Cycling UK Forum

Hi,
I've recently replaced my rather old stove and cook pot set with a nice new Primus ETA Packlite. The new stove boils water so much faster than my old! However it only comes with a single cooking pot (plus another plastic one that is used to protect the non-stick pot when packing things away). I've not really thought about how many cook pots I use when out and about before (I had two plus a lid that could be used as a sort of pan with my old set). So how many pots do you folks tend to use? Will I be able to manage with just the one (perhaps using the plastic pot for food that just need boiling water added...)?

Yes I know I should just try it and see but I thought it would be good fun to see what others do for cooking... Also any good "one pot" recommendations for meals, or web sites that will inspire my rather lack lustre cooking?

Thanks

Andy

Ratatouille is a good one pot recipe.

Cannelloni beans added to chopped onions, tomatoes, courgette and aubergine fried and gently stewed in their own juices makes for a great meal. Not fast but tasty.

I have always used two pans with my trangia. I eat out of the one that I've cooked in while the other pan is heating water for a brew.

I could cope with one pan but see no point in leaving one at home to test the theory.

I have an ETA Paclite. It's absolutely brilliant; can't believe how rapidly it boils, how little gas it uses, and how small it all packs down.

However, I can offer little help because I cope with one pot by cooking tinned soup, tinned chili, tinned baked beans and sausages. I intend to get adventurous by cooking pasta with pesto, chopped peppers, and chorizo on my next trip. I'm a pretty good cook but I can't really be bothered when camping; if I fancy something more refined I'll find a restaurant.

Hi,
Yes I was amazed at how fast the ETA boiled water when I tested it for the first time, so much faster than my old stove... Malaconotus, sounds like when camping we are rather similar when it comes to cooking! The thing is though I do like my tea, so being able to make some without having to wash out the pot would be good, I guess I could just live off food that you just need to "add hot water"!

Thanks for the recipe recommendations so far.I really will give them a go...

Andy

I like proper fresh food on tour. So I need to be able to fry a steak, some fish, of whatever. Sadly many lightweight stoves are only good for boiling water, and many sets of lightweight pots lack a frying pan. My favourite set, therefore, is a Trangia 25 or 27 (depending on whether i am with my wife or alone). It has two pots (one for vegetables, the other for coffee water for after dinner coffee), which is ever so convenient, a decent size frying pan, and the ability to simmer e.g. fish. I use the Trangia pots and the frying pan with the Trangia stove, but the pots and pan can also be bought separately, to be used with a small gas cannister stove. The Trangia HA UL aluminium pots are about as light as similar size titanium pots, but have a better wider shape, and conduct the heat much better, for better real cooking. And they cost so much less.....
Willem

I take a kettle. Everything i cook can be either cooked in it, water boiled for dried stuff, tinned food is heated in the tin directly on the stove - a Markill Ti jobby.

Anything more complex - well i'm on holiday and thats what restaurants are for.

Many campsites in Europe (which is where i do most of my camping these days) have a kitchen often with pots and pans at your disposal so i have sometimes utilised a frying pan on their stoves!

So no cooking pots for me!

Simple for me ... one .

Andrew

I just use a mini-Trangia and kettle: if cooking a complicated meal, I just do one thing at a time and have many courses!

I never like to use the same pan to cook food as I use to boil the water for my tea - I'm very fussy about tea! So its either Trangia with kettle, Primus ETA Express for speedy water boiling and Trangia pan(s) for cooking or Snowpeak titanium panset that I got very cheap in the states. Depends on mood, length of trip and whether my other half is with me. 2 pans that fit inside each other eg Trangia pans take up no more space than one.

pedalsheep wrote:I never like to use the same pan to cook food as I use to boil the water for my tea - I'm very fussy about tea!

Totaly agree with this. I can eat from the pan and can have a cuppa as well.

I use an MSR Alpine 2 pot set (two pots plus lid/frying pan) and an MSR kettle which packs inside the pots. Coupled with a teeny tiny plastic cutting mat, a not-strictly-legal, locking-blade Swiss Army knife, a dwarf wooden spoon and a flat whisk/spatula like this, I can cook (almost) anything! Allright, I exaggerate, but when you're on holiday, why compromise when it comes to food?

I like to cook a decent meal at the end of every days tour - end of



http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=1&page_id=274354&v=g

Hi Folks,
Thanks for the ideas, have enjoyed reading all of them... If anyone has any good pointers to web sites (or books), with good ideas for easy to cook camp food (no matter how many pots they require!), I'd be very interested. I've been experimenting with my new cooking setup and the results so far have been interesting, while my new cooker is great at boiling water very fast, cooking something slowly is a little more tricky!

Thanks again

Andy

Best tip I can give is - constantly switch pots. I cook rice by bringing water/rice up to boiling point, then take off and cover with 'tea cosy' improvised from clothing. Start frying your onions and garlic, mushrooms, tin of toms, paprika, tuna, miso, etc. etc., switching back to heating the rice at frequent intervals. This saves fuel and helps address the slow cooking issue. Lots of foods will continue cooking off the heat like this.

And/or get a stove designed to simmer, e.g. MSR Dragonfly.

And cut stuff up small, esp. spuds!