# Boiling water?



## Ravie

I would love to know different ways of boiling water when you have basically nothing. Ive allways just put a can with water, soup or whatever im cooking on a rock in the fire. any other suggestions?


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## dime

thats the only way i've done it


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## tothewind

If you've got a pot with a handle on it that goes over the top, you can whittle out a pot-holder and hang the pot from a cross stick higher up.

Shitty illustration:


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## dime

shitty but it gets the point across


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## finn

I feel like I've mentioned it before, but there is the hot rocks method. If your water container can't go over the fire, heat up some rocks (no river rocks or any stone found near water, because they will explode) and drop them into the container. If you're using a plastic container, line the bottom with something nontoxic so the hot rocks don't melt it. You can also suspend the rock with a cotton bandanna inside a nalgene bottle, so the rocks don't touch the sides. It takes a while to do, and it's a pain, but it does work.


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## crumb

you can boil water in a plastic bottle, just dont let the flames lick aboce the water level


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## Ravie

yeah i dont think im going to try that.


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## Double-A

it also really helps to wrap the container you're boiling in in some clothes or your sleeping bag to insulate it (as far as rock boiling). you can also dig a hole in sand on a beash to do the same thing and is, in my experience, a little more effective than clothes. with some experimenting, you should be able to hold a rolling boil for quite a while without any flame.


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## Tailz

Widerstand said:


> That seems like a bad idea if you ask me...



surprisingly, it works quite well. id never use a nalgene bottle or anything like that.... but just a regular water bottle suspended about 8 inches-1 ft. above the flames works well. and yeah, the bottle does get all warped and black. but as long as the flame doesnt touch it, the plastic wont burn, lettin out harmful chemicals and essentially ruinin the water youre tryin to boil. it takes quite a bit of time.


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## streetrat

i saw this on surviver man once.
that show is fuckin great.
learned "the vortex" off that show
if you dont know what that is
i cant tell you...
ahahahahaha


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## Tailz

really, theirs a show called survivor man?! haha, that seems kinda cheesy, he boiled water in a bottle? is it some homebum out in the woods or somethin haha


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## streetrat

ahaha
no not so much homebum.
hes like a wilderness dude, "survival expert"
ahaha. the shows way cool though, he gets dropped in the rediculous places, like jungles, deserts, rainforests, alaska, with NOTHING around, all by himself for a week, then his crew comes to get him, he films all this shit by himself, and shows random survival techniques and such/
im not to big on tv, but most things on the history channel are pretty rad.


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## Tailz

yeah, i barely watch tv. i think ive seen somethin similar to that tho, it was called wild versus man tho, or wait it might be man versus wild... it was alright, but i think he had a film crew.


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## streetrat

yeah, that show sucks ass.
hes a fagget ass wanker


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## Tailz

haha, i thought it was funny when he ate the live fish, i thought to myself... he has a film crew... which means theres food haha. what a dumbass. informative tho


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## Tailz

but im allergic to fish so fuck all that jazz.


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## streetrat

fish are so tasty!
and easy as shit to catch.
i wish i knew more about what fish are edible and what not...
hmm
i should look into that....


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## Tailz

i dont have to worry about that... but then again the dumpsters behind lil ceasers always have like 3-5 pizzas in boxes when they close up haha.


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## streetrat

shit thats nice
o_o


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## streetrat

shit thats nice
o_o


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## Double-A

all fish are edible, there are just some fish that can carry some consequences: carp, catfish(the bigger ones), large muskies and northern. pretty much any bottem feeder or larger lake fish you'll want to shy from. there's mercury poisoning and then there's pcb(?) poisoning. i know that one of them, the way you clean your fish also correlates to how much poison you're getting with the fish. smaller fish are usually alright. if there's heavy poisoning in the water, the DNR will have posters up by the boat landing and piers.


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## streetrat

hmm ok that helps, catching fish is just so easy, weatcher is fishing a line on a stick, setting a line for later, making a net.
crayfish are easy to find too, i used to eat those thigns like crazy, boil em up, put em in rice with some heisted seasons, now thats a gourmet campfire meal.


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## streetrat

hmm ok that helps, catching fish is just so easy, weather is fishing a line on a stick, setting a line for later, making a net.
crayfish are easy to find too, i used to eat those thigns like crazy, boil em up, put em in rice with some heisted seasons, now thats a gourmet campfire meal.


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## Double-A

yeah. i miss cooking fish over the campfire. i haven't tasted any meat i 5 years, but i've finally come to the conclusion that as long as it's roadkill, it's mine. even that decision was hard for me. i guess i'm kind of self-brainwashed.


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## streetrat

i dont see why its so terrible to eat meat, i bear or a lion would hesitate a second to eat your ass..
i can understand not eating beef because of the shit they do to cows or whatever, but i dunno.
i just like food too much.
all food.


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## streetrat

i dont see why its so terrible to eat meat, i bear or a lion would hesitate a second to eat your ass..
i can understand not eating beef because of the shit they do to cows or whatever, but i dunno.
i just like food too much.
all food.


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## Double-A

yeah, i totally agree. it's mostly because of factory farms and overall cruelty. i used to hunt, and i think that eating venison is actually going to do more to bring down capitalism than buying fancy ass health store tofu, but for some reason guns are taboo for me. i'd rather make a pitfall or snare to catch my deer. instead i just wait for the car gods and goddesses to smile down on me, the way the goodly dumpster gods have.
my eating habits are deeply rooted in my animal lib and anarchist beliefs, so for me to critique them right now would be extensive and tolling on my psyche. maybe i'll seriously reevaluate in the spring. haha.


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## streetrat

how much of roadkill is actually good to eat?
when i was biking across a few states a couple months ago i saw countless dead animals on the side of the street... or just in the middle of the street.
and i do agree that guns are just pathetic. for hunting or anything. war especially. what happneed to fighting with swords? BAHA


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## Double-A

speaking of swords. in wisconsin, it's legal to hunt with swords during bow season!
anyway, my family eats roadkill all of the time. if you saw it get hit, then it's fine. if it's cold outside and the body isn't completely frozen, it's fine. if it was torn in half by a semi, it's probably no good due to the bruising of the meat. a car hitting an animal can lead to some pretty bad blood trauma, so some may be ruined, but for the most part, it's safe. i personally wouldn't eat racoon, at least not near cities because those fuckers eat garbage. it's pretty amazing how your body will warn you if you've found bad meat. god, i'd kill for some home smoked jerky.


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## streetrat

jerkly is so damn good..

hunting with swords?! wtf
who does that? thats a hardcore mutherfucker right there. 
o_o


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## elokupa

streetrat said:


> jerkly is so damn good..
> 
> hunting with swords?! wtf
> who does that? thats a hardcore mutherfucker right there.
> o_o




:crew:


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## streetrat

well thats a hardcore ass pirate right there.
i have a samurai sword back home, maybe i should take it on my next trip
catch me a deer


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## elokupa

hah and have a fight with a stag
sword vs antlers
crusty samurai vs ninja stag


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## streetrat

aha
more like crusty silent ninja assassin, verse large clunky dimwit clueless stag waiting to be killed and eaten.

hell never see me coming.
>


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## Tailz

haha, i love game meat, altho i have a problem with people hunting like helpless animals. redneck hunters are idiots... they spend hundreds of dollars on camo, and high powered rifles and wait in a tree for hours til somethin comes by. thats a pussy way to get food iif ya ask me. hunt somethin that can hunt you back, like track a bear with a knife.


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## Spinelli

I think you can eat all ocean fish raw the salt kills the bacteria so yer good to go, just don't eat the guts.


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## Ravie

streetrat said:


> yeah, that show sucks ass.
> hes a fagget ass wanker



I completely agree!!!! 


and as for the pirate who hunts with a sword, cheers to that guy!
:crew:


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## skunkpit

im trying to remember the name of this survival book
its this couple that went into the woods for a decade or two with some tools, then gradually replaced all the man made tools with natural ones from around the area they lived, so say flitnaped knives and axes instead of steel ones.
tom brown still uses a steel knife and advocates its your primary survival device.. but what happens if ya lost it..
again ill post the name of the book if it ever comes to mind


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## Spinelli

skunkpit said:


> .
> tom brown still uses a steel knife and advocates its your primary survival device.. but what happens if ya lost it..
> again ill post the name of the book if it ever comes to mind


Thats what your fingernails and teeth are for, you don't see wolves using knives do you? God theres a scary thought.


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## crumb

streetrat said:


> fish are so tasty!
> and easy as shit to catch.
> i wish i knew more about what fish are edible and what not...
> hmm
> i should look into that....




all freshwater fish are edible, and if they're smaller than 3 inches you can eat them whole... bones and all.

lots of saltwater fish are poisonous, but mostly in the tropics. look out for bright colors, that usually means poison.


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## Ravie

is it wrong for me to want to try cat meat? Not to actually kill one but maybe some road kill. I figure if the asians like it its pretty good. I like chinese food


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## finn

Ravie said:


> is it wrong for me to want to try cat meat? Not to actually kill one but maybe some road kill. I figure if the asians like it its pretty good. I like chinese food



It's not wrong as long as it's not your cat. Because if it were, I will scram if you give me a look that lasts a little too long... But mammals are pretty safe to eat as long as it hasn't been sitting around dead too long.


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## Ravie

I'm not really a cat person...thats why i didnt say dog. dogs are my buddies 
I'm just a very curious person...and maybe i want to say ive eaten cat haha


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## Double-A

speaking of bear... i know bear fat is often a sought after food, especially for primitivists, but that shit needs to be COOKED because trichinosis is a very real, very bad thing you can get from that family of animals. so, if you like bear fat and greens, cook that shit.


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## Double-A

salt does not kill bacteria in fish. if you're catching ocean fish, make sure you're not catching them in an area near any factories or military bases. i know not every military base dumps weird shit in oceans, but it's better to be safe than sorry.


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## Spinelli

Double-A said:


> salt does not kill bacteria in fish. if you're catching ocean fish, make sure you're not catching them in an area near any factories or military bases. i know not every military base dumps weird shit in oceans, but it's better to be safe than sorry.


You gotta be careful everywhere, Mercury is a huge problem. Your really not supposed to eat fish out of the water anywhere here in southern Michigan, you can but..... I read a list of the worse fish to eat as far as mercury goes, the bigger the less you should eat. Just don't eat alot of fish, bottom feeders are bad so no catfish for you southern folk.


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## dime

here in broad ripple under a bridge is some shit made out of rebar kinda looks like a 3-D "A" with a back leg


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## finn

tothewind said:


> If you've got a pot with a handle on it that goes over the top, you can whittle out a pot-holder and hang the pot from a cross stick higher up.



There's also another way, which can be easier. Find a large branch or a small log and prop one side up with two sticks lashed together or some rocks, so that the end is high enough over the fire to not catch fire. Put your backpack or some rocks over on the other end and hang your pot over the fire on it.


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## skunkpit

cats probably not that bad.. i mean anyone ever try seagull?... salty and spicy at the same time.. pretty much tasted like msg

trichinosis isnt that big an issue if your really careful.. cut into chunks boil at rolling boil for two hours.. dissect some more then pan fry to bring back some flavor


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## finn

I feel that I have to add that if you are not going to cook your fish (you should), then you really should make thin slices of it before eating it. If you ever eat sushi, you'll notice that the fish is sliced pretty thin. The reason for this is because there might be these little creatures called flukes in the muscle, and you can see them and avoid eating them if you make thin slices. They'll look like eggs in the muscle- never eat them. Some of them will actually kill you if you eat them raw.


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## skunkpit

yee with trichinosis the eggs are called cysts and they are harder to kill by heat then the trigg worms, but again with enough cooking that can be dealt with and they just become part of the protein 
cooking also, though kills some nutrients is a form of predigestion


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## boucaneer

streetrat said:


> ahaha
> no not so much homebum.
> hes like a wilderness dude, "survival expert"
> ahaha. the shows way cool though, he gets dropped in the rediculous places, like jungles, deserts, rainforests, alaska, with NOTHING around, all by himself for a week, then his crew comes to get him, he films all this shit by himself, and shows random survival techniques and such/
> im not to big on tv, but most things on the history channel are pretty rad.


 


yeah, his name is bear grills. we do work on his boat somtimes. nice boat, very sturdy.

i saw somone on youtube fill a plastic bottle right up to the top with water untill it overflowed and then screwed the kid back on and put it on some embers. they said that because no air was in the bottle it would boil.

he fast forwarded the film and took the bottle of the embers and it was hot boiling.

but it might of been a con or a film trick.

you can imagine somone playing a trick, so when somone at home trys it on the embers burn through the bottle and the water steams up the fire. it could be a trick.

i dont know though, maybe somone could take a look and confirm.


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## UrbanNokizaru

boucaneer said:


> yeah, his name is bear grills. we do work on his boat somtimes. nice boat, very sturdy.
> 
> i saw somone on youtube fill a plastic bottle right up to the top with water untill it overflowed and then screwed the kid back on and put it on some embers. they said that because no air was in the bottle it would boil.
> 
> he fast forwarded the film and took the bottle of the embers and it was hot boiling.
> 
> but it might of been a con or a film trick.
> 
> you can imagine somone playing a trick, so when somone at home trys it on the embers burn through the bottle and the water steams up the fire. it could be a trick.
> 
> i dont know though, maybe somone could take a look and confirm.


Sounds like a good way to blow up a water bottle. If the water is trapped and some steam can't slip out a bit the bottle might burst...


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## finn

Okay, time to bring out the science. Taking out the air in the bottle means that when it gets heated, the pressure will go up a lot higher more quickly because water is not very compressible. It also means that the plastic will melt less because all of the plastic is very close to the water which can absorb the heat- any place with a large air pocket would melt first. Now with the higher pressure, the boiling point will actually go up, if you remember the relationship between pressure and boiling points, so the water is over 212 degrees F.

but yes, leave it in long enough, it will explode - or more accurately, tear and splash all over the place. Be careful when opening this, I feel that there's a risk of getting scalded either by water or steam.


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## spearchukka

This does work, the cap will blow before anything else. This is a very effective way to boil water if you have no other means, the water will be fine for washing etc and ok for consumption if you are in a position where you have no choice. However the dioxin content of the water after boiling will be very high, although there is little proof of the effects of dioxin's there has been recent doccumentation of dioxin poisonings. I'm not so keen on the idea of loading my body with these poisons but there was a time when I consume anything to get high, a lot of which was probably infinitely more toxic, so once or twice probably won't hurt you!


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## Dirty Rig

streetrat said:


> hmm ok that helps, catching fish is just so easy, weatcher is fishing a line on a stick, setting a line for later, making a net.
> crayfish are easy to find too, i used to eat those thigns like crazy, boil em up, put em in rice with some heisted seasons, now thats a gourmet campfire meal.



mmm ever since i was a kid, i've been boiling and eating wild crayfish. an absolute delicacy, and great for gumbo!


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## bryanpaul

ive cooked things using instant hand sanitizer ... find a porta potty or grocery store that has it, bust open the dispenser and take the bag.... you can do it right on concrete ..... just cut the bag open and dump a big pile out and lite it..... it might take awhile but as long as it aint windy youl have some nice blue flame


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## tallhorseman

Ravie, you should do some research in something called a fresnal lens.

http://cgi.ebay.com/High-Qulity-FIR...aultDomain_0?hash=item5880ba2e79#ht_654wt_958

A fresnal lens is basically a plastic magnifying glass. If the sun's out you can prop it up and concentrate the beam onto the side of your canteen, or a glass pop bottle, and use the heat produced to boil or cook. You can find them in a packable size. I don't have one, but would LIKE to have one, nevertheless I've seen em in action. Sonofabitches work!!!

Furthermore, using fire, you can boil water in a strategically folded leaf, or slab of tree bark, or leather. The trick is to not let the flame reach above the water line. As long as the flame is below the water line, the water will absorb the heat, but as soon as it gets above the water line, the water is no longer there to absorb the heat and the leaf, bark, leather will flare up and burn. The same might be true for plastic or canvas, but I'm petroleuphobic(i made that word up, I'd be afraid that the plastic/canvas would be impregnating the water with little petroleum particles.

Big E


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## tallhorseman

Yeah...I did some experimenting. A small fresnal lens is great for starting a fire in sunlight, but one small enough to pack won't boil water directly...unless you're boiling a shot glass full.

On the other hand, I just read about something called a Gypsy Well for purifying water. You dig a hole beside a creek, pond, etc. The hole will fill with water and the soil the water has to go through to get to the new hole will filter microbes out of the water. It's not as efficient as boiling, but it's much better than drinking it completely unfiltered.


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## Monterey

When I am on the road, I always have a wok strapped to my pack. Ninja turtle style. It protects your gear, you can boil water, fry an egg, whatever. I think pots are a PITA because you either have them dangling outside your pack hitting everything and making noise, or inside the pack gobbling up all the room. Get a wok with the loops on each side to bungee tight anywhere in SF Chinatown for like 8 bucks. For coffee, I just keep a tin can that I only use for brewing coffee so I don't have to wash it. Keep it in a few plastic bags because of the soot on the bottom.

- Monterey


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## nostalgichobo

streetrat said:


> fish are so tasty!
> and easy as shit to catch.
> i wish i knew more about what fish are edible and what not...
> hmm
> i should look into that....


 
I too, am a big fish lover! Walleye, crappie, red snapper, catfish ... you name it. But walleye comes in first place by this ole Kentucky boy. No seasoning needed! Straight grill or "throw-in-the-fire" type of fish for one of the best outdoor eats. Nevertheless, should you find yourself in a bind and simply caught a/any fish specimen for food, I would recommend you try the following for an old fashioned seasoning: Locate a resinous pine tree. Extract a small amount of sap. (A dime-size goober will work.) Mix this amount of sap with 3 parts fresh water by constant stirring until body becomes syrupy. Marinade your "find" in this mixture for 2 hours or so .... and simply cook the fish to your convenience (BAKE-GRILL-PANFRY). DO NOT EAT RAW! After a few minutes of higher than normal heat, the toxins in the sap break down ... and consequently ... FLAVOR your food. Do the research. Bon Appetit!


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## kennacoconut

streetrat said:


> jerkly is so damn good..
> 
> hunting with swords?! wtf
> who does that? thats a hardcore mutherfucker right there.
> o_o


 
Michonne.


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