My Pot Runneth Over

[yogi clyde]

I have a 1 quart aluminum pot/cup.
It measures 4 3/4 wide x 4 3/4 tall.
I use an alcohol stove.

When I add my rice, after boiling 2 cups of water, the liquid tends
to run over, even if I'm stirring.

I've placed some aluminum over the stove, to decrease the output.
Wondering if raising the pot will help, but probably will take longer to boil the water.

Anyone else have this problem, or a solution.

Thanks

[Jaybird]

I have a 1 quart aluminum pot/cup.
It measures 4 3/4 wide x 4 3/4 tall.
I use an alcohol stove.

When I add my rice, after boiling 2 cups of water, the liquid tends
to run over, even if I'm stirring..............................Thanks

HEY Yogi Clyde...........you're on the trail....break the rules....dump your rice in before the water is boiling......go crazy!


2 cups o' water usually equates to 4 servings....u eating that much???????

[jlb2012]

yeah - just bring the rice and water to a boil and then put it into a pot cozy - no more problem with boiling over and you save on fuel

another alternative - put rice in a zip lock bag in a ziplock cozy and pour the boiling water into the ziplock bag with the rice - zip up the bag and close up the cozy and wait for 20-30 minutes for the water to be absorbed - this is the approach I use

[Aesop]

Hey HOI,
What is a pot cozy? A container with a lid?

[jlb2012]

AEsop - a pot cozy is typically a fitted piece of insulating material that one's cooking pot is placed in so as to keep the pot hot enough so that the food in the pot continues cooking without added heat - common materials to use are closed cell foam pads or reflectrix insulation for hot water heaters - cut and shaped so as to fit the particular pot being used - often with two parts 1.) a sort of bowl shaped piece for holding the pot and 2.) a lid to go over the top - typically duct tape is used to form the shape of the cozy.

[Moose2001]

Yogi - sounds like you're seeing one of the problems with an alcohol stove, thermal runaway. The longer the stove runs, the hotter it gets. On most alcohol stoves, there is no way to control or reduce the heat output. You either learn to deal with it or as HOI suggests, try a pot cozy. The other suggestion I'd make is take a look at the webpage for the Brasslite stoves. He has a great discussion on the problems of alcohol stoves. I'm going to switch from my Trangia to a Brasslite. The brasslite will allow you to control the heat output and actually "simmer" foods. Heck, I've STILL got burnt on food on the bottom of my pot from my Trangia!!

[Footslogger]

Guess I just got lucky in 03 but I didn't have any probs with boilover and I did use the Trangia. One thing I did (and it's already been somewhat mentioned) is that I watched for "boilage" and then I generally took my cookpot off the stove, covered it immediately and set it aside for 8 - 10 mins. I used a .9 Liter titanium pot and it seemed to hold the heat long enough (once the water was at a rolling boil) to finish off the meal. I did start off at Springer using a "cozy" but it started to fall apart by Neels Gap so I dumped it at Walasi-Yi.

Another comment though ...I never did 2 cups of water at a time with a meal. The most I ever did was 1.5 cups.

The comments about alcohol stoves and heat control are valid but to me that isn't a "drawback" ...it's just something you have to take into account when preparing meals. To me, the advantages of the alcohol stove greatly outweight that possible disadvantage. I still like the Trangia for it's size, ease of use and durability.

'Slogger

[Aesop]

AEsop - a pot cozy is typically a fitted piece of insulating material that one's cooking pot is placed in so as to keep the pot hot enough so that the food in the pot continues cooking without added heat - common materials to use are closed cell foam pads or reflectrix insulation for hot water heaters - cut and shaped so as to fit the particular pot being used - often with two parts 1.) a sort of bowl shaped piece for holding the pot and 2.) a lid to go over the top - typically duct tape is used to form the shape of the cozy.

Thanks HOI, That's quite brilliant. I'm going to work on making me one and trying it out.

[jlb2012]

note the idea of using a pot cozy has been around for quite a while and is nothing that I thought up - my little contribution to cozyness (grin) was a ziplock cozy that would hold a bag upright and open by itself without anyone holding the bag so as to make pouring boiling water into the ziplock bag much safer and to permit the use of very cheap/thin bags - see StoveStomper's site for some pictures if you want - http://www.datasync.com/~wksmith/hoikit.html