Cleaning soot/sap/etc off pots from camping????????

Tonight I purchased a well burnt stainless steel Stanley cook set. After scrubbing with dawn and baking soda it still was not close to being clean. I started looking around and found this thread and decided to try the fast orange method only to find that my wife has moved my hand cleaner from beneath the sink to some undisclosed location. While digging in the very back under the sink I came across some of her cleaners and found something called "earth brite". Its a powder with a sponge that you wet to apply. I decided to give it a chance and I am glad that I did. I had the pan factory fresh in about 3 minutes with light circular scrubbing. It says the ingredients are clay, soap flakes, green soap, mineral oil and lavender. It is distributed by a company called GSB in Florida and its made in France. The only place I see it for sale is on HSN but I think I have seen it in ACE hardware in the past. If you like clean cook wear I highly recommend it.
 
RussMo said:
Wow if I didn't know better it sounds like we got the same instruction as kids;) Been doing that for years and it's always worked. Showed the wife about 29 years ago as we passed thru the Tetons on the way to Alaska.
Click to expand...
There's likely not a man who was a Boy Scout in the days of cooking on wood fires that doesn't know to coat the outside of pot and pans with dish soap.

My solution is to cook on alcohol, gas, and liquid fuel stoves. I haven't use pots and pans on a wood fire in years. Now if I cook on a wood fire I'll use a stick or make a meal in foil buried in coals or both.
 
Last edited:
OVEN CLEANER. Put all your stuff outside over a spot you don't mind getting dirty, hose them down with oven cleaner and rinse with the garden hose. No scrubbing, nothing. It's like magic.
 
Fun thread. I learned the soap rub pre cooking trick in Boy Scouts (Eagle Scout here, and was a scout leader for 13 or so years).

I've not tried oven cleaner. But have done many others. Sos pad, soap, bathroom cleaner, etc.

My wife has one of those clay based cleaning pastes and a scrub pad...but ove not tried it yet.

I have a liquid fuel colman camp stove for car camping/canoe camping..and a solid fuel Solo Campfire stove that makes a good bit of soot!

Cleaning the pots of soot/black before repacking is a great idea if you are carrying them with absolutely anything you dont want stained.
 
I use sand too in the field. I think I may have read it in Colin Fletcher’s The Complete Walker.
 
another vote for sand. the wife allows me one green scrubby per trip, so i scrub with sand first, then anything left gets the scrubby treatment.
 
I don't clean them; not hard anyway. A light pine scrub and in the food pack they go.
IMG_2200.JPG
 
Mikel_24 said:
IF you use unleaded or diesel.... you get TONs of soot.... I don't feel like paying for white gas. ;)
Click to expand...
Other than an emergency why would I use unleaded or diesel when it will just clog a stove. Ain't worth the $$$ savings as you'll just pay for it in other ways.
 
leghog said:
... why would I use unleaded or diesel when it will just clog a stove...
Click to expand...

Not saying it might not happen but so far I have been using unleaded straight from the gas station and haven't had any issues other than black soot. Primus Omnifuel.

It has been my only liquid fuel stove, i bought it like.... 15 years ago? Replaced the leather cup in the pump twice and just a couple months ago I epoxied the joint between the aluminum tube and plastic piece in the pump body (leak).

If it was more easily available I could use white gas but... It is hard to come by arround here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top