Skottle help

[cemeb4dk]

Hi I am new to the skottle. I currently have the burner all the way up against the bottom of the skottle.
I am having issues with burning alot of stuff, just the middle 6 inches or so is getting super hot and basically scorching the food. I am having a hard time getting the groove of cooking with it other than stir fry type foods. Tried cooking brats yesterday and had to just keep them moving in the middle to get cooked and it seared it pretty quickly. So my question is do I have the burner to close to the disc? Where are you guys setting your disc at. While I understand it's hard to offer advice when your not here with me and my set up, but any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[XJINTX]

I made same mistake first time I used mine. Use the adjusting bolts to keep it level and lower away from Skottle. I have mine about 3/4in and works good for me. We can wait for the more experienced users to post. Oh and I have discovered the wind screen is needed if you try and cook most anything in a windy condition.

 

[Chris Boyd]

You definitely want to cook with a lower temperature than you would think it would take. As I recall, I don't have my burner directly touching. I'll have to look at it tonight. I occasionally use mine on the gas range in the kitchen and there is usually an inch or two between the disc and the burner, but that's mainly because it's sitting on the mounting ring. Still, I run medium or less heat to do most things. It takes a bit of practice to learn the heating.

Also, the wind deflector was a big help. I had a lot of trouble modulating the heat before that and now it's much easier.

 

[ab1985]

I don't use the bolts. I just set the burner in the ring so it's as far away as possible. I also cook on the absolute lowest setting the burner will allow for most dishes. There's a bit of a learning curve, but hang in there and you'll get it.

 

[Colin Hughes]

I have the burner bolted to the bottom of the skottle, lowest setting, keep moving food around. It cooks quick, did a steak the other night and it was medium well when I thought it would be medium rare. Practice, practice for me I guess. Did all my meals on it on my most recent camping trip.

 

[Corey]

I have been using my Skottle every Saturday and Sunday for the past few months.
At first I too burned food, and the key is to have the burner down to where the flame almost goes out.

And I did ask Jerry at Tembo Tusk about the burner being all the way against the dish, and this is correct.
If you want to lower it you can, but I just leave mine all the way tight against the dish, and I have the additional windscreen too.

 

[simonjon]

My South African memories, although fading, are that you will always have a hot ring in the center where the flame hits. The trick with cooking sausages in the skottel is to precook them in the skottel with water. As the water boils off your "swords" will start to brown. Now you move them toward the outer edges to finish while filling the low part of the skottel with butter and onions. When your onions are done grab a breadroll and go to town. "Lekker!"

Breakfast in the skottel is done the same way. Bacon and tomatoes browned quickly in center and then moved to edges to finish while you fry or scramble your eggs in the seasoned and oiled/buttered center.

I'm getting hungry!!!

Another favorite was peri-peri prawns in the skottel. Take your cleaned jumbo shrimp (preferably head on) and coat liberally with butter mixed with garlic and whatever level of chili you like. Heat your skottel and flash fry in hot center. Move close to cooked shrimp to outer edge and rotate less cooked ones to center until all done. Make sure to cook a lot because there are usually not enough, no matter how many you do cook. Serve with rice and lemon butter, garlic butter and peri-peri sauce.

The skottel was usually the only piece of cooking gear we took camping. That and firewood.

The other reason that I know that there is always a hot ring is that it was my job to clean the damned thing. The cooked on ring was a ***** to scrub off.

 

[sunnybean]

I started to lower the burner the last few times out and found it a bit easier to control low heat. However, I had a hard time keeping the burner level (lp hose tilting the burner). This spring I was hoping to fab up some spacers to place between the Skottle and the burner to give a 1/2-1” gap that could be tightened down to prevent the burner from tilting.