Stacking dixies

[abram_akela]

We are currently trying to get some patrol boxes together and I’m looking for somewhere to get some stacking dixies. Not too big and must be suitable for cooking on fires

Has anyone got any good resources for such things

Thanks

[shiftypete]

Assuming you mean billy cans http://www.outdoorgb.com/p/mil-com_b...yABEgIYyfD_BwE

[Sparkgap]

We are currently trying to get some patrol boxes together and I’m looking for somewhere to get some stacking dixies. Not too big

Has anyone got any good resources for such things

Thanks

'Stacking dixies' or nested billies?

[abram_akela]

looks like I am about to be educated - whats the difference between billies and dixies

[ianw]

I'm not sure it's hard and fast rules. But I always thought of Dixies as big pots. So cooking in our patrol you would have a set of three nesting billies that sat inside a dixie, though it was often called the big billie, just to not clarify anything at all.

[johnmcmahon]

Billies tend to come in a nested set made of light weight aluminium. Dixies are otherwise known as a stockpot. Much larger and made to be stuck on a stove for hours on end, they tend to be a heavier grade stainless steel. I would not, personally, choose the ones with the thickened "encapsulated base" for use on an open fire.

Use a search engine for a starter. Also look on auction sites
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Deep-Larg....c100281.m3567


Asian supermarkets sell the basic models at reasonable prices.

Check your local area for recycled catering equipment companies.

Make a friend of the manager at your tip shop (actually, do that anyway - great source of all sorts of stuff). Ask the kid's parents!!

Once you've found the world's best source come back and let us know.

[pa_broon74]

I think the terms are all interchangeable. Dixies/billies/pots. To denote size, usually you point to the one you want and say "That one..."

Shop around. If the kids are using them on open fires though, if you buy cheap, you'll have to replace regularly - which is actually not so bad. If you buy pricey and you find yourself having to replace items, it can get pricey quickly.

The Range is good for cheap mid-range cook sets. Good for patrol cooking and its cheap to replace. We double up on everything, so if a pot ("That one...") gets irretrievably burnt, we have replacements.

For explorers, we bought Trangia sets. They are long long lasting & replaceable, but you wouldn't use the pots ("those ones...") on an open fire.

For bigger pots (dixies really). Tricky... Nisbets Catering? Maybe try army surplus or a tame hotel/restaurant.

[Neil Williams]

For standing camps I'd seriously recommend the stainless-steel Ikea 365 pans. They don't nest (well, they sort of do) but the quality is superb compared with the thin ally of a nest of billies and they are not expensive.

Edit: they aren't under the 365 brand any more, those have glass lids. I mean these and similar: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/...-art-50286420/

[abram_akela]

Assuming you mean billy cans http://www.outdoorgb.com/p/mil-com_b...yABEgIYyfD_BwE

and will the billies stand up to use on fires

[johnmcmahon]

They are made of aluminium. I have had similiar quality pans melt on open fires. I wouldn't trust the type with the compound base on a open fire either.

[shiftypete]

In our Group billies are the pans you cook in and dixies are the big black oval pans that water is heated in over/in the fire to wash up with. The largest billie which the nest of 3 billies I link to above sit in we often refer to as a boiler to help distinguish it form the other 3. We usually issue a patrol with 1 dixie, 2 dixie lids (you can keep food warm in between two places on top of the dixie if its full of boiling water), 2 boilers with lids, a set of 3 smaller billies with lids and 2 frying pans

- - - Updated - - -

and will the billies stand up to use on fires

Well similar sets have been fine for us on open fires. We replace them about ever 10 years but mainly because they get dented and distorted and the lids stop to fit easily etc.

[Dr_Pepper]

They are made of aluminium. I have had similiar quality pans melt on open fires. I wouldn't trust the type with the compound base on a open fire either.

No, they're fine and these ones won't melt, possibly pound shop ones will. We use these on open fires all the time and they're good to go. However they do dent easily and are harder to wash up than our older sets of thicker stacking aluminium billies from the sixties - which we also still use -but you can't buy quality these days 'sigh', we did try.

[recneps]

Watching this thread with interest as we are short of decent cookware ahead of summer camp.

I'm not a huge fan of nesting billies... they dont seem to cope well with being on a fire, and they're not actually that useful when catering for 6 people. If you can find old domestic saucepans with non plastic handles these work quite well as long as storage and transport space arent too much of an issue.

In the mess tent we use the ikea pans linked above. Absolutely brilliant. Havent tried them on a fire but at that price i'm tempted to give it a go. think some of ours are a larger size than that though.

As we've foudn through work there are a number of outlets of 2nd hand catering cookware about... may be worth seeing if there's one near you. The nisbets type stuff is really pricey to buy new, and if you're going to stick it on a fire anyway you may as well buy it 2nd hand.

We issue each patrol with:

2 Dixies (need to find some more before summer camp!)
2 Billies or saucepans (or a set of nesting billies but think we only have 2 full sets)
2 frying pans (Black iron frying pans from Makro... inexpensive, and as long as they're seasoned before use and oiled when put in stores they will last forever and cope with being used on a fire.

[mang21]

Depending on where you are based there is a big auction place in Malmesbury (just off the M4 in Wiltshire) that does regular catering auctions - obviously some of it isn't going to be that useful for camping (dishwashers etc) but there can be some useful pots and pans going. I suspect they aren't the only ones - unfortunately the catering trade is rather precarious at present so with relatively frequent restaurant closures there is going to be a reasonable trade in second hand kitchenware.

[Jamie32]

and will the billies stand up to use on fires

They are made of aluminium. I have had similiar quality pans melt on open fires. I wouldn't trust the type with the compound base on a open fire either.

Out scout group actually purchased those exact billies last year from that website and we have used them on an open fire. We has a grill grate placed above the camp fire with the pot placed on that and had no issues with the pot. We got the sets at £9 each last year