Cookpot metal irrelevant to cook time--REPORT

[saimyoji]

No, aluminum causes alzheimer's. You're thinking of Nalgenes.

Get your irrational fears straight.

oops. better switch my aluminum pots to Ti.

[whitefoot_hp]

interesting info here about aluminum

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/sc...?documentID=99

[Phreak]

I've never noticed any cooking difference with my pots. I typically carry titanium due to the lightweight.

[Skidsteer]

oops. better switch my aluminum pots to Ti.

Yeah, before you forget....

[Dances with Mice]

interesting info here about aluminum

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=99

In that link under the sub-heading
Evidence linking aluminium and Alzheimer's disullet ease,

the second and third bullet points are particularly interesting.

[Skidsteer]

interesting info here about aluminum

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/sc...?documentID=99

More interesting info from Snopes:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=...y-proof-that-a

[whitefoot_hp]

yeah it seems the fear of aluminum is not well founded.

[Mags]

Checking my menu: Omelets, pancakes, quesadillas, steaks, sausages, special rice/chicken/spices/soup/onion dinner. Um, no mac n' cheese - thank god.

Mea culpa...

Let me rephrase it..

We are cooking meals over a tiny stove...it really doesn' t matter!

My Grandma cooked with a pot, a pan, a knife and some simple spoons. Something most "foodies" would sneer at as they buy their overpriced yuppie cookware at Peppercorn.

I suspect (I know!) that the dishes Grandma cooked is far superior to what the yupsters cook on their expensive pots. I now see that the "peasant food dishes" Grandma made are now served in chi chi restaurants that specialize in "Rustic Southern Italian food" (i.e. not the "red sauce " joints most Americans think of as Italian food). These dishes cost an arm and a leg....not bad for something made for starving peasants from il mezzogiorno. I also see the recipes posted on foodie websites and at Whole Foods (something I doubt my ancestors could afford...or whatever the equivalent of the 1910 Whole Paycheck was.. )

So..what does all this rambling mean?

In the same way my Grandma was able to able to make these wonderful meals with the most basic of tools, why do we as backpackers obsess over titanium pots? Heat transfer rates? Etc? Backpacking is about simplicity. Getting back to the basics. Lightweight backpacking is about paring down to the uber essentials.

Yet, backpacking seems to have become about the gear. Lightweight backpacking has become less about simplicity and more about what "gee whiz" toys you can buy to get lightweight.

A pot, a knife, a spoon, some heat. It worked for Grandma Mags when she made eggplant caponata. Surely the simple tools can work for our backcountry concoctions?

In the end, no one cared what kind of pot the good cooks used. Perhaps we should take that philosophy towards enjoying the outdoors, too.

Gear is to used to enjoying hiking in the outdoors. Hopefully we don't hike so we can enjoy gear.

(Sorry for the rambling post...just an observation I've been meaning to write for a while. This thread just brought it about. Not aiming this at anyone).

[mudhead]

I bet she had at least one good knife, tho.

Read a review of home coffee makers. At the prices they were talking, I bet Nescafe would work.

[fehchet]

The bottom line is BTU's.
And please Aluminum is the killer.

[Mags]

I bet she had at least one good knife, tho.

Read a review of home coffee makers. At the prices they were talking, I bet Nescafe would work.

It was a sharp knife. Don't know about good.

This is the type of coffee maker my Grandfather used:





My Dad now has it and uses it. Probably 60+ yrs old at this point.


Makes a damn fine cup of joe.

[Gumbi]

maybe, but it'll also make your boobs grow. right MS?

I hear that makes you go blind!

More myths to dispell!

[mister krabs]

It was a sharp knife. Don't know about good.

This is the type of coffee maker my Grandfather used:
....
Makes a damn fine cup of joe.

You ain't kiddin. There's one on my stove right now.

[atraildreamer]

I never heard that one pot boils faster than another.

I thought that a watched pot never boils???

[gravityman]

pssst..we are just making mac n' cheese on small backpacking stoves.

Does it really matter?

I like to know how things work in general. Does it matter if my water boils a few seconds faster? No... But I do like to know WHY!

But it also CAN make great gear. Suppose when Henry Shires was wondering why his tent fabric was always slack, he didn't realize that if he cut the ridge with a catenary curve, but rather he just said, well it still keeps me dry. Do you think the tarptent would have been as well embraced?

Plus it's a great distraction from work when I'm stuck on a problem...

Gravity

[bobp]

Actually, you've given the physics for heating a pot. The relevant conductivity in this whole scenario is that of the water in the pot, which is significantly less than that of any of the metal pots. Thus, the water will boil at about the same time (as seen by the empirical test). The difference in the thermal conductivities of the pots will be seen in the temperature of the pots (and the gradient of temperature across the metal of the pot).

[Mags]

Plus it's a great distraction from work when I'm stuck on a problem...

Gravity

It is just when gear obsessiveness overshadows the actual joy of backpacking, then something is amiss.

Just noticed this trend more and more in books, magazines and websites.

Then again, I am curmudgeon in training.

[gravityman]

Actually, you've given the physics for heating a pot. The relevant conductivity in this whole scenario is that of the water in the pot, which is significantly less than that of any of the metal pots. Thus, the water will boil at about the same time (as seen by the empirical test). The difference in the thermal conductivities of the pots will be seen in the temperature of the pots (and the gradient of temperature across the metal of the pot).

Higher gradient across pot material = less energy to heat water = longer boiling time. The heat conductivity of the water is irrelevent (and actually quite high because of convection in the pot). It's the heat capacity of water that's imporant in boiling time (or amount of energy it takes to heat a set amount of water by a set number of degrees) but it's the same in all tests.

Gravityman

[gravityman]

It is just when gear obsessiveness overshadows the actual joy of backpacking, then something is amiss.

Just noticed this trend more and more in books, magazines and websites.

Then again, I am curmudgeon in training.

I've noticed your posts have started to take on a "You kids, these days" kind of tone But you are absolutely right, a lot of people focused on the 'wow' factor rather than the fun of backpacking. I agree...

[Captn]

Shape as important to the tone of the pot as material. But what shape cooks the slowest?

The shape that presents the least amount of surface area to the flame and/or hot gasses ...... so, a cone, point down, if only the point is exposed to the flame, would certainly be the slowest.

A tall can, with a small diameter, would be rather inefficient as well if only the bottom is exposed to the heat.