Cleaning your pot after using an Esbit stove.

I have been using a DIY esbit stove/pot sand combination on my last couple of trips and I like the idea. It is lightweight, cooks well (a little slow, but I'm not in a hurry). The only rub is that I get this very sticky black residue on the bottom of my pot. Yuk! I'm not particularly fastidious, but it is hard to get off short of using gasoline as a solvent. Any body have a good way to prevent this problem or an easy way to clean the pot?
I'm considering going back to my MSR WindPro canister stove for the winter.

I've been using Esbit for years and have not noticed enough suet to be concerned. It just wipes off, a little discoloration left behind but I don't care. Have you experimented with pot height from the fuel tab? Sounds like it might be too close.
Regardless, a little sand/dirt scrub will clean your pots in the field.
Wood fires leave a black residue as well. I just wipe/scrub it off with whatever leaves/dirt/sand/gravel is around me and pack it up.

When I was a kid we would rub the bottom of the pans with a bar of soap before cooking in them and it made the pans easier to clean after cooking over a camp fire.

Good Idea. I used to do that too when I was young, but I'm so old now I forgot about that. Thnks, Jim

Yeah, but back then we had to make the soap first.

Yes, well I may not have told the complete story now that you say that.
I also, on the same trips, used another solid fuel that is made as a fire starter for charcoal made by Weber. It works pretty good and is cheap, but now I'm thinking perhaps it is the culprit.
thanks, Jim KE7IXM

A-HA!

Anyhoo, you might play with various solvents to see whether one might dissolve the goo. Alcohol, white gas, paint thinner, whatever you may have around the house.

I don't use Esbit but after my rare cooking over fire trips I like a clean pot exterior, partly aesthetic partly not wanting to muck up other things in the pack.

Cheers,

The bar of soap applied in advance works pretty well with wood smoke residue. However, since soap (even the so-called biodegradable kind) is toxic to aquatic life, using the soap bar means you can't use your pot for dipping water, something which I do frequently.

I keep my pot in a silnylon stuff sack. That's partly so if I have to use it on a fire, the soot stays inside the stuff sack and doesn't get all over my pack. The stuff sack also keeps the lid on the pot, useful when packing items inside the pot.

Jim,

I use esbit regularly, and yes, I get a bit of soot. But like OM, I use a very lightweight bag and usually don't worry about it. But I also carry a small square of the plastic pot scrubber material (maybe 2" or less) and that takes it off when it starts to bother me. Remember that a black pot bottom also spreads heat better!

best, jcp

My brother made me soap his pot once before he went on an overnight camping trip. I soaped the inside. Lucky I could outrun him. Did you wonder why the younger brother always runs faster than the older brother?

Funny story!

Did he ever ask you to touch his cooking gear again???