HogOnIce's Homemade 3.5 oz. Cooking Syst em

“HOI (HogOnIce) sent me this great homemade cooking system he made.
It consists of a 20 fl. oz. cook pot made from a large aluminum beer can with the top cut off, a wire mesh pot stand, a tea candle holder alcohol burner, aluminum foil lid and bottom reflector, spark clicker to light the alcohol, and a cozy with lid to hold a zip lock bag for the food to cook in.
ALL this stuff comes to 3.5 oz. total on my digital scale!

I will take pictures and build a web page for this baby tonight. I'll post the url as soon as I get it online tonight!”

“Cool!”

“E.I.B.!!!

(Excellence In Backpacking, not to be confused with the radio network of a certain conservative talk-show host...)”

“It's a great ultralight solo cooking system, and will cost almost nothing but a few minutes of time to make.
You use the beer can pot to boil your water, put a ziplock bag into the cozy, put a Lipton's meal into the ziplock, pour the boiling water into the ziplock in the cozy, seal the ziplock, put cozy lid on, shake, wait 15-20 minutes for food to cook inside the cozy, eat from cozy.”

“Aren't Al beer cans lined so the metal doesn't react with the contents?”

“Yeah, I'm with Buddur!

Skip the cookin' and eat crackers and cheese.”

“Stovestomper, I want one. Have no time to make one. Can get one out of mailbox. Can put money into mailbox. No have time to make one. I said that twice.”

“Wolfie, I'll make you one for a Hundred Billlllion Dollars.....

Wait till you see the pictures tonight wolfie, this thing is so simple even a girl can make one! (StoveStomper cuts and runs!!!!) ;)

You need to talk to HOI, It's his baby and design. I'm just putting a web page of it up for him.”

“Don't bums eat out of old cans?”

“I wanna make one of those cozy's, what material did you use, I'm thinking a piece of foam mattress maybe???”

“That cozy idea sounds more cozy everytime I hear of one. And this whole time I've been pouring water into my freezer bags, kneeding to mix the water with contents, then staging the bag for rehydration by wrapping it in my dog's synthetic sleeping blanket for 15-20min. By then the contents are warm enough to handle. But the cozy does sound like a good idea.”

“Roam - that's what HOI used, a piece of old closed cell foam sleeping pad, about 1/2" thick.”

“This sounds rather ingenious! Look forward to seeing the pics.”

“A hundred billion dollars??? WTF???


StoveStomper must be working on government projects. That is about how much I would expect DOD to spend on this contraption.”

“I use one of those "grease pots" from Wal Mart for my cook pot. It's aluminuminum and really light, not a light as a beer can, but more sturdy, it has a lid and my dog food can/cat food can stove and wire mesh pot stand all fit inside of it for packing.”

“Plus! the whole setup complete with heat reflector all fits into the stuff sack that came with my old Whisperlite stove.

Oh, and the grease pot has a handle that doesn't get hot.”

“the Wal-Mart Grease Pot doesn't have a handle. Here's a picture with one of my design potstands/windscreens. ”

“Looks very familiar I used that Sgt. Rock guys plans.

My greasepot has a handle, it's more slender than yours though, just a different style. The cans just barely fit inside. My lid has a strainer built into it as well. I need to figure out a way to cut that out, but I think it'd take a torch.”

“Roam - I've seen that one in Wal-Mart also. It's Stainless Steel and weighs more than the aluminum pot shown.
An even better light pot is the antigravity gear 3 cup pot. It does not have the inside rolled lip the Wal-Mart aluminum grease pot has.”

“Yeah your right it is stainless. I liked it because of size mainly. It'll hold three cups filled to the brim, two for practical use, which seems to be plenty for me.

I'm just starting to experiment with the whole stove/cook system thing. I like your website - good ideas.”

“Stovestomper, Does HOI keep the cook kit in anything to keep the alum can/pot from getting crushed?? Streamweaver”

“Here is the Heineken 24-oz ‘keg’ can HOI used to make the pot.

Streamweaver - He shipped it to me inside the cozy. He will need to answer questions.”

“It used to be that beer cans were sprayed with some kind of 'plastic' to keep the contents away from the metal in the can. Don't know if that's toxic when heated, but guess it's gone after the first heating.”

“awright! first prototype ziplock cozy comlete and tested. Kept water HOT for 30 minutes. I'd say it works fairly well.”

“SS where is mine you said you were sending me????”

“Oh my where to begin:

- weight is probably a little off cause I forgot to send the windscreen so its probably more like 4 ounces - windscreen I use is just a piece of aluminum flashing about 3-4 inches high and large enough for a .25 inch gap all around the beer can and with a bunch of holes punched in the bottom edge

- the foam pad I used for the cozy I sent to StoveStomper was an old army close cell sleeping pad - .5 inch is a generous estimate of the thickness. I see no reason however why it could not be made with the classic wally world blue pad and probably would even work better.

- wrt to the beer can / pot getting crushed - I just take some care to keep it in the middle of my food bag and with the ridges in the Heineken can it survives reasonably well. This is not to say that the top doesn't sometimes get somewhat distorted but it is easy to round it back before use. I have not seen any sign of the coating on the inside of the can coming off or even changing color but then plastic in a beer can would be good up to boiling water temps anyways just due to the steralization part of the canning process.

- Wolfeyes - I'll see what I can do to put together a kit and send it to you but it probably will be a while”

“Pictures, I have Pictures!
Page is up!”

“very cool!”

“I have made stoves, bought stoves, and borrowed stoves.

The only one never to disapoint was the MSR Whisperlight International. When I am with a group I will experiment with stoves and cookware.

On my solo hikes there is only one option.”

“That is so neat, HOI.

Can't wait till I get my hands on one of those 24oz'ers.”

“Oh my, the weigh went up to 3.7 oz. after I added a roasting pan aluminum wind screen.
Updated HOI 3.7 oz. Cooking System”

“what's the boil time for your 24 oz?”

“I've got the whisperlite int'l too. the only complaint i have is that it's hard to get a simmer and it seems to require lots of pumping.”

“gee, now that i've written that down it sounds like a pretty serious flaw for a stove, huh.”

“Hog On Ice....I got more than AWHILE than I have TIME so that is okay, and I got money to send to have you make me one...I will follow all instructions.”

“Try to get a simmer with an alcohol stove.”

“easy, use a "simmer ring" along with a little cover that I fashioned to slow down the burn.”

“Very nice. Looks very compact in the pack, also. Ahh, the every working mind of a TT contributor!

If you don't need to store the alci stove and accessories inside the can while in your pack then it would be really simple to make. You wouldn't need to cut the top off the can. Just pop the spout, drink the beer, and wash the can out. Plus, you wouldn't need the foil lid. It'd be a bit heavier, though. Just a thought.

For those of you that make pot and ziplock cozies try this: Thermwell Foam and Foil Duct Insulation. You can get it at Lowes (link below). It looks to be a material very similar to what AntiGravity uses for their pot cozies. I made a pouch to hold ziplocks a while back and it works great. You can cook alot of "simmer" meals inside the cozy. I'm thinking of making a pot cozy sometime soon.

http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=28929-1410-FV516”

“Holy crap! The stove I just bought weighs 1 lb. 3 oz. alone! I used to have a Whispernotlight. I ended up using it for the only use it was good for...a christmas tree ornament.”

“<"Try to get a simmer with an alcohol stove."

To simmer w/ my alcohol stove setup, I remove the pop can stove and light a tea candle under the pot.”

“Nice setup, btw.”

“Cool set-up! I don't know if I'd have the patience to make it, but very ingenious nonetheless.”

“more notes:

boil time with 1.75 cups of water is about 8 minutes

simmering with an alcohol stove is not a factor - all the time the food is in the cozy is "simmering"

the key idea in all this is the cozy - having a cozy that will stand up and hold the ziplock bag open by itself while boiling water is poured into it improves the safety and convience of ziplock cooking”

“I believe it was jerbear that taught me to add some water to the alcohol stove to take it to a simmer. I've simmered successfully on several occasions.”

“"When I am with a group I will experiment with stoves and cookware.

On my solo hikes there is only one option."
bacpac
07:21:08 PM

With a group?

Has anyone ever met this dude?”

“Wolfeyes - you have mail”

“Nothing like being a couple of days late, huh? Got the mail before I saw this! LOL!”

“no problem - I just mailed it priority mail today - with some luck you might see it Monday”

“Thanks, HOI! I appreciate it!”

“Got the package today, HOI! Thanks a million. Think I am gonna try it tonight when I get home from work, outside when it is way cold. It looks pretty neat! We'll see how it works for me.”