How to make Hobo stoves

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I use the small cat food cans or tuna cans. Cut CORRIGATED cardboard into strips which has a width just under the depth of the can. Coil this as tight as you can get it and put into can on edge. Keep adding cardboard until you can get no more into the can. Should look like a cinnimon roll. Melt paraffin or candle wax and fill the can. Pour the hot wax slowly as it has to work its way into the cardboard. When its full, set it out in the hot sun. I use my solar oven for this. The heat will keep the wax liquid longer and allow it to work its way down through the card board. The next day top off the can again with hot wax and put in sun again. Repeat this until there is no room left in the can for wax. You now have your high tech fuel source. Now take a 3# coffee can and and cut a hole the size and shape of the can full of wax. Cut it just big enuff to slide one of the cans in when the coffee can is turned upside down. This is so you can add another can of fuel in the middle of cooking something without having to remove the food. Now around the side of the bottom of the coffee can (opposite end from where you cut the hole) cut or punch out some holes, about 5 spaced evenly around the can. Diameter whould not be bigger than a ball point pen. About 1/3 of an inch. Light your fuel by laying a little piece of paper on it or if you use a kitchen match, lay it across the fuel. It takes a minute for it to catch fire and then spread across the whole can. Turn your coffee can upside down over the fuel and you now have a cook stove. When cutting the cardboard, it really helps if you have a paper cutter. Cutting and coiling the cardboard takes a little energy, thus I limit myself to making one a day. Not near as easy as making candles. If you don't have cat food cans, Old Git will send you some.

Taz....who likes her coffee and food hot!

-- Taz (Tassie @aol.com), June 26, 1999

Answers

Forgot to tell you that the first hole should be on the side at the top edge of the can.

-- Taz (Tassie @aol.com), June 26, 1999.

Hi Taz, Thanks for the info on hobo stoves, had heard one other using pop cans, perlite and wood alcohol and I like this one,too. May I pick your brain about something else? We recently bought a cast iron dutch oven, seasoned it as instructed. Was going to make a pot of pintos the other day, forgot to soak em so did the blanch 2 min routine as suggested in my Joy of Cooking text; the beans were purplish blackish in color afterwards. Have reseasoned the dutch oven again in oven using Crisco type shortening. Any suggestions? Never cooked beans in a cast iron dutch oven before. Have used crock pots usually. Thanks again.

-- Barb (awaltrip@telepath.com), June 26, 1999.

It will take a number of cookings/seasonings to get that new dutch oven into "maximum efficiency". And will have a tendency to turn the beans black. I cooked with iron for years and years and personally I like glass the best... unless it over an open fire pit. In my solar oven and in my bush box I use a LARGE Visions glass casserol dish with lid and like it so much better than the cast iron. To each his own. PS: A word of caution when buying cast iron. A great deal of cast iron pans are now imported from Asia, especially Korea. These pans are made from melting down scrap iron, especially engine blocks. As one leaches from the pot every time you use it, I wouldn't want to cook in one. Further more, under a high heat there is a tendency for them to crack. Ever had a pot of stew on the stove and have the pot break in two? My neighbor did. What a mess! MAKE SURE YOUR CAST IRON IS MADE IN USA

-- Taz (Tassie @aol.com), June 26, 1999.

Thanks for response and extra info regarding cast iron. We did fortunately buy the Lodge cast iron which is made in USA. Also, both hubby and I really enjoyed your thread about the chickens above. That's now printed and in our book of info which we've been compiling. Thanks again.

-- Barb (awaltrip@telepath.com), June 26, 1999.

Taz

Thanks once agian for the info.

Hopefully you can figure out an alternative for air conditioning now eh?

-- Brian (imager@home.com), June 26, 1999.



To the purple bean folks,

They are fine. Unless you used some bizarre means to season the pan, that is. The more you use your dutch oven the better it will work and the more you will love it! I cherish the one my grandmother passed down to me from the 1940's. Occasionally I will see some discoloration - as long as everything is fresh this is just a sign of some iron "leaching" onto the food - actually considered healthful. IMHO much better than when it happens with an ALUMINUM pan! Keep in mind that unless allowed to sit and rust badly you should never use abrasives or harsh/metal scrubbers on cast iron. I generally put hot water in immediately after taking food out, let it sit and/or simmer while we eat and after everything washes out easily with the rest of the dishes. Dry it (I put it on a low burner for a few minutes, oil lightly and store. If you need to scour it try salt rubbed with a sponge.

-- Kristi (securx@succeed.net), June 26, 1999.


No Brian...I am waiting for you to come up with the problem of no air conditioning. Get with it, man..!! You only have another 10 months until we will need it.

Taz...who does like her AC.

-- Taz (Tassie @aol.com), June 26, 1999.


go to this web site and page down to Dutch oven cooking www.millennium-ark.net DuffyO

-- DuffyO (duffyo@mailcity.com), June 26, 1999.

Hey Taz, how bout a wind up fan? I dunno if they exist, but they _should_ ! Or better yet, one that works by weights like an old grandfather clock.

-- (y2kbiker@worldnet.att.net), June 26, 1999.

I made my hobo fuel out of beef fat that i got free at the butcher's an then rendered. I didn't stuff the can as full of cardboard as I could've, but it worked fine; boiled a cup of water in abt 6 min. I am imagining a whole cookie tin used as a fuel container. i dont want to invest in a wood stove, but figure I can rig a giant hobostove, set it on a base of firebrick(I already know that's safe,) run a small diameter pipe up from it and out one small , prepared window pane,and, voila, warmth. I live in city housing apt for elderly and disabled.I haven't yet figured out a totally good way to store all that rendered fat. By the way, smells much less-and better- than kerosene.

-- adrienne gomez (duckblossm@aol.com), June 27, 1999.


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