I have the gear, want to Dry Bake..don't want to melt my Titanium

Jon, have you tested the Epicurean stove with 4g Esbit tablets? I purchased one from you with the hope that I could use it to simmer in my Zelph 550 Toaks/Caldera setup. I found it boiled water pretty quickly rather than simmering. I’ve only tried it once so more experimentation is probably called for. I had two 4g tablets laying flat, next to each other. I’ll probably stack them next time.

Matthew.  Jon has been helping me a lot to dial in my setup and understand why my burn time was so short.  I only get about 30 minutes with my open country 2 quart pot.  He did some testing and determined that the way the aluminum pot transfers heat causes the stove to burn hotter.  It’s not a problem but was confusing me.  It’s possible that something in the way yours is setup is causing the same thing, limited space or something like that.

Matthew,

Send me a photograph of your setup, this is the best way for me to see what you are doing.

Jon

jon@flatcatgear.com

The Epicurean was designed to be used within the confines of his windscreen/stove set-up. Outside of his kits it will be a hit and miss situation until such time as you fine tune your set-up. I envision the Epicurian burning hot in a confined cone kit with the Modified Toaks 550. The TD cone has plenty of incoming air not like the sytems from Flatcat that limit incoming air and slow down the burn rate of the Epicurean. Also keep in mind what Jon said:

You can dry bake with just about anything, some things are easier than others.  Your goods will bake fast and evenly using a Fat Daddios pan sitting directly on the bottom of the pot.

Another update…did another test with the 13/16″ 55W stove…but this time put it on the top stake holes. I didn’t use the diffuser either.

It came out fine….though now it cooked a bit slow. I took it off at 42 minutes, and 8g of fuel used (compared to 7g of fuel in 30 minutes when boiling water …but the pot was closer so more “pressure” on the stove). It was ever so slightly undercooked, but still fine. This compared to tea lights at 28 minute cook time.

So, for science I will try my 7/8″ 91W stove, though it might cook too hot…I will watch it like a hawk though. When its at the top stake holes its easy to watch the flame level and see if it gets out of control.

I….will also try some steam baking……now if I do that, I get adding the water, the mesh grate inside, etc…but what stove would be ideal? A simmer starlyte or modified starlyte, original starlyte, ?

I suggest not trying steam baking until you’ve mastered dry baking.

Lol…is that because if I try steam baking I wont go back to dry baking b/c its easier?

But….I went ahead and tried the 7/8″ opening (92Watt) starlyte…on the top stake hole caldera cone, so the bottom of the pot is 3 1/2″ above the stove…and….it worked great!

30 minute cook time, 11g of fuel used, perfectly cooked muffin (I didn’t take a picture…there are too many blueberry muffin pics on this thread).

Honestly….my dialing in the 1.3evernew/caldera cone/starlyte setup was twice as hard as it should of been due to my numerous mistakes….most of them boneheaded. But, it sure looks about right now!

Now I’ll try a lasagna.

Looks like your making great progress!  Contrary to some opinions out there, dry baking can be very predictable and easy.  The key is to get your stove to output a controlled energy.  With an alcohol stove, I have found that elevating the pot is the key to controlling thermal feedback to the stove.  Variability come in when at the elevated height, the system is more sensitive to the wind,

If you can dry bake, you can steam bake, however; I am a crust kinda guy so it’s dry baking for a majority of my dishes.

While alcohol works, I still prefer Esbit as you don’t need to lift the pot and wind protection is optimal.  BTW, I have dry baked in 600 ml mugs and I even converted Don (a hard core UL’er) to occasionally dry bake in his little 500 ml mug.

A lot of customers use the Epicurean Stove in Trail Design cones with great dry baking success.  In general, the TD pot support is 1/2″ higher so you would need to shim up the stove by that amount.

Keep posting your experiments.

In the spring of this year I’ll be making available the Starlyte XL3 with an aluminum simmer disc for dry and steam baking.

Lots of good info in this thread on baking. I’ll be doing some baking today using a silicone baking container inside the Keith Multipurpose Cooker. Baking is fun and the result can be rewarding. 

These are tried and tested.

http://www.storminstovesystems.co.uk/stormin-simmer-ring/

Simmer Rings reduce fuel consumption whilst still heating your food.

Re: Don’t want to melt my Titanium. Titanium melts at 3038F.

The problem isn’t in melting the titanium, it’s that you can build up differential temperatures which will distort the bottom of your mug.pot.  This is commonly called oil-canning.  If the differential is too high, when your pot/mug cools, it will no longer be flat.

I’ll purchase all Ti pots that have “oil canning” PM me.

Of course, you should let them know that you have a technique to straighten them out.  I’m just saying…

You should consider offering it as a service.  my 2 cents

I’m on vacation Jon  Just saying…