How do you clean your kitchen?

[tlbj6142]

With soap? Without soap? Treated rinse water?

After every meal? Just dinner?

Pot only? Pot and bowl (if used)?

What is your procedure?

[RagingHampster]

I use absolutely no plastic, so I have no grease problems. I wash everything with water (un-treated). I also use untreated water to cookwith, and simply boil my water with the end of my spoon/fork in it before adding food.

[brian]

I have a tiny little tube (.5oz) of soap that i use to clean things every couple of days. Usually just a rinse is good enough, but sometimes you need that ilttle extra umph. RaginHampsters trick of boiling the fork and spoon is a good idea. Ill have to try it!

Brian

[Jumpstart]

We used all titanium cookware. We just rinsed it out with water after each use, and either dumped or drank the gray water, depending on how chunky it was. Tortillas help to clean out an especailly "saucy" dish really well..mop up and eat what you can.

[2Ply]

Since all of my "cooking" seems to be hot water and some other ingredients, I have been storing each meal into heavy duty zip lock bags and adding the water to the bag. Stir it up , let it sit, stir some more, and enjoy. Since I switched to the stand up freezer bags, I haven't lost a meal yet and the clean up is a breeze, just repack and recycle.

[Virginian]

Most of the time I would grab some sand or dirt and scrub out the pot and spoon with my hand. Then if need be ,take a little non treated water and rinse.

[Kerosene]

I typically just rinse with a little of the hot water from dinner, using my finger to get ride of gunk. If things are real bad I'll mix in some sand, resorting to bio-suds if needed.

I too like RH's tip to sanitize my spork in the boiling water before dinner.

[Peaks]

Maybe I do things differently. I generally heat up some water and add a few drops of Camp Suds, and use a small sponge scrubber.

[tlbj6142]

I like the dirt idea. Figure you'd kill any bad guys when you boil your next meal.

[icemanat95]

Typically I use plain water or a bit of whatever I am drinking (Usually cider) and scrub it out with my fingers and drink off the remains. The cider has a bit of astringency to it so tends to help degrease things a bit. Tea and black coffee will also do this. Hot cocoa won't. Boil untreated coocking water good and splash it up on the sides. I dump my entire spoon (lexan) into the boiling water and fish it out with my bare hand (yeah right) I dip one end at a time. Works well. When I cook dehydrated stuff, I use the package to eat out of or I use a seperate plastic bowl (especially useful for winter trips.) As a general rule I carry potato flakes to bulk up overhydrated meals.

When I thru-hiked, I cleaned my pot, lid, water bottles and utensils carefully at every town stop or whenever running water and soap were available. Remember to clean out those bottle threads, especially if you use sugary drink mixes, they breed cooties like mad.

[blind melon]

if you cook over a wood fire, take some of the ash and put it in your pot or bowl or whatever and add just enough hot water to make it into a paste. when its cool enough, smear it around the pot and let it dry a few minutes. then wipe it or rinse it clean.

[FarmerChef]

Just like BM says, you can take a bit of ash and add a tiny amount of water (the drier the better) to remove baked on gunk. Those of us who heat with wood know this trick from cleaning baked on soot from our viewing glass on the stove.

As for doing the dishes, we bring a long a bit of Dr. Bronners and a small bit of scrub pad. After we've used clean water to clean out and drink the remaining calories from our dishes. We use a small amount of soap and treated water to make sure the bowls, pot and utensils get clean. We've also done a hike with no soap. Stuff get's a bit iffy by the end but we usually hit a hotel or something along the way where we can do a good rinse out in the sink at least once a hike.

[The Cleaner]

My kitchen is a TI 1100ml pot(which holds my Svea stove) and an MSR TI 2 liter cook pot.The pot which holds the stove is only for boiling water and the MSR pot is for cooking in.So if I'm not doing a freeze dried meal and do cook something messy in the MSR pot I can heat untreated water,pour a bit into the messy pot.Add a few drops of Dr. Bonner's then scrub w/small piece of green scrub pad.Then rinse with a bit of untreated cold water.While this is going on I let enough water come to a boil and then rinse pot,spork&mug with the last of the boiling water.This method does require fuel which many thrus don't have.Sometimes I may cook or boil water on a fire if there is one going.I never clean the black soot off I keep both pots in mesh bags so I don't get black on other stuff in my pack.FWIW a black pot heats faster than a clean&shiney one.So when planning a trip I usually take a few meals which use only boiling water so I can camp at a dry camp if needed.....

[Rocket Jones]

I do FBC, so nothing to clean but my spoon and cup. The cup gets filled with boiling water to make my drink, and the spoon gets dipped into the boiling water before I pour it into my ziplock.

If, for some odd reason, I need to scrub something, I carry a bit of plastic netting cut from an onion bag. That doubles as my rock bag too when hanging my food.

[Llama Legs]

eat what most people call everything. scrape clean and then eat that. add a cup of gatorade from mix, scrape and drink that down (that's usually the "fun" part). add a cup of water to final rinse, drink that. wipe dry with your bandanna. steam a bit of water in pot with lid to sterilize. leave no trace!

[Maddog]

I just boil water for FBC, so virtually no clean-up! Maddog

[Whack-a-mole]

I'm with Maddog on this. I don't like washing dishes at home, so there is no way I'm doing it in the woods on vacation.

[perrymk]

I let my dog lick the bowl.

Somebody had to say it.

[Bronk]

If you wait to cook dinner until after everybody has gone to sleep in the shelter you can usually just borrow a clean pot out of somebody else's pack. Just put it back dirty when you're done. It will be dark so nobody will know you're doing it. Some people may get irritated by you clinking and clanging things around while they are trying to sleep, but really, screw 'em. They're going to do the same thing to you because they went to bed before you and will likely get up and leave before you roll out of bed around 9 or 10 o'clock. You'll need to stuff your trash all the way into the bottom of their pack so they won't find it until the next day. Otherwise, you'll have to get up early and leave before they do.

[BigHodag]

I do KP after every meal. I use freezer bag cooking (FBC) for entrées so cleanup is just rolling up the bag. I use a small plastic bowl with lid for making ramen soup at least once daily. I often make hot chocolate in a small plastic mug. I pack a 1/4 sheet paper towel in every main meal and use it to wipe down my bowl and mug. I include extra 1/4 paper towels in my drop boxes.

Don't recommend using soap unless you can remove it from your dinnerware. Boiling as some have mentioned is best. I've seen soapy mess kits cause a bit of trouble while deployed with the Air Force. FYI, Millitary folks dunk their mess kits into boiling water just before being served on the mess line.