Hi all. I'm trying to work out a cook kit to do actual cooking instead of just boiling water for rehydrating in a bag. I dug out some aluminum pots I've collected over the years, a couple of which have heat exchanger fins on the bottom. I already know they do boil water faster than similar pots without exchangers. Other folks have done more extensive experiments to determine the efficiency gains vs weight gain breakpoint, but that's not what I want to ask you all about.

I imagine soup, ramen or rice would be faster and more fuel efficient since they involve boiling. Should be fine there.

I want to know if anyone has tried actually cooking in one of these pots. I'm interested potential advantages or disadvantages when sautéing, frying or heating something thick like oatmeal or chili. Do you think the fins on the outside might better distribute heat to the outer edges? Make the whole pot heat too fast? Make simmering uncontrollable? Any other side-effects I haven't anticipated? (dizziness, nausea, vomiting, weight gain...)

Hiking Jim (who used to be on here, but I haven't seen him in a while) did some cooking tests with JetBoils.

This might be it: https://adventuresinstoving.blogspot.com/2012/03/aluminum-jetboil-sol-trail-report-2-and.html

He was successful but noted temperature control as a key part of it. Those fins are lightweight and water is really good at wicking away the large amount of heat the stoves produce. When trying to actually cook you have to make sure you turn down the stove so you don't burn up the fins/pan. I did that to my buddies JetBoil a while back. I was trying to steam bake a muffin but ran out of water in the pan.

I should have Googled up Adventures In Stoving. Not surprised there are tests there. That does give me some data points, particularly Cooking Report #3.