Keeping food hot???

[abunaitoo]

I'm not sure if this is the place to ask this, but if not just let me know and I'll remove or move it.

While going on a day long hunt, or a day at the range, how do you keep hot food hot?????
Stuff like hotdogs, burgers, chicken.
I tried the brick in the oven for an hour, then put under the food pan, all in a cooler.
Kept it hot for about 3 hours.
Would like to have something to last at least 6 hours if possible.
How do those military food containers keep the food hot????

[waksupi]

Put the stuff in pots, stainless is good. Cast iron can give an off taste if left too long. Bring to boiling temperature. Crumple paper, and insulate completely around them in a cooler.

[mroliver77]

I do the soup thing. An Aladdin thermos if preheated keeps stuff hot all day in freezing weather. The chemical heaters are good to reheat solids. Sterno is very portable and can warm your body also.
Jay

[Fishman]

Check out the 12 volt camping accessories. A hotpot is great for heating up soups and heating hotdogs or cooking spaghetti. If you don't want to risk running your battery down, put one in the back of the truck and hook up in there. Heck, they even have 12 volt coffeemakers. Of course of you don't mind supervising the operation you could just use a gas stove.

[Ajax]

I have a old white gas Coleman grill i take to the range with us and cook right there in the back of the truck.


Andy

[cajun shooter]

You may buy a old mess kit for $6 or so. They are stainless and will last forever. Then buy the military stove that uses the long tablet type stick. It's what we used and it works. A small propane one burner stove will heat a pot of food in just minutes. If you are by a vehicle you may do one of two things. We would put our mess pots on the exhaust manifold or on the dash where the sun will heat through the windshield. A small back pack with all that is need including one burner stove is very small.

[waksupi]

A hot dog tip. When you heat hotdogs, assuming boiling, leave them sealed in the package. They will heat just fine, and not turn into a pale looking meat-like substance.

[mroliver77]

Good tip on the dogs Ric. I like "real" beef hotdogs but cannot afford $6. or more per lb for them. Same with bologna. I remember a little store on the edge of town in the 70's that had a good selection of lunch meats, salads, breads etc. I can still taste the Pumpernickel bread with Eckrich bologna on it. Sometimes a slice of room temp cheese and it was fit for a king! Mom and Dad had bought a house we were remodeling and it was hard nasty work. Mom would run to the carry out for fixins for sandwiches and a six pack of PBR. Nothing cut the dust as well!
Back to OT. I have a Sterno stove that works very well to reheat or even cook at a primitive site. Ex wife and I used to travel on a Gold Wing. We were loaded heavy but still the bare essentials. You know, curling iron, blow dryer, manicure set yadda yadda.... We carried GI mess kits and a small pan and coffee pot, The Sterno 2 burner went with us and did a lot of cooking. People would come to our campsite and wonder at how we managed on so little. hehe. Wife was great at coupons and out of season deals. We seen a lot of places and lived well for very little money.
Anyhow the sterno stoves are just dandy!
Jay

[Jim]

Put the stuff in pots, stainless is good. Cast iron can give an off taste if left too long. Bring to boiling temperature. Crumple paper, and insulate completely around them in a cooler.

I put the question to my wife. She said the answer above is about the best you're gonna get without reheating at the range.

[jhalcott]

Google the Burton stove on the go. It's about the size of a lunch box ,12 volt and can heat up or even cook a meal for you. I used mine to heat water for tea or coffee while heating up a can of soup. Wash the cans first and remove any paper labels.

[BorderBrewer]

Down here is SoCal, you can keep food hot by sitting in the sun on the dashboard of your truck.

[azcruiser]

Pre cook wrap in al foil then set on radiator or manifold . Works on trucks cars atv.Then again in AZ in the summer I could cook a cow on my dash board

[shunka]

We would often bring a large pot of soup, stew, chili, etc for the wopila after a powow - often 6 hours after arrival - and I built My own modernized version of a "straw box".

In the bad old days the "straw box" was just a wooden box larger than your stew pot by perhaps 6 inches on each side, top, and bottom. The stew pot full of hot stew is placed in the box insulated by straw. My version utilized a heavy duty plastic tub with rope handles, and I insulated it (again 6 inches) with rigid house foam insulation and that "spray- in" Great Stuff foam. I insulated the bottom with 6 " of foam, and made a 6 inch thick foam lid like a manhole cover.

Whilst other's dishes were at best, slightly warm, our pot of food was always piping steaming, tongue-burning hot even after 6 hours .

google straw box stew or hay box stew.

yhs
shunka

[steg]

Really liked the idea of the hot dogs cooked in the wrapper, and for me it's a coleman heater on top of a small propane tank. You can even dig a small hole and bury most of the tank and have a really sturdy stove. Thanks abunaitoo for postiing this question...................steg

[jcwit]

Our shooting shack has a microwave oven in it donated by me from a garage sale for $15.00. Keeping things hot is no problem.

[KCSO]

Back when I was a kid we didn't have this problem. Mom put a whole dinner in a roaster and when we drove our the roaster set on the manifold of the car. When we parked the manifold kept the meal hot till it was time to eat. Now days with these dinky cars I don't bet you could cook a hot dog wrapped in tin foil.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

i bring my colman propane stove most any were, it fitts in a case about the size of a breif case and carries 2 gas cylinders , i can cook almost any thing on it

if i am someplace with electric , nesco roasters are the best , i make chili at work in nesco roasters feeding 50 people chili in an office no problem

the last big meal i cooked was a fundraiser that served 230 plates , i did have a full kitchen for that , and helpers.

gas grills are great , when we went fishing in canada the little cabin we stayed in had a small but well kept gass grill , tossed my 14 inch cast iron skilit in the grill and with some oil i could beer batter walley for breakfast lunch and dinner.

we met some guys who use a little single burner coman to cook duck in the blind , they were on a multi day trip and the possetion limit was 2 days of the daily limit , but if they at it they could keep hunting , fishing works the same way thats why you do shore lunch to eat up your limit so you can keep fishing that and catch and release but it is a lot harder to catch and release ducks

[abunaitoo]

Thank you all for the suggestions.
Sometimes we can't "make fire" where we are.
I was thinking about something like the "Straw box" suggest by Shunka.
I think I'll try to make something like it.

[Screwbolts]

If you can have a small wood fire, do a Google of " rocket stove " They are very efficient and simple.

Ken

Central NY