A can of beans and a candle tin plus a few well-placed drill holes can earn you a super-lightweight and very affordable camp cooking solution while on bike tour.

For years I’ve used a trusty Coleman stove that uses those enormous green propane canisters as my bikepacking stove of choice. As I mentioned in past blog posts, there are sometimes things you like so much that you’re willing to adopt more weight and bulk.

Well, I may have changed my tune. That stove was huge:

It boiled water super fast, and those green propane canisters are easy to find and inexpensive. But, whoa with the huge. I needed a solution that maintained some of these pros, but shed some weight and bulk.

Enter the world of the DIY alcohol stove. Here’s the idea: high proof alcohol burs hot, relatively cleanly, and is super efficient from a weight to burn perspective. Plus, it stores easily in plastic bottles, evaporates quickly and cleanly if it manages to leak, and tends not to be as explosive as propane, butane… all your basic -anes. Denatured alcohol or even Everclear is a great option, but you can even use the yellow bottle version of Heet antifreeze, which is practically ubiquitous at gas stations and other stores in even the smallest of hamlets one bikes through (at least in North America).

Plus, you get to drill cans. More on that in a second.

There are all sorts of ways to make it work, but the most basic version is a stove made of a small can with some holes drilled in to allow air to enter the heated stove to mix with the vaporizing alcohol. Here’s what I did:

I used a large can of beans, sawed in half with a metal hacksaw blade. I drilled in air holes that look somewhat random, but had more purpose than design aesthetic. I cut a hole in the top to allow the flame to come through to hit the pot (note: important). For the interior, I have an old alcohol lamp insert to create an interor wall which should serve to create more of a wind buffer while still allowing oxygen flow. Inside that is a small candle tin. I saved the top too so I can easily snuff the flame.

Here’s how it all looks together with the stove lit:

This is the sturdy look with my cook-kit on top – note it has a really nice “seal” to it as the pot fits the can-top perfectly:

Most importantly, check out how nicely it all packs together. I used a plastic cover designed for keeping cans of opened cat food fresh to seat the bottom side and keep the internals together:

If you haven’t checked out Zen and the Art of the Alcohol Stove yet, do yourself a favor and check it out. If you’re at all a DIYer and into the idea of this, it’ll keep you entertained with ideas for hours.

More on the stove performance as I report from tour next week!

Eating on the road doesn’t have to be gas station jerky and granola bars. It also doesn’t have to entail heavy gear and bulky ingredients. Welcome to the admittedly nichey, but delicious world of freezer bag cooking…

As I prepare for a quick overnight trip in a few days, I wanted to share my dinner prep. The campsite I’m heading to on the C+O Towpath outside of Washington, DC has precious few amenities and isn’t terribly close to dining options. When I know I have a few days like this on a tour, I tend to plan ahead and have at least a meal of two in hand so I don’t have to worry about being forced to rely on trail mix for dinner.* The problem is that often entails hauling around more weight and volume than I’d like (I’m looking at you, delicious can of chili).

Last season, I learned a bit about freezer bag cooking… freezer bags being a bit thicker than your usual sandwich bag can handle a long soak with boiling water. Add in their durability and you have the perfect vessel for transporting, cooking and serving whatever foods you’re interested in eating, provided they can keep and they essentially need to be rehydrated. Pro-level freezer bag chefs hit sites like trailcooking.com and get into dehydrators and more. If you check out some of those recipes, you’ll see a level of sophistication that puts those old chili mac camping food packs to shame.

I tend to go a little simpler and I also like to use items I can get at almost any grocery store, mainly because that lets me pick things up in towns to replenish supplies while on tour. My current go-to is a mash-up of chicken, mashed potatoes, veggies and gravy:

• Knor Vegetable Mix (a ton of dehydrated vegetables with soup seasoning)
• Chicken gravy
• Canned chicken
• Whatever instant mashed potatoes are looking good

Most of these items are available at even the most bare-bones store, cost a dollar or less, and the bang for the caloric buck is pretty good. The downside is the processed nature of the foods… you can get around that by getting a dehydrator and focusing on items you prefer. It’s a trade-off for easy availability and weight.

I repacked my ingredients into two quart-sized freezer bags and labeled them with their contents and the amount of water needed to rehydrate:

For this meal, I cook the chicken and gravy together in one bag and the spuds and veggies in a second one. You’ll see the volume is insanely small – those bags lie very flat and the weight is barely noticeable. The chicken stays in the can if I’m not making it relatively soon, but the bulk and weight is the tradeoff for having meat that won’t spoil. I might try a similar version with jerky sometime to see how it reconstitutes.

So, how do you cook? It’s as simple as boiling water and waiting. The key is a good “cozy” that retains the heat from the initial boil. There are literally dozens of DIY cozy-making tips out there, but if you’re less inclined to spend  time making one, consider getting an inexpensive and lightweight insulated bag instead. Once you pour in the water, seal up your bag, stick it in your cozy and wait 5-10 minutes depending on the food. Open up and you can eat right out of the bag… that’s right, no dishes to do when you’re set.**

So, lightweight, good eating, and easy to prepare… all great things for dining on tour! Have any of you tried freezer bag cooking on tour before? Share your ideas and recipes if you’ve got a good one!

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*Having a couple of dried meals of caloric heft can also serve as important emergency meals. A buddy of mine mentioned that he’s experienced a few occasions when a freezer bag meal helped avoid having to travel additional end-of-day miles just for food. 

**A disadvantage worth mentioning is the environmental/waste issue. Although one could conceivably reuse the bags a few times, there’s no question you’re using a bag that gets quickly landfilled when there are reusable options. This is one reason I don’t exclusively rely on this for my tour food, but I can definitely justify a few meals prepped this way.