TheSamba.com :: View topic - How do you cook when you camp? Mongolian Fire Pot perhaps?

Sun Jun 13, 2010 12:12 pm

In VanWilder there is no stove, so we BBQ (small portable propane bbq) (we use it to bake cornbread also). We use a single burner type stove and now the great Mongolian Fire Pot. Traditionally used for soups. ($21.95 Hot Pot http://importfood.com/thaicookware.html)This little ditty is a gem. Made of Aluminum and weighs literally nothing!! It takes a few charcoal or sticks to carry a long slow cook process. 4 hours of slow cook took about 7 charcoal and 5 small sticks. This baby is like a crock pot sans the electricity. We made probably the best home made chili in this thing that we have ever made at home or anywhere. We browned off the Chuck meat and onions at home and bagged it and coolered it and added it to the pot. Clean up was simple, water and a bit of sand since we were on the coast. Cost effective, weight effective and easy to clean. Curry? Stew? Spaghetti Sauce? Limit less...Serve 4 easily.

Let's make lot's of yummy!!!

Sun Jun 13, 2010 12:21 pm

First where did you get it and how much?

I have been to a Mongolian Fire Pot restaurant in NE Toronto. Each table has an electric ring between 2 people. There is a broth in it and you fill your plate either at a buffet or you get served the food and you cook it all yourself. I know its different from yours but the charcoal bricks would be a definite hazzard inside a restaurant. I've also had something like it in a Japanese restaurant but it is an electric hibachi. I didn't like the latter because everything came soaked in Soya Sauce, way too strong.

I am very interested in getting what you have. Can you feed us information, please please please :!: :)

Sun Jun 13, 2010 12:30 pm

I updated the above with where I found this thing 5 years ago and never used it until this weekend. $21.95,, you can't beat it... http://importfood.com/thaicookware.html

Truly a simple way to go....

Sun Jun 13, 2010 12:33 pm

you should get daring and try different things with your Fire Pot. You could use it like a broth fondue, maybe even a choc fondue. Hope I can track one down.

Sun Jun 13, 2010 12:51 pm

Yes many different uses,,, Fondue,, soup broth,, etc,,

$21.95 http://importfood.com/thaicookware.htm 3/4 of the way down on the page...

Chicken Curry will be next.

Sun Jun 13, 2010 2:33 pm

I love it--like an angel food cake mold folded in...the heat releases instead of building up and burning the bottom.

Sun Jun 13, 2010 2:39 pm

You could probably learn to bake in it also. Many decades ago when I had my first sailboat there was a stove top oven and I used to be brought a fresh scone on Sunday mornings by a neighbor. I had a class racing machine so no stove, sink. Hey it was great.

I hereby challenge you all to bake something. Bundt cake would be a natural. Angel Food cake as suggested another, Of course I'd have to be able to taste each one to establish that it's yummy :wink:

Sun Jun 13, 2010 3:27 pm

Not to be a spoiler as it does look like a nice way to cook while camping, but here is some info you should know about cooking with aluminum. I hopes it anondized.....I didn't see it mentioned in the link.

There are potential risks in some cookware materials. Aluminum and Teflon-lined pots, pans and bakeware are safest when kept in good condition and used properly. Stainless steel, enameled or well-seasoned cast iron and porcelain cookware are best.

Aluminum

Plain aluminum cookware is low-cost, light-weight, and thermally responsive – but aluminum is reactive. Foods cooked in aluminum can react with the metal to form aluminum salts associated with impaired visual motor coordination and Alzheimer’s disease; however there is no definite link proven. More than half of all cookware sold today is made of aluminum.
Suggestions:

* Keep aluminum cookware on good condition – When cooking with aluminum pots, the more pitted and worn out the pot, the greater amount of aluminum will be absorbed.
* Minimize food storage time in aluminum – The longer food is cooked or stored in aluminum, the greater the amount that gets into food.
* Avoid cooking highly acidic foods in aluminum – Aluminum cookware manufacturers warn that storing highly acidic or salty foods such as tomato sauce, rhubarb, or sauerkraut in aluminum pots may cause more aluminum than usual to enter the food.

Anodized aluminum

Anondized aluminum has been treated to develop an aluminum oxide (extremely hard and non-reactive) coating on the surface of the cookware. Commercial Aluminum Company, the manufacturer of Calphalon, a best-selling brand of anodized aluminum cookware, claims that a final stage in the anodization process seals the aluminum, preventing any leaching into food. Anodized aluminum cookware doesn’t react to acidic foods, so these pots and pans are good choices for cooking rhubarb and sauces with tomato, wine, and lemon juice.

Sun Jun 13, 2010 3:49 pm

hmmm Alzheimer’s disease? Wait what are we talking about? I just forgot.

You are not spoiling, just educating... I don't think this aluminum is treated. Perhaps I need a stainless steel unit. Perhaps that is why the aluminum units are $21.95 and stainless steel are much more costly.

Anyone else care to chime in about aluminum and extended cooking times in it?

Sun Jun 13, 2010 3:57 pm

I couldn't find anything about this being for cooking - only for warming, or keep soups, etc warm after they've been cooked.

I don't think I'd use it for cooking. :?

Sun Jun 13, 2010 4:00 pm

Aluminum and Alzheimers were a concern a few decades ago but they have since backed off and said no relationship. Most tent camping cookware is light aluminum and in Cd we are soooo cautious that it would be off the shelves in an instant if there was a concern.

You might or might not remember that the old cast iron cookware was on the hit list decades ago also. It has since been pushed to the top of the list for preferred cooking pots. In fact some doctors suggest people with low iron levels use it for cooking for natural iron.

Having a long medical background I have followed dozens and dozens of studies and what I learned over 35 yrs was the 6 will prove something and within 6 mths 1/2 dzn others will prove otherwise.

The only creditable data is that which is proved in double blind cross over strictly controlled studies. Well that's not the only way for some things, some things just are.... mmm atomic bomb effects/affects, and many others.

I'm one who says if it works and you like it use it. Keep it clean and use with reasonableness. IMHO using well cared for untreated aluminum and/or well seasoned and cared for cast iron are useable. Acidity of food may be a factor but you know what, one can get paranoid about just about everything now adays. So science and health are not always in collusion.

"IMHO" :)

Sun Jun 13, 2010 4:29 pm

Daizee, brilliant retort. I appreciate everyone's input.

These Pots are made for soups that do cook at your table for hours on end based on how long ppl sit and eat. You put veg and meat in a basket and let the broth in the pot cook it. Fondue style.

Findings of a Canadian study to be found here: http://www.only-cookware.com/aluminum_cookware_bad_for_health.html

Conclusion:

Aluminum pans do not pose a health risk to their users, even if they are scratched or pitted. The amount of aluminum that leaks into food is negligible, and far less than that consumed through other methods.

Another find: There is already an article released by the Alzheimer’s Association that refutes that aluminum causes Alzheimer’s. It is in fact Alzheimer’s that causes the increase in aluminum in the brain as the disease causes more retention of aluminum, where as in a normal person that would be excreted through fecal matter.

Sun Jun 13, 2010 4:33 pm

DAIZEE wrote: Most tent camping cookware is light aluminum and in Cd we are soooo cautious that it would be off the shelves in an instant if there was a concern.

who exactly regulates cookware in Canada?

Sun Jun 13, 2010 4:42 pm

You got me! We have the same kind of Agency as the FDA in the States and I can't think of the name right now. It deals with drugs, health, food, etc.... I'm not sure that they are out there testing everything all the time, that's unreasonable, but when there is concern and/or complaints they are looked into. Recently plastic baby bottles, H2O drinking bottles, the lining of aluminum cans, and a bunch more come to mind have come under scrutiny.

I guess personal decisions are different at different ages/stages of life. I refuse to be paranoid about anything, I try to make myself aware of as much as I can and I get on with life. As I said aluminum cookware of all kinds (especially camping) has been around for most of my life and I'm in my 7th decade. I'm talking about high end stores, medium, its all over the place.

Sun Jun 13, 2010 4:51 pm

All restaurants use Aluminum pot and pans because they are light, inexpensive and easy to clean.

Sun Jun 13, 2010 4:56 pm

At Expo 67 my parents bought one of those, but must of instantly forgot what it was. It was made of brass and we used to keep keys, paper clips,buttons and all the other sundry bits that end up in a drawer. Other than the hole at the bottom- which i figured you put a a candle ,i didn't really clue in until way later when i discovered how to cook asian food and saw one in a book. Because it was made of brass, I figured it was more ornamental. Can you even cook in brass?

Sun Jun 13, 2010 4:59 pm

Growing up we had a Brass Fire Pot. We used it all of the time.

Sun Jun 13, 2010 5:10 pm

Copper too.

Sun Jun 13, 2010 6:09 pm

In Mexico they use huge Copper pots to boil Carnitas all day long.

We are going to die!!! Some day....

Sun Jun 13, 2010 6:21 pm

Hey from the moment of birth, we are all dying. Alas some faster than others. But we can eat well on the way :D