Dry Baking Set Up Questions

In this video Shug shows how he was able to dry bake using an alcohol stove. He shows a variety of baking pots/pans one of which is available from Yon'

My set up for dry baking:

Caldera Cone
alcohol stove (the one that comes with it) pretty much filled with fuel
simmer ring on stove to reduce the flame
Evernew 1.9 L ceramic coated pot
parchment paper lining the pot
Outback oven, with flame spreader and insulated pot cap

In general terms, about 30 min at simmer with this setup bakes any bread product: pizza, biscuits, cornbread, brownies.

pictures of the setup

http://backpackingtechnology.com/food-and-cooking/the-outback-oven-used-with-the-caldera-cone-stove-and-windscreen/

Trail Designs simmer ring for 12-10 really works well. I did many tests with it………good design.

I've been experimenting with the titanium cone of a Ti Tri, with a 900ml Snow Peak Ti pot. Using the TD simmer ring, the flame on the alcohol stove stops down to about 1.5 inches tall. I use a ti spacer ring in the pot, with a steel cup sitting on the spacer, parchment paper inside the cup. The pot was covered with a little fry pan lid, and two sheets of aluminum foil formed a heat cap.

The result was that the bottom half inches of a cornbread round was burned, but the top 2/3 was perfect. No warping of the ti pot. I'm thinking a bit of tinkering will get the setup to work. Its too hot on the bottom, but hot enough to cook the upper portion. At worst, one could feed the bottom portion to the dog, and feast on the top portion.

FWIW, I've been trying more longer low-flame cooking with my canister stove (non-remote) recently and have had more success than expected, so thought I'd share.

I have a Monatauk Gnat stove (1.6oz) that I've found to be surprisingly controllable. It has a pretty wide flame pattern, which I like since I prefer low wide pots as they're easier to cook in and doubles nicely as a bowl. (I always take a separate mug — I almost never use soap on the trail and I don't like my coffee tasting like last night's curry…)

I've steamed rice and made rice pudding with uncooked rice (i.e. not the "instant" kind) with the Gnat and a 2-cup Open Country aluminum pot and a Toaks Ti 900ml pot. Very low-flame for maybe 20-25 minutes without any scorching or burning. I've also simmered soups, curries, stews for 10-15 minutes, again on very low flame.

I've also used the same setup for steam-baking muffins, with a steam "platform" made from a foil pie pan and a silicone muffin cup/liner. (The muffins were fun but not sure they were worth it from a nutrition/calorie value point of view.)

My heat diffuser works on all of my stoves to prevent hot spots and allow for baking. My set-ups are as numerous as the amount of stoves and pots that I have. My experiments have been numerous and fun filled, learned a lot and have shared a ton of stuff on my website.

This is it:

Dan have you posted your results for "Trail Designs simmer ring for 12-10 tests" some where? Very interested in seeing them.

Ken, I have not published them, can't find the notes that were taken. They are in the garage somewhere ;)

I no longer need the simmer ring, my tests have proven it's ability to simmer well. You may have the device, no charge. Send me a pm with your address and I'll send it out tomorrow. You can do some testing, bake a muffin or two :-)

With an aluminum inner pan.

The Fat Daddio pans bake well but are heavy for their size..I like to carry the Open Country hard annodized 3 cup pot bottom @ 2.5 oz for my baking dish. The main pot is usually a OC 2 qt or an Evernew 1.3 ltr. The OC 3cup pot will bake an entire package of muffin mix and serves two nicely.

I use a 1 oz(total weight) Supercat Alcohol stove ,floor and windscreen combo in Aluminum.
For baking, I do NOT use alchohol, but rather use the Supercat as a pot stand in the center and place 6 to 8 mini tealight candles around it. These provide about 200 watts of heat and bake stuff perfectly in less than a half hour.

Besides being very predictable and controlable ,the candles only use about 1/2 oz of fuel by weight each bake. They also make great backup light and heat sources for the stove. Yes,you can even boil 2 cups of water in about 15 minutes with a good snug windscreen.

Also, anyone needing LIGHT high quality baking pans for your pots should contact Sam at Batchstoves.com. He lathe spins pots and lids one at a time and then annodizes them. Very light,very high.quality. He has standard sizes to fit IMUSAs etc.but can make custom sizes as well. I think the customs run about $20, I think.. Well worth it if you have an odd sized pot..

An inner and outer pan does not a UL baking setup make.

I get consistently good results with a single non-stick Al pan and a wide burner canister stove (like the Gnat or FMS-116T) which has a very low simmering capability.

Edit: just realised the age of this thread and that I posted similar a year ago.

@ Stuart: The thread is only a couple of months old and people are still chiming in with new contributions. Your method is used by NOLS, although their set up is far from UL because of the equipment they use. What I like the most about your approach is less equipment and fiddling is required.

@ Jimmer: I love the simplicity of your set up. (I've read of others baking with candles using a traditional Trangia kit.) I was wondering, what do you use as your base / reflector? And, when you bake with the candles, do you just let them burn until they are completely out? I'd love to hear more and see a picture of your set up, if you don't mind.

Michael

I use a round or square piece of HD kitchen aluminum foil as the "floor" of the stove. Same basic floor design as the Calders Cone ,Flatcat,MSR etc..GOT TO have a floor. The burner and candles go on top of that.I use a full tooling foil windscreen at least 4" high with a snug 1/4" Gap around the pot.
The tealights encircle the Supecat burner. All this is able to "fit" under my 6" diameter 2qt OC Pot. I simply light the candles and let it bake for 25 minutes usually everthing is baked in 25 to 30 minutes.

When I am done I blow the candles out and if they were new,you only use about 25% of each candle about 1/2 an ounce by weight. The key with the tealights is a good windscreen and decent conditions to hold the heat in around the pot…The tealights are very consistent and with a simple pot stand and floor/ windscreen would work great with your KMart Grease pot. You just wont need the trangia /clickstand.. Actually, if you use a Supercat as well,you won't need them for regular cooking, either..;)

Thanks so much, Jimmer. Great tips. I'm still tinkering around with my baking set up and I can't wait to try this method. I have a Supercat stove and some tealights around here somewhere. I may give this a go this weekend with some experiments.

Michael