Drugs/medical issues in T2k (includes 'Drug use & availability in the Twilight War')

[WallShadow]

Cast iron pans, was Soap.

Basic camp soap for doing the dishes and cleaning is easy to make by adding wood ashes to the frying pan with some water. IT makes it's own soap, though I would not care to wash my body with it, it does clean the utensils quite well. Use sand for the abrassive helps it along too.

Grae, you might want to stress to all involved that this is a wonderful shortcut, but only in non-cast-iron cookware. Scrubbing your cast iron will make it clean, but you'll need to re-season it....again. Better to just empty all the food debris out, gently pry any stuck particles with a wooden or plastic spatula or spoon, then wipe out excess grease. Alternately, turn your cast iron over onto a few embers overnight--the heat will bake the remaining oil on as additional layer of seasoning for your cookware. And not too hot/too many embers, or you'll wind up burning off your seasoning anyway.

[WallShadow]

What's really funny about the whole homemade soap thread is that the official survival manual doesn't have the warning not to use aluminum....pity the poor GI using his messkit to make soap!

The mess kit would probably have its nice shiny smooth surface degraded by the chemical action of the lye. A stiff wire brush and _lots_ of effort could get it back in functional shape, but it will probably still show some discoloration. And I would boil several loads of water to make sure no residue remained.