Advice on cooking equipment

[seanroy]

Hi All,

Looking for some advice on stove and cooking accessories.

Soon to be embarking on my first multi day trip and am still undecided on the cooking situation. I will be visiting the chippy etc. en route, however, I still plan to take dry food packs for evening meals and possibly breakfast. Firstly do I go gas or solid fuel? I have recently seen the Titanium Esbit Stove which is super lightweight and gets good reviews so was thinking about purchasing one. Also looking for a suitable cooking container for 2 people any advice would be really helpful

thanks all

[benp1]

I think we probably have slightly more meths users on here than gas users

I sometimes carry esbit as back up, not very often though. It's slow but it's easy to pack, make sure you have a windshield (though that applies to any stove)

Also use something to insulate the thing you're rehydrating - hat, sleeping bag, jacket - and you'll save on a whole lot of fuel. Also, many things don't need boiling water, just hot water

[Single Speed George]

i use a small primus gas stove ... kinda kike there vershin of pocket rocket,
a medium sized tin mug with a lid
and the smallest sized gas canisters avalable
it all fits in the mug.. works really well !

i allso have a mini trangia that i sometimes use for "touring" if im with more than one person as fuel lasts longer and the pan is slightly larger

allthough i often just dont take cooking thing and eat cold or eat out :)

[Bearbonesnorm]

As Ben says, Esbit tends to be a back-up rather than a first choice as it's slow and dirty. However, there is the plus point that you don't actually need a stove to use it: http://bearbonesbikepacking.blogspot.co ... ooker.html

If your planning to just use dehydrated food then your quickest way to boil water will be gas but it will also be the heaviest / bulkiest way. A decent meths stove won't be too far behind in the speed stakes and can easily weigh 1/10 of the weight of a small gas cyclinder. {biased} I'd suggest a 22g stove ... and again, as Ben says, all stoves benefit from a decent windshield. I'd advice against a Trangia (or copy) as the stoves themselves are slow and heavy and you'll look like a refugee from some failed DoE expedition.

If you're wanting to boil enough water for 2 meals, ideally you'll want a 900ml pot but that's quite a bulky thing to carry. I'd consider a 450ml - 550ml pot and stagger dinner sittings by a few minutes The 550ml Toaks pot is a nice size or the bikepackers standard issue 650ml Mytimug.

[seanroy]

great info, many thanks fellas, lots to go on there

[whitestone]

I'll use gas, meths or nothing, all have their advantages and disadvantages depending on the situation. As an example: meths takes longer to boil a given amount of water (assuming similar conditions) but does it really matter if it takes five minutes to boil 500ml of water rather than 3mins30? You can always be doing something else during that time so it isn't necessarily "wasted".

Are you intending to prepare a meal or simply get something to the point of being edible? Personally I wouldn't try and emulate what you do in your kitchen - chopping food, frying, etc. it's quite a bit of faff and you've to clean up afterwards which means more stuff. Dehydrated "boil in the bag" type foods mean that you only need to boil water, hence the mentions of mugs since you can boil some water, put it into the bag with your food and while it's re-hydrating, boil some more for a brew in your still clean mug. Now the only "dirty" things are the bag and your spoon/fork.

[Mariner]

refugee from some failed DoE expedition

Great tee shirt slogan - wait a minute I have a trangia

[Sarah]

Consider what is available where you are going ?

I have flown to Spain, not taking gas and pre arranging to collect from a shop, only to find not available/shop not open etc. Stoves and gas bottles also not always compatible. Managed on that trip with small contained camp fires.

Going to try meths for next trip tho.

[Adventurer]

Have a look at stormin stove systems.

I've found them very efficient, lightweight and fit perfect for your cook pot and also fits inside your cook pot.

Design that uses the most of your alcohol stove, good windshield that reduces heat loss.

The thing is it's well priced too for what you get. I'm very impressed.

http://www.storminstovesystems.co.uk

[NorwayCalling]

Context: As a kid it was meths.

Then I started with gas about 30 years ago on the bikepacking trips then (see.... us old farts have been doing it for years ) with 200g canisters and separate stove on a flexible hose. This carried no in a similar fashion until the gas burners become smaller...

2000 ish I went all meths and had a few half decent US made stoves and found it ok. Had been reading quite a few american articles back then.

Then mid 2000's the MSR pocket rocket came out and the start of the smaller gas canisters came on the market. Back to gas I went.

Dawn of the new-age-of-bikepacking and BBB webiste and a renewed interest in meths left the gas behind.

Roll forward to last years WRT and day 2 - biblical rain at 600m, soaked to the skin and not one inch of flat area to stop for the night, genuine hypothermia setting in if I didn't stop and get warm. Found a small space just big enough in some woodland, tent up and ffffiiiiggg meths wouldn't light. I spent ages doing everything to get it going (it was ffffiiisssinnng it down, windy and dark by now) and yes, finally it did gently flicker into life, with its less-than-urgent flame of blue coolness.

2017 - back to gas for good i think.

[seanroy]

Great advice, many thanks all.

[Asposium]

an old MSR pocket rocket
110g gas cylinder ((I have a gadget to refill from larger cylinders))
alpkit titanium pan ((use a primus non-stick alutech pan when doing anything other than boiling water for freeze dried meals. titanium is a bugger for being anti-non-stick))
matches
simple, light, reliable

[In Reverse]

Soon to be embarking on my first multi day trip and am still undecided on the cooking situation.

Very easy to overthink and overdo it in my experience. When I first started touring I had the same idea as you - a stove and dried meals for mornings and evenings, but I just ended up carrying them round untouched for thousands of miles. It took a few bikepacking trips with hike-a-bikes and carries to break the habit and now I just don't bother at all. Breakfast will be something fatty and high in calories (usually a couple of slices of heavily pre-buttered Soreen) and everything else is picked up on the hoof.

Having said all that I'm giving serious consideration to taking a lightweight meths stove to Spain, so this post

Have a look at stormin stove systems.

was very timely. Cheers Adventurer.

[Mbnut]

I have very limited experience but...

Norway Calling mentions that he had trouble lighting his meths burner in crappy conditions and is returning to gas. I have found gas simply will not light if it is cold, i'm talking around zero and it doesn't warm up once going like a meths burner does. I pop my gas canister up my jumper for half hour before I want to cook, it works but is hardly ideal.

Guess the fact is.... nowt is perfect.

[Asposium]

I have very limited experience but...

Norway Calling mentions that he had trouble lighting his meths burner in crappy conditions and is returning to gas. I have found gas simply will not light if it is cold, i'm talking around zero and it doesn't warm up once going like a meths burner does. I pop my gas canister up my jumper for half hour before I want to cook, it works but is hardly ideal.

Guess the fact is.... nowt is perfect.

if one can accept a little bit extra weight then a remote inverted canister will work at lower temperatures

or primus winter gas

[NorwayCalling]

I have very limited experience but...

Norway Calling mentions that he had trouble lighting his meths burner in crappy conditions and is returning to gas. I have found gas simply will not light if it is cold, i'm talking around zero and it doesn't warm up once going like a meths burner does. I pop my gas canister up my jumper for half hour before I want to cook, it works but is hardly ideal.

Guess the fact is.... nowt is perfect.

if one can accept a little bit extra weight then a remote inverted canister will work at lower temperatures

or primus winter gas

I must admit, I have had way, way more issues lighting very cold meths compared to a gas cylinder at the same temperature. Having to keep the meths in your clothing, for it to be volatile enough to light, is something i did for years in the winter. Never needed to do this with propane/butane "winter mix" gas.

[RIP]

Purely from the weight POV, I take meths (well bio-ethanol) for 2 days and gas for longer capers. Not sure what the exact cut-off point is though. 22g stove and 60ml fuel (two boilings) & container is approx 90g. Coleman F1 77g and c100 at 175g = 252g. 252g would give you about 200ml of ethanol instead, enough for 7 boilings. But the c100 would average 100g half full, equiv to 4 ethanol boils. So more than 4 boils and I'm better off with gas. Are you keeping up at the back Molesworth?

But Stu's stove is WAY more fun than gas, and fun wins for me every time.

Then again in winter would I rather sleep with a gas canister or a meths bottle.

Maybe the Soreen is a simpler option all round after all

[Piemonster]

Much prefer meths, very few scenarios where the extra speed of gas matters to me, although I admit to some having boiled water a few minutes earlier seems to be important. If it's around zero or below (within reason) I'd probably take gas. Above I'd take meths. As above, depends how long you're out for. Yeh you can find meths easy for top ups, but the bottles you find in garages etc are hardly a convenient size.

For what it's worth I have a Caldera Cone which fits perfectly in a Stem Cell completely separating meths and clothing.

[seanroy]

Thanks for all the responses fellas

I ended up buying a 22g meths stove from Stu. Cracking little stove and weighs next to nothing!!

[Mbnut]

I am about to add a meths set up to my existing gas one. Excited.

Can't beat owning even more gear!

I think I prefer the idea of a gas canister rather than a meths bottle up my jumper... looking forward to playing with both.

Always keen to learn, I didn't realise meths would be a bugger to light in the cold... good to know.

[ScotRoutes]

The only time I've failed to light a gas stove it was minus 10c in Braemar and when I opened the valve, the slight hiss was air going into the canister. That was Camping Gaz though. No problems with Butane/Propane mix, though sitting with hands wrapped round the canister can make quite a difference to cooking times.