All The Best Backpacking Cook Kits!

hey everybody devon here with backcountry exposure oh man nice and chilly in the garage today and what better setting than to talk about cook kits and stoves and the different applications of different styles of cook pots and stoves for different styles of cooking in the backcountry and what i mean by that is i've got everything from ultralight really simple basic ideas of alcohol stoves and you're only boiling water to a little bit larger capacity to boil pasta and cook various things in a larger pot to full on like baking and fry pan type of setups over a wood stove or a liquid gas so these are full on pots and stoves that i recommend that i use personally have used for a very long time and i've got links for all of this stuff in the video description as well so what i want to do first is start in the middle of the road and then move to each side of the spectrum of things to consider now if you are new to backpacking you're probably going to be looking for a one liter ish size pot that is going to allow you to boil enough water for potentially you and another person and that's what this new river pot from soto is going to provide this is actually an all-in-one kit meaning that you get the stove and the pot with it at the time of purchase so it's a full setup that is really nice jetboil is another great example of a full setup but i really like the soto products and the soto amicus for a stove and this just works well to be an all contained type of setup now there is an additional piece in here that comes from a gsi pinnacle soloist setup which is another great all-in-one system i like to have this little cup in here to eat out of but also a hot drink and whatnot but this is not required and doesn't come with this particular kit but i've got the new river pot from soto and then the stove that comes with this kit is the amicus stove and this is probably one of the best canister stoves on the market it is lightweight it is super powerful it is not overly loud like the msr pocket rocket which i know is probably the most purchased stove on the market but this is very lightweight it's got the igniter on the side and i still carry a lighter with that regardless but your canister your stove and lighter and everything fits right inside of this pot and so it's all contained and it gives you enough of a capacity to boil enough water for your freeze-dried meals your dehydrated meals for a hot drink and enough for two people in this pot and so moving on one of the like ultimate things that you should consider having in your cook kit is a long handle titanium spoon this is a vargo but these are very generic and they come from a lot of different brands you can get them with a polished bowl that doesn't feel as rough when you're eating i don't really care it's not that big of a deal but this is i don't know 10 12 and absolutely worth the investment because oftentimes all i'm doing is boiling water and then dumping that into a rehydrated bag of food and i like to be able to not have to get my hands dirty with a long-handled titanium spoon and a lot of people like complain about well this doesn't fit inside of my cook pot i don't have i don't have a place to put it that's not an excuse to not have one of these i put this in my food bag and it does the job like my food bag is wide enough big enough for this to just fall right into it and then i got to get into my food bag anyway to eat so this doesn't have to collapse or go into my cook hit for me to consider taking it so definitely worth that and that applies to the whole spectrum of cook kits here as well so let's talk about some of the more ultralight type of setups that i've got here and these can be alcohol as well as canister stoves now one of the most popular backpacking stoves on the market is a stove you can get from amazon which is the brs 3000t it's like 12 and it is very similar to the uh ali camp ion micro that i have here in my hand just a super small little tiny stove that works well for really small pots and so what i have here is the soto thermal stack and what i love about this is got enough capacity for two cups of water to go into majority of freeze-dried meal bags and then i can use this as a double wall insulated mug because i've got this cool lid system and i've got the little pot grabber that comes with it but i can have a warm drink in a mug as well as boil enough water on a small stove that is lightweight i can even bring just this little guy and it's going to do the trick for majority of the trips that i go on if i want to be very simple and basic in my cooking so that is the sodo thermostat in a tiny little stove canister stove system but if you want to move to a little bit more complicated i guess you could say it has a little bit larger learning curve is to go to different types of alcohol stove setups now the benefit of alcohol is you don't have the noise of a canister stove and you're not carrying the added weight of a canister with your backpack because when this is empty you still have all of the weight of this metal which is not that big of a deal people talk about it like it's the end of the world and it's absolutely not the end of the world for you to carry a little bit of extra weight i mean it's what two ounces i don't even know but it's not that big of a deal however this is bulk and when it is empty like yeah that is just extra weight and stuff that you are carrying so an alcohol stove system is super basic and the biggest benefit to the alcohol and it's cold in here the biggest benefit to the alcohol system is i have availability of different types of fuel wherever i go i can get alcohol like yellow bottle heat from any kind of grocery store or gas station you're going to be able to find that stuff an alcohol system is going to be super lightweight very simple and basic and that's what i really like about alcohol stoves and it took me a while to come around to it but here is my fuel bottle options depending on what type of setup you go from so i mean consider that difference right there you've got a little tiny bottle that is very lightweight easy to refill and i'm not wasting canisters when they are empty this little stove is the cogent stove from trail designs and it goes and pairs with the trail designs caldera cone which is a built-in like pot stand and a windscreen for your alcohol system so i really like this because it makes it for a really efficient boil on your cooking so yes alcohol is going to take longer for you to get a boil what i have here is the tocs 700 milliliter pot and that goes in this fitted caldera cone when you order it and it's a really cool system so i've got the pot stand everything in there my stove just goes in under there and it's lightweight the only big downside to this is it's kind of a bulky setup so when i show you this setup that i've got here i've kind of moved to this more so lately than i have the caldera cone even though i really like this application so very lightweight very efficient and a great way to go i've got the tocs 700 milliliter here and then i've got the tocs 550 milliliter and this is the batch stoves gram weenie pro this is a super tiny just handmade very very lightweight alcohol stove that is also a built-in pot stand i always carry a lighter with all of my cook systems and so i fill this up with the alcohol and then i am able to just place my pot right on top of that i've got this really lightweight simple vargo windscreen that wraps around and you notice when i was pulling this out all of this stuff the stove the windscreen and the lighter fit inside of this little tiny 550 milliliter pot so what's the pros and the cons of this type of setup well this is going to be for somebody that wants to be very basic and quick and simple in their cooking all i'm doing is boiling water with this i don't have any other agenda i'm not trying to cook fancy meals i am filling this with as much as two cups of water putting it into a freeze-dried meal and then i am letting that rehydrate and all of that to have a very simple meal so 550 milliliters it's super lightweight it's a very basic cooking setup but it doesn't allow for a lot of variety and cooking which i think for most people is kind of the way that they want to go in their backpacking because it's daunting to take a lot of stuff and not have the know-how i guess you could say being able to cook fancier meals like you would do at home and so that's the benefit of having a freeze-dried meal so you can do the same thing with this 700 milliliter which is just a wider base and different types of alcohol stoves and setups are going to allow for a quicker boil based off of the size of this pot versus this surface area science all of that is pretty cool in fact spagyver backpacking has a full really cool series of testing different alcohol stoves that i definitely recommend checking out so that is like the basic rundown of various alcohol setups but again these are all different types of setups and kits that i really enjoy that are simple and apply to basic cooking in the backcountry now when things get a little bit more complicated is when you start adding the idea and the concept of cooking more gourmet meals in the backcountry i may take fresh vegetables and meat with me and cook that i am planning to go to the lake and catch a fish and i'm gonna catch that fish and cook it over a fire or i'm gonna do it in my fry pan and so there's a lot of different options for that the biggest thing to know about jumping into the world of more gourmet cooking is you're adding a lot of weight and bulk to your setup so what i have here is a brand new not even opened yet firebox eight inch frypan kit but then my tried and true my absolute favorite the fry bake from frybake this is the eight inch alpine deep so different types of applications but when you compare this to this kind of setup like look how tiny this is compared to what i have here in front of me so it all depends on what you're trying to accomplish with your cooking and honestly i love i love taking this with me and i have done like cinnamon rolls in the backcountry i have done eggs and potatoes and bacon i've made calzones and pizzas and just delicious delicious meals out of this but the weight and bulk of this is a lot more than these other systems and i think that's where people gravitate towards this because it's not as daunting and it's not as much to worry about in the backcountry until you start experimenting and trying it for yourself which is a lot of fun so the fry pan we've got the fry bake which allows for baking and then this firebox system is super super cool this was my black friday purchase and i'm excited to start trying it out but it's still got like the tags and everything on here but this is just a different type of frypan system that i can use over a wood stove or just a fire and i've got a plate to eat out of and that kind of thing so that is the one benefit over the fry bake is not always is this lid awesome to eat out of or use as a cutting board that kind of thing but these are taking your cooking to the next level where you're going to use a little bit different types of cooking systems so i could use a stove like the soda windmaster which is a fantastic canister stove something that has a wider base to it that allows for i mean this doesn't have the pot stand on it right now but it has a bigger burner a wider base to it so it allows for a lot of surface area to be covered on the bottom of your fry pan which is the downside of going with a really tiny little stove where'd it go where's that stove here we go like this one that the burner is just so small that you're just gonna scorch right on the bottom of the pot so with these bigger burner wood stove or canister stove or moving into a liquid feed stove like the msr whisper light oh man this is just a gold mine of a stove right here yeah it's bulky and heavy and a beast but i'll tell you what i have cooked some of the best meals in the backcountry on this stove right here so yeah you're adding weight and bulk with a liquid fuel canister which is similar in concept to an alcohol stove i'm not carrying a canister that is disposable i'm refilling a fuel bottle i've got a pump that goes inside of here and the biggest benefit of this setup is compared to a canister stove like these i'm not worried about uh the cold causing an effect on how this performs in really cold weather so the biggest benefit of your liquid feed stove is this is going to perform really well in four season settings i've got that type of setup that is just gonna crank nice and awesome on a pot here and a fry pan and i can cook my fish my potatoes my squash my fresh vegetables anything in here that you would do in a fry pan saute things and just make amazing delicious meals in the backcountry now i can go even more simple than that and use a wood burning stove so a twig stove i'm feeding wood into the stove here cooking over a fire i can do that over a fire that i make around like a big fire ring but this is a really great setup that's not overly heavy not overly bulky but allows for a really simple cool backcountry type of setting for you to cook really great meals on so this is man just the gamut of awesomeness when it comes to cooking it all depends on what you're trying to accomplish out there in the backcountry there's so many great options so many great things that you can cook you've got freeze-dried meals that will do the job and for hundreds and thousands of people out there backpacking it's great and it does exactly what it needs to do you move all the way over here to this kind of setup where you may be making a dough from scratch and cinnamon rolls or like all sorts of different kinds of things that just the the options are endless of great food that you can eat in the backcountry but the biggest thing to take away from this is your cook system needs to support the type of cooking that you are planning to do if all you are doing is boiling water go super simple lightweight with enough capacity for your coffee your hot cocoa and to accomplish what your freeze-dried meals need to rehydrate other than that start playing around and just get out there and enjoy different types of cooking in the backcountry curious what you guys love to take with you what your system is leave comments down in the comment section appreciate you guys watching today if you're not subscribed to the channel please do subscribe hope you have an awesome day catch you in the next video see you later [Music] you

Channel: Backcountry Exposure

Views: 11,080

Rating: 4.8971963 out of 5

Keywords: backpacking, backpacking cooking, ultralight backpacking, backpacking gear, cook kits for hiking, msr, soto, windmaster, firebox stove, bushcraft, alcohol stove, ultralight hiking, fry bake, camping stove, hiking, outdoors, adventure, toaks

Id: U-GazSrjMs8

Length: 17min 45sec (1065 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 21 2020