Hello from Oklahoma! The old river rat here. Interesting video. Something I was taught a long time ago, early '70's and I still do today. If you rub dish soap on the outside of your pot or what ever before you put it on the fire the crud washes right off with warm water. If you have a stubborn spot, scrub with wood ash. No need to scratch everything up with gravel and course sand. Bless your Heart!
Agree! You’re spot on. Back when I was in the Boy Scouts in the 1960’s, we were taught to rub soap over the exterior of our cook pots & pans for easy cleanup after cooking over wood coals.
@@rebel-yellenterprises1479 Same here. The idea was to get the loose soot and ash to come off so it wouldn't get on your other gear. The scorch marks that don't rub off are like Dan said, a badge of honor. As for scrubbing it in untreated water, if your container is going to be in contact with potable water or cooked food you should follow up by washing with soap and clean water, like the rest of your dishes.
Yes woodash the component of homemade soap..lye I use a small pinecone dipped in woodash as my pot scrub with a bit of soap. Works brilliantly. Shiny cookware.
reminds me of cleaning rust off of big chains.. we would just drag them behind the jeep down the beach for a few minutes. .. i've done a wet towel and ashes from teh firepit before and that gets things pretty clean too
Been there, done that. But I also have used dried leaf litter and pine needles to scrub most of the soot and the worst of the left-behind food particles. Then a rinse, and then air- or preferably, sun-drying before it goes back in the pack. Of course, when I get home I do a conventional scrubbing/cleaning.
Oh yes, that’s right! If you don't want scratches, use leaves or moss, you can also use the leaves of birch trees or chestnut trees which contain saponins and the stuff is like soap, you can even wash your hair with it. Greetings from Germany Walter 👍🏻 🌲🌳🪚🪵🪓🗡🔥🥩🥓🏕🍺👌🏻💪🏻👍🏻
A science guy did an objective study. He found that a blackened pot transfers heat faster than a shiny pot. More efficient black. He recommended leaving discoloration and not going as far as shining, even in the kitchen. He said that shiny reflected whereas darker color absorbed the heat. Great vid, sir. Thanks?
We learned to clean with sand in Boy Scouts many years before there was Bushcrafting. I still have my old Field Manual with so many useful tips in it, and a few things that are frowned upon these days. As a 21st century guy I just pack a piece of Scotch Brite in my cook kit. It has multiple uses.
Good info. A stainless steel, 3M Scotch-Brite brand scrubber pad works good, too. Rip it in half if you are counting ounces. Can be sanitized easy, as well.
NIce but I would try first to clean the inside with some wood ashes and a tiny bit of water, as the ashes plus water plus fat/oil residues from your meal gives you some basic soap. Then you clean with that mix also the outside, and if still required, then only do it with sand or whatever else abrasive you get, as shown here. Yet, thinking that you might have some basic body cleaning stuff with you when you are outside, I would suggest to simply use tooth powder if your pots are over dirty. That tooth powder is what our ancestors used to clean their teeth before any smart pharmacist got the idea to add to common tooth powder some glycerine or other gel stuff in order to have a tooth paste which weights much more, makes fun to staple on the tooth brush and can be sold at much higher prices. Even though unknown to most people nowadays, tooth powder is still available on the market. It is of course perfect for use at home but also especialy for the outdoors as it weights almost nothing (compared to tooth paste) and is multifunctional, can be also used to clean vessels or dirty hands etc.
Some fifty and more years ago, my Dad brought a Thermos full of coffee to work everyday. He never purchased a bottle brush to clean the interior. He picked up a small handful of pebbles from the yard, cleaned them as best he could, and put the pebbles inside the Thermos, swishing them around the inside with water and some dishwashing liquid Those pebbles were kept in a small cup on the kitchen counter, he'd use them to clean the Thermos when he got back home from work everyday.
Looked like a lot of jewelweed down there by the creek… got some poison ivy around? Cool cleaning technique that I’ll definitely add if I’m camping by a stream.
Ha! When I was a teen I borrowed an older friend's pot to go camping. I thought I would do him a favour and clean off all the black on the pot using sand as per video. He wasn't happy at all as he informed me that the black helped insulate the pot and helped it to heat quicker. Now experienced, I think the soot on stuff and the mess it creates can be so time consuming to remove that it offsets any time benefit in keeping it on for cooking.
@@crappymeal That is exactly how my friend carried it. Cloth or plastic, it didn't stick, just made your hands filthy whenever you went to use it. Hence me cleaning it.
I'm too lazy to clean the outside of my pots and bring a dedicated storage bag. When the sooot is really crazy thick I'll use fine sand and ashes, that works too!
@@crappymeal depends on how 'clean' 😉 the burn was ( I use wood gasification stoves ), but sometimes it does stick a bit. Tip: don't use a plastic/nylon/poly-what-not bag, mine is waxed canvas.
Now, after wallowing in a steam and making it gunky, the INSIDE of the jug needs to be cleaned. HINT: it’s more important to have the inside clean than the outside. Courtesy of Half Vast Flying
If there is dirty dishes that needs to be sanitized, not just visually clean like this, and can take the abuse, put it in the biggest pot of the camp pour in some 0-1/16" sand, top up with water and add a bit of soap or detergent, boil it and stir forcefully until random items pulled out looks clean, then take one item out at a time, rinse it in clean water and dry it until all the dishes that can fit in that pot is clean😊
Common camping knowledge? Alcohol takes soot off, too, and you can then use the dirty, alcohol-damp paper towel (or TP) to help light your evening fire.
Biologist here. If cleaning with most untreated outdoor water sources in the wild, simply drying the utensil after cleaning will eliminate the majority of risk. If you’e in an area where parasites or spore forming bacteria might be severe, and absolutely must use that water, you can rinse with clean water, wipe, and dry again. Risk will be very low. If the utensil is put on a stove afterwards to boil water, you’ll be completely sterilizing it, and risk will drop to near zero. Whenever possible, try not to use water from sources with animal run-off (ground water or irrigation water running from animal enclosures to the stream), as these can have very high bacterial counts. Also, obviously, don’t use water sources near sewer outlets etc.
how often do you come across contaminated water? you shouldnt be camping there anyways. I have drank my share of wild water and as long as it is running, doesnt smell or look funny, or comes from a bar ditch you have a good chance of it having less chemicals than your city water
I got one better than that then for cleaning that stuff off and get almost all of it off just use the wood ash out of your fire and a little bit of water and it will remove 90% of the shut and residence left by fire 🔥🔥
Hello from Oklahoma! The old river rat here. Interesting video. Something I was taught a long time ago, early '70's and I still do today. If you rub dish soap on the outside of your pot or what ever before you put it on the fire the crud washes right off with warm water. If you have a stubborn spot, scrub with wood ash. No need to scratch everything up with gravel and course sand. Bless your Heart!
Agree! You’re spot on. Back when I was in the Boy Scouts in the 1960’s, we were taught to rub soap over the exterior of our cook pots & pans for easy cleanup after cooking over wood coals.
@@rebel-yellenterprises1479 Yep, it 100% works👍
@@rebel-yellenterprises1479 Same here. The idea was to get the loose soot and ash to come off so it wouldn't get on your other gear. The scorch marks that don't rub off are like Dan said, a badge of honor.
As for scrubbing it in untreated water, if your container is going to be in contact with potable water or cooked food you should follow up by washing with soap and clean water, like the rest of your dishes.
Was just going respond similarly. Few drops of soap before heat work very well.
Yes woodash the component of homemade soap..lye I use a small pinecone dipped in woodash as my pot scrub with a bit of soap. Works brilliantly. Shiny cookware.
Horsetail plant has a lot of silica and has been used to scrub things in camp forever. 😁
i use my coffee grounds.. fry pan etc works like a charm
reminds me of cleaning rust off of big chains.. we would just drag them behind the jeep down the beach for a few minutes. .. i've done a wet towel and ashes from teh firepit before and that gets things pretty clean too
If you don’t have access to a sandy stream, you can use ash from the fire that made the soot, with the same method. Works even better than sand.
Been there, done that. But I also have used dried leaf litter and pine needles to scrub most of the soot and the worst of the left-behind food particles. Then a rinse, and then air- or preferably, sun-drying before it goes back in the pack. Of course, when I get home I do a conventional scrubbing/cleaning.
Oh yes, that’s right! If you don't want scratches, use leaves or moss, you can also use the leaves of birch trees or chestnut trees which contain saponins and the stuff is like soap, you can even wash your hair with it. Greetings from Germany Walter 👍🏻
🌲🌳🪚🪵🪓🗡🔥🥩🥓🏕🍺👌🏻💪🏻👍🏻
A science guy did an objective study. He found that a blackened pot transfers heat faster than a shiny pot. More efficient black.
He recommended leaving discoloration and not going as far as shining, even in the kitchen.
He said that shiny reflected whereas darker color absorbed the heat.
Great vid, sir. Thanks?
I've seen baking recipes where they use a different time or temperature for dark or bright pans.
We learned to clean with sand in Boy Scouts many years before there was Bushcrafting. I still have my old Field Manual with so many useful tips in it, and a few things that are frowned upon these days. As a 21st century guy I just pack a piece of Scotch Brite in my cook kit. It has multiple uses.
If you plan on putting a pot in the fire, you can coat it with dish soap beforehand. It get easy to clean.
We used to use Murphy oil soap before putting it in the fire. In the Boy Scouts of the 1970s
Good info. A stainless steel, 3M Scotch-Brite brand scrubber pad works good, too. Rip it in half if you are counting ounces. Can be sanitized easy, as well.
Just put it a bag saves messing about that's my top tip
Hi Dan Wowak!! Thank you so much for sharing!! Really enjoying all your videos!! I’m in the woods with my Great Danes 👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿❤️🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
I use a pad of steel wool from the fire kit. It dries out fine
NIce but I would try first to clean the inside with some wood ashes and a tiny bit of water, as the ashes plus water plus fat/oil residues from your meal gives you some basic soap. Then you clean with that mix also the outside, and if still required, then only do it with sand or whatever else abrasive you get, as shown here.
Yet, thinking that you might have some basic body cleaning stuff with you when you are outside, I would suggest to simply use tooth powder if your pots are over dirty. That tooth powder is what our ancestors used to clean their teeth before any smart pharmacist got the idea to add to common tooth powder some glycerine or other gel stuff in order to have a tooth paste which weights much more, makes fun to staple on the tooth brush and can be sold at much higher prices. Even though unknown to most people nowadays, tooth powder is still available on the market. It is of course perfect for use at home but also especialy for the outdoors as it weights almost nothing (compared to tooth paste) and is multifunctional, can be also used to clean vessels or dirty hands etc.
Wow. That was super helpful Dan. I have a gasifier stove and I never use it for this very reason. Now I will. Thanks for the video!
Really? "Wash it with sand" - was SUPER helpful? Helpful at all?
@@rammix1 guess I never thunk it. Sorry if my comment bothered you.
In fact, a little dirty river water is good. Before, people drank it and felt better, because the body builds up resistance. Good tip for washing
It's always a great way to do when able. Thanks for the great video
Thanks ! 👍
@1:47 my wife drowning me after I told her I bought another ATV with the kids' college fund
Put it in a 1 gallon zip lock bag to bring home and clean. 1 gallon zip lock back also works as a container for getting water.
Some fifty and more years ago, my Dad brought a Thermos full of coffee to work everyday. He never purchased a bottle brush to clean the interior. He picked up a small handful of pebbles from the yard, cleaned them as best he could, and put the pebbles inside the Thermos, swishing them around the inside with water and some dishwashing liquid
Those pebbles were kept in a small cup on the kitchen counter, he'd use them to clean the Thermos when he got back home from work everyday.
Reindeer Moss works very well also.
Oh, great video thank you.
Sand is also great for bathing, as it effectively removes dead skin. Just be sure to rinse off really well in the nether regions.
Looked like a lot of jewelweed down there by the creek… got some poison ivy around?
Cool cleaning technique that I’ll definitely add if I’m camping by a stream.
Dam good info !!
🇺🇸🇺🇸🪓🔪👍👍
Very good, been doing this for years. Nature's Brillo pad / sand paper.
Have you ever used a pinecone to scrape off food stuffs? Thoughts
I make bags and pouches for everything, so I usually clean most my stuff at home but I don't feel compelled to get it back to mirror finish
Ha! When I was a teen I borrowed an older friend's pot to go camping. I thought I would do him a favour and clean off all the black on the pot using sand as per video. He wasn't happy at all as he informed me that the black helped insulate the pot and helped it to heat quicker. Now experienced, I think the soot on stuff and the mess it creates can be so time consuming to remove that it offsets any time benefit in keeping it on for cooking.
Can't you store it dirty in a plastic bag, or does it stick to the bag?
@@crappymeal That is exactly how my friend carried it. Cloth or plastic, it didn't stick, just made your hands filthy whenever you went to use it. Hence me cleaning it.
@@cotteeskid thanks for the info
Taught that in the Boy Scouts in the 60's. Be prepared.
Im more of a winter camper. But. Snow works about the same.
I'm too lazy to clean the outside of my pots and bring a dedicated storage bag.
When the sooot is really crazy thick I'll use fine sand and ashes, that works too!
Does it stick to the bag?
@@crappymeal depends on how 'clean' 😉 the burn was ( I use wood gasification stoves ), but sometimes it does stick a bit.
Tip: don't use a plastic/nylon/poly-what-not bag, mine is waxed canvas.
@alexandergutfeldt1144 I make storage bags from old clothes. Jeans are my favorite.
@@alexandergutfeldt1144 thanks for the information
@@kokopelau6954 I've also used old cloth diapers for wrapping cookware.
Now, after wallowing in a steam and making it gunky, the INSIDE of the jug needs to be cleaned. HINT: it’s more important to have the inside clean than the outside.
Courtesy of Half Vast Flying
Bread bags keep the door off other items.
brilliant
Dirt... God made dirt... and dirt don't hurt!
I like how that jewel weed made a special guest appearance
@0:06 I've had that same bottle for literally over 20 years, I've never found another that was even close...where can I get a new one!?
2 seconds in and i know we're freinds..😊
Hey Dan, can you do a dry camp ( no water) hygiene video?
If there is dirty dishes that needs to be sanitized, not just visually clean like this, and can take the abuse, put it in the biggest pot of the camp pour in some 0-1/16" sand, top up with water and add a bit of soap or detergent, boil it and stir forcefully until random items pulled out looks clean, then take one item out at a time, rinse it in clean water and dry it until all the dishes that can fit in that pot is clean😊
my brother just uses a paper towel and some grass. works for him.
Wouldn't some type of wrap, cloth, newspaper, etc serve the same purpose until you were able to get it home to clean it?
If it is metal (or TI) why not let it sit on the coals for a few minuts to sanatize it after washing?
When I'm on safari I take a couple of little chaps to do the washing up and cooking old boy.🤣
Lol. Kephart!
Common camping knowledge? Alcohol takes soot off, too, and you can then use the dirty, alcohol-damp paper towel (or TP) to help light your evening fire.
Biologist here.
If cleaning with most untreated outdoor water sources in the wild, simply drying the utensil after cleaning will eliminate the majority of risk.
If you’e in an area where parasites or spore forming bacteria might be severe, and absolutely must use that water, you can rinse with clean water, wipe, and dry again. Risk will be very low. If the utensil is put on a stove afterwards to boil water, you’ll be completely sterilizing it, and risk will drop to near zero.
Whenever possible, try not to use water from sources with animal run-off (ground water or irrigation water running from animal enclosures to the stream), as these can have very high bacterial counts. Also, obviously, don’t use water sources near sewer outlets etc.
What if I take it in clean… then leave with it used properly
Oven cleaner gets pots, pans, etc… nearly looking new.
Seen an old timer doing this once
Typo in your title?
But how do I pack the stream in case there isn’t one?😂
how often do you come across contaminated water? you shouldnt be camping there anyways. I have drank my share of wild water and as long as it is running, doesnt smell or look funny, or comes from a bar ditch you have a good chance of it having less chemicals than your city water
Bacteria or viruses
Put some ash on it.. It will loosen it up
Lid off
Insert sand and water
Replace lid
Shake it like you stole it
Remove lid
Rinse
Air dry
What if I had to replace one or something 😢😂
I clean mine, with stainless cleaner.
yea im not freakin cooking with my water carrier for camping.
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
I got one better than that then for cleaning that stuff off and get almost all of it off just use the wood ash out of your fire and a little bit of water and it will remove 90% of the shut and residence left by fire 🔥🔥
Ok, tell me that container is not aluminum........
It is Titanium, He just did a video on it a few days ago.
Wash the horse paste out of your pandemic eye... That container is not aluminum.
If I grow facial hair dies that make me a survival ex spurt on youtube?
Do people actually have to learn this shit?