Cooking on a fire......

[BloodGroove4570]

Hey folks, i was recently talking to a friend and they said boiling water in a coffee can or soup can for drinking or eating from was no good, what do you think???? Thanks a bunch.

 

[nate1714]

By no good do you mean it didnt boil or the water was not safe to drink? I believe that some can may contain a coating that may be bad. However I dont know much about it and know that most cans I use are not coated or at least dont seem to be. I also know that water will boil in a can.

 

[Big philly 1]

Im inthe culinary field. and I can Honestly say that 90% of kitchens use aluminum pots to boilPastas, meats ect. the use straight aluminum. its not treated as far asi know but most house hold cook wear is aluminum with a coating. Teflons not good to use so In a "Surival situation" i think it would be ok to boil water in it and drink it. But befor you do i like to put the inside of the can in the fire for 10 minutes and then clean it then boil in it. never been sick.

 

[baldtaco-II]

Well it would work but I'd need to be in scavenger mode before I did for a bunch of reasons.

1] There's the composition of the typical brute that doesn't appeal to me.

2] There's that many of them are ribbed in some way making cleaning a pain

3] And particularly salient is the shape. Mess tins aren't usually that shape for a reason. Stability wise they are a pain compared to something proper. Of course you can overcome that problem by dangling one from a bit of wire, but why give yourself a problem to overcome when a proper alternative is so cheap.

4] In nearly every picture you see of one dangling some silly sod has it suspended over flames. Switched on folk know it is better to cook over coals. Why dangle over coals when you can get a proper shape tool to lay on them and maximize the transfer.

In short, I think they are for bloody-minded tramp reenactment fetishists and have no place amongst serious outdoor gear.

 

[6shooter]

4] In nearly every picture you see of one dangling some silly sod has it suspended over flames. Switched on folk know it is better to cook over coals. Why dangle over coals when you can get a proper shape tool to lay on them and maximize the transfer.

Perhaps it was done to bring whatever was in the can to a simmer, rather than a full boil?

 

[fixer]

on Ron Hood's forum and in his videos he shows taking a one pound coffee can, burning it out to get rid of any plastic lining then seasoning it much like you'd season cast iron by coating it with oil and baking it. a few coats of that will make it fairly nin stick and prevent rust. he also shows making a coat hanger wire bail and keeping emergency kit essentials in it.

i've got one that i've treated. don't use it much, but it makes a perfectly acceptable hobo billy. and it's CHEAP. to season my cast iron, and this can with olive oil. no need to buy extra virgin olive oil for seasoning.

wouldn't want to do it with a raw, untreated can tho.

 

[baldtaco-II]

Perhaps it was done to bring whatever was in the can to a simmer, rather than a full boil?

Certainly possible but I don't buy that. I've played about with this stuff in the back when during what some people rather pompously call training. I'm extremely confident in saying that if you wanted to regulate the process it is far easier to adjust the amount of hot coals under it than it is by adjusting the height over the heat. Add to that you are probably going to want to stir the contents a few times unless the contents are very watery. A stable pan shape over coals is going to be a lot easier to do that to than a dangling over flames effort. True, there is a fit and forget version with a dangle over a flame simmer but outside a selection course I think you'd have to be of the mindset “life is not bloody hard enough, bring me more pain” to use it. That's the kind of thing that produces a black lumpy water with a couple of stinging nettles a rabbit's ear and a bit of swede in. You can live on it; you can live on it even better if you smuggled in some instant spud and an oxo, but it's not a recommended route if you value food. Ab ovo, get a proper pan unless you are proving a point.

 

[Phydeaux]

If my memory serves me correctly, metal cans used for foods usually have a thin polymer coating. The coating is to prevent the contents of the can corroding the metal away. Many canned foods are also purposefully made to be more acidic because the low pH makes a more hostile environment for most micro organisms.

I think Ron Hood is probably correct in "heat treating/seasoning" the can before use.

Ric