ESBIT: Simmering and Ultralight Baking
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Do you know if the simmering ring can give you more boils per esbit cube than a gram cracker? I am interested in getting more efficiency out of my stove so I carry less fuel per trip to save weight. I can get 4 cups of tap water to boil (2 cups at a time) in my MSR Titan with the Caldera Cone with the Gram Cracker.
I assume you mean 4 cups boiled per 14g ESBIT cube? That's pretty good.
I have not run head to head tests of the Gram Cracker vs. the Epicurean Ti. That would be interesting. My gut feel is that the Epicurean Ti in high mode wouldn't be dramatically different than the gram cracker. In simmer mode, I think the Epicurean Ti would be more efficient than the gram cracker used with the ESBIT under the gram cracker. The Epicurean Ti would almost certainly be more efficient if one were using round hexamine fuel (Stansport brand, Coghlans brand, etc.). All of this would need to be confirmed by testing.
I recently bought the Esbitmizer and got the same results….it can simmer too.
Interesting. I've only seen the Esbitmizer on the internet, so I can't comment too much, but if it can keep a low, steady flame, it might well be suitable for baking.
Also, have you tried using Weber BBQ fire starter cubes as a subsitute for Esbit?
Generally speaking, fire starter cubes are designed to produce higher heat in a shorter amount of time so as to get a wood or charcoal fire going. Typically, they're less efficient than hexamine (i.e. ESBIT) for cooking. However, I've only used the Weber cubes as a fire starter. I haven't tried them with an ESBIT stove. I have some, so I'll have to try them for ESBIT type cooking.
Photo from this past weekend:
Great article and always learning from you.
Always trying something new. Glad that it's interesting. :)
Jon at Flat Cat suggested to use Carbon-Felt, OR "Hiram" metal grate between the two pots to get a more uniform heating when baking.
Have you tried either of these approaches and what are your feeling concerning the procedure since you use a small amount of water?Ken, don't get real hung up on the water. I'm using a teaspoon or two at most, and sometimes I don't use it at all.
I'm not getting uneven heating, so I haven't tried a grate or carbon felt between my baking pan and my pot. If I were getting a burnt bottom on my baked goods, then I would want to try something like that.
Take a look at these photos:
Here's a 4"/10.2cm baking pan right after I've pulled a muffin out. No burnt on batter.
Now here's the muffin (banana nut — yum!) :) Looks reasonably well done to me, but what about the sides?
No evidence of burning or uneven heat.
And the inside? Nicely done.
You do have to pull the item your baking out at the appropriate time. If I left it in the "oven" for too long, it would burn. I find that about 45 min with a standard ESBIT cube is about right. If I use Coghlans brand hexamine, I use two tablets, and they'll burn for longer. In that case I have to be conscious about not allowing the baking to go on for too long or the item will get burnt on the bottom.
But the problem with that burnt bottom is with the baker not the gear set up. The Epicurean Ti is steady. You just have to experiment and learn when to pull the baked good out or you'll over do it. Again about 45 min, maybe 50, but no more than that.
Jim, Thanks for the response. I guess I could just make a lower heat burner.
Yep. Low and slow is the name of the game.
I've been able to get some good results with alcohol stoves and a simmer ring.
You just have to have a set up that you're really confident in. If you do get the heat too high and your pot warps a bit, it's not the end of the world. Ti is pretty strong stuff and it's going to take more than a little tweak to screw it up.
I just don't "grasp the concept" of how either the Epicurian or ESBITMISER can control the ESBIT flame and lower it.
Jim, could you shoe some photos of a low ESBIT flame with the Epicurian?
Well, usually I have the windscreen in place, but here's one:
If you've seen a full flame of ESBIT, it's much larger.
If you don't believe the flame, believe the muffin: ;)
Wow. Talk about the ultimate LNT/low impact cooking set up. High cool factor. Might be a good one for Southern Arizona and the like.
Yeah, but what really grabbed my attention was this:
;)
That solar cooking is very cool stuff. I can't quite see it for backpacking, but for a someone like a horse packer, it could be useful. Might be useful for snow melting in a base camp situation. NO fuel needed and would work at high altitude.
Some people were asking about how much difference the "high" setting made vs. the low. I got Sunday off this week (thank you, God), :) so I hit the trail.
Here's the Epicurean in high mode:
And now in low mode:
It makes quite a difference.
The first is a demo of a bake kit that will work with many wood burning stoves, using a ti foil heat shield, spacer, fold-flat baking pan, and foil hood. In the video, a QiWiz FireFly stove was used, but there is no reason you could not do this with an Emberlit, an Element, a Bushbuddy, a Woodgaz, or what have you. No pot is used for this method. Total weight of system is about 2/3 ounce.
The second is similar to the Epicurean method, in that you bake in your titanium pot, using Esbit as the fuel in a burner that extends heat output of a single cube to 30-35 minutes. The fold-flat ti foil burner and aluminum base are very light (4 grams for both). The same 8 gram fold-flat baking pan is used in your pot with a 2 gram spacer. Total weight of system is about 1/2 oz. In this video I use a QiWiz FireFly and a WindShield for the windscreen.
I'm going to try my had at dry baking next week with esbit. I know how to bake with alcohol and water. This big blueberry muffin was made with 1 ounce of denatured an 1/3 cup water in a double boiler type set-up. After the water evaporates it goes into it's dry bake mode to brown the muffin. I just let the stove burn itself out. No need to watch it, never burns. User friendly, I like that.(fancee feest stove was used)
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