View Full Version : cleaning cooking gear
stillbill
12-26-2008, 12:29
We have disposable Handi Wipes for hands. Is there such a product for cleaning cooking utensils and pots? Thanks, Stillbill
budforester
12-26-2008, 13:30
River silt? Scouring rush? Pine straw? ScotchBrite pads are good scrubbers and can be rinsed out for re- use... Sometimes... Mostly rinsed.
I just use my finger and lick it off. I drink my gray water as well. Sanitized on the next boil.
If you cook with freezer bags there is no clean up except your cup.
I don't recommend this for someone who doesn't already do it but I rarely actually wash my cooking pot. I lick my spoon off and scrape my pot clean and a few hours I'm boiling it when I cook my next meal. When it's handy I'll rinse it out. When I'm in town I'll wash it out.
skinewmexico
12-26-2008, 14:47
I drink my gray water as well. Sanitized on the next boil.
Wow, you're the man! I'm nominating you for the Les Stroud award!
There was a class at the gathering where a doctor spoke. He said you should wash your cookwear with warm water and soap just like you do at home in order to prevent illness.
Panzer
Lone Wolf
12-26-2008, 15:50
doctors don't always know best
Pedaling Fool
12-26-2008, 17:12
What's the warm water going to do, if it's not hot enough to keep you from putting your hands in the water it's not going to kill the germs/bacteria. Only scolding water will do that. Damn doctors don't know nothing.
What's the warm water going to do,
Just guessing that the heat melts away fats and oils..
Panzer
I don't recommend this for someone who doesn't already do it but I rarely actually wash my cooking pot. I lick my spoon off and scrape my pot clean and a few hours I'm boiling it when I cook my next meal. When it's handy I'll rinse it out. When I'm in town I'll wash it out.
Ditto. Occasionally, if food is really sticky, I'll scrub the pot with an old onion bag. Just enough scouring power and won't scratch any finish. Oh, yes, they're free, too! :banana
doctors don't always know best
Agreed. Everyone knows that boiling water kills everything, given enough time. If you don't rinse the soap off your dishes well enough you're more likely to get sick than if you use the "scrape and boil next meal" style.
Pedaling Fool
12-26-2008, 17:35
Just guessing that the heat melts away fats and oils..
Panzer
Not in my experience. Tell that doctor to go back to school:D
Started my thru with a little cleaning kit to use to clean my cooking pot. It was one of the first items I got rid of. After eating from the pot I just scraped it as clean as I could with my spoon, put a little water in the pot and scrubed it with my finger. When I went to a hostel or motel I would scrub it good with soap and water. Never got sick so I guess that method works. At least it worked for me.:-?
Everyone knows that boiling water kills everything, given enough time...
Yea, if you have enough fuel to boil for 3 minutes.
Panzer
FFFFRRRRRREEEEZZZZEEEERRRRR BBBBAAAAGGGGSSSSS. NO clean up no mess.
Lone Wolf
12-26-2008, 21:02
FFFFRRRRRREEEEZZZZEEEERRRRR BBBBAAAAGGGGSSSSS. NO clean up no mess.
that ain't cookin'. that's lazy bs.
If you cook with freezer bags there is no clean up except your cup.
Freezer bags aren't free -- neither economically, nor, environmentally. They cost money. Use non renewable resources. And pollute, however, they are disposed. Yes, they are convenient for those who toss them in the woods, recognizing that in a thousand of years or so they will have deteriorated.
Wise hikers will recognize that the deterioration will take four times longer than this nation has been a nation.
Everyone else should carry freezer bags that have doubled as cook pots until they leave the trail, where they can be disposed off properly -- most likely in a land fill where they will deteriorate in a millennia or two.
If left in one of the few towns with a proper disposal system they will be burned in an electricity generator, providing electricity that is at least, marginally useful.
Weary
Nothing like drinking out of a spring that has a bunch of noddles in it where people have been washing their bowls. Besides you dont use freezer bags at home? Of coarse you do. What about all the other stuff you use at home that take 1,000,000,000,000,000 years to decompose? I get tired of hearing people slamming other people about the enviroment but yet they truly do nothing about it. Stop being hypocrites. Weary sorry I dont really know you hopefully you do recycle and pocket mulch.
Nothing like drinking out of a spring that has a bunch of noddles in it where people have been washing their bowls. Besides you dont use freezer bags at home? Of coarse you do. What about all the other stuff you use at home that take 1,000,000,000,000,000 years to decompose? I get tired of hearing people slamming other people about the enviroment but yet they truly do nothing about it. Stop being hypocrites. Weary sorry I dont really know you hopefully you do recycle and pocket mulch.
Thanks for the illustration of how the "Leave No Trace" message has failed to reach most hikers.
Freezer bags are virtually pure petroleum. I pop those that I use for freezing my garden crops into my ancient wood stove. It's a great system. I freeze in the summer, when no significant heat is needed. I eat the vegetables in the winter when the bags provide valuable energy. As oil and wood get more expensive, I tend to burn (think recyle) all the BTUs I can get.
Weary
Yea, if you have enough fuel to boil for 3 minutes.
PanzerYou do all your cooking in under 3 minutes? Just because it takes 3 min (and thats just for above 5000 feet) doesn't mean that you can't be cooking at the same time.
Feral Bill
12-27-2008, 01:25
Just a mention. If you are not cleaning pots on the trail, make plenty sure to clean them when you get home. It's not pretty opening up pots you thought were clean to discover what's grown in them for weeks or months. After almost forty years, my frequent hiking partners won't let me forget this.
Freezer bags are virtually pure petroleum. I pop those that I use for freezing my garden crops into my ancient wood stove. It's a great system.
Weary
Consider rethinking this. Your stove may not be hot enough to burn the bags without releasing nasty compounds into the air.
You may also be increasing the risk of a chimney fire.
A science type may be able to comment with more authority.
Consider rethinking this. Your stove may not be hot enough to burn the bags without releasing nasty compounds into the air.
You may also be increasing the risk of a chimney fire.
A science type may be able to comment with more authority.
IIRC the plastics which should not be burned are the halogenated plastics due to them containing chlorine. But polyethylene can be burned.
You are correct about temperature though, but this is true even with burning wood.
Farr Away
12-27-2008, 13:46
Can we try to focus on the original question?
Thanks,
-FA
Since I'm mostly a weekend hiker and FBC'er, most of my cleanup is done at home after the hike. Anything I do need to clean gets a drop of camp soap and water.
Lone Wolf
12-27-2008, 13:51
We have disposable Handi Wipes for hands. Is there such a product for cleaning cooking utensils and pots? Thanks, Stillbill
no, there isn't
Pedaling Fool
12-27-2008, 14:03
Can we try to focus on the original question?
Thanks,
-FA
...
Yes Ma'am!
I have a two step cleaning method:
1. After eating swish large debris out with water.
2. Next day boil water to clean pot (kill anything in there) and to cook meal.