can usually cook a pot of rice with about 2/3 of a burner full of fuel, but I'm failing to find a reference for the burner's capacity.

[rodgers73]

Just the standard Trangia burner. Not sure on its capacity but I'm assuming they're all the same?

[jsabine]

The Trangia FAQ is silent on burner capacity but reckons you should allow half a litre of meths per person per week in summer.

[Kim]

The Trangia FAQ is silent on burner capacity but reckons you should allow half a litre of meths per person per week in summer.

That sounds about right to me, at least if you're not making endless cups of tea.

[nikki]

I bought some of these a while back with the intention of trying them out as cycle camping food, but there's been no cycle camping. 
I have however been using them when I've needed lightweight foodstuffs on other trips  or just when I'm feeling hungry/lazy at home! 




Dehydrated rice - you pour some boiled water into the pouch with the flavour sachet, zip-lok it and come back several minutes later. It's not a huge portion - probably not up to evening appetites after a day or touring - but it might be a useful fall-back if you're somewhere remote or if you're doing something audaxy and just have a small stove for heating water (80g and you don't even need to pack a spork!).

Anyway, thought it might be a useful find to share. I get mine from the international bit of a nearby large Tesco.

[andrewc]

The Trangia FAQ is silent on burner capacity but reckons you should allow half a litre of meths per person per week in summer.

That sounds about right to me, at least if you're not making endless cups of tea.

I got through 2 & a bit litres on my last 4 week tour.   2 cups of tea in the morning, a meal & more tea in the evening.  Food was usually a pot of rice, pot of veg & some type of fried meat.   

[Cudzoziemiec]

The Trangia FAQ is silent on burner capacity but reckons you should allow half a litre of meths per person per week in summer.

That sounds about right to me, at least if you're not making endless cups of tea.

About a litre every four days for me, then. 

[triker131]

Thanks for the meths consumption estimates.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a julienne cutter from Lakeland, http://www.lakeland.co.uk/15806/Lakeland-SharpPeel-Julienne-Peeler £3.49 on offer. So far we've only used it at home on carrots and courgettes and it is very good at reducing these into thin strips.

I'm going to take it with me on the next camping trip as I think it will be very good for prepping veg for soups and sauces - the sort of thing discussed at length further up this thread. I doesn't weigh much, is pretty small to pack, is very fast and is low skill to use - for me it compares favourably to using a knife and chopping board (and does a much more even job than my ham fisted efforts with a knife. I realise it is less versatile than a knife and board in competent hands. Would also be good for coleslaw type salads. Will try it on some other veg and update. Also it is easy to rinse off/wash up.

No affiliation with Lakeland etc., just a customer.

[trekker12]

Any idea how many pots of pasta I could cook on a Trangia using 500ml of meths? Ambient temp would be around 20 degrees C.

Cook a pot of pasta and see how much fuel's left in the burner?

I can usually cook a pot of rice with about 2/3 of a burner full of fuel, but I'm failing to find a reference for the burner's capacity.

118.12ml If I remember rightly from a marathon session of Youtube watching whilst deciding which size Trangia to buy (see other thread). I'm afraid I can't link to the Youtube (and it was a bit dull anyway) through my work firewall to confirm this for certain.