Equipment for tourist cuisine

The choice of kitchen equipment depends primarily on the area of ​​travel and the possibility of using local fuel (firewood). The time of year is also a determining factor. In winter, even in the taiga zone, it is advisable to combine cooking with heating the tent and drying clothes.

In addition, to a certain extent the choice of equipment for a tourist kitchen is influenced by the category of travel complexity. So, on a simple hike with good access, you can take ordinary household utensils (buckets, frying pans), as well as convenient but heavy equipment (for example, a gasoline stove).

CAMPFIRE EQUIPMENT

The equipment of the hearth depends on whether food is intended to be cooked over a “high” or “low” fire. In the first case, minimal equipment is required - flyers, crossbars, hooks, and flyers and crossbars in remote areas can be prepared on site. However, cutting down living trees, bushes or branches from them is undesirable, and in addition, a lot of time is spent searching for a suitable flyer, so it is advisable to replace them with a steel cable with a diameter of 2-4 mm or a thin chain, the weight of which, depending on the length and diameter, does not exceed 0.5-0.7 kg. The weight can be reduced by using a cable 4-5 m long, and extending the ends with rope. In other cases, for a “high” fire, stands with metal flyers are used.

Rice. 19. Flyer shapes	Rice. 20. Hook shapes

The simplest flyers are made from a long nail or a piece of steel wire with a diameter of 3-4 mm (Fig. 19); bent steel strip 12-15 wide, 1.5-2.5 mm thick with a hole and a nail. A convenient flyer is obtained from a corkscrew made entirely of steel rod.

Hooks for hanging buckets (Fig. 20) are made of steel wire 2-4 mm thick (depending on the volume of the buckets).

Currently, a rather convenient campfire set has appeared on sale, but it does not have enough hooks for hanging buckets, so you should make an additional 2-4 hooks.

It is more convenient to cook food over a “low” fire using a taganka: the buckets stand stable and do not need to be held when mixing thick food, as at a “high” fire; the fire is not so hot, the flames are less blown away by the wind; You can put any flat-bottomed dish on the fire, including those without handles (frying pan). In addition, a “low” fire requires significantly less wood.

Fig.21. Taganka design diagram: a - collapsible from tubes; b - collapsible from corners; c - folding

There are many different designs of marching tagankas (Fig. 21). Steel is used as a material for them. Collapsible tagankas without additional connections do not hold well on weak (for example, swampy) soil; in addition, their posts are difficult to drive in on rocky soil (pebbles). In these cases, folding tagankas are more convenient.

CAMPING STOVES

In areas where the possibilities for collecting firewood are limited (forest-steppe zone, public recreation areas), camping stoves - hanging and floor-mounted - are widely used.

A hanging stove is used in small tents where there is no room for it on the floor. It is hung at a height of 0.5 m above the sleeping bags under the ridge of the roof in gable tents or at the central post in tents. The design of hanging stoves should completely eliminate the possibility of coals falling out during firing or loading. One of the most successful models of a hanging stove, which can also be used as a floor-standing stove, is shown in Fig. 22. In this design, the hole, which serves as a blower, is located approximately one-third of the height of the stove from the bottom. The door for loading fuel and the hole for the bucket are located at the top. In cases where the stove is used for heating, the cooking bucket is removed, the stove is filled with firewood and closed with a lid (the lid can also be used as a frying pan). To regulate the draft, a rotating damper is used. The stove is economical and safe. She can drown herself without outside supervision, for example, while sleeping.

Rice. 22. Diagram of a floor-standing stove: 1 - door; 2 - cover; 3 - pipe; 4 - legs; 5 - brackets; b - cable; 7 - plywood; 8 - tank

The tent is heated by heat transfer by a flow of heated air (convection). The lower the stove, the greater the volume of air involved in heat exchange and, therefore, the warmer it is in the tent. When installing the stove on the floor, wire legs made of steel wire with a diameter of 3-5 mm (depending on the size of the stove) are attached to it.

The significant disadvantages of the described stove are that only one dish can be cooked in it at a time, and the cooking process, especially if you have to melt snow, is significantly delayed.

There are many stove designs that allow you to simultaneously cook two dishes, and some of them provide the additional ability to melt snow or heat food. All of them are floor type. A version of such a stove is shown in Fig. 23. This design has greater versatility.

It is advisable to make all types of tourist stoves from stainless steel with a thickness of 0.2-0.4 mm or ordinary sheet steel with a thickness of 0.4-0.5 mm. If necessary, the stove structure can be strengthened with stiffeners.

Fig.23. Universal stove diagram

For all types of tourist stoves, pipes are used, rolled from a thin (0.15-0.25 mm) sheet of elastic steel with a width of 4.5-5.0 elbow diameters. Its length can reach up to 2 m, and it must protrude from the tent by at least 0.5 m. When transporting, the pipe is easily rolled into a thin roll that fits freely inside the stove.

HEATING DEVICES

In connection with the development of treeless areas, as well as a further increase in restrictions on lighting fires in places of mass tourism, there is a need to use various heating devices running on artificial fuel. The most common of them are tourist stoves.

For a small group, it is recommended to use the tourist primus “PT”, which has small dimensions (120x120x80 mm) and weight (0.8 kg). Primus is safe and easy to use. Burning time after one refill (120 ml) is 40-60 minutes. Boiling time for 2 liters of water is 16 minutes. In this primus, fuel is supplied to the burner due to self-heating and, as a result, the pressure in the tank increases. When installing wide dishes, the primus overheats. To prevent overheating, place wide dishes using a taganka at a height of at least 50 mm and keep a wet rag or a mug of water ready to cool the tank in time.

In most cases, it is more advisable to use the “Bumblebee” tourist primus, which, although somewhat heavier (weight about 1 kg), is more convenient to use. The capacity of the “Bumblebee” tank is 4 times greater compared to the “PT”, and it is enough to refill it once a day. Fuel is supplied by pumping, which makes it less sensitive to self-heating and safer. To carry the “Bumblebee”, use a sealed case. With the use of protective screens and special tagankas, the efficiency of kerosene stoves can be increased (Fig. 24).

In addition to the described primus stoves, tourists use gasoline stoves and blowtorches.

The gasoline stove has dimensions of 440x330x120 mm and a weight of about 4 kg. It is advisable to use it in simple trips, base camps and motorized types of tourism.

Fig.25. Diagram of the heating device: 1 - stand; 2 - dry fuel; 3 - container with food	Fig.24. Diagram of the protective screen: a - general view; b - top view of the protective screen (pan)

The weight of the tile can be reduced by almost 2 kg by replacing the steel casing parts with aluminum ones. The stove is easy to use: it has two burners, which allows you to cook two dishes at the same time. The boiling time for 2 liters of water is 10 minutes, the burning time after one refill is 2-3 hours.

For difficult hikes, it is preferable to take two “Bumblebees” than one tile, since the presence of two heating devices is more reliable in hiking conditions: they weigh less and are more convenient to transport.

It is recommended to use a blowtorch together with a taganka or stove. This combination allows you to use low-quality local fuel (fin, raw firewood) and significantly reduce gasoline consumption.

Various polyethylene flasks and canisters are used to store and carry gasoline. Soft containers made by tourists from oil- and petrol-resistant rubber are very convenient.

On short trips, during tourist rallies and competitions, it is advisable to use portable gas stoves. To prepare and heat food during short walks, portable stoves and heating devices running on dry alcohol are used (Fig. 25). They are compact, lightweight, and easy to handle. Paraffin or stearin and candle cinders are suitable as fuel.

DISHES

Buckets, pots, and pans are used for cooking food on a tourist trip.

Buckets are made flat and oval in shape. The set includes from 3 to 5 buckets, nested inside each other. Oval buckets for 6,7,8 l have dimensions (in mm): height - 220; length - 280, 290, 300, respectively; width - 130, 140, 150. Buckets should not be too narrow and high, otherwise it will be difficult to mix thick food and a lot of fuel will be consumed.

For Tagankas and stoves, the shape of a bucket in the form of a truncated pyramid is convenient (Fig. 26). Such buckets can be the same size; at the same time, they easily fit into each other. When cooking on the stove, a gap is formed between them in the lower part, sufficient for the penetration of the flame, and in the upper part they fit tightly to each other and the walls of the stove.

The best material for buckets is stainless steel with a thickness of 0.3-0.5 mm. Buckets made of aluminum alloys should have a wall thickness of 0.8-1.2 mm. To reduce fuel consumption and speed up the cooking process, the buckets are covered with lids. The use of lids when cooking over an open fire is not justified, since it is difficult to remove and put on the lids due to the heat of the fire. It is advisable to design the attachment of the arms to the buckets in such a way that the arm does not fall to one side. (Fig. 27). This will allow you to remove the bucket from the taganka or stove without the use of hooks and mittens.

Our industry produces a convenient, although rather heavy, set of two oval cauldrons with a capacity of 7.5 and 5.5 liters. Their lids can be used as frying pans. Pots with a spherical bottom are not suitable for hiking, since they cannot be installed on a flat surface and they easily tip over.

Low, wide-bottomed dishes are suitable for cooking on a primus stove, allowing more full use of the heat of the burner flame. These can be ordinary saucepans.

Metal bowls and mugs are used as personal utensils. Polyethylene dishes are not suitable: they melt easily near the fire and are difficult to wash off fatty foods. Plastic utensils made of impact-resistant polystyrene are more practical.

Fig.26. Pyramid shaped bucket diagram

Fig.27. Scheme for attaching the arms to the bucket: a - with an eye with a “tongue”; b - bow with a bent end

Tourists often have to eat while standing, so for liquid and hot food it is recommended to take dishes with a handle - low mugs and ladles with a capacity of 0.7-1 liters. Mugs for tea with a capacity of 0.35-0.5 liters should be enameled - aluminum ones burn your lips.