Trangia billy can

Slow cooking over fire

I've been hiking in the woods on and off for the better part of my life. In the military we cooked our own food, most of the time at least, using a single burner alcohol stove. The same kind of alcohol stove my father used when I was a kid, and the same as I got around to buy when me and my family headed out for our first trip.

That burner hung around for a bunch of years, but last year I didn’t wanna play that game no more. I wanted to cook my meals over an open fire, be a little bit more laid back :)

So the Trangia Billy Can came into the picture. It holds 2.5 liters, which is more than enough for two persons making a stew or cooking porridge or whatever, but it’s not bulkier than the big pan of my alcohol stove set (from Biltema), but in this I just have a coffee pan and a chain for hanging the can on the right height from the flames. The chain can be seen in the picture to the right.

The biggest difference in terms of how much to carry is the heat source. For the old stove, we carried the alcohol, a liter or so. But for this one we don't carry anything. Instead we get the pleasure of collecting fire wood at the site. During the time I have used this can, I've hung it on a chain, placed it standing on two logs or stones over the fire, put it on a stone beside the fire... All depending on what sort of stand was available at the place for meal making. And of course, if you preference is a gas or alcohol stove, or why not a woodgas stove, I'm sure it will do just fine there as well.

Breakfast porridge for me and my son

Material

The use of aluminum has been discussed quite a lot, on and off. Some persons I know wouldn't eat the meals cooked in this due to this fact. But I'm not so sure about the black magic of aluminum. On the contrary I'm sure it's not more harmful than many other things.

The knob on the lid is plastic. To me, that's fine. To someone else... That's their issue. I won't eat it, so... ;) All in all, the can weighs in just under 400 grams. Maybe not a super light weight, but it's not meant to be either. To me this is a relaxed way of cooking in the wild. Just as I want it to be.

Ease of use

As I wrote above, it's quite easy to use. Just make a fire and leave enough room above for tehe pot to hang free, and get started. Given the problem of getting a nice even temperature from the fire over time, I think it's easier to cook stews and soups in it. But that ain't all bad, that's among the best things to eat when your out in the wild, if you ask me.

Dinner's ready!

But given that you will have it over open fire, it will get a lot of sooth on the outside of it. So a tip would be to bring a small bag for the pot when packing up and moving to the next site. Or going home. Otherwise you'll get all other gear coming in contact with it black from sooth and that might not be what you want.

In the picture to the left you two of the three legs in the tripod (the coffee pan is on the third at the bottom left of the pic) and the chain coming down from the top. By using this setup it's fairly easy to adjust the height of the can, which will help you avoid burning your food, and you can let the food simmer a bit before serving. Or raise the can enough when it's done and just keep it there to stay warm.

Conclusion

I really like this can! A lot! I cannot compare it to other cans, but it sure does what it's intended to do. And given the cheap price it's absolutely worth it. It's light, rather versatile and great to use. So, what are you waiting for? Get up, get a can and start cooking :)
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Fredrik