Hi!

I wonder if anyone could post some pictures on the process of boiling water using aluminium foil? I am trying to keep my wilderness PSK to a minimum and i'm trying not to pack a GI canteen or other rigid container. It would be nice to see a step-by-step walk-through done by an experience ETSer! (assuming a wilderness scenario, trying to boil the water over a small fire).

Any volunteers? <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Easy.

Unfold and smooth your foil- smooth foil heats more efficently.

TIGHTLY fold it in half for strength (optional, I like redundency), shiny side in.

Fold the sides up, about a thumbslength deep, to form the sides.
(If not doubled, shiny side IN, so you heat faster)

Pinch the corners flat.

Add water, put over fire. Watch it, becuase if you boil it dry, you might burn a hole in your foil if it is on the lighter side of things. Even if you don't, all that good water, gone up in steam.

Basically, try to imitate a loaf pan.

For those of us that are slow on the uptake, what is the best way of taking this foil cup, and getting it over a fire?

It is too frail to suspend over flame I would think - do you stand it on a bed of hot coals or something?

Sorry if this is a dumb question - whenever I've used an open fire, I've always hung a pot over it using a wire handle.

The couple times we've cooked food using aluminum foil in the Scouts we have made more of a bowl out of it. It's hard to explain in writing, but we folded extra on both ends up & twisted the two ends together to form a handle. That way we could use a stick to set it on the bed of coals & plus we didn't have to use out hands picking it up when it was hot. We double layered it as was said already & the handle made it fairly sturdy. It will be smaller by using part of the foil as a handle, but could be used over & over more easily. You really just need to experiment with it. And if you like the handle like I do then maybe increase the size of your foil that you carry.

I set it on a flat rock, on the edge of the fire, and then use a stick to move the rock aside so it and the water can cool.

Or I use my sippy tube.

Bee,

Here is a picture of the sides of an 18" piece of heavy duty foil folded twice the get four layers. Link to big picture



Here it is folded and holding water. Link to big picture



I do not have time right now to boil water in it, but I could. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Thanks Craig. Still not sure how I'd suspend it over a fire - would it melt the foil if it sat on a bed of coals?

You have several options:

You can put 3 rocks in your campfire to set it on.
You can dig a small trench and scrape coal into it and put the container over it.

I tested it on my ESBIT stove and it got water at the pre-boil stage. I also put it on my electric stove and it did start to melt a little. The water was at a rapid boil. There was no leakage; you have 4 layers. I think it will work fine on any stove with a flame. The direct contact with the electric heating element was too much for the first layer of aluminum.

If your FAK contains a wire splint, you could use that as a grill to hold the cup.

I don't think it would melt. It might lose it's strength however.

I've both done and seen this experiment before but not with aluminum. I think I should share this with the ETS community because now that I think about it, this tidbit of knowledge might come in handy.

What you need: Paper cup (Dixie bathroom cup works great), Water, Fire

If my memory serves me correctly the paper cup will not burn if it is holding water. The upper edge might burn because you probably won't fill it up to the brim. What I did on a camping trip way back in the day was to catch crawdads in a stream and put them in the boiling water in the paper cup which was in the fire. It cooked the crawdads and BAM! (emeril type) instant mini-lobster meat lol. I haven't seen this method done in a long time and I may be missing a step but it's not all that complicated. Bringing this back to the aluminum foil, I'd say the metal stands a greater chance become more pliable (sp?) when it's hot but it shouldn't melt if it's holding water.