When you pack your bag, what is the usual size of the pot u are packing and usually how many pots.
I am using either the Trangias or the Esbits and wondering if there are any better ideas or pots?
I am more concern about the sizes.
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When you pack your bag, what is the usual size of the pot u are packing and usually how many pots.
I am using either the Trangias or the Esbits and wondering if there are any better ideas or pots?
I am more concern about the sizes.
The only thing I usually care are two canteen cups and a U.S. G.I. mess kit. There are lighter alternatives but those have served me well for a long time. I have tried other cook pots but always return to the military stuff.
My go to is the GI canteen/cup/stove.....and have added a Billy pot...or know as a corn broiler....6" steel fry pan.
Or
Full blown cast iron set, enameled plate bowls cup etc......
IMO “cook pot selection” depends on many factors that include the type of camping trip, number of people, stove type, climate, food choices, and obviously personal preference. I have over 20 different camping cook pots and a several pans (don’t tell my wife, she may go ballistic). However, many of mine are from thrift shops and yard sales, only a few are titanium from REI etc.
For me: Snow Peak 900ml works well for 2 people but there are smaller and cheaper from brands that include:
http://www.keith-ti.com/en
http://toaksoutdoor.com
Also from Hong Kong there are cheap alternatives from DX dot com but these are not always the lowest price and quality can be poor so shop around, buyer beware.
If you are new to Wood Stoves, I recommend buying a cheap aluminum or SS pot used from a Thrift Store. Don’t obsess about the soot it only improves the efficiency of the cook pot, just take care in handling and packing it. Wrap in Reflectix cozy or whatever.
One other pot I often use is wide and shallow, so it works well for frying fish etc. From Brunton but other brands are fine. (This one was sold to me by a friend who owns an online camping supply store.) Includes nesting 2nd pot, pot cozy neoprene insulator, and detachable handle. I also have an REI brand 3 pot/3 pan nesting aluminum pan set with detachable handles. Alcohol or canister stoves fit inside almost all of my camping cook pots. Canister stoves or white gas are either a requirement or strongly encouraged by Rangers during burn bans in western wilderness areas. Wood fires and Alcohol stoves may be highly restricted or banned, and canisters do not work well if temps are well below freezing. This can influence your pot choice for a particular trip. (both metal and organic if you have THOSE types of traveling companions, mostly I avoid those types of folks.)
At local thrift shops I am always on the lookout for Paul Revere brand or similar Stainless Steel with copper/brass bottom small pots or pans because these are very efficient on fuel and time but expensive to purchase new. (Not idea for backpacking obviously.) Also Cast Iron Dutch Ovens and fry pans, all mine I purchased new but used is good if you know what to look for.
The most difficult thing about buying used is a matching lid. As the Afghanistan people say a “widow who has lost her soldier husband is like a pot without a lid.” Very sad. Even a $2 silicon lid from a pet supply store works for backpacking, or 2nd pot or pan inverted. Glove, shammy towel, neoprene, silicone pad or whatever as hot pad. (I did NOT mean to imply that an Afghanistan soldier was like a $2 pet food lid, please do NOT misquote me. I have much respect for those soldiers defending their land from extremists who are destroying it.)
Edit: I also have a heavy cast aluminum pan with non-stick ceramic, "Green pan" that I got for under $2 at a Thrift Shop. It works well for frying fish when canoe camping like during the white bass spawn a few weeks from now.
Like Hunter, I have been a reenactor for many years and we get into the best of both worlds.
I have a full camp kitchen with 4 nesting cast iron dutch ovens, cast iron skillets and hand forged campfire gear, all of which requires helper springs under the Cherokee and heavy duty tires on the cargo trailer.
I also have 18th century trekking gear in plenty, which is mostly nesting tin-ware with a 1 quart pot being home for the 1 pint tin cup and the deep sided lid of the 1qt pot also being a serving bowl. there is a 6" skillet with folding handle that goes with that set too.
Strangely enough in the modern world much of that transfers and I favor a one pound coffee can as my primary hiking cookware with a smaller tin cup nesting inside. Winnie gave me a spork a couple of years ago and I have made good use of that device too.
When camping out of the vehicle I take whatever I feel I need from the kitchen, although I do prefer the enameled sheet steel skillets and pots just for the "outdoorsy" feel they give the camp.
I also have the echo of my mom's words in the back of my head; "You can cook a little bit in a big pot but its hard to cook a lot in a little pot." Good advice when camping with a group, and more of my efforts are now group camps, either family or friends.
The 32 cup coffee pot is a must as well as the smaller 12 cup unit. The big pot is for hot water near the fire at all times and the smaller coffee pots get rotated in and out of the fire at a rate dependent on how many people are standing around talking.
I will also use disposable cups, plates and utensils whenever possible because I am a lazy rascal and do not like to wash dishes.
Baking outdoors: I have recently experimented with primitive baking, the easiest methods are probably with a Dutch oven that is preheated and then to use small balls of dough that have been pre-chilled in snow or ice. Therefore winter time of year is ideal for this. My mother baked loaf yeast breads on a clay stove my father built on a crude table top constructed of sapling tree trunks, she used aluminum pots and wood as a fuel. Not as simple as bannock bread on a stick over a fire but it taste much better. I have tried cookie and various biscuit mixes in Dutch ovens, these will go flat if the oven is not preheated and small dough balls are not very cold. Next is to try much lighter weight pots surrounded by heated rocks, or cardboard coated in aluminum foil over a small camp stove. Or just a small oven constructed of clay and/or stones and use wood fire coals. The variety of dry dough mixes is unlimited: leavened or just with baking powder etc. Ideally it would be backpackable, or canoeable not requiring an MRAP transport vehicle. One friend of mine often does canoe with 2 large Dutch ovens in his 17 foot solo canoe in this region and 16 foot solo raft on the mid Salmon in Idaho. I call them boat anchors. He calls them essential gear. LOL Hit a sharp or hard rock and all is lost very quickly.
We do a lot of baking in Dutch ovens.
Secret is to have a trivet on the bottom inside the DO or in our case a hand full of like sized gravel, a pie pan for the bread, pies, corn bread.
Actually the same gravel has been in there for 20 plus years.....LOL
I place a preheated DO in a 16" cast iron fry pan set on a trivet....filled with coals (or charcoal)......put bread in pan, into oven, then cover up then shovel coal on top.(or charcoal).
Don't put in DO over fire unless you are doing stew, soups, etc.......Baking no.
hunter63 gravel is great idea! I never considered it. I had tried inverted disposable aluminum pie pan, and also cut and folded a pizza pan etc even double layered cookies which was a bad idea because bottom layer baked faster (in a deep DO). Mostly use parchment paper to save time. Bottom line best to minimize empty space and seal tightly. I agree use coals below and above, there are charts online to give estimates on temperature based on rough number of coals and size of DO but best to experiment because how much food, moisture content etc are additional variables, how many times you open how many DO and pans are stacked, if DO(s) are in feed pan to buffer wind and reflect heat back etc. I can cook/bake/roast with just about anything outdoors but cast iron is the most fun if I have the time. Virtually anything that fits can be cooked in one.
Here is a simple cheap idea I had with an aluminum "grease pot" (1.5 quart) and canister fuel that fits completely inside it which can be found at most local Wal-Mart stores for about $15, or extra $30 for the stove. Good to know if something ever happens to your primary cooking setup and you need a quick cheap replacement and are near some small town with a WM. Add some instant mash potatoes or rice, trap or shoot some squirrels or rabbits and you have a quick "shepherd's pie". Can of vegetables if your wife insists on it.
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Edit: Personally this would not be my first choice, I am not a big fan of Coleman or Imusa.
I use a mors bushpot, sometimes a canteen cut and a 6 inch carbon steel skillet.
Reason I am asking is I have a few cooksets. I sometimes do not know which one to pack. I do love the old GI mess tins ( a pair) and the water bottle and cup. But sometimes, I was thinking that if I have one big pot, then my cooking is limited to one. I might need one big pot and one small pot...then the packing comes into play. I want to save space and weight. I would put the smaller pot into the big pot, and all the food in there too....sometimes, I just couldn't make up my mind..its when , where and how you are.....but sometimes, it just kicks you in the butt for bringing the wrong set. DILEMMA!!!!!!
The ego of having the branded and expensive cook sets, and then opting them out and going for the old GI mess tins and cup...really hurts your ego.........sigh!!!!
I have a kit that has a frying panish size nestled in a bigger pot. It is a cheapo kit that came with two plastic coffee cups. I have a stove that nestles into that same rig. That was my original back pack set and it is still just as functional. I have a jetboil also. I have a billy can style pot.
For big camping trips I vary between my expanded metal grill over a fire with a cheap skillet. My cast iron. I also have a 3 burner propane Camp Chef Big Gas Grill with the grill and the 16" X 37" cast iron griddle top.
It depends on if it just me. My brother Sean and I. Or, if we start getting bigger crews.
It would seem the mess tins win out. I have a nice nesting billy tin set and I may even get round to using it, but I usually pack just the mess tin and a metal cup.
One of my favorite sets is the result of being a cheapskate.
I found a set of kitchen canisters made from spun aluminum, without seams.
A simple installation of wire bails provided me with a set of 4 nesting pots/cups with lids that has proven very versatile over the years.
I do not pay much attention to the name stamped on the cookware. It's all going to be set in the middle of the fire to boil water for rehydration of meals or coffee. That does not require a $100 pot!
It's also the reason I horde 1 pound coffee cans.
Typically I try to plan the food for a trip by the weekend before at the latest so I have a good idea of what pot(s) I will need to cook the various meals in. I also take enough protein (meats and beans etc) even if the fishing, hunting and foraging is expected to be very good. If I bring back lots of food (often do, sometimes pounds of frozen chicken on primitive canoe trips) then that is just fine. I prefer to just extended the trip but other people generally veto that. If not cooking a gourmet meal that requires multiple pots, I may use the 2nd/3rd to boil water by the fire or settle out sediments with alum/sulfate or something. I added some photos of some 59 cent to $1.79 pots that nest inside each other (from Thrift Store). These can be packed with food (instant/minute rice or noodles etc.) or a stove and fuel or whatever as well. The cost does not need to be high. I never assume that I cleaned them well enough to keep near my shelter so put in a bag and hang from a tree when I go to sleep, thus I am not fond of the idea of keeping my food cook pot with my water container. Raccoons like to carry off these things. If I loose my cook pot and stove I can survive without these, but that would really bite. No water container and I might die.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tokwan
Once a raccoon removed the lid of a very large 16 or 20" D.O. a friend had left out overnight without cleaning.
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Attachment 10483
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Stanley small stainless steel pot (Wal-Mart or sports store) is my one person option when camping out of a very small white water kayak, weight not an issue but space a premium. This is not as easily crushed as aluminum or titanium. Plastic nesting cups it comes with are fairly useless, better to fill with alky stove and dry food or fuel. WW yak because it is a lot more fun than open canoe or raft, difference between Testarossa and Pickup Truck.
Edit: it is a little dangerous in a tent one of reasons I prefer tarps, but you can use an extra pot with small tea or similar candles (citronella), solid fuel tablets or coals to reduce the moisture and insects in your shelter even (especially) when you are not there i.e. cooking breakfast or whatever. Especially if in a 3 season tent put stone or wood under the pot or you could burn a hole in the bottom. Not advisable in most nylon tents especially if you are sleeping in there at the same time. Probably my last choice of shelter.
here's my mors pot getting broke in.
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/h...dytlee/103.jpg
Sportsmans Guide.com has Czech military surplus mess kits on sale, two for $18. A big pot, a small pot(nesting and a plate/bowl). Not the smallest kit I have seen but I no longer back pack, so it should work fine.
I got with my canteen cup and G.I. Mess Kit. Sometimes if I feel like hearing the clang I'll strap on a 8" boiling pot I have had for years. My mom got a new pot set and I got one if the old ones and used to cook soups and such in it as a kid in my clubhouse and still have it today.
I have a Stansports pot I use when I go camping. It's stainless steel, and I bought it from a Kmart awhile back. It's a 3/4 liter pot. It's big enough that it can make soup for me and a companion.
Hi. I don't "cook" when Im out so I can get by with a canteen cup on its own. I do have an MSR stowaway 775ml size that also doubles as a PSK carrier so that too is often with me or a SAS evasion pouch that holds a mess tin but that's about it!
If I am car camping, then I bring a dutch oven and maybe a big pot. However, if I am backpacking, then I only bring a small pot, about a liter. Since I am generally with a group, we split either one or two jetboil parts up: someone takes the stove, someone the pot, someone the fuel.....We use a 1.5 liter pot for the group jetboil. We don't cook, just add boiling water to dehydrated food. We also don't drink coffee, but sometimes hot chocolate. Everyone brings a 1 liter pot and a plastic mug.
Canteen cup and usgi mess kit for me, inside the mess kit I keep a msr micro rocket, a case hobo tool and a few instant coffee, salt, pepper, tea packets
If I'm with a group of my friends we usually bring a cast iron dutch oven pot and tripod, and we carry them 3 miles to our usual campsite
Never did any big cooking... Camping...... I try not to bring a kitchen.
Depending where you are large leaves, banna etc, or even just some good wax/parchment and aluminum foil. Season to taste add a small amount of oil, fat, butter, what ever you have. Bury under coals.
Any boiling is just done in canteen/gi cup.
Different strokes and all. When I was small my father did bring along a coleman type stove / pot set with canister gas, always ended up cooking on the fire sometimes borrowing the grill grate from it.
I've heard of people using pressure cookers on open fires and watched some youtube on the subject, anybody here try that?
I'm interested because it seems like a great way to thoroughly cook anything, quickly. It will kill any no-see-ems and save on firewood plus the food taste great.
I have not tried that. I would think you'd have to be ever vigilant lest the pressure gets too high. Then you won't know whether to grab it off the fire or run like mad.
Both of my grandmothers used a pressure cooker on the wood fired kitchen cook stove. It might as well have been an open campfire.
I can still remember being banned from the kitchen because apparently they were cooking a bomb and it was expected to blow at any moment.
BTW, I now know there is a pressure release valve that hopefully releases any unwanted build up.
Many of the pressure cookers I've seen have a pressure relief valve (some are adjustable) and I've seen a pressure gauge on one. I have a big one I use in the house for canning and soon I will be cooking with it (I've been talking about cooking with it for close to a year now, UGH!!). I think pushing coals around a pot in a open fire wold work as long as you had the valve working and didn't try to blow it up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick
Ask Nell about those pressure relief valves. I'm sure she'll chime in here.
problem with pressure valves is making sure they stay clean. A fouled up valve can impede flow and thus cause over pressuring of the container, resulting in catastrophic results.
Also if you buy pressure cookers the FBI will tag you and put you on a watch list.
How are they going to do that?Quote:
Originally Posted by Davidlastink
Have they tagged every home canner in the US?
I think there's a "bazinga" on the end of that sentence.
Pressure cooker...? Love them but would not back pack them..and I work in a pressure cooker company...muahahahahahaha
Really? I'll bet you are under a lot of.....wait for it......pressure in your job. (I slay myself).
I guess they gotta come from somewhere.....Quote:
Originally Posted by Tokwan
lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by kyratshooter
Not a serious statement, sorry if it came across as that, humor is hard to convey through text alone.
I purchased a 6 Quart Pressure Cooker at a Thrift Store but the Pressure Regulator was missing and it needed a new gasket so I told them I would only pay $9 for it, they wanted $15, new these are about $40 or more and the new ones in stores are not as good IMO. Personally I am skeptical the FBI tracks this information, but if they do "good luck with that" put me on the list. There are ton of these at yard sales all over the country ha ha ha. Perhaps they track BBs and thumbtacks ha ha ha…
https://www.gopresto.com/products/pr...?stock=01/PCA6
"Parts is parts"
Now does the FBI track acid tone and peroxide? and people forming crystals in their refigerators? Seriously…
All the women buying finger nail polish removal and hair bleach, how many of them are fixin' to blow up something. ha ha ha
Normally, they don't. But when they see all those red flag words in a post they do take interest. You might want to have your wife answer the door for a while.
They've know me for many years, next time I go skeet shooting with them they'll probably laugh, especially at all the red herrings I included in that post. Assuming I remember to show them the post.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick