What do you cook with?

[IntoTheWild]

For a long time now I've made do with my set of French army mess tins, and fold out British Army stove, using fuel tablets. Which, to be fair, has been pretty much spot on (and very cheap). But there are a few cons to this set-up;
1 - the heat distribution isn't great, have to constantly stir to ensure even cooking.
2 - stickage! Stainless steel mess tins love clinging on to my food.
3 - sick of buying fuel tablets, would rather use natural combustibles. (Sticks)
4 - steel doesn't heat up very quickly.
5 - folding stove is pretty flimsy.

I've bought a Bushbox pocket stove, which looks awesome, and encourages using wood, so that issue may be solved. I would really like a decent size pot (900ml upwards), with a frying pan that doubles as a lid as I love a good fry up in the forest.

So far I've spotted the Alpkit Alipots, and for £20, look to be bloody good value.

Has anybody had experience with these? If not, what set up do you guys use and how does it fare?

Oh and, I'm new here, so hello!

 

[knifeman]

I use a 12cm zebra Billy, a bcb crusader cup that fits over my water bottle and and a stainless plate and bowl from Tesco! I rarely use the bowl for cooking but the plate doubles up as a frying pan. And I have a small Dutch oven that I leave at my base camp. And I always cook on a fire.


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[Keithlard]

I've used the Honey Stove for years with great success. It burns wood very efficiently, and if you don't have any dry firewood, it makes a great windshield / holder for a Trangia / Evernew meths burner, or solid fuel tablets and alcohol gel burned in a tealight holder. It packs flat and weighs only about 300g.

I have the Evernew 900ml titanium mug pot, which fits the Honey Stove perfectly and boils enough water for a mug of tea plus a rehydrated meal, which I do in the pot itself. With a pot cosy for the rehydration, it's a very fuel-efficient way of cooking.

So my carry kit is basically:

* Honey Stove
* Tin with firesteel, cotton balls, and Vaseline for lighting
* Small bottle of Fire Dragon gel fuel in case I don't find wood
* Evernew pot with teabags, powdered milk etc, and pot cosy
* Plastic drinking mug

The Honey Stove comes with a grill, so you can do bacon and sausages, and there is a version of the Evernew pot with a frying pan lid, so you could do eggs if you wanted.

 

[John Fenna]

I mainly use a billy can I made out of a biscuit barrel hung over an open fire....plus a cast iron frying pan from a charity shop.

 

[copper_head]

A tatonka pot might be an option for you, I have the 1.6l version. Couple with an aluminium kettle from Wilkinsons and a wood burning stove (honey stove or a wood gas burner). I always find its a good idea to have a cooking pot and an additional means of heating water. Be that a metal mug, kettle or a second pot. This I'd a nice set up for campfire cooking as the lid of the Billy doubles as a frying pan and the wood stoves both accept some means of burning meths as a back up.

 

[IntoTheWild]

Thanks for all the suggestions/pictures.

Heard a lot of good things about the zebra billy can, just worried it may be a bit bulky for my pack. I'm only dealing with about 40L, with a couple of dry sacks on the side. Want something nice and compact, probably aluminium, don't mind shelling out a few quid for it if its decent kit. I have a budget of around £30-£40, any more advice would be brilliant.

Thanks guys.

 

[MikeLA]

Mainly I use a Crusader mug and hexi stove, supplementing hexi with small bits of wood. Use on day woodlands walks and on longer hillwalks, just find it nice and simple.

 

[IntoTheWild]

My next trip is a 5 day camp in Snowdonia, so I'd need something durable, easy to clean, non-stick, and all that good stuff.

 

[spiritwalker]

Consider these, plenty of vids on youtube and a tried and tested piece of kit http://www.militarymart.co.uk/grade-a-aluminum-swedish-army-trangia-stove.html
you can use them with twigs in the base for cooking or for cleaner solution or where not practical to light a fire you can stick with meths. The lid is used for frying plus you have a decent size billy can pot. Furthermore the main pot is geared up for hanging over a fire and the two D rings on the lid will take a stick to extend the handle for frying over a fire. I have 2 of them one i use and one for when the stocks run out for the future although my first one has no signs of giving up the ghost yet. I also love my kelly kettle, i have the hobo stove accessory for it although i haven't had chance to field test it yet looks a sweet solution but probably bulky for your needs. For day walk brew ups i use the swiss volcano stove also back in stock at military mart, great bits of kit but at the new price its almost double what i paid for mine...

 

[peaks]

A few thoughts ...

- the Esbit folding steel cooker is a lot more robust than the Brit hexi stoves and can burn twigs and hold a meths burner too - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Esbit-Pocket-Cooking-Stove-Silver/dp/B001C1UGVO
- woodgas clones - can also use hexi/esbit or meths burners in them
- I use the pots from the Trangia mini - think the frying pan is ace (nonstick too). I'm only cooking for 1 person though.

This video gives an idea of the set up- the woodgas stove is different though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNCFGMVNfLg

Woodgas clones - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wood-Gas-...159651?hash=item43e6ede6e3:g:G8YAAOSwf-VWa9sl

Hope this helps

 

[IntoTheWild]

Thanks for all the advice!

I'll do a bit more research and let you know what I go for.


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[SGL70]

Hi

I use a combo out of:
Trangia 25/Trangia 27/Primus Litech
Optimus 8R/Sievert Svea 123/Nova+/FireMaple 116

...hmmm...too much kit (if there is such a thing )

 

[IntoTheWild]

Hi

I use a combo out of:
Trangia 25/Trangia 27/Primus Litech
Optimus 8R/Sievert Svea 123/Nova+/FireMaple 116

...hmmm...too much kit (if there is such a thing )

I like the look of the Primus Litech, only concern is; is it big enough to cook a good healthy portion of pasta based meals? And is the frying pan big enough for a couple of slices of bacon?




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[Quixoticgeek]

I've bought a Bushbox pocket stove, which looks awesome, and encourages using wood, so that issue may be solved. I would really like a decent size pot (900ml upwards), with a frying pan that doubles as a lid as I love a good fry up in the forest.

So far I've spotted the Alpkit Alipots, and for £20, look to be bloody good value.

They are bloody good value. I [thread=127146]reviewed[/thread] them a while back.

Has anybody had experience with these? If not, what set up do you guys use and how does it fare?

Oh and, I'm new here, so hello!

Hi.

I have a selection of cookware and which I use depends on what I am doing.

For cooking over the fire I use a Tatonka 1L billy can. This has a lid that in theory you can use as a frying pan, but the shape is not ideal for such. The 1.6l would be better in this regard.

For cooking on my liquid fuel stoves (MSR Whisperlite Internationale or Primus Omnilite Ti) I have a MSR Alpine fry pan, the MSR Alpine cookset (2 pot version), Alpit Alipots, Snow Peak Personal cooker 3, GSI Glacier mug+lid. Which I take depends on how many I am cooking for, what I am cooking, the weather (snowmelt or not), and if I have to carry the stuff far (canoe vs backpack).

For cooking on my meths stoves (Evernew Meths burner with DX stand, Zelph Starlite with Evernew DX stand), I use either the Evernew 550ml pot, Evernew 400ml mug, GSI Glacier mug+lid, Snow Peak Personal cooker 1 (actually small pot from Personal cooker 3).

I have a prototype for Alpkit's new Brukit style stove (0.5L version), which comes with it's own dedicated aluminium pot with heat exchanger. In theory I could use this pot with other stoves, but as I have lots of others, I've left this as a set with the burner. It's great for when you want to get hot water fast, but it isn't much use if you want to cook an actual meal. But being able to produce 500ml of boiling water on just under 6g of fuel in 2 minutes can at times be useful.

The main answer you are going to get on here is likely to be the Zebra billy can. I had a 14cm version, but sold it and bought the Tatonka 1L instead. The zebra's are nice pots, but they are heavy, and being tall are unstable on some stoves. I prefer the Tatonka pans instead. The tatonka pans nest, so you can put the 1L inside the 1.6L. I intend to buy the 1.6L in the near future for when I am cooking for 2 or more people, or want to be able to make something more than a 1 pot wonder.

I also owned a Fire Maple FMC-207 pot set, but I gave it away to a friend, as it didn't server a purpose that one of my other sets didn't already cover, and the despite claiming to be a 2 pot set, the lack of lid was a pain.

I used to use the BCB Crusader cup and cooker, but have stopped as it's messy/smelly to use with meths, and it's bloomin' 'eavy!

In summary, I own too much camp cookware...

J

 

[IntoTheWild]

Can never have too much kit!

Thanks for your helpful reply.

As I'm only cooking for one, the alipots may be a bit overkill, unless I leave the 2L pot and pan at home. So it's a toss up between the alipots, the Primus Litech, and the tatonka.

Choices, choices..


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[SGL70]

I like the look of the Primus Litech, only concern is; is it big enough to cook a good healthy portion of pasta based meals? And is the frying pan big enough for a couple of slices of bacon?




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Frying...well...technically, yes...but not very effective as it is only slightly over 10 cm i diameter.

Cooking pasta - no problem..

 

[Gaudette]

Toddy gave me a great tip last year for sticky pans. Get one of the silicone cooking mats from the £1 shop, cut it to size, it works a treat. No more sticking. Could be worth a try. +1 for the Honey stove.


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[Squidders]

The Primus litech frying pan was hammered out of mithril by Thor himself and if you get the version with the all-metal handle, you have the best frying pan known to man and gods alike.

I have used mine for years and it has taken some serious abuse in this time and the pan is still spot on and the non-stick shows no sign of giving up any time in the future.

 

[IntoTheWild]

Excellent reference Squidders 😂. It's probably the one I'll go for.


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[copper_head]

As squidders says the litech frying pan is an awesome bit of kit. I have the version with the rubber coated handles and you can still use it on a campfire if you're careful, and don't mind a bit of scorching .