Solo Cook Sets For Hiking, Bushcraft & Camping - Medium and Light Weight Options

hi guys in this video we're going to talk about solo cook sets as you can see who's made this is the majority of my solo cooks idea we're going to talk about different materials different types of burners different types of fuels different types of cookware such as titanium aluminium we're going to talk about how they all fit together we are also going to talk about compact solutions one the answer compact ones that are good solutions for different types of scenarios and it's going to get a little bit leaky and but that's what we're here to do and hopefully you can take some information away with you so you don't waste money like I've done on trying to find the perfect cook set for your needs and let's go over it each individual piece of equipment first up we have the windscreens and the blue one this one here is the fire maple windscreen and it's aluminium and you can fold it out and it's about six inches six inches tall and it works pretty well the next one is about four inches tall it's kind of robust aluminium foil works quite well it's quite small I would only use this for alcohol burners to be honest the next one is a bit large one this is about seven inches tall and quite steady has a nice big diameter and quite cheap as well folds folds up you can stuff inside pockets very easily you don't wring those there next we have our alcohol burners these are very popular for people who would like to do light weight by weight cooking and they store quite easily in the cook sets on the Left we have the titanium cross stand which is really useful if you want to put them on the different types of alcohol burners because it actually raises the flame up so you get the hotter part of the flame and most of the time this is needed if you don't have some kind of some kind of windscreen that or a pot stand or fire stove that actually helps keep the pot in place above the burn so like say that's the titanium cross stand very very light folds away really good piece Kip here we have the siphon alcohol stove which is also titanium it's really really light and it is a great stove but sadly you can't rest a pot on top of it and still have the burners going you wouldn't need to use the cross down now once it blooms it doesn't really have a really wide flame which is why I like it it has more of a jets that go into the center so this is more suited for smaller pots moving on we have the ever new titanium M alcohol burner and a lot like a transy a stove and but it does have more holes as you can see which is a really good feature because it outputs quite a lot of heat it will cook your food a lot better a lot faster so and you can use this and with a pot on top so if you were to place a a pot the top rings would go out and the outer rings would still burn so if you don't have a pot stand that's pretty handy if you want to get more heat output you would use the cross stand such as like that or you would also go step further and put it inside a bush box and like a portable stove to get the ideal height for the pot now depending on the size of the pot and it does depend on how much heat output it does use and how quickly it cooks your food or boils your water next up we have something called a white box stove and this has been made out of recycled aluminium bottles real lightweight it is quite large but it is quite tall so it's not very sturdy with a large pan with heavy food on there is a huge bloom that comes out of these holes here which is really really good if you want to have a high high output and stove and it does require quite a large and cooking pot so it's not really my first choice and next up we have some simple alcohol burners which I purchased I'll be there as you can see they are very small and because they are so small you're not going to get a lot of the outputs so it's going to take quite a while and be quite prone to some wind okay next up we have the sea2summit Bowl as you can see here and we also have these sea2summit Cup now these are the these are called the X bowl and the ex-cop and these are really quite light for what they are and they pack down to really thin so you can store these pretty much anywhere which is really convenient for cups and bowls and see they come off try this 100 which is a decent sized bowl can fit probably 500 milliliters of water in there which is quite a lot probably more than that and here we have the cup which is a really decent size Club to be honest I like a large cup of tea or coffee so that works really well now we move on to the cup louisette and variety different things here we have a Nesbitt foldaway spoon which as you can see goes over there and then you move along the secure mechanism so it gives a nice and secure really nice fits inside my cook sets very well let's take one of these everywhere and we have the equivalent knife this is a sickle titanium spork bottle up and on the end quite handy and it is a bit longer than most other spoons so you can get into the a dehydrated meal box that that's good here we have a spork and this is very handy if you have nonstick and cookware as all the rest of these would simply scratch it all the time and the nonstick would wear out very lightweight the next up we have a long spoon from sea2summit this is actually aluminium spoon because I've got the titanium version because I thought titanium would be lighter and stronger but actually the aluminium spoon is actually lighter stronger and cheaper so don't get the tighter anyone get the aluminium one next up we have the esbit titanium knife fork and spoon set pretty much you know as he says on the tin comes a little carabiner comes in that tucks away nicely nice and light next up we have a simple measuring device for your alcohol if you decide to use alcohol and there is a very lightweight cop if you want to keep things minimal then that will serve as an excellent inking device for whatever you need next we have the esbit 908 5 milliliter stove and cook sets and i'll open this up later but in this cup set you basically get your cooking pot the lid a Trangia burner and and also a stand for the Trangia bin and something to put your as bit tablets on it's quite handy not really for me I'm not really took it on the field yet I should really should do and do a photo review this lil number is the titanium 1.1 litre pot and this is a good pot it's got its got its quite wide and but the good thing is you can fit the larger gas canisters in we'll go into more details as soon and this is my first choice for any cooking solo trip is the Primus lactic kettle this thing is great and it can hold enough water or food for anything and if you need for a solo solo trip you can fit a large gas canister in there you can store stuff in the bag you can put your stove head in there put the lid on securely really good next we have a simple 450 milliliter titanium cup again it's just a coke you can't really nest anything in there except for anyhow it's set for alcohol burns and fuel next up we have a another cooking pot titanium again this is a 750 milliliter cookie pot comes with a lid and it's really good this is my fist first choice if I'm not too bothered about saving load space inside my pack and it also also fits in a titanium stove head little spoon bit of towel a spork and a small gas canister next up we have a variety of bushcraft essentials bush box outdoor pocket stoves now these come in a lot of different shapes and sizes this one here which I shall check out me later is a the normal outdoor pocket stove here is the ultralight version of the same stove quite a different design and this one is the Excel version this is quite heavy so and I wouldn't really tell this in a solo trip but again we're going to open all this up soon okay now on to buy alcohol storage devices these are basically Nalgene bottles and I think they are 60 milliliters these that is probably 120 and that's probably doubles from 240 these are pretty pretty good for storing alcohol in or other liquid fuels really secure top lightweight choir sturdy bottle you're not going to pop these inside a pack or run into any trouble here we have a Nalgene bottle then I think this is important to include in the kit because we're going to nest these with the devices and you can see exactly how they all go together as you can see here we have Jetboil this is the Jetboil flash I really like this and sadly it's not my fist my first choice for taking on a solo cup set and simply because it's not I don't think that diverse enough really but we'll go into more details soon and back here we have a stainless steel bowl again it's it's really strong but a little bit waiting ok let's get started and I will go off my favorite cooks at the moment which is the Primus lytic trap kettle as you can see comes in a mesh and non mesh side bag which is handy if you have them items such as a spork and they get caught in the mesh but they don't get caught inside let's just check it out of bag you see what it elastics blocking that we have it now this soil cook set has pullout handles which I'm not she's not really keen on this type of handle but it does keep the heat away he's in silicon grips and it is very stay so it's more of a personal preference book here we have the lid which also doubles up as a very small frying pan and let compare it to a Nalgene bottle just so you get a point of reference now it's this will be handy for frying eggs making a little bit scrambled egg maybe the odd sausage or - you mean I have to cut them up before you make them but it's a good backup option and obviously it says the lid and I do believe it is one cup of water in size so you can boil water very quickly or use it the measuring device for the actual kettle itself and all you do with the handle is you squeeze it it goes by now in the in the Primus kettle I do have a gas burner head nice and small doesn't weigh too much use a bit of them and towel to make sure the cord will stick or keeps it our way from the nonstick a little bit of a sponge because you know food sticks no matter what you do or anything like that I've also got a 250 gram and gas canister in here this fits perfectly in this kettle which is what I really like about it and in order to keep the gnostic protected I use some more cloth and that's the inside of the kettle say nonstick if you're out I wouldn't use titanium or metal cutlery on this because all the time it will wear away that's why I use the plastic spork I'm so big enough for that and it has got a pouring pouring spout which does work really well it has got some rings on the bottom which helps conduct heat from alcohol the gas and that worked well as well and yeah so it's just basically just a really good so look set everything fits in there that I need to as you can see nice and easy sponge head box away no rattle + suck very easily this is my first choice when I'm doing a to say one to free free night trip on my own oh if I'm just cooking for myself really good and it's aluminium aluminium nonstick liked very affordable it's not going to bend anytime soon give it quite a bit of abuse it will last and that's what I like about it costs about 27 pounds last time I checked watch even titanium a lot more robust and nonstick so there you go one more thing with the premise my tip trick kettle and sadly it doesn't have a any measurements on it it's not really a problem for me because I always I always measure using Nalgene bottles and obviously it's not always convenient so before you do go on a trip what I'd like to do is pour 2 cups of water in the in the kettle and then to put a little mark on my long spoon or any other device could be a stick from raw we know just to see where it comes up to for 2 cups of water and that way you can quite easily tell how much water's in there and if you've got a dehydrated meal you can basically not you know not ruin it by getting too much water or too little on the boil so that's quite handy so not really a problem if it's no measurement on side as usually around it by using external measuring device algae or using a spoon and see the water level to put a little mark on there okay moving on this is the S bit 750 milliliters titanium cook pot here's the lid with a strainer and also a little catch which keeps the lid upright in case you need to take it off while it's on the burner or in a fire so it's moved to one side secures it move it back so it goes flat and I really like this kind of setup actually because I can fit in a small gas canister which I'll check out a sec it's great for just an overnighter you know to it the most but you want to make and brews and you know meals one gas cans is not really nakata comfortably so inside this pot we have a fold out as bit spoke which is pretty much all you need you're not going to scratch it too badly being titanium so it's fine good use a plastic 1 millimolar also fits in the pot is a van Gogh I think some Bhangra van Gogh ultralight titanium in it let's just fold our lineup I've got a top you burn it there you go quite sturdy it's a bit of a sense of flame but it's not so bad you know it puts my weight in that we also have a little bit of a sponge to help keep it clean we also have the small Jetboil constant which is a 100 gram month or 3.5 3 ounces and bit of towel also comes have this mesh suck which also fits in cutlery down until the pot pockets on the side I really like this setup actually because it's got fold our handles and do get a bit hot on fire obviously we're going to care for and you can use it as a mug quite a live mug I like a logical to so that's not a problem for me and you can also use it in combination with a bowl so you could and make your dehydrated meal first follow water in the bowl then go brew on or you could use in combination with the cup whereas boil water for the brew make a brew and then boil water for your dehydrated meal or even put tin of beans in there bottoms that up so what you can do you can actually drink your brew and have your meal that same time and this is why this is my go-to system really four and one two three nights and simply because I can store a gas in there with the head bit of towel bit of sponge put my collar inside such a compact piece of kit another big plus about this cup is it nests inside a Nalgene bottle very snugly so if you haven't got anything inside it or you pop this separately this keeps it nice and firm in your packs it's not going to so I'm going to bend too much the Condors with a bit of impact so really like this kit very lightweight excellent choice okay moving on we have thee this is the tokes 1.1 litre titanium kettle comes in a nice orange stuff sack which actually seals at the top to keep things secure as a little pouch for spork long spoon cetera I really lose this in the dark programming but it's quite a large excuse me it's quite a large pop a lot like the seven and fifty milliliter wall strainer secure head not uses out the field yet for you different world test just things like that same handles basically like the 750 milliliter bought quite a bit larger now what I like about this pot is you can fit in the larger gas canisters as you can see here and you've also got room for the titanium gas head sponge squat towel and you still going to spare through the bits maybe a big lighter and this works really well with alcohol burns as well that require a bigger flame for scope a wider base which really well with the ebony titanium alcohol stove and you know anything else really so works well and it's quite a quite a large bit of kit and can't really see me using this much maybe if we were doing a dual overnighters so if there's two of us I would pack in large gas canister the stove head and you know to sporks easy it's a really good situation it's a really good piece of equipment to have if there is two of you and to save weight you know using the other party doesn't need to carry a cook set when your gas for two people for overnight maybe maybe two nights for two people obviously titanium my way not very cheap sub-label that is that's titanium for you it's lightweight next up if you are really minimalist and you can just go for the four hundred fifty milliliter and mug this marries up quite well if you just want to take alcohol burns with you take some titanium Avenue clear nice and easy also the siphon totes Brennus also fits in medium size fuel it doesn't come with the lid but you're really needed because it's no small fold our handles nice and lightweight and this actually marries up quite well using the siphon burger and the fuel comes fuel bottle fits in there can also put in windscreen folding spork and you know that's just really much all you need and you can also put in the cross holder just can see here and you've also got room in there for a little bit of sponge and big light it and you know a little tiny things that fit in a nice nice little slot so like say that's if you're really concerned about size and weight and I have done one-nighter in this works perfectly well but it's just the idea that food scenario and you can't really cook a lot in the analysis soup dehydrated food but yeah if you want a minimalist that is the way to go next up we have the S bit cook set now this is compatible with alcohol burners and the S bit M fuel tablets just tip it out for you this is the lid it's quite a nice decent sized lid again it's got these handles not go too keen on bull I can't see any other design they could use that folds away and works so you know that's the best case scenario even though like Elmo submit it is the best one it's not nonstick and so things would would stick but once you've used it all the 10 to 15 times it does get a nice layer on there with resistance to to scratches and stick going further in we have the S bit burner which is a simmering burner and can also be used to extinguish to save fuel it's pretty much as Trangia better but with that a bit and a little slightly different design exactly saying you can leave alcohol in there if you so desire stop also comes with a platform which you can put your as bit tablets on to raise it up to the certain level flipped upside down if you want to raise it down bit or if you want to put the alcohol in the certain height compared to high up setting will just take out the hot Sun this is the pots down it's got feet on there which screw into place and I think they are heat resistant and this goes in here like so putting tablet on there or you would burn it like so and here is the main pot itself again mesh no pockets Todd Lee but here's the main pot it's 800 milliliters marks on the side on the outside of this so you can quietly see how much water's to put in there fold our handles again it's not non-stick just a job quite well fits nice and snug also I'm going to go anywhere and say works with a burn entity it's the right height for their net pour spout good secure handles interlock like that for really secure really secure grip it's nice and lightweight and but to me it's just too many moving parts I mean if you're solely relying on alcohol and not gas or wood and it would be perfect so if you are an alcohol guy or girl then yeah go nuts give it a try it's nice and lightweight next quite easily stirred it I can't bend that much yeah nice is sturdy and I would like to see a bit more wind cover but not a problem windscreen thinning that one or that one will and its large enough there's no problem so that's the S bit cook set and I like setting up a goal to cook set go and highlight time to time fuel when I go just in case okay now we're going to look at the Jetboil flash as you see this the Jetboil fast version it's a really nice compact design and we've got a lid on there which makes sure that you boil the water quicker it's also got a bit of a bowl at the bottom with and some measurements on very basic but very lightweight gets the job done inside the main pop we have a hundred gram gas canister now it only fits a hundred grams in I do believe this diameter so you're welcome to test other ones out but I think it only fits the small versions in now the Jetboil and sumo does fit larger ones in so let my boy for look if you want more gas also in the bottom is the burner itself and it's really quite good actually and the valve folds out for controlling the burn it's not very subtle at a simmer but it's called the Jetboil for a reason and it does have a push button igniter on there as you can see so that's really handy doesn't always work in very windy conditions so it's always good to have a backup lighter but that screws on to the gas canister I've seen really easily nice and snug not going anywhere just fire it up give you give you a look at the flame No as you can see trying to get it down to a simmer then going out is quite difficult so we have it next in the actual pot we have the pot stand now this didn't really come in the older versions of the Jetboil and it's nice to see it's included now annoying into the pot stand is you put the feeds out sorry the pots down bit out and then you rest it on top of the burner and you can lock it in place and the good thing about this is it fits a good size size pots on the that's the adds a big one this is the 1.1 litre and it will heat it up very very quickly so and this is great to have if you have a kind like a frying pan or even a titanium plate you use it a frank belt or even something small like that it does make it quite a lot diverse quite a bit more diverse with the pot holder so that's good I'm going to set that off and then we also have a ball box a hot spot or gas kind of the supports moves out which makes it a bit more sturdy on Spoony ground such as grass pine wood forest things like that it does fit the other size gas canisters so it's okay she brought one spare and then all that's left is the actual pipe itself which screws on nicely once you find the dip screws are nice of time I've got a toppled and then all you do you fill the water up to the to the level that you need or measure it out externally put the gas on click it up and it boils water in most times under four minutes for two cups or sixteen ounces or four hundred and ninety milliliters something like that and it's not my goal to kids simply because it's more of a water boiling device mean the pot stand is a really welcomed addition to it because then you can take another type of top and cook whatever you need on well you are limited to what you can using me I say you can only use gas and you won't have to take another pot along with it to do any other cracker cooking people do cook meals in here or it isn't nonstick and they do always complain of bear marks on the bottom so it's quite easy to ruin your cup and replacement costs about 40 to 50 pounds I say it's not my bottom kit because it's not really diverse enough book if you simply want to make dehydrated meals and make the cups of coffee and tea it is absolutely outstanding excellent it makes it in say four minutes and it's good enough to do for two people as well so that's the Jetboil flash or before we go it also as a temperature reading on side which glows orange went very close to a boil so there we go that's the job oh okay and let's move on to the alcohol burners out I've give these a quick test these smaller core burners and because of the output heat output on them you just take quite a long time to to a boil water with it and put the are very cheap I've got these I'll be there for three to four pounds each and the simple i'll covers that's all they do pretty much this little one came with little pot stand if you want to make quick cup of tea using little mug what like say it will would take quite a long time to boil in your water and they're very prone to wind resistance so and they're not really that great let's be honest so police one side and this we shall look at the white box stove and like i said this is made from recycled an aluminium bottle it till store quite a lot of how go in there you can see a bit of a line here which is just below the outside holes of the jet now this does burn up core quite quickly because of the amount of holes and the size of it and this means it's good if you have large pounds and such as a frying pan or a big pan and it does boil water quickly because of the heat output so if you were to place one of these won't quit wanting to titanium hot on the it would boil water quite quickly and you won't go out one you put the pot on because the outside ring still burns by the inside one just extinguishes so you can use as a box down board because it's tall and not quite a big footprints i would advise against it simply for safety reasons and the good thing about this this white box you can actually book you can nest it a little bit put Nalgene bottles in there such as that that's quite well with a large on that larger now Jane one can also put smaller ones in there such as that or you can put a windscreen when screening the little bit very well actually and you can't believe measuring copy but like see it's not my goal to starve anymore and I try to a few times doesn't really work out for me but saying that it does come in with the weight of 31 grams so that's why it next up we have the siphon stove by toks as I said before the flame doesn't really come out words it kind of comes in words into a jet shaped pattern which makes it a lot better for the smaller pots so which is your 450 ml cup your 750 ml cup or your 1.1 litre pot and it does require some kind of pots done and booked I often put this in my Bush box essentials and stove or fire box or whatever it's called and that keeps it a good amount of distance away not as the pots done simply top put your pot on top of that the siphon stove has a nice weight of 21 grams so that's it's really light and it does hold quite a large amount of alcohol as you can see so that's that's really ideal and another good thing about this is you can nest it with other atoms to save space and you can also put your windscreen in there you could force a smaller bottle in there and things like that this Saipan stove and is is quite good so I would really consider it taking on the taking on a trip because business is so light and you can nest it with certain things and this fits on top of a Luke's air bottle perfectly which I often used for storing alcohol for up to a four to five day trip next up we have the Avenue titanium alcohol burner it's a lot similar to the Trangia burner but isn't have a screw top on or a kind of seal so you can't store the alcohol in it it comes in a very lightweight of 36 grams which is absolutely superb and the good thing about this is you can use it the Pops down as you can see put a hard top sturdy enough and the outer rings will still burn which means it's quite a good scenario if you'd like to simmer things because the heat output will reduce less flames and you'll get a simmer if you did want it to use its it full threat in full flame you can simply put the cross down on and also use as possible see there and this is my go-to burner simply because of the heat output on how you can subtly adjust how much alcohol you're burning it also on this quite well with mini mini fuel and if you didn't want to nest it doesn't really nest that well with that one if you didn't want to nest it you can you can store your windscreen inside and then you can also put your cross down in there as well along with items of cover so it just keep it quite quite nice and compact or you basically startle out but it's such a lightweight option that it really goes well with things such as it fits nicely in the 450 ml cup so if you wanted a really light set up you could put that in there put some alcohol in there window screen cross stand and a few select items of color and it is quite a compact system put some towel in there and some sponge stops and wrapping around that much meat off to the about in this video that's what you can do it also fits quite well with these 7 to 15 mil pop because you can simply put it in pop in screen in plenty of room you know lots of different capital grip one more point about the alcohol bears and a lot of people do moan that you can't screw on the top like you come with a Nesbit sorry trendy r1 and safely set the I'll call later as you can do with this well I have seen it's not really a problem because there's a very simple workaround and to store the alcohol again once the ONS the burner has cooled down basically make sure the flame is completely out safety reasons obviously and unscrew the top of your alcohol take a windscreen or some kind of flat device put it over your pot and simply pull the I'll call back in make sure you get it all out burn off the excess and you save yourself fuel that way you know exactly where alcohol is at all times it's having two devices which the may leak oh that's quick workaround to save some sips and fuel okay let's go over the different types of the cook set I have them and basically depending on what you're going to do where you're going you'll either one the normal way a lightest option and a ultralight option and my normal way one would be the promise and kettle one simply because it's really doubt there she could put it over a fire and use the gaps you could use an alcohol burner and it boils water relatively quickly and it's good for pouring and this one comes in with a full tank of gas I believe under the burner this one weighs in here this one we've units six hundred and fifty two grams which is still pretty lightweight for cook so next we have the light option now this is basically my 750 ml cup titanium small and gas burner head towel sponge and a 100 gram gas canister the live for this is not present to the moment this one under the lid so the lid for that is on now so we'll weigh in and that weighs 357 grams so roughly half of the big-daddy well next up we have the really light option now this basically consists off my 450 ml cup windscreen cross down hot spot not a lot of fuel but like safe it's like a day this is ER and the titanium donut so put all this back in wait in comes to 149 grams now if you really consider my weight that is a really good option for you now with these cook sets and I will often take the cup seats some X cup because it's knife large cup and you can boil your water for a brew drink your brew while you're making food and this weighs in at 61 grams so as you can see you've got three options for a really lightweight setup depending on how long you going for and you've got multiple options if you want to use an open fire if you just want to use gas or alcohol or if you just want to use alcohol so there we have it guys thanks for watching and I understand you got a bit a little bit geeky but and the whole point of this video is to save you time and money so you don't buy the wrong kit and then look for even better kit as I've done alright that's the end of the video so and I hope this is being informative and suddenly you'll never find the perfect cook step depending on your needs because it's all about the scenario the type of fuel the amount of nights you're away and not know one cup set could ever ever fill that need and but it's nice to be able to share with you the experience that I've had with basically find the right size of course that marry up with the right size gas or alcohol and also just to save you money in time because it does cost quite a bit money to investigate all these things and it's always nice to know that you could use a bigger kettle for open fires the smaller ones you can't really use are not as safely and please like and subscribe to this video if you do like it if you don't like it please give it a thumbs down because I need to I need to learn and make better videos and future just make sure you leave me a comment to the bottom way give it thumbs down and thanks for watching

Channel: Gordon's Great Outdoors

Views: 200,168

Rating: 4.7205238 out of 5

Keywords: cookset, cook set, solo cook set, hiking, camping, bushcraft, outdoors, Toaks, Evernew, esbit, Titanium (Chemical Element), Aluminium (Chemical Element), stove, alcohol stoves, titanium stove, alcohol burner

Id: fgjktYJlEDU

Length: 49min 15sec (2955 seconds)

Published: Sat May 02 2015