Esbit cooker mod and Ethanol gel

[lee]

This is my set up for day backpack/ovenite brew and cooking, the whole kit fits inside a crusader mess tin, it's took a while to settle with this set up but after many trial it's not failed and works well every time under and conditions.




Ive modded the Esbit cooker with 2 pieces of metal coat hanger so that i can put a cup on top safely although i usually use the crusader to boil water its handy to keep brew or soup warm, silver foil on the open sides helps if its windy.





For fuel im using Ethanol gel which is around £1.50 a tin in Macro's (currently but 2 get one free so its a pound a tin!) There is enough gel in a tin will for around 4 x brews and 2 x hot meals, for a brew I fill up the round air pellet tin full, to heat a meal i fill the small square metal tin full. If i only want to have only a couple brews on day trip i fill the mini plastic bottle (in pic below) with gel and leave the big tin at home. the pellet tin fits inside the square tin and both tins fit in side the esbit and it closes fully shut, the whole kit including a spoon/spork fire steel and swiss army knife then fits inside the crusader tin with room to spare1 I prefer the Ethanol gel over meths as its not a problem if you knock the set up over while its alight and im not keen on the solid fuel blocks. Ethanol gel is also a very good fire starter and will light from a good quality fire steel, a full tin will burns for 2 and 1/2 hours, just pop off the lid and ignite, putting the lid back on puts out the flame and it can then be re-ignited later, it can be used direct as a cooker! dig a hole in the ground to sit the tin in, make a grill/stand from wood wrapped in foil or metal pegs for your cooking container and away you go. Also makes a nice blue/orange flame lamp in a tent with very little carbon monoxide given (around the same as a candle, level so low there is no poisoning risk) it is also non toxic.

The Esbit also burns twigs and charcoal