Portable Stoves - What do you use?

SnowTexan, no problem, we rarely use the built in Origo alcohol stove. Mostly cook outside on the rail mounted Magma. Because it is so fast we use a single burner butane like most people on this thred, ours does adapt to 1 lb. propane bottles that we can refill with the 20 lb. fiberglass BBQ tank.
 
I grill. 

I’ve grilled since I can remember.  I grill just about everything except salad
and dessert.  Grilled spiked fruit jello just doesn’t work right on the grill. 
Although grilled romaine lettuce in a caesar salad is delicious.  I don’t grill
beverages since I discovered the dangers of trying to grill 151 rum.  But I did
grill a ‘fortified’ wine spiced ‘grog’ after snowshoeing one time.  I just can’t
remember how it turned out.

I grill over wood coals.  Real hard wood is the best.  My favorites are apple,
cherry, hickory and mesquite.  No ‘filler’ filled charcoal briquettes, artificial
wax wood chip logs or such.  Just premium hardwood.  It’s wonderful and
you just cannot get the same flavor from one of those city gas grills either.

I grill inside and out.  Inside all winter in my bake oven on top over the firebox
of my TempCast.  It makes a simple pizza into something very special.  Outside
grilling is for those hot, dog days of summer (yep, ther comin’) when doing the
same inside would heat the house too much.  Outside I use the Big Green Egg.* 
It’s ceramic and has survived all weather grilling over 25 years now.  It’ll probably
last longer than me.

I grill hot and fast and I grill slow and smokey.  Hot and fast for searing in juices
so well the thing actually squirts you when you cut into it.  And that’s a trade mark
of a meal at my house.  Guests have actually brought goggles to dinner a few
times.  Slow and smokey is for ribs, a big ‘ole bird or a pork loin that I’ve ‘rubbed’
and turns out so sweet it makes you want to cry.

At my house, dinner’s ready when the smoke alarm goes off.  Then people show
up outta nowhere…

Aye.

* For the boat, it's the Aobosi charcoal grill
www.amazon.com/AAOBOSI-Portable-Charcoa ... op?ie=UTF8
 
On my first big sailboat I built a beautiful stainless wood burning grill that hung over the transom, perfect steaks (or what ever we could catch)
But...once in a while a big wake would end up feeding the steaks to the fish....hmmm, design flaw!
 
Blackstone 18" griddle. Fits perfectly on the counter, will cook burgers that taste like they came from a diner, makes perfect omlettes, and will sear a fresh tuna loin like a master chef. Also doubles as a heater.
 
tomherrick":147qp4y2 said:
One last thing. On my induction cooktop, the pot or pan will get hot RIGHT NOW. Forget about warming it up, it's hot to the temperature I've set on the cooktop when I push the ON button. If you remember how slow it was cooking on electric coils and how fast a gas cooktop would heat up a pan, this is the next leap.[/img]
Click to expand...

Induction is the only way to go. True, you do need a fairly large inverter if you think that you will need to run an induction cook top at full blast. I've never needed to. I have a 2,000 watt inverter on the Limpet and a single burner induction cooktop with a heat setting from 1 to 8. I've never used 8. Setting it at 4 makes espresso or boils soup in a couple of minutes, way faster than propane, so I never push the inverter (which would just have to be reset if the induction cook top pulled too much).

Instant on/off, no propane bottles, open flame, combustion moisture, or even a hot cooking surface. Wind doesn't matter. Faster than the fastest gas burner. As a bonus, I can move it out on to the back deck for frying (requires an extension cord). On a rough passage, I have put it on the cabin floor. Spills aren't a problem because the cook surface doesn't get hot. Even better, put a paper towel between the burner and the pot. If it boils over, cleanup is a cinch. Just toss the paper towel. For the splatter from frying, maybe use something bigger like a tea towel.

I don't know how many Brats regularly bake on board, but I've had pretty good luck with that using my induction cook top. A small cast iron dutch oven allows me to bake potatoes and corn bread. I only tried it to see if it would work.

If I was removing a propane or diesel oven/stove, I would consider whether the oven area is more useful for storage and just live with an induction stove top. Two burners would be plenty for me. As with the oven, I have to admit I have no use for 4 burners. I think that the most I've ever used at home is 3. Maybe 4 burners looks more homelike.

Mark
 
Ok, you talked me into an induction stove. I settled on this one. It is fairly quiet and boils water real fast.

Since replacing the Wallas with an Espar we had planned on using the cheap little butane stove for a cooktop but this discussion got me thinking. I recall Greg raving about the induction stove all those years ago but I think they were a lot more costly back then, as were the inverters needed to run them. The things are cheap now so I picked mine based on reviews.

It turns out I may need to replace my 1500 watt inverter, though. It's AC output is real low when not loaded and the new stove won't work unless I have the microwave running too. That seems rather silly so I have to look into things a little. I'll be starting an inverter thread for those questions.

The good news is the stainless tea kettle that Lois likes so much has the necessary material embedded in the bottom of it to make it work on the induction stove. I have been threatening to get the thing off the boat since we haven't used it for so long, but now she can keep it.
 
TyBoo":33kzfns2 said:
It's AC output is real low when not loaded and the new stove won't work unless I have the microwave running too.
Click to expand...

Mike, some inverters have a "search" mode. This allows the inverter to remain off unless it senses a load. On mine (a Trace SW2512MC) you can adjust the search watts and spacing. This does save power - for example mine draws about 13 watts just being on with no load. It is a bit tricky getting the search watts dialed in though and it will change every time you add or change what is plugged into the inverters output. Some appliances won't trigger the search signal to start the inverter.

Not sure if this is your problem or not.

Regards,

Rob
 
The induction burner we have on the boat is the same one TyBoo has. We also bought it because of the reviews. and it was square for storage...It is a little more picky on pans which it works with (in comparison to the New Wave round induction we use on the RV.).

We measured the power draw on the New Wave, and it was about 680 watts on #4 setting. This was satisfactory for all of the cooking we have done--and will run on a Honda EU 1000, which we had on the C Dory 22.

We have not done the watt draw on the square DuxTux unit, but it will run on low as well as the microwave with the 2500 watt PSW inverter or the Honda 2200.
 
Robert H. Wilkinson":12z0f17h said:
Mike, some inverters have a "search" mode. This allows the inverter to remain off unless it senses a load. On mine (a Trace SW2512MC) you can adjust the search watts and spacing.
Click to expand...

Oh goodness - I am much too cheap for one of those units! I am squarely in the under two hundred bucks almost disposable camp on the power inverter. The single serve coffee maker and the small microwave is all we usually run when away from shore power so I don't want to get too carried away.
 
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