Can You Cook in a Stainless Steel Lunch Box?

The stove is lit, the light is going, and the pot is still at home. What you do have is your lunch box. So the question comes up on most first camping trips: can you cook in it?

Yes.

On a camp stove, the box works as a small pot. Not a great pot, a small one. But dinner for two comes out of it, and it goes back in the pack clean.

Why does the box take a flame at all?

It is 18/8 stainless steel, uncoated inside. There is no coating to scorch and no plastic anywhere on the body.

The box is not insulated either, which is exactly what you want over a burner. The heat goes straight through to the food.

Your dinner touches nothing but steel. The box is tested for lead under the US CPSIA, and we retest every year. The current report is on our certificates page, free to download.

The full safety picture, microwave and all: Are stainless steel lunch boxes safe?

What should you know before it goes on the flame?

Four things, and none of them are complicated.

Take the dividers out. They are steel too, but they are in the way of a spoon.

Put something in the box before it meets the flame. Oil first, then the onion. Steel heats fast, and an empty box on high heat can warp.

Warping from overheating is something the 3-year limited warranty does not cover. So start with the oil.

Keep the flame low to medium. It is enough for both recipes, and it keeps the bottom from scorching.

And the box has no handle. Lift it with a pot gripper or a folded cloth, and take the lid off the same way.

One more thing, on size. Both recipes below need the 40 oz or the 47 oz box. The 27 oz is too small for them.

What can you cook in it?

Two things we make ourselves, both in one box, both in about 10 minutes. Nothing here needs a second pan.

Camping shakshuka

Ingredients

• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes
• 4 eggs
• Salt, pepper, cumin
• Fresh cilantro (optional)

Instructions

1. Sauté the onion, garlic, and bell pepper in the box on the camp stove with some oil.
2. Add the diced tomatoes and season with salt, pepper, and cumin.
3. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
4. Press four wells into the sauce and crack an egg into each.
5. Cover the box and let the eggs set.
6. Garnish with fresh cilantro and eat straight from the box.

Four eggs setting in tomato sauce while the sun goes down. That is dinner.

Simple one-pot pasta

Ingredients

• 7 oz quick-cooking pasta
• 7 oz pre-cooked vegetable mix
• About 2 cups (17 fl oz) vegetable broth
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• Salt, pepper, Italian herbs

Instructions

1. Bring the vegetable broth to a boil in the box on the camp stove.
2. Add the pasta, vegetable mix, and tomato paste.
3. Season with salt, pepper, and herbs. Cook for about 10 minutes, until the pasta is done.
4. Eat straight from the box.

Simple, and after a day outside, better than it sounds.

None of this needs a camping edition. It is the same Stainless Steel Lunch Box that goes to the office on Monday. Three sizes, two dividers, and a spare seal already in the kit.

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How do you clean it after cooking?

In the dishwasher, like always. Box, lid, seal, and dividers all go in, and there is no special setting. If pasta stuck to the bottom, let it soak first.

Take the seal out of the lid and wash it with the rest. Then dry the lid and the groove the seal sits in, and press the seal back in.

A dry groove keeps the seal seated. A seated seal keeps the sauce in the box. The longer answer is in our dishwasher article.

Want to sterilize it after a trip? Take the seal out, then put the box in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes. Lift it out with tongs.

Dry the lid and the groove as above, and the seal seats as before. The full routine is in the lunch box care guide.

And when the seal does wear out one day, you buy a seal. Not a new box. Every wearing part is in the spare parts collection.

Can it go in the microwave or the oven?

Not the microwave. Steel and microwaves do not get along, and that is true for every steel box, not just ours.

The oven, yes, with the lid and seal off. That is an article of its own: the lunch box and the oven. There is a chocolate cake in it, and a lasagna.

Hot food at noon without any flame is the food jar's job. Two stew recipes, and how to keep them hot.

So next trip, leave the extra pot at home. Pack the box, a small bottle of oil, and four eggs. If the shakshuka works out, and it usually does, send us a photo. We like those.