Pot efficiency

[Hushwing]

Hi - have always understood that if you leave your pots to have a smoke blackened base (and inch or so up the sides) it greatly improves the heat uptake by the pot, improving cooking time etc. is this a myth or is it true? Has anyone tested this or have we all been fed the same story and believed it (like Santa Claus and the tooth fairy - though, of course they do exist!)?

[AL...]

Jings!!!!! ye had me worried there for a bit!!


Cheers
AL

[AdrianRose]

I've heard the same story mate.

Was told years ago that if you left the soot/carbon layer on it actually helps the pot to boil faster and better.

Pretty sure that some clever bugger will be along shortly to explain why.

Cheers
Ade.

[Marvell]

There is a perceived why, but whether or not it makes a significant difference would be dependent on pot material & dimensions, heat source size & temperature, ambient temperature and wind. Since this whole, "shiny & black" thing is related to radiated heat, the placement of the pot relative to the fire will also be important. Soot could be an insulator, so black pots are fine, but sooty ones not. Generally speaking, I would have thought that a pot will blacken on the first use outdoors anyway, so it's rather irrelevant, apart from first use.

I think, without applying maths or experimenting, that pot colour does not have a statistically significant enough effect over other considerations to be useful unless you're trying to justify why you're not scouring them after a meet :)

[jus_young]

I can't see that it would make too much difference. The pots tend to be sat on flame so are receiving a direct heat source although I would agree that a layer of soot would act as an insulator. If a pot was standing away from a heat source then darker colours would absorb the ambient heat better than a reflective surface.

Scrubbing pots is hard work anyway so as long as the soot is off, the heat marks stay.

[Hushwing]

Aye - I think you'll beginning to suss out why I'm asking :D I had some nice shiny pots and have been cleaning them but gets to a point where the burn marks don't come off and actually the pot looks like a 'proppuh' camping pot. So have accepted the black to halway up and try to get rid of the soot and alls well.... but thought I would ask if anyone had any idea whether this was a myth or not. cheers.

[Silverback]

I clean the soot off and put up with the scorching, mainly because it was drilled into me as effective personal admin in the field, and gopping not to.

As an aside I still use a used teabag to help shift the soot - it was better with the old army 1 pint teabag but PG tips ones work(not sure of the exact science but allegendly its something to do with the tannins in tea). An old soldier also showed me that sand and gravel from the river was another very effective way of cleaning mess tins and billies, as well as a handful of sphagnum moss as a cleaning sponge.

[Martin]

I give them to Mrs Martin to clean. She gets them nice and shiny for the next time I go out. :)

Martin

[Silverback]

I give them to Mrs Martin to clean. She gets them nice and shiny for the next time I go out. :)

Martin

If i gave them to Mrs T to clean I'd get them back at a much higher velocity

[Hushwing]

As an aside I still use a used teabag to help shift the soot - it was better with the old army 1 pint teabag but PG tips ones work(not sure of the exact science but allegendly its something to do with the tannins in tea). An old soldier also showed me that sand and gravel from the river was another very effective way of cleaning mess tins and billies, as well as a handful of sphagnum moss as a cleaning sponge.

thanks for that - will try the teabag. The scorching sometimes can come out blue/oil effect on stainless so looks okay. and have been taking off as much of the black as possible.
Have used sand and gravel of a time. Not tried this next one on the outside (but as someone I think posted recently for cleaning tools) you can use horsetails (Equisetum spp.) as a scourer.

[Hushwing]

I give them to Mrs Martin to clean. She gets them nice and shiny for the next time I go out. :)

Martin


If i gave them to Mrs T to clean I'd get them back at a much higher velocity

LOL - If I gave them to Mrs Hushwing I'd need a bright torch and an endoscope to find them; let alone the staining!!

[Silverback]

LOL - If I gave them to Mrs Hushwing I'd need a bright torch and an endoscope to find them; let alone the staining!!

surely you mean a proctoscope ;)

[Martin]

Well Wayne, that's another difference. We still have batting in the RAF messes. :)

Martin