Tembo Tusk Skottle

Chris Griggers

Adventurist
Author
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I am quite sure everyone loves to eat while they are overlanding, but what do you use to cook? For the longest time, we just used a Coleman 2 burner stove and during our adventures and that style seems to be what is most often used. When I heard about the Tembo Tusking Cooking Skottle, I could would not stop talking about it to my wife. Well, she ended up getting me one for Christmas last year. At first it just sat by our backdoor waiting for the warmer weather of spring to use for the camping season, until, one day, I decided he should probably test it out before we actually need it on a camping trip. Well folks, cooking outdoors has never been the same or with such easy cleanup!

The skottle is amazing! It is extremely versatile for meals both on and off the trail. It comes pre-seasoned so it is ready to use immediately, if you have all the parts. I purchased the skottle from Blue Ridge Overland Gear and quickly realized that you have to buy the skottle ($185), the 10,000 btu Coleman burner ($23.99 Amazon prime), propane, and if you want the carrying bag ($59.99) or a lid ($25.00) all separately. So all together it comes out right around $300. The skottle was designed by a South African farmer finding a secondary use for old harrow discs and used for cooking while out in the field. You simple attach the legs, screw on the 16.4 oz propane bottle or use an adapter for a larger one for at home purposes or long trips if you have room to store it, and fire it up with an extended lighter, and voilà you are ready to cook! It is similar to wok style cooking so the very center is the hottest with the outside being cooler, so you can easily adjust from cooking to keeping other items warm by moving them to the outside edge. It is 18” of cooking space and stands 28” tall with the legs installed, which, btw, is not such a great height for girls cooking in short shorts. It functions and cleans like cast iron. We clean it with rock salt and hot water and then season with bacon grease or coconut oil. The more it is used the better the non-stick surface gets. Cold sandwiches are okay, but if you are anything like me, you can’t eat the same thing everyday and this allows you to make a wide variety of food in little time. You can cook anything that is normally cooked in a pan, skillet, or on a grill: bacon, eggs, sausage, hash browns, steak, riblets, stir fry, hamburgers, fajitas, quesadillas, grilled cheese, pizza, pasta, and I was even told cookies(stillness to try this one), which if you know my wife, she is a cookie monster!
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It stores up easily in its carrying bag, which is also made by Blue Ridge Overland Gear. It is top quality and has enough room to store, not only the skottle, but an extra bottle of propane. It saves a lot of space when traveling since its your heat source and cooking container. So you can leave those pots and pans at home. The only negatives we have found is the legs can be a pain to get the screw holes lined up and boiling water can be tricky.
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We always have the old Coleman 2 burner stove for backup but unless we are cooking a lot of food, the skottle is our only means of cooking out on the trail. In my opinion, this is a must-have for overland travelers and one of my favorites amongst camping gear.
 
Interesting this just came up, I was going to go to the farm supply store and get a plow disc to make a portable fire pit from. Similar to what the skottle looks like, but with a fire made on top, for the yard, and for camp spots that ground fires arent allowed or desirable. Didnt think of it being a cooking surface.
 
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The only negatives we have found is the legs can be a pain to get the screw holes lined up and boiling water can be tricky.

The holes in the legs, from what I was told, are not for screwing in the I bolts. They're left over from the powder coating process. (used to hang the legs by a wire in the oven)

You're meant to screw the I bolt against the leg. It makes for a much sturdier cooking surface.

I LOVE my skottle!

(Bonus Pro Tip: Buy a 12" round cookie cooling rack. I bring frozen California Pizza Kitchen pizzas and with the rack and lid, they turn out amazing! I'd also imagine that's how you bake those cookies you were talking about. All though, I haven't tried it)
 
The holes in the legs, from what I was told, are not for screwing in the I bolts. They're left over from the powder coating process. (used to hang the legs by a wire in the oven)

You're meant to screw the I bolt against the leg. It makes for a much sturdier cooking surface.

I LOVE my skottle!

(Bonus Pro Tip: Buy a 12" round cookie cooling rack. I bring frozen California Pizza Kitchen pizzas and with the rack and lid, they turn out amazing! I'd also imagine that's how you bake those cookies you were talking about. All though, I haven't tried it)

Thanks for the Tip!
 
Because I like to build things and am pretty cheap to boot I made my own skottle. I bought a harrow (plow disc) on ebay for $25 shipped, found a coleman stove for $12 and used some 5/16" square steel stock I had laying around to make the hanger underneath. 3/4" elec. conduit for the legs $7, 1" black pipe couplings welded to the bottom of the harrow to hold the conduit $8 for three of them. Total investment $50 and an afternoon of fabrication (otherwise known as sanity enhancement time).....
It works great and I have made dinner on it a couple of times.........
 
I had forgotten this thread. Id like to see pictures of fire jeeps home made setup.

to follow up on my fire pit idea, I looked around at some farm supply outfits, nobody had any new plow discs in stock. I asked about used ones, they said the scrapper just came and got all the used ones they had. Hmm, "Where is this scrapper?"...Paid a visit to the scrap guy, we found a stack of discs, they sold them by the pound. I got 6 discs, $12 total cost. Figured while I was there, and $2 each, I may as well stock up.

I got some pipe flanges with the 4 bolt holes and threaded center for a 3/4" pipe to screw into for a center stand with another disc below as a base, and blunted the tip on my brand new center punch trying to mark 2 holes. My drill bit laughed at me when I tried to drill them, they will have to be done with a torch or plasma cutter for the bolt holes. The guys at the farm supply place mentioned they were a very tough, hard grade of steel.
 
Because I like to build things and am pretty cheap to boot I made my own skottle. I bought a harrow (plow disc) on ebay for $25 shipped, found a coleman stove for $12 and used some 5/16" square steel stock I had laying around to make the hanger underneath. 3/4" elec. conduit for the legs $7, 1" black pipe couplings welded to the bottom of the harrow to hold the conduit $8 for three of them. Total investment $50 and an afternoon of fabrication (otherwise known as sanity enhancement time).....
It works great and I have made dinner on it a couple of times.........

:pics
 
OK I'll post a "Just my Opinion" I've had my Skottle for over a year now and I get out quit a bit. I love my Skottle in good weather. However it becomes pretty useless in windy bad weather so I carry my Partner too on most trips. I have the wind screen but still pretty useless in high winds am I doing something wrong? Is there a solution? Only the VERY CENTER gets hot enough in wind.
 
Which way are you turning the wind screen to the wind? We were using one once and Jerry corrected @BlkWgn on the direction the wind screen goes. It was not the way you’d think. Lol
 
Interesting this just came up, I was going to go to the farm supply store and get a plow disc to make a portable fire pit from. Similar to what the skottle looks like, but with a fire made on top, for the yard, and for camp spots that ground fires arent allowed or desirable. Didnt think of it being a cooking surface.

I have a friend that has made a few skottles out of those plow disc! he welds the leg mounts and burner holder on the disc and just buys the cheap burner. Skottle for less, he's been using it for a while, or was anyway, traded it a CFW for a nice hand made knife.
 
Been thinking of getting a 22" descada to put on top of my Coleman single burner...cheaper version of the Skottle....just the disc... ($33 plus shipping)I like the idea of the large cooking surface, being able to warm tortillas on the outer edge, etc. When you're cooking meat on the these discs, the grease must pool in the middle...no place for it to go...that has to be a downside versus a slotted grill where the grease drips through. Thoughts/experience with this?
https://www.agrisupply.com/bbq-disc...nt=Dynamic30DaySiteVisitAgriAllProductDesktop

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You can go about it one of two ways. The first is that I plan my meals out so that if what I am cooking will produce a good amount of grease, I will use that for what ever will be cooked next ie bacon then use the grease to cook eggs or hash browns. If I don't need the grease it will normally flick it off into the camp fire. Trying to poor it off does not seem to work to well for me.
 
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