Kelly kettles - does anyone use them? Some questions

[HolySwearingCuss]

This is probably more for travelling and camping this summer than Brexit related nonsense but still:

• can you put them on a grass surface?

• how long do they take to cool down? could you boil water and store it back in the car boot soon after or would you be waiting hours?

• can you cook food on them without water in the kettle?

• can you use them on top of any traditional gas stove?

(I'm guessing no; it depends; yes and of course, but I've been daftly wrong before on these things!)

You would kill the grass surface. I have used mine successfully on grass on a cork mat. I always take cork mats camping.

They don't take long to cool once you have emptied them of water. I tip the ashes into a metal biscuit tin.

No, you must not light them without first putting water in. You could cook directly on the firebase but but not on the top using the pot stand. I prefer to cook on the firebase anyway.

You probably could in theory but I have not tried, and I don't want to be responsible for you injuring yourself. The gas flame would not be very high so you might end up with warm water rather than boiling. Ghillie kettle apparently makes some sort of attachment so you can use them on Cobb cookers (also not gas). You would not want it toppling over whilst filled with boiling water.

My guesses were very wrong! Thank you that's really helpful

You can get a version of the KK with a cook set, it comes with a "hobo stove", grill disk and pan that goes on the base section that you can cook on. There's also a cross shaped pan support that fits in the top hole of the kettle that you can also cook on when the water in the kettle is coming up to boil. You definitely wouldn't use the kettle dry.

Grass - you'd want a patch of bare earth to use (or mat as PP suggested).

Cool down - not long, about the same time it takes for a cup of tea to cool down in the great outdoors

You wouldn't use them with other cooking apparatus, they're a unique shape for one thing, with a hollow centre for the flames to lick up the middle and the tank for the water is around the edge.

I’ve cooked both on top of the (filed) kettle with the pot stand, and over the hobo grill directly on the base.

Both work fine - I’ve had “camping tea” of fried egg and large mug of tea in my back garden quite successfully (didn’t manage a solo camping trip last summer since I bought it).

Also made maple syrup snow taffy during the snow last spring on it.

It cools down quite quickly once you get the fire out. Scorching hot to cold in about 10 -15 minutes, faster if you have some cold water to douse the fire (little bits though to not warp the metal, not throwing a whole pot at it at once).

Don’t light on grass - bare earth, a flat rock, etc is fine. But you will scorch the grass.

And it’s desgined to work by fire going up the middle so won’t work on a regular stove.