What's your survival cooking set-up?

monster

monster

Joined
Jun 13, 2001
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I use the classic U.S. canteen and stainless cup rig with a small folding burner and fuel tabs. Most of the time when I'm packing I'll just feed small twigs into a fire till the water is hot.

I was wondering what else is out there besides the small gas type burners and what not?
 
It depends what Im cooking. I always make a standard tipi fire. For meat or hotdogs, I'll just use a skewer. For a stew etc., I'll use the pot I made with a wire handle and I hang it over the fire with a stick propped up on 2 forked sticks shoved into the ground. For a quick mug of hot chocolate, if I dont want to build a larger fire, I'll build a tiny one with twigs, put 3 stones roughly the same size around it and put the cup on it.
 
monster said:
I use the classic U.S. canteen and stainless cup rig with a small folding burner and fuel tabs. Most of the time when I'm packing I'll just feed small twigs into a fire till the water is hot.

I was wondering what else is out there besides the small gas type burners and what not?
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http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=288323 I carry one of these trangia burners in my pocket some times. work great for boiling water for coffie or doing raman noodles in GI canteen cup or you have the option of taking the full mess kit wich contains large billy can small pan, alcohol burner, stove,& fuel bottle
 
Posted some reviews last week. It's a pocket rocket or a white box stove for me lately:
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If you are talking survival at home I have a wood stove that can be cooked on, a fire pit with grate and dutch ovens and also my stove is natural gas so while I can't bake on it if the electric is off I can still cook on it.

If you are talking backpacking it depends on what I am eating, the temp and who alls coming.

I like just to cook over the fire using my open country camp boiler you can hang from a bail.

Sometimes I'll bring some alcohol and a pepsi can stove if I have a long way to go and I'll cook over a fire in the evening and use the pepsi can stove for quick coffee.

Then I also have a Sierra Zip woodburning stove that is nice for a few folks and meals that involve a lot of cooking.

Then I also have a Coleman Peak 1 that I take if there's a lot of people coming and we can divvy up fuel or if it is cold and I want to have say hot soup and tea hot at the same time cause it heats so fast. But it weighs a pound so I really have to want to take it.

But most of the time I just use a fire and whatever pots match up with the number of people and what I got to cook.:thumbup: Most of us on these knifey survival stuff love fire building and stuff so getting the cooking over the fire down helps us justify carrying the blades and hatchets:D:p

My buddy Dave roasting a breakfast tortilla as the coffee boils
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Blueberry and cranberry bannock
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The Camp Boiler
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i thought i had a pic of it, but i guess i don't....i got an MSR pocket rocket this past x-mas, i love it.. i used to use an esbit stove and a snow peak solo ti kit.... :D
 
I pretty much only cook water. I have a couple MSR cannister stoves and just bought a couple White Box alcohol stoves (but haven't tried them in the field yet). If the alcohol stoves work OK, I'll leave the MSR's at home. I have a .85 l MSR titanium pot and the 600 ml Snow Peak titanium pot. They replaced an old no name aluminum set. Sometimes I take an insulated plastic mug to make proper filtered coffee.

Generally though I'm only day hiking or doing a single overnight in nice weather and eat cold food and hot tea or coffee.

I also bought a couple Esbit folding stoves but the fuel stinks so much I haven't used them.
 
I am not sure if it is a survival cookset but right now my favorite is a medium size, I don't rmember the exact size, MSR Stowaway pot with a trangia alcohol stove, and potstand nested inside. I like stainless better than aluminum or titanium even though stainless is a bit heavier. Chris
 
A tin can often- my favorite is the one Tuna comes in from Gordon's Food Service. About 2/3 the size of a coffee can.

Also, I have a pot made for me by a good friend from a stainless steel cannister from WalMart. I need a lid for it though...
 
Interesting topic.

Most common material fro cook pots are stainless steel, aluminium and titanium.

Stainless:
* cheap/moderatetly expensive
* tough
* quite imprevious to scratches: can clean with steel wool or sand without trouble, more hygienic
* quite heavy
* moderatly efficient for heat transfer (good for mugs -don't want to burn yourself-, downside for cooking pot)

Aluminium:
* cheap
* not as durable as steel
* light
* very efficient heat transfer
* unpleasant skin contact (I really hate that)
* mildly toxic (???)

Titanium:
* expensive
* tougher than steel but since generally run thinner (for price and weight) equivalent or even comparable to Al
* light
* least efficient heat transfer but since run thinner than steel, maybe equivalent
* pleasant skin contact

Heat tranfer is only a real problem when you have limited fuel (stove or scarce wood supply), if large wood fire you generally keep the fire going for heat and/or light anyway.

My judgement would be:
Steel vs Al: (durability+comfort) vs (weight+HT)
Steel vs Ti: (price+durability) vs (weight++)
Al vs Ti: (price+HT) vs (comfort)

Right now I use the pot from the Swedish Army mess kit: almost 2l Al billy can. Inexpensive, quite durable and not too heavy but quite big for a single person. The US canteen mug is nice too.

Always looking for billy cans which are quite unusual compared to standard mess kits, but I can't find too many. I've converted some standard cans with steel wire but thin wire is too brittle and thicker is annoying to use and store.

Although occasionally useful, I would avoid to use used "canned goods" cans as cooking pots on a regular since they are often coated with material that may be release when heated.
 
I guess in my mind once people start cooking in pots & pans you're no longer surviving - you're camping.

When car camping I use a Coleman fuel stove or a Coleman propane stove with a nesting set of pots & pans by Open Country. I don't really cook over an open fire except for my dutch oven (Lodge) and foil-cooking.

When backpacking or traveling light I use an MSR Dragonfly stove (Coleman fuel) with a GSI Outdoors Bugaboo cookset - usually with a few pots/pans removed from the set to reduce weight.
 
mtnfolk mike said:
i thought i had a pic of it, but i guess i don't....i got an MSR pocket rocket this past x-mas, i love it.. i used to use an esbit stove and a snow peak solo ti kit.... :D
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I was an esbit user until I got my Pocket Rocket. It is an excellent little stove. I still carry an esbit in my daypack and one in a buttpack, with just enough fuel for a hot cup on a cold day. :D

Instead of the single cook pot (USGI canteen cup) that I was using, I picked up a Snow Peak 3 piece SS set and removed the small bowl/dish from it and added a cheap double lip SS camp cup. That gives me 2 pots, 1 lid and the combined weight is about the same as the GI cup by itself.

For food, I have several energy bars, spices, coffee singles, hot cocoa, tea and oatmeal. I buy the 4 serving pouches of Mtn. House and will break them down into individual servings and place the servings into qt. sized HD freezer ziploc bags and then place up to 4 bags into odor and water proof bags. Doing this will allow me to reduce bulk and carry more food, extending my time in the field.

For utinsils, I carry a couple of the LMF Sporkniven and a set of chopsticks.
 
kenk said:
I guess in my mind once people start cooking in pots & pans you're no longer surviving - you're camping.

Survival doesn't necessarily mean hardship. Of course, there are different scenarios that would change up what I would have available to me as far as gear goes, but whether I have a fully stocked backpack, or just my everyday carry personal survival kit, I will be able to make myself comfortable and make the best of whatever situation I'm thrust into. Besides, there is always a can laying around that can become a pot. :D
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I have my BSA cook set that all fits together. It consists of an open pan with handle, small pot with lid and handle, cup, pan w/o handle, and I think that about does it. In conjunction with my fork/knife/spoon set that fits together. I have tried out those home-made alchohol burners. Mine are a set of 7up cans that have turned out fairly well. fits in the pocket until it's ready to use and weighs next to nothing. I prefer an open fire over the alchohol burner, but that's just me. It feels more outdoorsy :).
 
Depends on which kit I have with me, but in every one I have a nalgene nested in a pot/cup. The best is the SnowPeak titanium one, but even the cheap aluminum ones work fine. I keep tinfoil in the bottom for a cover, because it makes more efficient use of the fuel that way. For a stove I keep an Esbit tommycooker in each kit. The military fuel tabs work better than the civilian stuff, so I keep a few handy in each kit. They also make a great emergency firestarter for bad conditions.
 
My usual solo kit is a 600ml titanium pot with a lid and a Brasslite alcohol stove. I also use Esbit stoves and a Coleman F1 butane rig. IMHO, and PSK should include some sort of pot, even if it is an old bean can with a wire bail.

Hard anodized aluminum can be a very good buy and doesn't pit like raw aluminum does. Snow Peak makes good titanium stuff, as does Brasslite. Antigravitygear.com has some good deals on non-stick aluminum pots. Open Country is a decent discount brand. For the ultimate in cheap, you can get a grease pot from Kmart made by Stanco for about $6 and it works like a charm.
 
For pots I switch between a MSR Ti pot and a Zebra SS bail handle one. The MSR Ti pot is great for the lightweight but the handles only afford it to be used on a stove and not a camp fire. The Zebra pot has a bail handle so I can hang it over a camp fire.

The stoves I use are either a cheap cannister stove or a little esbit stove. I've been looking into a MSR pocket rocket or a superfly. I like the pocket rocket for its size but it has a small heat pattern so I would only be able to boil water for dehydrated food. The superfly would be a tad bigger but would allow for throttling of the flame and a wider heat pattern so I could boil and cook real food.

What do yall use for plates/bowls/cups/utensils as well?

The plate I have is an origami bowl that lays flat for a plate or folds into a bowl. The cup is just a nalgene and the utensils are pocket/camp knives and a light my fire spork.

Have any of yall used a squishy bowl from guyout designs?
 
Only have a large Coleman propane stove---for now.

What are the downsides of just a Sterno can and mess kit while traveling light??

Just wondering before I plunk a bunch of cash on a light weight stove.
 
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