Doing the dishes

Looking for advice on cleaning my little titanium cook set while on the trail.

Campsuds? Something else?

I'm probably going to get heavily criticized for this, and don't necessarily recommend you follow my lead. My only "cooking" is to rehydrate instant oatmeal and freeze-dried entrees. I don't use any soap, because there isn't any really greasy residue. I just use a small amount of water to rinse the remains off the pot, and let it go at that. The pot gets sterilized the next time I boil water for cooking or tea. (Anyway, I choose to believe it is sterilized.)

I've never gotten sick doing this, but it might be relevant that I'm rarely out more than 2 or 3 days at a time.

I don't believe my way would work if you're doing "real" cooking, when you might have burned-on food or other residue to deal with.

The only time I've had digestive tract issues is when I went with a group of Scouts who insisted on washing everything in hot soapy water, followed by a quick rinse. I thought the cocoa tasted a bit soapy next morning, and about two hours later, hunkered down in the latrine, I was right - only time I've ever had an oral enema, but it was just as effective. That's when I quit using soap in the field.

I am also in the "no soap" camp and I do real cooking. Pay attention to cooking and you will not burn food! Put cold water in the pot before the food has dried and let it sit a bit. Pinecones or small fir needle bunchs (you can leave them on the tree- just take your pan up to the tree)scrub quite nicely. Throw out water on the ground away from camp, so you do not attract animals, and away from streams, so you do not pollute the water supply. If the pot is still a bit greasy, wipe it out with a few squares of TP.

Add one more to the "no soap" train. My routine is such. Heat water for tea//coffee. Then start cooking. I eat right out of the pot. When done, I add a little water and sometimes heat it up. I swish it around and then drink the "soup". I wipe it dry with my bandana and am good to go.

I also firmly believe in no soap in the backcountry. Even minute amounts of so-called "biodegradable" soap are harmful to aquatic life, especially amphibians which are having lots of problems anyway. The soap dumped 200 ft. from a current water source will be in the water source after the next hard rain or snow!

My cooking method is simply rehydrating home-dehydrated meals. I pour the hot water into the freezer bag containing the food, stir and let it sit 10-15 minutes in a cozy. I then eat the food out of the bag, which is later re-used for garbage, such as that toilet paper that must be packed out. The only item I have to wash is my spoon. Lick it off, pour clean water over it, dry and I'm good to go. Many thanks to Sarbar of trailcooking.com for saving me from my most hated activity, washing dishes!

I hopefully will be frying some fish this summer (gotta catch 'em first, though!). To clean the frying pan, I'll be using the boiling water method described above, dumping the water a long way from camp or water sources. If your pan isn't non-stick, sand works great for scouring. Just to be sure, the frying pan will be stored in the bear bag at night.

When out with my grandkids, I rehydrate the foods in bulk, several servings in one plastic bag. We each have a cup, spoon and bowl to wash. I use a small piece of paper towel (which goes in garbage or in campfire if we have one, or in the used freezer bag if not) to wipe food off the dishes. I then boil a pot of water, dunk the dishes in the boiling water and dry.

One more for the no soap.. even when I do real cooking.

Most of my cooking is water boiling, and I'm then just packing out a bag, but when I do cook in the pot, I just scrub it out with sand and a good rinse. I don't use soap.

My spoon gets licked clean. I don't get sick because the pot is used to boil stuff again the next time I use it.

the only time I will use a little tiny bit of campsuds is on *me* if I take a spongebath or a wash away from a water source. My butt is too sensitive to get cleaned with sand and rocks. my pot isn't.

I bring soap-- but it is repackaged Dr. Bonners and I have used it for all of my cleaning/sanitizing needs. It is mainly used on me for longer trips.

However, I do not use it for washing the dishes because, well I have no dishes. I use my pot to boil water in and then I pour it into a freezer bag+cozy and let it hydrate. The pot has only boiled water and I don't wash the freezer bag. My spork I just lick clean--- I can hear some of you cringe.

I've always rehydrated the food in my pot, but I may give the eat-from-bag thing a try this year. I just never liked the "messiness" of eating from the bag - then I realized that, after it was rehydrated, I could cut the top half off the bag to turn it into a bowl and avoid the mess.

I never claimed to be a fast learner.

Another good thing about not cooking in your pot is that you can also save fuel. All you do is bring two cups of water to a boil and then let the heat and the cozy do all the work.

Cutting the top off is what I used to do, but now I don't bring anything to cut it with other than my knife-- this can become messy if you are not careful. Now, I just bring a long handled spoon and I can reach right down into the freezer bag without a problem.

You're right, Chris, the long-handled spoon is key! You can always roll down the mouth of the bag. I need to keep the bag closure intact so I can put garbage inside.

I'll chime in on the no-soap side, too. I never use soap for dish washing. It never seems necessary. I only bring soap (camp suds) if I'm going out for more than a week, and I still don't end up using it more than once a summer - at most.

I do rinse dishes, and will use sand to scrub up if things got to the point where rinsing isn't enough.

Ok, looks like I'll try the 'water only' method with maybe a little scrub pad since I do plan on doing some cooking in the pot.

Thanks all.