Keeping your pans clean

[Marmot]

This is more commonly used when cooking on an open fire, but with the use of messy, smokey, petrol stoves it does work aswell.

If you coat the outside of the pan with washing up liquid, and then cook with the pan normally, when you come to washing the pan, all the smoke and carbon deposits have stuck to the washing up liquid, and not to your pan, and wash off all nice and easy like.

[Digby]

When I first went to read this thread, I misread it as 'Keeping your pants clean'. I thought it was something to do with a new type of extreme sport...

But back to the pans... The trick works, but it means you have to carry extra supplies of washing-up liquid. You still have to scrub the pans to get the washing-up liquid and gunk off, and all those nitrates play havoc on the environment. For a lot less weight, you can carry a little nylon washing scourer and a few plastic bags. What does not come off after a good scrubbing will not generally come off in your backpack.

Depending on the terain you are visiting, you can leave the scouring pad at home and use a (small) tuft of moss. Use the gritty bit underneath to remove the worst of the grime, them the soft top surface to give it a polish.

Also, if you are using an open fire, you won't have a problem of sooting-up if the fire is managed correctly: A well build fire should not produce smoke. Smoke is caused by incomplete combustion - too little containment of the heat, wet fuel or insufficient oxygen.

Dick Byford
I learned my outdoor skills in the days when God was still young...

[little devil]

This is more commonly used when cooking on an open fire, but with the use of messy, smokey, petrol stoves it does work aswell.

If you coat the outside of the pan with washing up liquid, and then cook with the pan normally, when you come to washing the pan, all the smoke and carbon deposits have stuck to the washing up liquid, and not to your pan, and wash off all nice and easy like.

we tried this on our last duke of edinburgh trip and it actually worked (probably the only thing which did go well!) but i agree that thereis the anoyance of carrying extra weight of washing up liquid. but its often worth the sacrafice when youthen dont have to scrub for half an hour on just one pan :mad:

[motted orange green]

toothpaste works just as well.

[Ollie]

You'd need quite a lot of it though, surely? :confused:

[motted orange green]

nope, not a lot.

[timmygowalkies]

Yeh, that works but lots of nasty fumes going into the atmosphere isn't agood thing. Cover the bottom of your pan in wet mud (sounds stupid but it works believe me) make sure the bottom is completely covered, then set it on the stove the mud dries as you heat it. All the dodgy stuff goes onto the mud and when you're done you just knock all the mud off and hey presto a clean pan. This method also means you aren't carrying tons of washing up liquid that you don't really need around with you :)

[grummit]

i just carry my billy cans in a stuff sack and don't worry about the outside's going black as it helps with the even distribution of heat

[David]

Wow, I love the mud idea, kind of obvious, but so much better than washing up liquid, though I must say that my pots are as black as coal on the outside.