pots and pans and cookery stuff

[Sturgeon]

This looks like an excellent alcohol stove, and very easy to make. I'm going to make one this weekend and let you know how it goes. http://vimeo.com/64726512

by the way I use the Primus Litech pot for most things. About 900mL (1qt?) capacity. Good enough for kraft dinner, water for rehydrating, etc, and the lid can serve as a very very small pan to fry exactly one egg. Same size as the GSI soloist pot (which I also received as a gift!). The plastic GSI lid eventually melts and distorts over fire, so I'd recommend the Litech if anyone is trying to choose between them.

 

[Seeker]

Finally found a picture that I wanted to post in the "how do you do Hawkvittles" thread. My normal set up is an 8-cup "Mors (Kochanski) Pot" and a Kool Aid jar w/cozy. Boil and eat. Sometimes I carry one of those Coleman folding handle frying pans, for bacon, but I cook that on a stick like a hotdog on a light trip. The cozy and Kool Air jar nest inside the Mors Pot, with room for a lexan spoon. I keep a pot chain, lighter, scrubber pad and small bottle of campsuds inside, with some room to spare. I also like a German Mess Kit, but then they don't nest.

I prefer to cook over a fire if I can, but I usually carry something as a backup. If it's a normal trip, that's an MSR SimmerLite. If it's a light trip, it's an MSR Pocket Rocket.

That little folding grill off to the left in the picture of my pot is made by Christian Brother Finbar, from somewhere in MN. It folds into a stick about a foot long and weighs just a couple oz. The chain the pot is hanging from is a 2' length of brass sash chain w/2 hooks on it. Some people use curtain hooks. I bent up a piece of copper wire for mine. I've come to prefer a tripod and chain to other methods. You can add wood to a fire more easily if there's no grill in the way, and you can center the pot exactly over the hottest part of the fire with a tripod. By the time the fires burned down to proper coals for frying, you don't need a grill; just set the pan right on the coals.

 

[red langford]

I think I may play around with the alcohol stove idea this weekend. Thanks for the video link Sturgeon.

Anyways, here is my kitchen set up from a few years ago. This is for two people. I have altered it slightly and I am currently looking for a very specific sized container to put it all into.

Here is the cook set expanded.

The pots nest inside the rubberized liner which acts as the wash basin for clean-up.

Here it is all packed away.

Now here is the whole kitchen set as it was two years ago.

And then packed up a bit more. The lock and lock with the green is the First Aid kit. Figured the best place to keep that is wight he kitchen stuff.

Now all packed inside the tote for convenience.

And to expand it a bit further this is essentially all the goes into the main pack. I have changed to more compact sleeping pad and tarp, but the VCS may still travel with me for buggy weather.

 

[Guest]

Nice layout, red. As an aside, I'd quibble a bit with where to keep the first aid kit. IMO it's best to keep it in the daypack so it's available at all times.

 

[red langford]

Nice layout, red. As an aside, I'd quibble a bit with where to keep the first aid kit. IMO it's best to keep it in the daypack so it's available at all times.

Yes, but I have gotten away from the day pack. Food Barrel and Main Pack, nothing else.

 

[BobMills]

I have a home store, so I use pots and pans that have been returned by my customers. For the last couple years I have been using Scan Pan sauce pans and frying pans. If it's just two of us camping I take a 8" fry pan and a 2 qt sauce pan. No as light as most of you use, but they work great and clean up easily. I like them because the handles are more sturdy than most outdoor sets, they heat more evenly and hold the heat better. They are aluminum so the weight isn't too much, but the handles do make packing a challenge.

 

[yellowcanoe]

I have a home store, so I use pots and pans that have been returned by my customers. For the last couple years I have been using Scan Pan sauce pans and frying pans. If it's just two of us camping I take a 8" fry pan and a 2 qt sauce pan. No as light as most of you use, but they work great and clean up easily. I like them because the handles are more sturdy than most outdoor sets, they heat more evenly and hold the heat better. They are aluminum so the weight isn't too much, but the handles do make packing a challenge.

Gee thanks I like Bob's store but I only thought in terms of home cooking.. Recently ogling the vacuum sealers.. maybe next trip to the store I ought to think "camping"

 

[Jimmy The Jet]

Red, that's the pot set I use now as well. Got it for Christmas last year, and I love it. It replaces my old odds and sods kit. I also have a Snow Peak stove in a titanium pot and a Trangia that I like. If I was planning a solo trip, I'd bring my large Kelly kettle, but when I'm with the family, a two burner coleman get lugged out. We switched to a propane model a few year ago, cuz we got one as a gift. Not ideal for longer trips, but great for a weekend out.

For a longer trip, a decent twig stove would be a great primary stove, with either a small folding esbit stove or a light weight alcohol burner for back-up. Then you still have the option of lighting a fire at camp, but being ready for a quick hot lunch or tea. A twig stove plus the back-up is only a pound or two, plus a bit of fuel. Worth the weight in my books.

As for fire, if they're allowed, I almost always have one. Just feels right to me.

 

[Iskweo]

I tend to just use pots from the second hand store with the handles cut off. They nest better that way. I use a couple of the folding gripper pot handles on them. Throw in a MEC frying pan with a folding handle, and my coffee pot. I have one smallish lock and lock container that holds the rest of the forks, spoons, can opener, spatula, etc eh voila', she is done. Most of this then fits together in a cordura shopping bag and then gets stuffed in a pack or the barrel. One day, 10 days, 30 days, its is always the same stuff. Only the stove changes.
If I am feeling really posh, I take my folding Coleman stove stand...it is to die for.

Christy

 

[tump_lion]

I have a lifetime supply stash of three or four sets of nesting aluminum 'billy' pots -- i gathered from local thrift shops -- two are new in boxes -- lids double as bowls, but are useless as frying pans. provided the bales are sturdy, i find i prefer these to the copper-bottom stainless -- tho the latter is 'better' for finesse cooking albeit heavier.

I bring a frypan if i'm going to fry -- presently have a nice stainless primus -- the handle folds -under- the pan so i can stow it nested on the bottom of my pot-set. I prefer the 'feel' of a coldhandle steel pan, but i don't fry that much and favour the smaller pack-size of the folder...at the moment...

I find the three pots and lids, approx 1l,2l,3l, with the accompanying lids work great for solo and tandem -- the only other 'dishes' i bring is a sierra cup or two -- the 3l lid is my dog's food dish.

Sometimes i'll leave the 3l out for solo overnights to save a little space, but it's a pretty marginal gain...the large pot isn't used all that much i find. i cook over fire or a small snowpeak isobutane burner, but have used white-gas and propane at times...

At my lakeside hunt-camp, it's all cast iron...