Two years in a row now, I've had trouble heating up the oil for our traditional "final evening" fish fry. The first year, I brought along an ultralight burner that was too small to heat the oil. I ended up doing it over the fire as a last resort. Last week, I brought an old Coleman (green) campstove but it, too, was not able to give off enough heat! It might have been too old. Can anyone help? I could keep up the "trial and error" but I know there's better wisdom out there waiting for me.

What's the best, hottest, light cooker out there? Thanks! My continued use of this site should be evidence of my gather obsession over BWCA topics!

Some questions for you that may point you in the right direction.

Did you use a wind screen when heating your pan?

Was the pan too big for the burner you were using?

Was the pan a light weight thin wall pan?

Good luck I'm sure people will have some great ideas for you.

I just use a coleman single burner. Never had a problem. This is on a 45 degree day. I have also used this same stove with a deep pot and a half gallon of oil to deep fry and never had a problem achieving heat. Heat shield helps and make sure your stove is operating at max potential.

So this burner goes right on a fuel source? Where can I get one? What does it look like? Thanks! Yes, I think my coleman was old and the pot was a thin material. Bad combo I suppose! Want to get it right next year.....

Is it the "Perfect Flow" model or something else?

Thin fry pan is good. Heavy will hold heat but the biggest concern is not overheating or burning the oil.

The one I have is 14 years old and works like new. Never a problem starting it. I only burn white gas in it.

I am sure you can find it at a better price than this.

Sportster II Dual Fuel™ 1-Burner Stove

I'm not sure what to tell you. You said that you could not cook on a Coleman two burner stove. We normally cook our fish on the campfire with a 12" cast iron fry pan. Last year we had rain and used the cast iron fry pan on the Coleman stove and it worked great. The stove had plenty of heat to cook the fish. I find the cast iron pan very easy to cook on and have no problem with burning, we use butter flavored Crisco not oil. You must have had strong winds or a faulty stove. Cast iron spreads the heat over the entire pan and you get even heat. Thin fry pans burn more in my opinion.

I agree with the others. You need a good pan that will heat evenly. I have also used aluminum foil with onion, lemon, and oil. Just place fillets in foil and make tent by folding top together, and bake.

I think the ol' Coleman was the problem. I won't go again with out a dry run-through on the stove....I like the dual fuel mentioned above. Thanks all.

yes, anything new should be tested prior to going anywhere remote. And hey, testing food recipes is fun, well given they come out OK.

On my second Sportster 533. First one was stolen last winter... Best single burner canoe stove out there imo. I transport it in a Folgers plastic coffee can. Fits perfectly. Never had problems with it. I work for an ACE hardware and bought mine for $65.99 You will not regret the purchase...

Andy ACE Hardware

Gee, the price just went down to $61.99! Maybe I should return mine lol

To cook fish the way it is supposed to be cooked you need to
1. Use a black iron skillet. when I use anything else it sticks and heat too fast and cools down too fast.
2. Use heart clogging lard, it holds heat and doesn't stick
3. Cook over a campfire using finger size stick for heat so you control how large the fire gets.Too much fire burns the grease and the fish taste like creosote. Too little fire gives you greasy fish and a trip to the latrine. When I use a stove I never get enough heat.

Tony,
We'll probably agree to disagree, but...

1. One doesn't need a black iron skillet. A decent non-stick pan works fine.

2. Lard? Vegetable oil works perfectly.

3. An MSR Whisperlite stove can very easily heat oil to the right temperature for frying fish. (I agree with your campfire cooking analogy, though.)

I'm the cook for our group that varies between 4 and 8 people and can tell you that our fish is cooked perfectly (even if I do say so myself). :)

I would like to try your way sometime, though. I'm always willing to try a different method of cooking, but I'll never be carrying a cast iron pan or lard on our trips.

1. Wind Screen is a must (be careful not to overheat the canister if you go that way).
2. Butter and Lard mixture
3. Do not over fill the pan. Too much fish in at once will bring down the temperature of the pan.

Best to use a small pan and cook a piece or two at a time. Besides cutting down on the cooling surface area, as you add raw food, you cool the oil. Too big of a pan, or one made out of the wrong material, can inhibit the process.

I cook over the fire and use Crisco in a pan that could be nonstick but not sure because it's about 15 years old. I agree that too many fillets cool the oil down. I also dip my fish in 'Shore Lunch'.

I cook everything on the fire, even breakfast.

We carry two Century stove heads that burn propane. Some people think the propane bottles are too big and heavy but they are super dependable and 3 bottles lasts 4 of us 9 days and we make coffee or tea 3-4 times a day as well as frying/sautéeing fish and preparing freeze-dried food. We have a good Teflon frying pan that distributes the heat well and use butter and/or vegetable oil for sautéeing, Crisco for deep-frying. We like to grill lake trout over a wood fire.

Interesting picture, you cook on a kevlar canoe?
Ever had an "accident"?

Never had an accident on our $3000 kitchen table, and it sure beats working on the ground. We don't deep fry on the canoe and we usually use the stoves on the ground where there's less wind.

Not sure what part of the world you live in but bugs of one sort or another can plug up the lines even if stored in a garage or store building. Most of these stoves are only used a few times a year so there's plenty of down time for bugs to find their way into trouble.

I live in the deep south(Alabama) and bugs find their way in and sometimes die causing a blockage or they build a nest of some variety. If in the case of a Coleman stove carefully disassemble and run a stiff wire through the lines (like cleaning a gun barrel) to knock out any mess.

I recently bought a fairly new Coleman stove at a thrift store really cheap "cause it did not work right". Upon getting it home and discovering "bug remains" and cleaning them out, the stove worked like a charm.

Good luck..WB

A dragonfly, an old frying pan, and crisco sticks seem to work great for us. I do all of the cooking for 6 guys and once the oil is good and hot you can fry up a mess of fish in pretty good time.

quote Springer2: "Never had an accident on our $3000 kitchen table, and it sure beats working on the ground. We don't deep fry on the canoe and we usually use the stoves on the ground where there's less wind.

"

This is a little off topic, but it's funny how you can look at a b-dub picture and smell the woods, feel the cool crisp air, the sun starting to rise and feeling good, the damp ground, the slight small-of-the-back ache, slightly stiff legs and muscles... you can crawl right through the picture and be there.

I have a big itch I need to scratch.