# Stainless Steel Swede mess kit.



## DKRinAK (Nov 21, 2011)

Here we go, the Stainless Steel Swede mess kit. - a gear review of old gear by an old guy....
















Photo 1 and to the right is Photo 2








Photo 3








Assembled kit showing the bail/hook
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Pic 1 is the kit spread out. - looking at the top tier of items.(L to R)
There is a soft cup holding a container of alcohol.
It has an upper and lower half (or pot and lid if you wish)
The pot holds 5 cups of liquid with a bit of room to spare. The Lid? Two cups.

These nest in a wind screen (far right) that also severs as a pot holder. This keeps the pot a specific distance above the alcohol burner. The nest pot fits inside of the windscreen. Very neat,. but heavy.

In the next tier (R to L) is a Trangia military burner. These fit a Sterno stove - just like they were made for the Sterno unit. The lid next to the burner is the bottom of a soup can. This severs as a snuffer, the military unit does not have a snuffer like the commercial burner unit.
















You can see the burner is the same size as the large Sterno can.

The hank of 550 cord is for use with a tripod for cooking over a fire - more on this in a bit. There is a Swede military nesting utensil set and a soup spoon. Note the Bund (German) nesting stainless steel utensils are far superior as a work set. I keep a couple of packets of green tea and a MRE coffee/whitener/sugar packet in the set as well.

In photo 2, you can see the burner and utensils loaded. Normally, I keep the burner in a ziploc bag to avoid dissimilar metal corrosion. In Photo 3, you see the cup and the remainder of the items loaded. With the 550 cord, there are no rattles.

Fun facts:
The pot (bottom unit) comes with a bail. The bail has a hook attached,. Maximum flexibility for suspending the pot over a fire, or you can place the pot on a rock or two or even on the burning logs - with care.

The lid (top half) has a handle. The handle has a pair of D rings. You can jam a stick in the D rings to allow holding the lid while keeping your mitts away from the fire - if you are cooking over a fire.. Nice touch.









I'm_ not _a fan of campfires. Too easy to see, too easy to smell, don't work in the rain, etc, etc.
When I want hot water, I fire up the burner. I also carry a couple of bottles of HEET in the car, they make for great storage for alcohol and HEET will burn much hotter than Sterno fuel.
This heat on demand becomes even more important if this is used for cooking in a disaster situation - running a campfire may be needed for heat, otherwise a stove is weather independent..

You can boil water in the pot and loosely nest to lid like a double burner. A bit of water in the lid, and you can use the boil water for heating MRE ration if you don't have any chem heaters. Ditto for the pot.

Now, the bad news. 
These have become crazy expensive (like $65 to 199). I bought mine a few back from Sportsman's Warehouse for 5 x for like $6 each. Gave one to each of the kiddo with a carry case so they can have a mess kit, alcohol (HEET in the yellow bottle) Bic and some CHOW.

If you find one of these - at a reasonable price ($20?) esp in stainless steel, snap it up. If nothing else, you can flip these on Ebay for a quick buck.

These make a great bit of 'truck kit', something you don't worry about under the seat of the truck and can quickly be used for hot water or a hot meal.

As they say, keep an eye open at thrift store or yard sales - you just might hit the jackpot - the Swede military cook pot that is!


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