Author Topic: Cycle touring minor problem solved  (Read 13316 times)

mmmmartin

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Cycle touring minor problem solved
« on: 13 March, 2015, 03:04:57 pm »
Compared with Tales from Wobbly John, this is a mere bagatelle, but it might be useful to the cycle campers among us so here goes:

Ex army mess tins are quite useful for cooking on and eating out of when cycle touring: they're light and take up very little space (cos they are square and you can fill them with other stuff). BUT they have no lids. When using the smaller one you can put the bigger on top but that doesn't work when using the bigger one, obvs.
So I made a lid for the bigger one from the lid of a biscuit tin, and added a sort of handle so you can take it off when it is hot (to see the grub inside).
Some pix are here - if anyone has a better way of making better lids i'd be delighted to have advice as this is a bit fragile.


here's the lid:
Besides, it wouldn't be audacious if success were guaranteed.

Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #1 on: 17 March, 2015, 09:35:30 am »
If I had a cheap source of them I'd be inclined to buy a second large one, trim down the sides to about 15mm, then gently expand them out, a bit of hammering, a bit of bending etc.  Might be difficult. Cutting slits at the corners would help I guess.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

LEE

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Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #2 on: 20 March, 2015, 09:58:05 am »
I tried Mess tins but quickly replaced them with a stackable non-stick pot/pan set.

I think they were named "Mess Tins" after someone tried to cook an egg in one.
Some people say I'm self-obsessed but that's enough about them.

mmmmartin

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Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #3 on: 20 March, 2015, 11:09:38 am »
Good point. These have been languishing in the attic for decades so I thought I'd give them a try. Rather annoyingly, after a friend gave me a much better lid - made from alu of the right thickness and bent to the correct shape, I bought a Trangia handle for a fiver to  use with the new lid, then spotted that for £12 I could have bought  a Vango set of non-stick mess tins. I'm sure the nonstick won't last long but for £12 they'd be replaced every few years.
TBH most "cooking" is merely boiling water, so the mess tins' advantage its their shape, which makes them really easy to pack into a pannier. Round pots are a bit of a nuisance in that regard
Besides, it wouldn't be audacious if success were guaranteed.

Mr Larrington

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Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #4 on: 20 March, 2015, 11:21:36 am »
And you can cram Stuffs more easily into a pair of mess tins than you can into a nest of Trangia kit.
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mmmmartin

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Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #5 on: 20 March, 2015, 05:54:32 pm »
The lure of the Vango non-stick mess tins proved irresistible. I'll try to let you know how long the non stick-ness lasts. At £12 they can be replaced every year if necessary. They would have been quite useful in Patagonia where I camped a lot during the seven week trip, and cooked for myself for s week at a time.
Besides, it wouldn't be audacious if success were guaranteed.

ElyDave

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Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #6 on: 10 November, 2015, 06:57:05 am »
most of the rations these days are boil in the bag vs the old tins.  That allows you to cook the main meal in the water you're boiling for the cup of tea at the same time as not making the "mess tins", which in my experience are a bugger to scrub clean.

Very much agree on the round vs square argument.  Carrying a demijohn in one pannier made it a bugger to get much else in.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

fuzzy

Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #7 on: 12 November, 2015, 08:22:22 pm »
Back in the day when I was issued mess tins food- cooking out in the boonies for the use of (1982-88), the worst thing was scrubbing the bastard hexamine fuel block residue from the outside. Even back in the day most rations were cookable in their tins so the mess tin was mainly used as a boiling vessel. Either that or put the ration tin on the exhaust manifold of the Land Rover or FV432 as a heat source.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #8 on: 26 November, 2015, 02:44:52 pm »
Back in the day when I was issued mess tins food- cooking out in the boonies for the use of (1982-88), the worst thing was scrubbing the bastard hexamine fuel block residue from the outside. Even back in the day most rations were cookable in their tins so the mess tin was mainly used as a boiling vessel. Either that or put the ration tin on the exhaust manifold of the Land Rover or FV432 as a heat source.

I have tales from my father (RAF 27 years, encompassing said period) of eating those tinned sausages in lard cold, because there was no time to cook them  :sick:

My favourite from my time in the air cadets was the mixed fruit pudding and the oatmeal blocks.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

mmmmartin

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Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #9 on: 27 November, 2015, 10:19:12 pm »
I liked the condensed milk in the tubes.
Besides, it wouldn't be audacious if success were guaranteed.

fuzzy

Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #10 on: 30 November, 2015, 11:32:43 am »
Back in the day when I was issued mess tins food- cooking out in the boonies for the use of (1982-88), the worst thing was scrubbing the bastard hexamine fuel block residue from the outside. Even back in the day most rations were cookable in their tins so the mess tin was mainly used as a boiling vessel. Either that or put the ration tin on the exhaust manifold of the Land Rover or FV432 as a heat source.

I have tales from my father (RAF 27 years, encompassing said period) of eating those tinned sausages in lard cold, because there was no time to cook them  :sick:

My favourite from my time in the air cadets was the mixed fruit pudding and the oatmeal blocks.

A proper case of the noms there :thumbsup: Especially the oatmeal blocks- digestive biscuits with attitude.

Personally, I loved the sachets of rolled oats- add a sachet of milk powder, a sachet of sugar (big compo sachet, not your girly coffee shop table sachet) sufficient hot water and neck it before the stand too call comes.

Another good thing was having chocolate Ovaltine in your pack for when the Mars bars were well past their best- i.e. gone white and crumbly. Knock up a black water bottle mugs worth of choccie Ovaltine or other hot choccie mix, cut mars bar into chunks and melt into the mix whilst heating. Another nom fest.

Also, having a jar of Mamrite in your pack. Spread on the garibaldi bisquits that came in the rations. Nomalicious.

fruitcake

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Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #11 on: 07 December, 2015, 10:02:38 am »
The Garibaldi is a far-under-rated biscuit. Much like the fig roll. My favourites.

Morat

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Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #12 on: 21 March, 2016, 03:30:04 pm »
I used to have my rations passed up to me in my turret, piping hot from the BV with the handle facing.
Standards don't just happen by themselves, you have to insist on them you know ;)
Everyone's favourite windbreak

fuzzy

Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #13 on: 21 March, 2016, 03:57:20 pm »
I used to have my rations passed up to me in my turret, piping hot from the BV with the handle facing.
Standards don't just happen by themselves, you have to insist on them you know ;)

Armoured Muppet?


Morat

  • I tried to HTFU but something went ping :(
Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #14 on: 21 March, 2016, 06:40:16 pm »
Armoured Infantry officially, but my level of muppetude was occasionally mentioned in passing ;-)
Everyone's favourite windbreak

fuzzy

Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #15 on: 22 March, 2016, 01:53:51 pm »
OK, Mechanised Infantry is excusable........

 ;D

Torslanda

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Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #16 on: 23 March, 2016, 12:25:01 am »
If you're making lids from mess tins then you could do worse than get an edge setting tool which will gently expand the edge of the lid and allow you to produce a tight fit.

Clarke do them for around £20. Expensive for a one off but if you're making a batch...
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Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #17 on: 13 May, 2016, 12:14:55 pm »
I was in the REME so generally cooked in the back of a Bedford MK.

fuzzy

Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #18 on: 14 May, 2016, 12:14:45 am »
It must have been a doozie of a burner to heat up a Bedford load bed :o

mmmmartin

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Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #19 on: 07 September, 2016, 04:36:24 pm »
The lure of the Vango non-stick mess tins proved irresistible. I'll try to let you know how long the non stick-ness lasts. At £12 they can be replaced every year if necessary.
Update: most of the "non-stick" coating floated off into the water I was boiling in it. This was the second time of using it, the first being when I fried a burger in it, then wiped it clean and put the water in. I think the coating comes out of you as it goes into you, as it were, and it is approved for food use or Vango wouldn't put in on their mess tins (surely?).
This happened at the start of a seven-week trip camping across Norway, and I was not best pleased, I can tell you. However I continued to use them, the coating gradually disappeared almost entirely and I fried burgers in them (never scrambled eggs though) and actually the tins were a quite useful size and I'd recommend them - apart from the fact that the coating comes off pretty quickly.
I took it back to the nice people at my local Cotswold and they gave me a credit to the value I paid for them. The chap there said he'd seen a few weeks ago someone else bring back a set after exactly the same thing happened.
I have spend a small fortune on this:
 http://www.seatosummit.co.uk/products/camp/cooking/x-set-21/
which fits into a very small space - I travelled with someone who had the 2.8 litre pot and he cooked generous meals for two of us in it.
This looks fantastic value though, I suspect Millets has very few customers prepared to spend this sort of money on camping kit, no matter how good it is:
http://www.millets.co.uk/equipment/201584-sea-to-summit-x-set-31.html/674623/?istCompanyId=b238823a-59fd-4816-9c36-7dd47877f2a8&istItemId=aiwitaplp&istBid=tztx&gclid=Cj0KEQjw9b6-BRCq7YP34tvW_uUBEiQAkK3svePk7uEbIVWc-P-I9ALWmFNIpeyHGxu16x142gkJGusaArrL8P8HAQ
Besides, it wouldn't be audacious if success were guaranteed.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Cycle touring minor problem solved
« Reply #20 on: 11 September, 2016, 10:33:32 pm »
Back in the day when I was issued mess tins food- cooking out in the boonies for the use of (1982-88), the worst thing was scrubbing the bastard hexamine fuel block residue from the outside. Even back in the day most rations were cookable in their tins so the mess tin was mainly used as a boiling vessel. Either that or put the ration tin on the exhaust manifold of the Land Rover or FV432 as a heat source.

I have tales from my father (RAF 27 years, encompassing said period) of eating those tinned sausages in lard cold, because there was no time to cook them  :sick:

My favourite from my time in the air cadets was the mixed fruit pudding and the oatmeal blocks.

A proper case of the noms there :thumbsup: Especially the oatmeal blocks- digestive biscuits with attitude.

Personally, I loved the sachets of rolled oats- add a sachet of milk powder, a sachet of sugar (big compo sachet, not your girly coffee shop table sachet) sufficient hot water and neck it before the stand too call comes.

Another good thing was having chocolate Ovaltine in your pack for when the Mars bars were well past their best- i.e. gone white and crumbly. Knock up a black water bottle mugs worth of choccie Ovaltine or other hot choccie mix, cut mars bar into chunks and melt into the mix whilst heating. Another nom fest.

Also, having a jar of Mamrite in your pack. Spread on the garibaldi bisquits that came in the rations. Nomalicious.

That was all sounding good until you mentioned marmite  :sick:

I seem to remember a ho chocolate in the packs, that was used to make chocolate rolled oats, crumble in a few garibaldis as well for raisin-iness
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens