Review: Titaner titanium Bento Box

It's all good and well to load up with knives, axes, shovels and all manner of gadget and do-dad, but every-body has to eat. Old tin mess-kits are all good and well, light and compact, but not known for their durability or stealth.

I am very happy with my Heavy Cover canteen and mug set both as a hydration tool but also as cook-ware, so when the opportunity came to add to my titanium cookware collection in the form of the Titaner  Bento lunchbox Kickstarter. 

Pressed from food grade titanium, with titanium wire fittings, the bento box has a lid fitted with a tritan gasket inset into the rim. The lid is held in place with the two clasps at each short end. Along with the gasket, the clasps hold the lid water-tight, with a capacity of  600mL (20 1/3 oz), making it ample for cooking single serve meals as a small fry-pan or shallow pot. 120mm x 165mm x 60mm (4 3/4" x 6  1/2" x 2 1/3") 227g, (8oz). The inside is plenty big enough to carry an instant noodle packet and additions sufficient to make a decent trail-side meal. With some careful packing you could probably carry a half-dozen eggs in relative safety too. I might work on some inserts to do just that .

Speaking of cooking, the long titanium wire handle, which folds over one of the short sides, which provides a comfortable and stable handle to carry and manipulate the pan-side of the box allowing the user to adjust the pan over the fire. When using it, I have tended to clip closed the clasps in order to avoid any unwanted snagging and possible spillage.

The bottom of the pan has a slight inset bulge to reduce deformation and denting, and matches a similar bulge in the lid, allowing the pot to sit on the lid as a coaster or heat-shield. The rounded internal corners make for easy clean-up and ensure nothing gets stuck or burnt in to inconvenient spots. The gasket is easily removable for easy cleaning 

No coatings, no additional material other than the tritan gasket ring and the titanium, i'm confident that this is a healthy, resilient and robust piece of cook-ware as well as an eating surface, that also doubles as storage. The fittings don't rattle and hold it securely. I haven't yet found a pouch to slot it into but it fits into a napsack easily enough.  

Perfect size for 2-minute instant noodles ( shown here with spring onion, ginger chunks, lap cheung sausage and chilli paste.  All of which fit nicely in the box for easy transport. 

 

Home Front: Power Outage

We had a scheduled power outage at our place over the weekend, which we had completely ignored, and it took us a little by surprise, but thankfully, we have gas-for cooking and hot-water.

 What we didn't anticipate is the power-hungry nature of the ladies Pokémon GO running iPhone 5's. We might have lost wireless internet, microwaved cooking and refrigeration but they still "gotta catch 'em all!"

 However, that said, we were prepared. I fired up my replacement Power Practical PowerPot XL and set up two battery-packs including the Lithium 4400 and Limeade Blast 18,000mAh.


I also set up my tea-light candle driven Tellurex tPod power system which coupled with the power strength meter Power Practical Practical Meter charged another battery pack inside, as well as having a LED output option.

We were fortunate that even though the power-outage went 3-4 hours over time (apparently the pole-replacement was too big for the hole dug) it was not as cool as it had been, getting down to 5oC at nights, as all our inside heaters are electric. However, running the stove, boiling water in the PowerPot for hot drinks as well as generating power, and our collection of candles and lanterns for lighting.

Outside, I ran our BioLite thermoelectric stove much to the delight of Tactical Baby, who insisted in roasting marshmallows over the flames, whilst I charged yet another Lithium 4400 battery and phones directly. I cut wood to run the BioLite, as it only takes short sized lengths of wood and twigs before dark set in. We were preparing to cook by candlelight when the power came back on.

With good use of ambient light, not opening our fridges and freezers, and gas-cooking and water, we were hardly inconvenienced, and with my collection of thermo-electric power sources, we has device-running power aplenty.

Review: Back Country Cuisine - Cooked Breakfast

Here is the fourth and final chapter in my "instant meals" pieces that I've been covering. The first was the Outdoor Gourmet Butter Chicken, which was delicious, the Back Country Cuisine Roast Chicken which was passable, the Outdoor Gourmet Tandoori Chicken, which was also delicious and now the last entry of the four I had collected to sample, the Back Country Cuisine Cooked Breakfast.

Billed as a "satisfying beef bacon, scrambled egg in a hash brown potato mix served with baked beans" I wanted to have non-dinner one to try, to give a range of meal options in my mix, so it seemed like a simple enough addition.

As with the other three meals, the Cooked Breakfast consisted of a full meal, freeze-dried to preserve them, and make for a light-weight, portable and stable foodstuff. In the freeze drying process, crystals of frozen ice in the food are sublimed (evaporated) to water vapour in a vacuum chamber.

This produces a completely dry food that allows water to quickly get into the pores left by the ice crystals to give a juicy, tender food product when reconstituted. After packing, the Back Country Cuisine meals are heat-sealed in their foil pouches from which all the air has been removed and replaced with nitrogen. This keeps the food safe and "fresh" for at least three years without the need for preservatives.

The Cooked Breakfast meal weighs 90g dry, and requires 250mL of hot water, and comes with a second retort within the main pouch, which contains the haricot baked beans component of the meal. Once cooked, this is a 340g (12oz) meal, and again, it is quite possible to eat the whole meal in the bottom half of the retort, which comes with a "tear-here" notch for ease of use, to change it from a cook-pot into a bowl. Splitting the boiling water between the main component, and the beans, re-sealing and waiting for 10 minutes to reconstitute produces the meal.

Nutritionally, the meal provides 1702kJ (408Cal) as a unit, which breaks down to 501kJ (120Cal) per 100g, and equates to 20% or the recommended daily allowance.

However. This is probably the worst instant meal I have ever tasted. The egg was simultaneously stiff and spongy, and tasteless like foam. The bacon beef was not even TVP standard, the hashbrown mix was mush and the beans. The beans. The tasteless, white, sauceless beans didn't rehydrate, and were still hard and dry in the retort, and didn't further reconstitute with additional water.

This is one of my rare negative reviews. This was terrible. Not only that, but I became very ill shortly after eating it, and I had to go home from work following eating it early in the afternoon. I was sick for a couple of days. It wasn't even tasty. Sure, it might not have been the BCC Cooked Breakfast, but I'll not be having another one. So, 2:2, the OGC meals were 2/2 delicious, the BCC meals were one passable, one awful and sick-making. Certainly not what I would have wanted if I had been out bush, or living in the Bunker.

Review: BackCountryCuisine Instant meals - Roast Chicken

As my second part in the four dehydrated meals reviews I have been doing,  I will cover the Backcountry Cuisine "Roast Chicken" meal.

The first of these reviews, on the Outdoor Gourmet Butter Chicken meal was published on Breach Bang Clear, and I had some interesting feedback on it. Go check it out here... The principle is the same, the plasticised foil retort is both the cook-pot, the serving dish and eating bowl.

The Roast Chicken meal weighs in at 175g (6.2oz) tender chicken in little squares, vegetables and stuffing smothered in gravy and then served with the mashed potato. You simply add 220mL of hot water to the mashed potato sachet and 250mL hot water to the chicken meal sachet, stir and let stand for 10 minutes. The result is a delicious hot meal wherever you may be.

About half way down the retort a second tear tab on all pouches allows you to tear the lower perforation and use the pouch as a bowl once the food has reconstituted. It's a great idea and saves getting messy hands when using your spoon or fork, but be sure to tear carefully or you can make a hot mess of the meal. It might even be an idea to cut it into a bowl, to be sure. You have a knife with you, right?

The mashed potato comes in a separate retort, stored inside the main retort, which is good in that it allows you to serve it separately and keeps it from becoming a thick sludgy mess. I found the texture of the main meal to be really appealing, with the mashed potato being fairly standard for instant mash. The flavour balance was good, and it wasn't too salty.

The waiting time wasn't too bad, especially from water brought to a fast simmer, through to eating it only took 15 minutes.

One thing that I found was important, but not required was to have a flat surface to plop them down on as they are reconstituting, but the retorts fan-out from the bottom as part of their design, but I think they did better from standing up than laying down. One good thing however, was that the zip-lock top seal allows you to squeeze-mix the contents to reconstitute your food. This made me feel like an astronaut, given food served on the ISS.

Nutritionally, the whole meal makes up 1549 kJ (370 Cal) which Back Country Cuisine state is 18% daily intake requirement, so it's not a hefty food source, but being light, you could pack a bunch of them, and if you had three a day, that's 54%, so don't leave out the snacks when you're packing.

One thing I found was that the mashed potato didn't quite reconstitute properly, and when I spooned it out, I found some dry patches, but by mixing it up when in a separate bowl, it all came good. All in all, this was a really good meal and I enjoyed it, it was tasty.



Well worth adding to your pack if you are wanting to travel light, but also want a home-cooked style meal.

Be sure to pack enough potable water, or have access to enough wherever you are going, and enough to balance out your hydration as you go.

Review: BioLite thermoelectric stove

I finally laid hands on one of these, the BioLite thermoelectric power generation stove and have had some fun trying it out. I've covered these before, in a WishLust post, so I was really happy when a good deal came my way.

The general principle is this: a steel pot, an inner layer with air-holes, a protective outer mesh to prevent accidental contact with the hot pot, built in folding legs, and an attachable, thermocouple driven, high-capacity battery, with both USB output and an internal fan to drive the fire.

The fire output is measured as 3.4 kW (at low power with the fan) and 5.5 kW (With the fan at high power). I haven't yet timed it, but BioLite state that it takes as little as 4.5 minutes to boil 1 liter of water, but obviously boiling times vary by strength of fire, which then comes back to the quality of the fuel used.

Officially, 46g (1.6 oz) of wood to boil 1 liter of water, when I used it, I simply chopped up a fistful of wood, and fed it in, feeding as it went. One thing to note is that with a small combustion pot, you need to feed it regularly, as it burns down rapidly, more so if the fan is set to high.

The varnished pine ex-furniture I was using here went up like a candle, but I expect that denser, or damper wood to burn a bit lower and slower. Charcoal would be an ideal fuel, but anything form hay (which I used to light it) to paper and cardboard, twigs, pinecones, whatever, would do. If you have the fire going, and can fit the solid fuel into the firepot, it will probably work.


The output of the USB varied, with the intensity of the fire, but is documented as 2W @5V at a continuous burn, and a peak output of 4W @5V. This in turn gives a phone such as the iPhone 4S (2G) 20 minutes of charging provides 60 minutes of talk time.

As with the boil times, charging times would vary by device and by the strength of the fire.

I really like how by clever design the fan/charging pod, fits neatly into the fire pot, with the thermocouple poking out.

When packed, its 21cm (8.25") tall, and 13cm (5") around, and weighs only 930g (33 oz).

The triangular trivet which clips over the scalloped triangular metal lip provides extra security for placing pots or cups on the top, for cooking, water sterilizing, or what-have-you, doesn't clip nicely back onto the lip when the charging pod is stored, but the whole package comes with a nylon drawstring bag, so you're covered.

The USB port is nicely fitted, and covered by a silicone flap which keeps it drip, splatter and ash-free when not in use. The external honeycomb grill shields you from direct burns, but still heats up pretty swiftly, so don't try picking it up once burning.

I look forwards to coupling this with my newly-replaced PowerPot XL and doubling the off-grid charging and powering that I can offer my camp-site.

If the little BioLite looks a bit small for your needs, they also make these jumbo versions too, the BaseCamp.

Review: Cast iron pots

Following on from my article on cast-iron frypans, I thought I'd cover my collection of cast-iron pots as well.

Sharing the same qualities that make the cast iron pans attractive to apocalyptic cooking an preparedness, namely their ruggedness, good thermal transfer and thermal retention properties that is part and parcel with cast iron products. I have quite the collection of cast-iron pots, which get more use in regular rotation in our regular cooking, beside we like to cook a lot of long and slow.


The down-sides are the same too, its heavy, a touch brittle and can rust if not maintained. There is also quite a variety of sizes and styles of pots as well, but the key points to look for are the combinations of lips, handles and hangers. Lids are of course highly desirable, and also have some variety. I have a range of pots, from the massive 20L, through to the tiny 150mL ones.

As I've been collecting these for some years, I've come by them in several different ways. The biggest pop cam by way of Omega and her own reenacting past, the lipped large pot can from a disposal store, where as the two mid sized pots came from second-hand shops, and didn't come with lids. The littlest ones came from a cookware shop, for fancy sizzle cooking, but cast-iron is cast-iron!

I'm most pleased with my legged Dutch Oven, with its tripod feet allowing it to be placed over coals and cook in ashes without needing a standalone tripod, and settling on uneven ground without spilling. It also comes with a lipped lid, with a solid handle. The lipped lid lets you stack coals on top allowing you to cook evenly on all sides.

A wire handle lets you hang it from a tripod, and collect it from the fire easily, essential when cooking over an open fire.


For those screaming at me for the rusty look of my pots, giving them a good clean and re-season is usually as easy as a bit of a scrub, heating it till good and hot to burn off any stuck food and water, then re-oiling. I use spray-on vegetable oil from a can to get a even thin layer, and it works really well, as you can see here, following camping for 6 days over Easter.

I bake cakes and bread in mine (for cakes I tend to nest one pot in the other as seen here, with spacers between the pots to distribute the heat a bit). Delicious and magical for all the ramen-noodle and sachet cooking crowd.


I also cook directly in them, both stews, chili and roasts.  They also serve to keep hot food hot, as different dishes are prepared, and as well-sealing serving containers, keeping both germs, bugs and critters out, especially if closed when its sizzling.

The other thing I look for in cast-iron pots is nesting for storage and transport. Cast-iron is be necessity, heavy, and sometimes difficult to pack, store and transport, so having all that in one place can be an advantage (or not, depending). I like mine to nest.

I take them away with me on almost every camping trip, which I'm not hiking all my own gear, which is when I'd use my lightweight gear, like the Optimus: Terra-solo cook or the Power Practical: Power-Pot. For old-timey camping or homesteading, you really can't go past the rugged and robust charm of cast-iron though. It takes a lot of abuse, cooks delicious food and lasts a long, long time.