Has anyone tried cooking a tin in an FRH?

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Treesuit
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Re: Has anyone tried cooking a tin in an FRH?

Post by Treesuit » Sun Oct 22, 2017 12:11 pm

LOL, :lol:

Of course, I would have first guessed you had a older Primus stove or a German field cooker but since you were out for a day trip then a Esbit seems more practical.

I'm curious do you still have that very early MRE heater for your Iltis wagon? I bought one off eBay some years ago but its still packed up, I'm waiting for a excellent reason to break it out and use it. :mrgreen:

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housil
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Re: Has anyone tried cooking a tin in an FRH?

Post by housil » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:08 am

Treesuit wrote: I'm curious do you still have that very early MRE heater for your Iltis wagon?
Of course - and I still use it when ever possible.
DSCN4152.JPG
Ate my first dinner at our last mil camp out of it
DSCN4151.JPG

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Eistee
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Re: Has anyone tried cooking a tin in an FRH?

Post by Eistee » Mon Oct 23, 2017 12:10 pm

housil wrote:
Treesuit wrote: I'm curious do you still have that very early MRE heater for your Iltis wagon?
Of course - and I still use it when ever possible.

DSCN4152.JPG
Ate my first dinner at our last mil camp out of it
DSCN4151.JPG

Did you modify it for 12 Volts or do you have a 24V outlet in your iltis?

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housil
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Re: Has anyone tried cooking a tin in an FRH?

Post by housil » Wed Oct 25, 2017 9:25 am

Eistee wrote:
Did you modify it for 12 Volts or do you have a 24V outlet in your iltis?
As it´s a military vehicle, it has 24V.

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DangerousDave
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Re: Has anyone tried cooking a tin in an FRH?

Post by DangerousDave » Sat Oct 28, 2017 6:00 pm

I'm going to try that with a Dutch FRH, wearing protective face-mask and/or goggles. And the victim will be a Latvian 250g can of pork with buckwheat. The art of the possible! :idea:
After the Chicken and the Egg, came the "Omelet"!

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DangerousDave
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Re: Has anyone tried cooking a tin in an FRH?

Post by DangerousDave » Sun Oct 29, 2017 3:28 pm

It works. No problem. Maybe not as much if outside in 12 degrees. It works anyway, depending on conditions.
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FRH-Can 001.jpg
FRH-Can 003.jpg
After the Chicken and the Egg, came the "Omelet"!

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Woodland
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Re: Has anyone tried cooking a tin in an FRH?

Post by Woodland » Thu Nov 30, 2017 1:36 pm

RECNEF wrote:
alcockell wrote:I'm thinking of the more powerful frhs like the British one... You know how many canned meals could be cooked by immersing them in water, has anyone tried with rcir tins or similar?

Cos I know it works with German rations.

I know I can always nuke them, but I have a pannus that means I have to lean back some....
What ever you decide to do DO NOT put the cans or tins directly on the Esbit Stove or other flame-based stoves. That includes alcohol stoves.

We had a familiarization course when we did wargames with NATO and in one of the classes this wonk from DFSC told us that the tins in European rations - and some trays - have their insides coated with a film to protect the metal from food acids and if you apply flame to the outside of them, it literally leaches the film into the food. That's bad because in addition to giving you a raging case of cancer down the line, they said some of the chemicals used could damage your kidneys.

So basically when we consumed the Italian rations we decanted them into our mess tins and cooked them that way... Just saying, Cancer sucks. Kidneys are necessary for things like drinking beer. Want to be careful with that then, right?

Right!

The coating is used in the US as well.The chemical is called Bisphenol-A.The coating is an epoxy resin.BPA can be found in retort pouches too.Wornick Foods has developed a BPA free coating but I don't know much about that.

http://wornick.com/about/sustainability/

I think that even German EPA ration soft tins are coated.They must be because the food has to be protected from the metal.
From Wiki:" Epoxy resins containing bisphenol A are used as coatings on the inside of almost all food and beverage cans;[26] however, due to BPA health concerns, in Japan epoxy coating was mostly replaced by PET film.[27] Bisphenol A is also a precursor to the flame retardant tetrabromobisphenol A, and was used as a fungicide.[28]"

Is PET safer? Not really.
Wiki:
"Safety

Commentary published in Environmental Health Perspectives in April 2010 suggested that PET might yield endocrine disruptors under conditions of common use and recommended research on this topic.[25] Proposed mechanisms include leaching of phthalates as well as leaching of antimony. An article published in Journal of Environmental Monitoring in April 2012 concludes that antimony concentration in deionized water stored in PET bottles stays within EU's acceptable limit even if stored briefly at temperatures up to 60 °C (140 °F), while bottled contents (water or soft drinks) may occasionally exceed the EU limit after less than a year of storage at room temperature.[26]"

I did some research years ago when I first heard about BPA.According to Wiki:
"BPA is a xenoestrogen, exhibiting estrogen-mimicking, hormone-like properties that raise concern about its suitability in some consumer products and food containers. Since 2008, several governments have investigated its safety, which prompted some retailers to withdraw polycarbonate products. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ended its authorization of the use of BPA in baby bottles and infant formula packaging, based on market abandonment, not safety.[4] The European Union and Canada have banned BPA use in baby bottles."

This compound is controversial, to say the least.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A#Safety
"According to the European Food Safety Authority "BPA poses no health risk to consumers of any age group (including unborn children, infants and adolescents) at current exposure levels".[6] But in 2017 the European Chemicals Agency concluded that BPA should be listed as a substance of very high concern due to its properties as an endocrine disruptor.[50]"

" BPA works by imitating the natural hormone 17B-estradiol. In the past BPA has been considered a weak mimicker of estrogen but newer evidence indicates that it is a potent mimicker.[62] When it binds to estrogen receptors it triggers alternative estrogenic effects that begin outside of the nucleus. This different path induced by BPA has been shown to alter glucose and lipid metabolism in animal studies.[63]

There are different effects of BPA exposure during different stages of development. During adulthood, BPA exposure modifies insulin sensitivity and insulin release without affecting weight.[64]"

I also searched for studies that tried to find out whether BPA leaches into the food when heated in the container or stored for longer period of time.
Guess what the results were...
Heating increased BPA levels in the food especially when the food was acidic (like tomato based).

Even newer coatings that were marketed as BPA free were not really BPA free or the coating that was used has been proven endocrine disrupter as well (PET).
Similar to trans fats, the health effects of BPA are long term. They don't make you sick immediatelly.

Are MREs good for you?
Well, NATICK says they are well balanced,very nutritional,designed to meet the requirements of combat soldiers.
I think that they are too sugar heavy (sugar lobby? :-) ) and sugar is really bad for you as are trans fats.
But I still like to eat one every now and then.I just love the feeling :-)

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