Backpacking Cooking Gear

This is my regular cooking gear for walking, backpacking and camping on my own – with a few extras below for camping trips with my wife.

My kit is mainly aimed at “add boiling water” type cooking but I have heated beans or canned food in my mug.

Here is a recent day walk when I used this kit

Lightweight and compact is everything!

This includes the lightest coffee maker I could think of and the very useful Victorinox Camper knife. The knife includes a corkscrew and I have opened a few bottles of wine but its main purpose is for carrying the tin opener, blade and glasses screwdriver.

Cooking

• Alpkit Kraku ultra-lightweight gas stove (45g) and stove bag. I replaced the bag string with high visibility orange cord. The small black bag was always getting misplaced in my tent, now I can find it easily.  (13)
• Two lightweight refillable gas lighters. (24)
• Homemade heavy duty aluminium foil wind shield. Made from a turkey tray bought from a Pound Store. (5)
• Alpkit MytiMug 400 titanium mug and lid. Used primarily as a cooking pot. (2 & 7)

Utensils

• MSR titanium mug with homemade aluminium lid – my original titanium mug. No longer used as the cooking pot but mainly for that hot drink or to rehydrate noodles in. (3 & 8)
• Plastic cutting board. This is a recycled lid from a fruit pot. Some kind of chopping board is often overlooked and having something to cut on saves other bits of kit, lids or plates getting damaged. When it gets too scratched I throw it away and up-cycle another. (4)
• Silicone mug lid/coaster/pot lifter. It keeps flies out of my tea but also protects my groundsheet from a hot pot. (1)
• Alpkit titanium SnapWire folding spoon. (14)
• Victorinox Camper SAK – now with a pen. (26)
• “Camp” folding spoon and knife – I have had this since my Grandparents bought it for me in 1985 and it has been traveling with me since then. I also carry it when at work and have used it many times when staying in hotel rooms.(27)
• Tea strainer/Camp coffee maker. (15)
• GSI pot lifter – a silicon rubber finger protector that allows hot handles to be picked up safely. This is an excellent piece of kit. (12)
• Snow Peak Hot Lips – I do not use it very often but very useful when I make a drink in the mug I used to boil the water. (23)

Washing up and Hygiene

• Purple microfiber cloth for drying up. This was a keyring towel from Go Outdoors – I removed bag and the karabiner and replaced it with a cord loop. (10)
• 1/4 washing up sponge. (17)
• 20ml multi–purpose bio–degradable soap – for washing up, cleaning clothes or person. I decant some into a hotel shampoo bottle. See the details about the soap here. (18)
• Alcohol hand cleaner – hygiene is essential when camp cooking. (11)
• Cut down pieces of kitchen cloths. (16 &19)
• Heavy duty plastic sheet 40 x 25cm. I put this on the ground for making a clean cooking area. (not shown in the photo – but it is below)

Water

• 1l roll up water bottle with sports top for easy, controlled pouring. (9)

Consumables

• 30ml Nalgene bottle of ground coffee. (22)
• Mini tin with Chai tea bags in. (25)
• Two section GSI spice shaker. It is made for salt and pepper, I use it for garam masala and smoked sweet paprika. These are spices that I can simply sprinkle over food to make it more interesting. (21)
• Small pack and tin of tea and other supplies – the details are here. I carry salt and pepper packets in this pack. (20 & 25)

This kit (except the water bottle, wind shield and plastic sheet) packs into the Footloose stuff sack (6). When packed I can also fit a 100g gas canister in the bag.

The Swiss Army knife goes in my pocket

This compact kit is also useful when I am travelling for work or pleasure but staying in a hotel – see my blog post here.

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Follow this link for the weights of this cooking gear, download the free spreadsheet which lists all my current backpacking gear and weights.

Solo backpacking cookset – making early morning coffee with my lightweight backpacking cooking gear
Easter 2016, Lauder, Scotland.

Here are some recent posts about camping coffee:

• Walking along the River Slea
• How to make camping coffee?
• Walking along the River Slea with lightweight gear

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Extras

The above is the “ready to go” backpacking cooking gear, in the photo below is a selection of other camp cooking utensils I carry on longer trips, when camping with the car and when I need extra backpacking cookset gear if friends and family come with me.

• Alpkit titanium MytiPot 900 with lid (900ml)
• Alpkit titanium MytiBowl 600 – (two)
• Light My Fire mug/bowl (350ml) with a lid – (two)
• GSI Infinity Backpacking Mug
• Plastic Light My Fire spork – now replaced with a titanium version

• Sea to Summit alloy spoon – for stirring deep down into the cooking pots
• Short wooden spoon
• Disposable Chinese soup spoon – I just did not throw it away
• Folding knife, fork and spoon set.
• GSI backpacking pepper grinder
• Various Nalgene bottles and pots

• Go Tubbs for herbs and spices.
• Light My Fire three way spice box – smoked paprika, sumac, garam masala.
• “Sushi fish” refilled with dark and light soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, malt vinegar or Worcestershire sauce.
• Small bottle of concentrated washing up liquid.
• The tin with the toucan sticker holds salt, vege Oxo cubes, sauce etc
• Reusable cap for open tins
• Silicone coaster – useful for hot pots, mugs etc and in hotel rooms (two)
• Twig stove, burner adaptor and alcohol gel fuel – stored in an up-cycled hand cleanser bottle.

A reproduction World War 1 Christmas gift tin holding a selection of supplies.

• The Nalgene bottle holds two teaspoons of my favourite barista coffee.
• I refilled the “sushi fish” with vinegar, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce,

This is useful on longer trips or hotel visits.

Some other cooking kit

• British Army steel Crusader mug and a homemade aluminium lid.
• Hardboard base for hot pots and stoves.

The army steel mug is a useful sized cooking pot for two people.

• BCB folding pocket stove with built in wind shield.
• Steel Sierra cup with folding handle and homemade steel lid
• Large steel teaspoon
• The mug is my Alpkit titanium mug (see above)

The stove uses solid or gel fuel and three pots of the gel fuel fit into the stove when folded up. This makes the stove useful for long term storage.

I keep the stove and Sierra cup, with some water and coffee in the boot of my car for unplanned stops. Although the time my gas ran out whilst I was camping in Scotland this stove made a good spare.

• Pocket pot stand for a Trangia burner
• The meths bottle is an up-cycled medicine bottle
• 500ml steel bottle with a stubby cooler jacket

• 750ml Titanium bush pot with a cafetiere plunger

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Previous Backpacking Cookset and lightweight camping cooking utensils

Below are photos of my previous backpacking cooking gear kits – only the photos, no notes for the numbering now, but I have kept the images here as they are listed on Pintrest.