Thanks for the encouraging review of the Trangia, Anne. These really are great stoves. They are quiet, simple and relatively safe to use.
I've got a fair amount of experience using the Trangia in field settings on my own trips and with students over the last couple of years, He are some perspectives from my own and my students' experiences. I agree with Anne about the smaller set being great for one person. Depending on your appetite, it can be marginal for two. Heck, my twenty something outdoor education students find that even the large Trangia set is just barely big enough for two! That said, Pamela and I have been using the small set for the last two summers of bike touring and it has worked fine for us. The secret is in the cooking strategy and meal planning. With spaghetti, for example, we break the pasta in half before adding it to the boiling water. We use much less water than usual and add a little oil to prevent sticking. We bring the water back to a boil and then take the pot off and put it into a pot cozy to finish cooking. In the meantime, we use the second pot to saute' veggies and heat the sauce. Everything ends up being done at the same time. Garnish with sunflower seeds and cheese. I also usually rehydrate some sundried tomatoes in a cup with a little boiling water before starting the spaghetti. These get added to the sauce once it is heated. I think if we just had spaghetti and sauce, the meal might be a little light, but we always have appetizers and dessert to round out the meal. Carrying fuel in the stove. There's a couple of points to mention. First, I always carry fuel in my stove - no problem and no leaks. So do my students. Regardless of what a Trangia employee might have emailed, the stove lid has an o-ring expressly because the stove was designed to carry alcohol in it. Inexplicably, SOME Trangia burners DO leak and others do not. I have one that does and one that doesn't and none of our 5 student stoves leak. Another crucial point is to NEVER extinguish the stove with the screw top. Doing so will burn the o-ring. This damages the seal and the stove will leak. Use the simmer ring to extinguish the flame. Before I put the screw top on the burner, I always make sure that the stove is cool enough to touch. It's also important to screw the lid on tightly before packing it away in the pot set. Alcohol fuel - Unfortunately, formulations of denatured alcohol are really variable - even in the same brand from the same manufacturer. It varies by batch. It's not as simple as saying one brand smokes and another doesn't. Trangia advises putting a small amount of water in the fuel in order to reduce smoking. I've never needed to do this and I've almost always used the Sunnyside brand fuel. I did once use some Ace Hardware brand fuel that didn't smoke much at all, but that was one quart and I can't really say that holds true for all Ace hardware alcohol without a more substantial field test. Finally, it's worth noting that Trangia makes an isobutane burner insert for the stove. There are lighter isobutane cooking set ups, but I love the Trangia tea kettle and the windscreen and pot stability of the Trangia cookset. The isobutane unit is also quiet and it's much more efficient than alcohol. I tend to use isobutane on longer trips when I have few opportunities for ressupply. One 8 oz, isobutane canister lasts me (using a pot cozy) for around 8 to 9 days on wilderness expeditions versus about a liter of alcohol for the same duration. Dave On Aug 11, 9:19 pm, Anne Paulson <[email protected]> wrote: > I recently bought a Trangia stove with the pot and frying pan set. > Rivendell sells this fine product and recommends it for campouts. > Based on my recent experimentation, I concur. Here's a report on my > experiments: > > Water for a cup of tea boils quickly. I didn't time it, but something > like four or five minutes, perfectly fine for a camping breakfast or > for an afternoon warmup on a long cold ride. And unlike my MSR white > gas stove which roars like a freight train, the Trangia is completely > silent. > > But what about actual food? I tried pancakes, made with Krusteaz > buttermilk pancake mix, on a sub-24. I brought along some Krusteaz in > a ziplock. At the campsite, I mixed it with enough water to make a > pourable batter, just stirring so that most but not all the lumps were > gone (why yes, I do bring along a wire whisk when camping, why do you > ask?). I used the Trangia without the simmer ring; pancakes cook > fairly quickly. I made two or three little pancakes in the frying pan > at a time, turning them over when the bubbles popped. Results: > Delicious. I spread them with Nutella. > > Emboldened, I moved on to a biscuit. For this, I used a homemade mix > of 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup powdered milk, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 > teaspoon salt,1 tablespoon Crisco. I mixed the dry ingredients > together, then cut the Crisco in using two knives. (If I made a bigger > batch, I'd mix in the Crisco in the food processor with six or eight > quick pulses.) I took about 1/3 cup of the mix, and mixed in just > enough water to make a stiff dough. I formed it into a biscuit-shaped > round about half an inch thick, and cooked it in a lightly greased > frying pan, covered with a makeshift aluminum-foil lid. I had to > experiment with the simmer ring setting. The first time, I had it set > in the completely open position, but that resulted in burned outsides > and gummy insides. The simmer ring about half covered worked better. I > cooked it about eight minutes on the first side, turned it over, and > cooked it around five minutes on the second side. Result: delicious. I > was home this time, so I put on butter and honey, but a biscuit like > this would be good with dinner too. > > The biscuit mix would work well for pancakes too-- just add an egg if > you have one, plus enough water to make a pourable batter and maybe a > bit of sugar if you happen to have any. Then cook and enjoy. > > The small cookset, which is what I have, is really only adequate for > one. I was able to boil spaghetti for one (about 1/6 lb) successfully, > but when I tried spaghetti for two there wasn't enough room in the pot > for the noodles plus the water to cook them. For two people, I > recommend the bigger cookset. Cooking for a group of four or more, I > recommend a gas stove. > > Here's the recommendation: If you do sub24s, buy a Trangia. They're > simple, they're light, the whole cookset packs up in one neat small > package*, they burn HEET** and denatured alcohol***, both readily > available. > > * The Trangia comes with a screwtop so that if there is still fuel in > the stove when you're finished cooking, you can snuff it out, let it > cool down, then screw on the lid. However, unfortunately, you can't > transport the stove (say, in your panniers) with alcohol in it, > because it will leak, even with the screw top. I emailed Trangia to > ask, and that's what they told me. So use up all your fuel in the > morning. > > ** HEET in the yellow container. The red container HEET is the wrong stuff. > > *** but do not buy Sunnyside brand denatured alcohol, the house brand > of Tru Value hardware stores. It smokes. > > -- > -- Anne Paulson > > My hovercraft is full of eels -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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