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Mama's
Kitchen Cookware
Long Term Report by
Rick Allnutt
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Manufacturer: AntiGravity Gear
Year Manufactured 2003
Manufacturer's home page: AntiGravity
Gear
MSRP: $37.80, without stove and windscreen, as tested
Received: 2 July 2003
Date
of Report: 23 December 2003
Listed weight:
2 Quart pot w/ lid - 5.9 oz (167 g)
2 Quart pot cozy - 1.4 oz (40 g)
3 Cup pot w/ lid - 3.8 oz (108 g)
3 Cup pot cozy - 1.0 oz (28 g)
Clamp Handle for the pots - 1.4 oz (40 g)
Weight as delivered:
2 Quart pot w/ lid - 5.8 oz (163 g)
pot alone 4.1 oz (116 g)
lid 1.7 oz (47 g)
2 Quart pot cozy - 1.2 oz (35 g)
3 Cup pot w/ lid - 3.7 oz (105 g)
pot alone 2.5 oz (70 g)
lid 1.2 oz (35 g)
3 Cup pot cozy - 0.9 oz (25 g)
Clamp Handle for the pots - 1.2 oz (35 g)
(actual measured weight in grams, ounces are calculated)
Volume:
Volume of the 3 cup pot is 30 oz (.89 l)
Volume of the 2 quart pot is 61 oz (1.8 l)
LONG TERM REPORT
In addition to the trips mentioned in the Field Report, I also had the good
fortune to use Mama's Kitchen on two additional solo section hikes of the
AT. Both were in Virginia. Temperatures for those hikes ranged from
a high of 70 F (21 C) to a low of 22 F (-6 C). I used the 3 cup pot and
it's cozy for these additional trips, cooking over a homemade twig stove and a
homemade alcohol stove.
I continued to use Mama's Kitchen for daily cooking of my oatmeal
breakfast at home for approximately 100 additional days over the last four months. Total
days cooking with the pots exceeded 140 days.
The handle supplied with the kit was originally quite stiff. The handle
has continued to become loose and limber. It now is easy to open with a
single hand, nearly falling open on its own. I have not lubricated
it. It may be that the small amount of wood smoke which slightly discolors
the pot end of the handle has lubricated the joint. It will still stay
attached to the pot rim without holding it, but the lower handle falls down
somewhat when I do this.
I did drill two small holes near the rim of the small pot to experiment with a
lightweight wire bail. I was able to drill the holes exactly
opposite one another. This allows the pot to be lifted level by a simple bail
made of ductile wire. I discovered that the 3 c (0.71 l) pot was much more
stable with the wire bail when it contains 2 c (0.47 l) of liquid than 1 c (0.24
l). I did not end up being happy with the stability of the pot, and after
a 62 mi (100 km) hike, I went back to the supplied handle. After making
this change, I now need to be aware of the location of the holes when pouring
liquid from the pot. If I forget, part of the liquid comes out the hole
and runs down the side of the pot. I did not work out any novel plan to
reduce weight of the handle by drilling portions of it out which I thought would
look nice. I believe others may have posted information on this sort of
modification other places on the web.
Small Pot over Wood Gas Stove
Shows the hole for wire bail near rim
The pieces and parts of Mama's Kitchen continue to fit together
nicely. The inside of the cozies are getting dirty form wood smoke on the
outside of the pots, but they have remained free of tears or other damage.
The lids continue to fit well, not becoming jammed in any way. I can lift
the tops off with one hand without spilling the contents of the
pots.
I also now have much experience with Mama's Kitchen over several prototype
wood-burning camp stoves designed to fit inside the smaller pot.
It is particularly nice for the outside color of the pot to already be
black in color, making it easier to accept the blackening that a wood
fire causes. These stoves range from fan assisted forge-like stoves to
downdraft wood gas stoves. The pots work with all these stoves without any
problems associated with the stove.
I have accidentally made several scratches of the inside of the small
pot putting my prototype stoves in and out of the pot. These
scratches have not resulted in any noticeable problem with the
pot. The surface has not separated at the scratches and has not
begun to peel. A full 6 months of using the pot with stainless steel tableware
has not added any scratches.
While out on the trail, I cooked many times directly in the pot instead of using
plastic bags with closures. I found the pots cleaned very well after
cooking noodle dishes with no supplies other than a little dry dirt and
humus. A brief rinse of the dust after dry cleaning was all that I used
(and it was not really required) before the next meal. I needed to be very
careful that the dirt and humus did not have any small rocks in it. I had
previously reported (in the Field Report) a scratch on the bottom of a pot when
I tried this cleaning method and a small sharp stone was in the dirt I
used.
I did need to clean off an accumulated layer of wood smoke tar from the bottom
of the pots. To do this I placed the empty pot in a larger pot of boiling
water to heat the tar on the bottom of the pot. After boiling for several
minutes, I was able to use a spatula to scrape off considerable black/brown
tar. The pot then was cleaned gently with steel wool and all the tar was
removed without scraping any additional black coating off the outside of the
pots.
Burned Bottom of Larger Pot
Over a period of 140 days of cooking breakfast over an electric range, I had no scratches or other problems with the inside of the pots.
However, one morning, while the water for oatmeal was boiling in the larger pot,
I became quite involved reading my BGT email. I was alerted by the smoke
alarm that the water had boiled dry. Smoke was rising from the bottom of
the inside of the pot. The aluminum was spared, but much of the coating on
the inside had bubbled and burnt. I scrubbed the bottom quite hard with
steel wool, removing the burned coating, and leaving most of the bottom of the
pot as bare aluminum. It has remained quite functional despite the
disaster.
After burning the bottom of the pot, I began to consider ways to use the pots to
bake bread on the trail. I did several experiments with homemade versions
of both dry and wet baking. I made a shelf of hardware cloth to suspend a
plastic bag of bread dough over boiling water and tried several recipes for
"boiled bread" and cake.
Boil Baking Device
I then made a home-made version of Brasslite's
TrailBaker, suspending an aluminum pie plate from three wires and heating the
pot with an alcohol stove. Finally I experimented with support rings or
"crowns" made from aluminum flashing. I used both the larger
pot, and the smaller pot (with no scorching of the bottom) as a baking
oven.
Foil Baker using "Crown
Ring"
The most practical use of Mama's kitchen was to
use the small pot, suspended by a "crown ring" inside the larger pot
as an oven for bread and cake.
Mama's Nest Baker
Care must be used to keep the outside pot from
getting too hot or scorching of the non-stick surface may occur. When
using an alcohol stove, the bottom of the pot reaches a temperature of about 350
F (177 C) as long as the stove is not allowed to overheat. This
temperature was measured with an infrared standoff thermometer. As long as the
flame remains in a simmer mode, the temperature does not seem to damage the
coating. You may notice the two curved lines in the smaller pot
above. This was from the bottom of a "crown ring" melting into
the finish when I did allow the stove to overheat. It has been inconsequential
in the use of the pot. However, if baking bread is important, then the
possibility of scorching the bottom of the larger pan may be worth the
risk.
Mama's Nest Baker assembled
(except lid of larger pot)
The bread was absolutely wonderful.
Immediately upon finishing the baking experiments in November, I had to go on a
diet to lose weight!
To say that I have enjoyed these tests with Mama's Kitchen is an
understatement. I have had a ball. I hope the reader has learned
about this equipment from the series of reports over the last six months. I thank
Tinman, AntiGravity Gear and BGT from the bottom of my hiking sandals to the top
of my tarp for allowing me the opportunity to review this gear.
PERSONAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Rick Allnutt
50 Year old male
6' 0'' (183 cm) in height
190 lb (86 kg) in weight (Temporarily 200 lb (91 kg) - all the fault of
the cakes!)
Email address: rick at imrisk dot com
I live in Dayton, Ohio
BACKPACKING BACKGROUND
Over the last year, I have gone from being a heavy-weight (2
Duluth Pack) canoe camper to a three season base pack weight of
just under 10 lb (4.5 kg) and skin out weight of 20 lb (9 kg) for
a 4 day, 3 night Appalachian Trail hike. I have become an intense
advocate of hammock camping. I have done much day hiking on
the Ohio Buckeye Trail and the Ohio state forests. Backpacking trips
have included more than 200 miles of the AT across several section hikes in
North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and New Hampshire. Other historical
experience includes 7 backcountry canoe trips into the Minnesota
Boundary Waters Canoe Area spanning 35 years, and hiking the
Philmont Scout ranch as a 14-year-old Eagle Scout.
Read more reviews of AntiGravityGear gear
Read more gear reviews by Rick Allnutt
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