Camping cooking and coffee

[fingerpuk]

Hi all.

I don’t camp. Never been into it. But with kids wanting adventure here we are. Buying a roof tent. Fun.

Cooking though, I can get excited by. But there are so many options for gear I’m lost. I need:

A way to boil water quickly so I can make coffee. This will get used more than anything else, love coffee, so happy to spend.

A way to cook sausages. This will get used very rarely, so happy to buy something cheap.

I’ve seen rapid boil things like : https://www.jetboil.com/ which looks very portable.

But I’m open to advice.

What says RTTL?

[Count Steer]

If size and weight isn't a problem (I assume the roof tent is for a vehicle) why go for a lightweight, small bottle burner?

[weeksy]

Generator and Nespresso machine

[MrLongbeard]

and a rocket stove.

[Noggin]

Another plus for the JetBoil. Bloody LOVE mine!! It's only boiled water, so kinda depends what kind of coffee you want to do? They did do a squishy thing (like the pusher in a cafetiere) for them years ago

When I used to go camping by bike, the MOST important thing for me was the ability to have a cup of tea first thing. I could live without breakfast, but not a cup of tea. The Zip was the perfect size for me, could drink it before it went cold!! The bigger one is better for a couple of people, but I struggled to drink a whole 'big' jetboil full of tea before it went cold

It was funny in the mornings after a few meets as there were about 5 of us with jetboils so the rest would wake up to Ed's jetboil being lit (whoosh), then usually mine and a mates (whoosh whoosh), then the other couple (whoosh whoosh) Awesome noise

One of my fondest memories of Mr Tack was seeing him walking around one of the Winter Balls doos carrying a Jetboil cup (think it had tea or coffee in it!!)

[fingerpuk]

If size and weight isn't a problem (I assume the roof tent is for a vehicle) why go for a lightweight, small bottle burner?

Sometimes I may use it on long walks.

[crust]

Keep it nice and simple:

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/dynasty-c ... mc=8657366

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/stainless ... mc=8504347

You could borrow mine to see just how easy it is.

[Count Steer]

If size and weight isn't a problem (I assume the roof tent is for a vehicle) why go for a lightweight, small bottle burner?

Sometimes I may use it on long walks.

I use an MSR Pocket Rocket when weight is the main criteria. (It's another one of those things, the more you pay, the less you get* ). The JetBoil looks neat though.

* Which means the burner weighs a fraction of the gas canister and the water. So, when weight was really, really important...like you have to carry it up a mountain, I took a small water filter and used a stream. If I was in the car I'd take something like Crust suggested).

[Dodgy69]

I've got this one. Very sturdy and boils quick, all wrapped up in a nice little box.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144535778230 ... media=COPY

[dern]

A jetboil is a massive overkill for boiling water but it will do the job.

If you want a bit of 'adventure' and want to gather sticks and make a little fire then one of this is a fun little thing for the kids to think that they're doing something outdoorsy...



It's also good for making coffee with if you're not in a hurry...

coffee.jpeg (413.98 KiB) Viewed 1177 times

You can also cook on that but in a sidewind it's difficult to maintain temperature for the length of time to fry stuff although scrambled eggs, beans, boiling water for noodles are fine. You can stick one of these inside that stove to make a more reliable but less fun source of heat...



The MSR pocket rocket mention above is excellent but not as exciting and you need to make sure that you have gas with you.

An interesting way to make fry ups and bbq is a Lotus Grill which is a self-contained fan powered bbq that we bought a year ago and we really like it.

If you want to go full blown then sitting around a fire waiting 2-3 hours for beef stew to cook while chatting over a JD takes some beating in my experience...

stew1.jpeg (454.85 KiB) Viewed 1177 times

stew2.jpeg (387.97 KiB) Viewed 1177 times

[Count Steer]

We did a week long course on 'mountain skills' at Plas Y Brenin some years ago and, although you could take your own gear, you could use theirs - so I didn't take my own. They were very keen on Trangia. I wish I'd taken my own kit. Trangia is OK but it's very slow and you still have to carry fuel.

(When we were loading up with food for the overnight trip and night navigation exercise, wife says 'we don't need all that!' Ha! Amazing how many calories you need to haul yourself, camping kit etc up and down a few hills. Breakfast was muesli mixed with hot chocolate powder, extra dried fruit, dried milk + hot water...it was ).

[DefTrap]

I tried it with the kids as they were really excited about it. They weren't excited about the reality of British weather camping, getting cold and eating crap food in the rain. We packed up went to the Little Chef to get warm, put the camping gear in the lockup and never mentioned it again.

Maybe with the grandkids .....

[Dodgy69]

A jetboil is a massive overkill for boiling water but it will do the job.

If you want a bit of 'adventure' and want to gather sticks and make a little fire then one of this is a fun little thing for the kids to think that they're doing something outdoorsy...



It's also good for making coffee with if you're not in a hurry...


coffee.jpeg

You can also cook on that but in a sidewind it's difficult to maintain temperature for the length of time to fry stuff although scrambled eggs, beans, boiling water for noodles are fine. You can stick one of these inside that stove to make a more reliable but less fun source of heat...



The MSR pocket rocket mention above is excellent but not as exciting and you need to make sure that you have gas with you.

An interesting way to make fry ups and bbq is a Lotus Grill which is a self-contained fan powered bbq that we bought a year ago and we really like it.

If you want to go full blown then sitting around a fire waiting 2-3 hours for beef stew to cook while chatting over a JD takes some beating in my experience...


stew1.jpeg

stew2.jpeg

Proper cowboy food that.

[dern]

Proper cowboy food that.

It was even really good when I made it again sober

[Trinity765]

Aeropress. I've been using one for a couple of years - every day in the office and I take it on holidays to grantee a good cup anywhere I go. Its been used 100s of times and then thrown in rucksacks so it's pretty robust. Just add coffee and boiling water. The one pictured below is the travel version which is a bit pointless over the standard one as it has a smaller capacity and comes in it's own cup - which is a bit unnecessary. It makes a great cup of coffee similar to an espresso. It's a clean too - it spits out a puck of compressed grounds that are easy to dispose of. There are plenty of videos on Youtube about it.


https://www.aeropress.co.uk/

[Bigyin]

My solution is quite as funky as some of the others but works very well and has done so for the last couple of decades

My old issue mess tins for all purpose cooking



Within the smaller tin is a full brew kit with tea bags, sugar, zippo lighter and small vango burner



screw onto a gas cylinder and water boiling in a couple of minutes or cook anything you like



This was my entire kitchen set up for the 2 and a half weeks away on the bike around Norway. The rucksack had all my food and the cooking kit in it including the seat

[westers151]

Generator and Nespresso machine

[Dodgy69]

Well I must say, I was very pleasantly surprised by the taste and general appearance of my warmed up breakfast this morning.

It's been on It's holidays, then sat on a shelf in the garage for a couple of months, but very tasty it was. It was basically baked beans with sausage and something else that I wasn't very familiar with. One slice of BnB and a little squirt of brown sauce, never red with a half english, just incase I needed to alter the taste, like folk do with fish.

All set for the footy now 11am ko.

[Horse]

Proper cowboy food that.

[CC] on

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

It looks like dog vomit