Hot food on the ice

Initial reports are positive after unboxing. It is basically an insulated lunch box with a stand-alone plastic disk inside, and a single plug with no on/off or any dials/switches of any kind. At temp (which is pretty instant) the plate gets hot enough that you have to pull your hand away if you try to put your palm on it.

I just diced up bunch of thick veggies (carrot/potato/onion), tossed in olive oil with salt/pepper and wrapped in tinfoil directly on the plate. It’s now out cooking in the backyard, and I’ll post my results after a few hours of imaginary fishing:)

In any case, even if this a fail I could see the use of having a plastic disc with on-demand 165 degree heat out on the ice as a mitten warmer, a rod case warmer, or even a backpack warmer.

30 minute update: I didn’t open it, but I can now hear light “cooking” sounds from the steam forming in the tinfoil which is encouraging. However, the tragic flaw here may be battery life. That’s a Goal Zero 200x and after 30 minutes it was already down to 87% (although I did have all three acc ports active.) I also smooshed down the box to simulate being in a sled/backpack and to remove the extra open air.

60 minute update: I flipped my tin foil packet but did not open. After turning off the other ports, battery loss seems to have settled in at rate of 10% per 30 minutes. If my public school education worked, that is about ~5 hours of continuous run-time at our current temps which is actually not too atrocious if it holds up. Also, I think i was imagining the “steam” sound as I did not hear it this time.

90 minute update: Battery loss is holding at ~10% per half hour. After reading the manual 90 minutes into this experiment, I also determined that while actual “cooking” (even raw meat) is possible, it takes a long time, so reheated food is the “recommended” approach. I’m now envisioning this thing as the perfect vessel for pre-cooked calzones, Cornish pastys, or any other tinfoil friendly, pre-cooked hand food. You could easily fit 6 piping hot calzones fresh out of the oven into this thing for a large group.

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120 minute update: the manual says at least 2 hours to cook from scratch, and presumably that is indoors at a normal temp. Resisting the urge to open my tinfoil at the 2 hour mark. I wish I had not flipped it at the 60 minute mark. I likely lost any chance at an even lightly browned onion. This is a fun experiment so far but in the real-world, I do believe I would pan-sear my veggies on high heat to get them blackened and piping hot all the way through, and THEN put them into my magic ice box to cook and soften in their tinfoil pod. Still thinking about that calzone. Battery life continues to hold (and even improve at 9% per half hour during the past hour.)

2.5 hours: Success. I broke down and open the tinfoil packet. These started as completely raw, large chunks of potato/onion/carrots and they are thoroughly cooked and piping hot with significant steam. No browning, but almost. I’ll still probably use this for pre-cooked hand food but I’m officially impressed.

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Not knocking the idea, just a reality check: you seriously could have fed 30 people with a Jet-Boil by now

B-man wrote:

Not knocking the idea, just a reality check: you seriously could have fed 30 people with a Jet-Boil by now

lol of course i could — i own a jetboil and bring it kayak/river tripping (and a whisper light, and a solo stove, and…) but that is missing the point here.

(and fwiw, the jetboil is 100% the best stove I own for boiling water in any condition, but the WORST stove I own for actually cooking anything else — you can make it work with their add-on “grate” but man is it a pain.)

You keep talking about wanting to be light weight and “run and gun” but your taking all this crap with you? Pack a cold sandwhich and a pack of beef jerky

Coletrain27 wrote:

You keep talking about wanting to be light weight and “run and gun” but your taking all this crap with you? Pack a cold sandwhich and a pack of beef jerky

a few seem to have picked up on what I’m after and have engaged in interesting conversation (like the cool teepee guys in the other thread) but there is a certain and very funny subset here who seem to think i am exploring some ridiculous concept, or that there are some kind of rules surrounding how one should ice fish…lot of critics

Welcome to IDO…

I’m waiting for broeker’s YouTube channel to be posted soon…..of course smash that subscribe button.

blank wrote:

I’m waiting for broeker’s YouTube channel to be posted soon…..of course smash that subscribe button.

Yessir, let’s see it!! Cool product review. This man could become the next Alex Trimm with all his ideas.

Sigh. I have no idea who Alex Trimm is or if he is a good guy or a bad guy. I’m just an out-of-shape divorced dude in his mid-50s with two college-aged daughters trying to rediscover my mental and physical health by running around on the ice huntin’ fish instead of sitting in a shelter for 8 hours drinking beer.

If it bothers people that I find some joy in yammering on about an electric lunch box that is smaller than my normal lunch box (and a 4 lb battery that is almost 10 pounds lighter and 1/2 the size of portable buddy heater AND that is now proven to be able cook a pod full of veggies in a single bound!) I can take my shtick elsewhere like…like…Youtube. See you on the ice.

p.s. I’ll be the dude in the banging pop-up Shark Tank Shelter and/or teepee, eating a blazing hot calzone

Just look up Alex Trimm ice fishing on youtube he’s got tons of cool stuff. If you are a gear junkie you will love it.

Interesting little contraption, and if it works for you, great! I usually just throw a portable grill on the tailgate and fire up some brats if I’m putting in a full shift. If I’m walking out and don’t have the pickup, I just bring snacks and usually am not doing 6+ hours where I need a meal.

Thanks for the great type up Broeker. It gives a guy ideas for options. Like plug it in on your way to the lake. When you get there and all set up it could be time to eat and get comfy. I saw some said eat before. But I rather not be trying to do a bunch of work on a full belly. I could see having this in your sled as you go. It doesn’t take up much room and doesn’t add a lot of weight.

I am thinking a meet up on the ice and broeker is cooking. LOL

The heat up lunch box’s take to long. You should have gotten the heat up mini crocks. That’s what every one at work uses my food will be scortching hot if I plug it in at 11 and eat at noon. Has 110 or 12v plugs and they work great. No cooking for 3 hours

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Don’t worry about some of the comments from some folks around here. Some are just set in their ways.

Okay, now I’m getting interested. Please keep updating!

It is listed at 4amps, so with a 12Ah battery it would theoretically last 3hrs according to the online calculators. But, once up to temp, it has the “logic” to stop drawing current.

What is the capacity of the battery you are using? What was the ambient temp, and was the heating element at that ambient temp when you started?

I’m hungry now!

Rodwork wrote:

It doesn’t take up much room and doesn’t add a lot of weight.

Exactly. It squishes up to whatever size my food is and fits neatly inside of the small wilderness duffel in my sled (along with the battery.)

Mark Wilson wrote:

Okay, now I’m getting interested. Please keep updating!

It is listed at 4amps, so with a 12Ah battery it would theoretically last 3hrs according to the online calculators. But, once up to temp, it has the “logic” to stop drawing current.

What is the capacity of the battery you are using? What was the ambient temp, and was the heating element at that ambient temp when you started?

It’s a GoalZero 200, which i I think is ~13ah — it was ~30 degrees outside when I tested but I started it from room temp. For the first hour, I left it “as is” but it seemed to operate much better once I smooshed it down and left a tarp on top of it to simulate being inside of a duffel. By the end, the battery loss got lower and lower (last 30m was only 6% vs 9-10% for the first hour), so I’m guessing it eventually got up to temp, and relied more on the heat of the potatoes and carrots. I’ll report back once I’m out on the ice in 5 degree weather this weekend

Had my little electric oven out for 4 hours today at 5 degrees with a “feels like” temp of -4 degrees. It tucks perfectly into my duffel on the back of the sled, and if you’ve never had the pleasure of pulling an oven-hot beef empanada and a fresh pair of 165 degree mittens out of your duffel bag after 3 hours of fishing in near-zero temps I highly recommend it. This thing has definitely won a place on my sled. It kept the whole duffel bag toasty with everything in there packed around it.

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Good for you. Don’t listen to the critics. This type of post is EXACTLY what this site is for. Keep it up

Cool setup

Netguy wrote:

50 years ago we would bring a coleman camp stove out to cook on. My friend forgot the fry pan one time so we cooked the burgers on an ice scoop!!

30 years ago, a buddy and I cooked hotdogs over a Mr Heater sunflower with an ice scoop. Guess we weren’t the first.

Nice that it keeps everything in the bag warm. Sure that helps out the battery.

Even with your lightweight setup in a small sled, I would strongly look at a smitty sled. It would make it feel like there is nothing behind you when pulling that around the lake. Also very inexpensive to make.

I cook with msr wisperlite using 91 Oct gas as fuel. From boiling water to making sloppy Joe’s