Anyone want to try a homemade version of the “Bakepacker?” The bakepacker is a camp friendly cooking system used to bake biscuits and muffins and so forth on the trail. It’s available through http://www.bakepacker.com and on amazon http://www.amazon.com/Bakepacker-Cook-Pot-Stove-Baker/dp/B0019IWEW4 With it, you can exploit a cooking style using plastic freezer bags, and plastic oven-cooking bags, with some more recipes found at freezerbagcooking.com This quote is from the bakepacker website: The BakePacker® is not a steamer. Each small compartment of the aluminum grid functions as a single, self-contained heat exchanger. When the water in these compartments is boiled, the rate of heat transfer from the water to the plastic bag is very high. Higher, in fact, than a steamer, double boiler or an open pot of boiling water. Thermal engineers refer to this process as "the heat pipe phenomenon." The ability to transfer very large quantities of heat with small temperature differences is the main feature characterizing the heat pipe. The BakePacker, then is a cluster of heat pipes that move large amounts of heat at a relatively low temperature (212 degrees F at sea level). The net result is that you, the camp chef, can now bake many things including cakes, muffins and quickbreads in a simple cook-pot. Freezerbagcooking.com has a homemade design using a spiral of aluminum, but I doubt that that design best exploits the heat pipe phenomenon, and frankly, I mostly favor homemade gear that doesn’t look homemade if I can pull it off. My first version used 1 1/4" lengths of one inch diameter tubing from an old lawn chair, one of those old folding contraptions with the nasty plastic woven seats and backs. (It was the first source of aluminum tube I could find, but it’s not bad, very thin walled, and super-lightweight.) I think that ideally, ½” round tubing would be preferable, to double the number of heat pipes in your bakepacker, and better reproduce the ½” square piping dimension of the original backpacker. I cut the tubing into 1 1/4th inch lengths, and shuffle them into the bottom of whatever pot I’m using. Here, I’m using an old-school, 5”diameter, aluminum camp pot (spray painted black for better heat absorption) in which 19 x 1” tubes fits nicely. Its companion pot, a 7” diameter 2 liter pot takes 32 tubes. My current version uses chopped up one inch pieces of ¾” stock made from aluminum ski poles I got at the thrift-shop. They’re heavier, but more robust, and less prone to crushing. One problem with the Bakepacker is that it is limited to specific pot diameters for optimal performance, specifically, a 6” pot for the 5 ½” diameter “ultra-light” Bakepacker, and an 7 ½” or 8” pot for the 7 3/8” Bakepacker “Standard.” The tube version on the other hand, shuffles into whatever pot you happen to have, using more or fewer tubes as required. Furthermore, the store bought “Bakepacker” is a little heavy. The 7 3/8" diameter “Bakepacker standard” weighs ½ a pound, compared to 32 thin-walled tubes at 13 grams. The tube version has the further advantage of being easier to clean up any accidental spillage than the square grid units, and, if I say so myself, it also looks kind of cool. It only takes a minute or so to set up, but if you want ease of use try a large hose clamp. Apart from baking, another advantage of using a unit like the bakepacker, is that it produces heat equivalent to or superior than a pressure cooker. Pressure cookers are cool, and GSR makes a portable version for camp use, but even this little guy is heavy. (The trade off is on fuel savings and efficiency, especially in high altitudes.) 20 odd years ago, as a young Reserve Infantry officer, I remember the Canadian Army used to supply pressure cookers for meal prep. In those days, Canadian MRE’s were largely boil-in-bag entrees, contracted by a company called Magic Pantry. The pressure cooker could do up a ten-man section’s worth of meals lickety-quick, and with minimal water, and fuel expenditure. A bakebaker rig, can save on fuel, by incorporating this style of cooking, by eliminating simmering. By cooking in short bursts, and allowing the food to absorb the heat for a while, and then reboiling the thin layer of water over and over as necessary, you’ll add time to food prep, but save fuel big-time. That site I mentioned, on freezer bag cooking, also has recipes for “Cozy Cooking” which incorporates an insulated foil lined bag to radiate heat back to hot bags of partially cooked foods, to complete their prep time without using fuel. An advantage of using a unit like the bakepacker, is that it produces heat equivalent to or superior than a pressure cooker. Pressure cookers are cool, and GSR makes a portable version for camp use, but even this little guy is heavy. (The trade off is on fuel savings and efficiency, especially in high altitudes.) 20 odd years ago, as a young Reserve Infantry officer, I remember the Canadian Army used to supply pressure cookers for meal prep. In those days, Canadian MRE’s were largely boil-in-bag entrees, contracted by a company called Magic Pantry. The pressure cooker could do up a ten-man section’s worth of meals lickety-quick, and with minimal water, and fuel expenditure. A bakebaker rig, can save on fuel, by incorporating this style of cooking, by eliminating simmering. By cooking in short bursts, and allowing the food to absorb the heat for a while, and then reboiling the thin layer of water over and over as necessary, you’ll add time to food prep, but save fuel big-time. That site I mentioned, on freezer bag cooking, also has recipes for “Cozy Cooking” which incorporates an insulated foil lined bag to radiate heat back to hot bags of partially cooked foods, to complete their prep time without using fuel.
not only clever but homemade,you can't beat that --i understand the Girl Scouts up that way are well know--they have a cook book--for cooking and baking with those heavy plastic bags that milk is sold in..thanks for the tip--
Pretty impressive! I'm a big fan of homemade gear, and yours looks great. How about a pic of something "baked" in it? (bags are bags, but biscuits or breads...)
Don’t you mean IMPs, or their predecessors, the old IRPs? Waaaay better than the dreaded American MREs.
Wow. Dredging up some seriously old post. NONE of the links above are active. Guess all attempts at sales of these products were ultimately failures.
This webpage suggests that the BakePacker is discontinued: BakePacker Accessory | LDP Camping Foods REI (which says it is “not available”) has two reviews, both positive: Bake Packer Ultra-Lite | REI Co-op You could try the following, although who knows whether they actually have any stock left: Bakepacker - Water Oven - Wisemen Trading and Supply DIY version mentioned here: Make Your own Bakepacker
