If you have read my posts on Backpacking Lightweight's site I've explained how I use the BPLT Ti ESBIT wing stove with an MSR windscreen & base reflector and a JetBoil 1.5 L. pot (which is highly efficient due to its neoprene cozy & Flux Ring corrugated heat transfer ring on its bottom edge.) I removed the JetBoil pot's wire handles & use a pot gripper so I can keep the MSR windscreen tight around the pot. Works amazingly well compared to my old aluminum 1.5 L. pot.
I'm a fuel tab convert for UL cooking.

Where do you get falafel powder?

Kathleen, you can get it usually in the rice section, near the couscous. Brands such as Casabah and Fantastic Foods make it. All you do is add water, mix and then fry the patties. Some health food stores also sell it in bulk.

Thanks, Sarah. By the way, I've made a lot of the recipes in your ziplock cookbook. I substitute instant mashed potatoes and dehydrated hamburger in a lot of the rice and tuna recipes to suit my own preferences with excellent results. And my pockets are now stuffed with bearscat fudge. I'm going to try the steamed biscuit (with 1/2 C of mix - not the whole thing like Brian!) with my minibulldesign alcohol stove and antigravitygear pot this weekend on our next snowshoe trip!

The "BakePacker" (went off the market years ago, I think) used a similar strategy but allowed you to do your steam baking in lightweight freezer bags. It was really just a lightweight aluminum grid thingy that went into your pot and supported the entire freezer bag off the bottom, still allowing the steam to surround the bag. We've still got a couple of them, one larger one that we take car camping and a smaller one that we occasionally take on (short) backpacking trips. It was really a treat when the kids were little to bake up a gingerbread and serve it in the crisp autumn air!

This topic of Steam Baking is nothing new but the art work for the article is really good.

I have a thread someplace here where I show how I bake in my dry cook pot. The dry cook pot bakes like your home oven and will "brown" the crest.

http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?storeId=8000&catalogId=40000008000&productId=437&parent_category_rn=5760734&vcat=REI_SEARCH


The hot link does not seem to work.

Edited by bfornshell on 01/11/2007 13:44:22 MST.

> This whole thread is about re-inventing the wheel.

Bill, by saying that about this thread you completely disregard the excellent nutrition and recipe advice given in the article. Yes they made good reference to an ultralight steaming system that may have already been presented but let's not forget there are other aspects of the article for commenting upon as well.

Sam,
Sorry, my comment was directed toward the "Steam Baking" part of this thread. I am going to change my comment to reflect this.

I would say that there are a lot of really good recipes out there. Their is a whole cook book for the Bake-Packer (The BakePacker's Companion) - (Includes nutritional data for each recipe and extensive nutritional and technical appendices that has all kinds of nutritional data.)

It didn't seem like you to be critical, Bill. Your diplomacy shows through in your new response. Although I suppose one could argue that talking about cooking and recipes at all is old-hat since it's been around since sometime soon after the dawn of civilization. ; )

As an individual planning and preparing for a long distance hike some straightforward approaches to lightweight cooking such as those presented in this article are extremely useful to me in that I can use them verbatim as well as use the notions learned in crafting changes to the other meals that I have in the works.

Thank's everyone - this was a fun article to write (and eat)!

Mike C!

Edited by mikeclelland on 01/11/2007 19:38:55 MST.

Great stuff, Mike. My wife and I are long term vegetarians, but I usually let her cook because she knows more than me. I can't wait to try out these recipies on her.

Right On to everyone with feedback and insights - Huge thanks!

Here's a few (more) replies in no particular order:

1) Q: Where do you get falafel powder?

I have a local health food store with bulk bins. It's pretty easy to find. Actually, I mix Falafel Powder with some Hummus Powder.


2) Q: why didn't you take any dried or freeze dried vegetables?

The cooking time on "some" veggies is sorta long, I use some dehydrated peppers, and they seem to take HOURS to soften up. I've found a few things I like (sun-dried tomatoes) And, some of these are sorta styrofoam-like. I will try and find some and incorporate them next summer. Any suggestions?

3) Q: Are you cooking (steam baking) your batter in very small amounts?

Pictured in the photo is a 1,6 ounce Snow Peak Titanium Bowl (diameter, 5.5 inches) I am not sure of the volume, maybe 750 ml? I fill it wit 4 ounces of powdered baking "mix" add water slowly, add a splash of oil. And steam for one esbit tab (about 6 minutes).
Please - test at home.
And I love the cut off coke can idea! Somebody test that! I bet a 1.5 liter pot could hold 4 cans! A muffin party will follow...
Also - Don Ladigin has the system dialed. And I totally stole his technique (sorta) for this article. Read his book!
More on steam baking - I tried a lemon poppy seed muffin mix from a box. Results were poor.
Even MORE on steam-baking. I work for NOLS, and we really take pride i our cooking. This entire ultra-light (our base weight was just around 10 or 11 pounds) course was a departure from the "standard" NOLS system for cooking. And there was a lot of resistance to doing a two-week course without any baking. So - I worked on this technique. It was a welcome addition to the one-pot-meals.

4) The SAUSE portions? Oh Jeeeez - I wish I knew. Just get a bowl and start mixing. Don't be timid about tasting as you go, it should be obvious what tastes good. Make it a little saltier and spicier than you think. Remember - you are gunna add this to bland couscous!

5) Steve - I'll say HELLO to Drew Leemon!

This is a fantastic thread!
We use MSR wind screen material, cut and finished to about 7/8 inch as a substitute for rocks, when we boil/bake in our two quart AGG. We also sub plastic bags as the batter/dough container, so the muffin or bread shape stays broader and shorter. This makes room for an angular sided bowl (used as a lid) to set partially inside the pot.
When we prepare eggs for breakfast, they are usually cooked in the foil- covered bowl/lid atop the baking muffins. This same, probably ancient scheme, works as well for slow cooking burrito ingredients up top while the cornbread boils below. Pasta and sauce can be prepared separately or water can be heated above for drink or clean up.

Mike, I find that smaller veggies work best if using dehydrated. Even at altitude mine come back to life in about 10 minutes. (Boiling water added, left in cozy)

I prefer though Just Tomatoes freeze dried vegetables, which come to life within minutes. They make an organic line now also. For freeze dried they are top of the line in quality and flavor. They also sell paper thin sun dried tomatoes that are very addicting!

One reason behind my veggies coming back to life is when I dry my own stuff, it is precooked. That seems to help quite a bit versus using traditional raw vegetables that are dried. A good cheater is using frozen vegetables and drying them, they are blanched and quite often, fully precooked. Hence, they don't need to be cooked once rehydrated.

I use a 600ml Snowpeak ti cup as the pot and a paper lined foil cupcake cup to hold the batter. I support the cupcake cup on a strip of soda can formed into a spiral or hardware cloth folded into a box top shape. I just got back from a trip where I steamed a couple of cupcake cups full of fry bread mix (one over a fire and one over an esbit tab). They came out great and lots easier than frying! As Mike mentions an esbit tab works perfectly for a cupcake cup sized portion. I leave the foil lid on the pot after the esbit tab goes out for a little more baking to happen just in case. I usually use a commercial or home mixed muffin mix with the same method and that works great too. Alcohol stoves can also be used to steam muffins - just use one that simmers or doesn't burn too hot.

Great article - really inspired me to think about my food bag contents. I've not done steam cooking before - didn't even occur to me to try it with an esbit stove. I thought that was only for the big stove users. So, below are three photos showing the progression of my steamed Bisquick biscuit. I used my 450 ml Ti cup (purple) which actually fit perfectly into my 1.3 liter Ti pot.



You can see steam coming out the top, so it is working. To compensate for the cold and snow, I used very hot water from the tap and put that in the pot to start.



I took the lid off about 1/2 through steaming - sorta hard to see, but the dough is firming up.



And here is the finished result. Not nearly as nice as the one Mike shows in his article! It was cooked through. It took the entire life of one esbit (about 14 - 16 minutes) to reach the finished state. Very edible.

Given my results, I probably would not do this just for one biscuit. If I were going to add this to my food bag, I would want a perfectly sized ti cup like the one used in the first photo of the article to cook these in (sort of like a ti paper baking cup used for cupcakes).

My cup was sitting right in the pot within about one inch of water (not sitting on rocks or anything else to lift it above the water.) So technically, it wasn't just steam cooking (indirect heat), but also boiling water on my Ti cup (direct heat). I figured this wasn't a fussy hollandaise sauce where the eggs might curdle, so direct heat would be OK with a biscuit mix. And it was. I do miss the "browning" of the biscuit though. This made for a fun Sunday afternoon project. Carol

Edited by brownwetdog on 01/14/2007 20:19:04 MST.

You know, this makes me think of the days when I was playing with a solar cooker. I was amazed that I could cook pretty much anything. Up until that point I didn't realize that technically food only had to get up to around 180 degrees to be "cooked". Setting the oven to 350, 400, 450 was only done to brown the food and make it cook faster. Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit so using this steam baking method you technically should be able to "bake" anything.

My biscuit (made from the recipe) didn't turn out so good. I'll try again. How much water are people adding to the recipe in the article?

Edited by jjpitts on 01/14/2007 18:18:09 MST.

I decided to try this,considering I do not use a pot and only single wall SP 600 it was suggested that maybe a soda can would work. So off to the lab I went. I cut a soda can two inches from the bottom (which is half the height of my 600) and and made up some Krustez pancake mix just to see if it would work, plus I don't have any Bisquit mix. Any way I buttered the can real well and then filled it up about half way with mix. Next I filled my mug with some rocks that were about 1/2 in tall or so, and added 2 ounces of water. Filled my alcy stove with an ounce of fuel and began the test. I let the water steam all the way out which took about 7:45 min, from the time it started steaming. As a result I had a nice fluffy bisquit/pancake that was cooked all the way through (even though it may not look like it) YOOHOOO now I can make a bisquit in the mountains and have it with my chili, soup, or what ever. Or make one of the pancake ones and take along some pb and jelly. Didn't try this with my esbit (I am not allowed to burn that in the house anymore ) But I imagine that once a steam is achieved the time would be the same to get the same results.

Edited by dmccoy on 01/15/2007 01:43:09 MST.

As a vegan, may I say, awesome recipes. I'll definitely have to try that spackle, even just as a day-to-day dense, portable snack.

Edited by EinZweiDrei on 01/15/2007 05:54:52 MST.

Curtis... wow, I had never thought of that, but there's no reason it wouldn't work. Those are the 'just mix in some water and microwave' ones, right? I assume you're steaming it? How long does one typically take?