Buddy Burner

Buddy Burners
http://girlscouts.amesev.com/Camping/buddyburners.htm

What you need:

- 1 large empty clean can, gallon size - 1 empty, cleaned tuna can - cardboard strips, just wider than the height of the tuna can - church key can opener (makes triangle openings) - tin snips - paraffin wax or unscented candles - melted

Instructions:

1. With tin snips, cut door in can on open end. 2. With church key can opener, punch vent holes along the top of can 3. Spiral cardboard strips into tuna can 4. Pour melted wax into tuna can

Use:

After the wax has cooled you can store your buddy burner until you are ready to use it. To use the buddy burner, light the cardboard sticking out of the wax. Place the large can over top of the small can, and place the item to cook on top of the large can.

One troop's experiences:

This can be a bit tricky to keep lit during strong winds.
This is an easy way to cook cheese quesadillas and similar foods that need to be warmed, rather than "cooked".

(Recipes at link, too!)

Tin Can Cookery
http://www.scoutingmagazine.org/issues/9411/a-tcan.html

For a twist on outdoor cooking (or even making camp ice cream), it's hard to beat this longtime, innovative technique.

Improvising a camp stove from a tin can is an idea almost as old as olive-colored knee stockings—yet many Scouts and Scouters have never experienced this brand of cookery. Easy to teach and master, tin-can cookery is nearly foolproof. It thus provides neophyte camp chefs a successful cooking experience and confidence to test more adventurous culinary experiments. ---CONTINUED---

Buddy Burner
https://www.rootsimple.com/2007/01/buddy-burner/
  An easy craft project for the family survivalist, taken from the brilliant 70’s Mormon classic: Roughing it Easy, by Dian Thomas.

A buddy burner is a heat source for camping or emergencies made out of a tuna can, candle stubs and cardboard. It acts like a Sterno can, will burn for 1 1/2 – 2 hours, and can be recharged and reused.

To make a buddy burner ...   ---CONTINUED---

[size=150]IMPORTANT NOTE in the comments at this site[/size]- Keeping the following in mind, please make sure your cans do NOT have any type of coating inside!
UPDATE - 7/1/08

Reader Michael writes:

"Hey! I love your site. But some thoughts on Buddy Burners! I made SOOOO many of these as a kid growing up (Mormon, y'know?), but they are not safe anymore. Most aluminum cans are now fully lined with plastics and other coatings (to prevent botulism, yay!) but they cannot be burned (boo!). Please please please do not suggest people make these as burning the coatings can be TOXIC."

I'm beginning to wish we had a science lab here at the Homegrown Evolution compound to test these sorts of problems. I'd add to Michael's concern that these plastic coatings leach estrogenic compounds into our food. BooII! See this alarming article from Cornell University on the connection between plastics and breast cancer.

Tin Can Stove-- Great for Breakfast
http://fillingyourark.blogspot.com/2009/08/tin-can-stove-great-for-breakfast.html

  One of the most innovative outdoor cooking methods, and excellent to have for power-related emergencies at home, is the simple homemade tin can stove which can be used for frying, boiling and toasting. It is best used for one or two people because of its small size. It is also disposable; just recycle after use.

A buddy burner (a tuna can—or a can similar in shape—filled with rolled corrugated cardboard and melted paraffin) is the main source of heat for a tin can stove.

To make the tin can stove: ---CONTINUED---