Introduction
I have reported extensively on cheap ultralight lids for cooking pots and pans in an article titled Pots, pans, lids and lifters. At that stage, I did not include the humble biscuit or cookie tin lid in the list, so I do so here and point out its versatility and its second use as a pancake pan.
The humble biscuit tin lid or is it a pan?
I use large cheap and lightweight ‘dinner’ pots (some are sub 100g) that do not come with lids, or the lids are unsuitable for cooking or efficient packing for backpacking. While camping, I insist on using lids on all pots to improve cooking efficiency by reducing evaporative cooling and avoiding contamination. When carrying multiple nesting pots the efficient and safe packing of the lids becomes even more complex.
Biscuit tin lids are light and cheap and are available from opportunity shops (Thrift shops and cookies, for those over the big Pacific ditch). If you find the right ‘tin’ lid it can make an excellent pot lid to combine with great pots that may have lost their lids or never had a suitable one.
I select very plain lids without embossing or raised rings or rebates in corners. “Luckily, these are not desirable to collectors and are the cheap ones!”
I burn off the paint and the tin coating and wash off the residues of both before conditioning the bare steel surface with cooking oil and heat. Cleaning after use should be followed with wiping with a trace of oil to prevent rusting.
“Cooking a pancake or two is a good way to get this conditioning just right, and while your at it you may as well have a nice cup of coffee.”
Tin oxide is apparently not toxic but I prefer to remove the tin and go to the pharmacist if I think I am becoming the Tin Man and need a tin supplement.
Conventional lids are usually secured in place by protruding a little bit into the pot or overhanging the side of the pot. I like to carry at least two pots (One for drinks/water boiling and another for preparing a dehydrated dinner in). Consequently, conventional lids are often not backpacking friendly and rather limit options to use one lid on a series of nested pots.
In a cooking kit with multiple nested pots, one strong and ‘secured lid’ can be used on the largest pot to secure all the pots and content during backpacking. The rest of the lids can be Ultra-ultralight and flimsy and can be carried safely within or on the rigid pot/stove bundle.
An example of this efficient lid packing is shown below, where the strong tin lid is covering the weak foil lid for backpacking.
With the two pot nesting pot set below, the 7g foil lid can only be used in the inverted position on the larger pot (left) or in the normal position on the smaller pot (right). The tin lid can be used on either pot in either position.
To facilitate easy use of the foil lid in normal or inverted positions it has a small stainless steel ‘lay-flat’ handle on both sides.
When using the foil lid outside of the tent and in wind, I find it useful to put a clean pebble or stick on the lid to hold it down.
When it comes to packing, the foil lid can be packed on the outside of the large pot for protection during backpacking, while the tin lid can cover the opening of the nested pots with the stove and fittings packed inside.
[Add photo of packed up two nesting pots with two lids]
The tin lid also has a bonus. It makes a superb shallow fry pan for cooking toasted sandwiches, bacon, felafels, pancakes and alike. The rolled rim that is formed on most lids provides excellent grip for pancake flipping with regular camping pot lifters.
Tim
