Cooking is passion, duty, art, or random activity. But where does cooking in nature belong ? It can be different for everybody, someone likes to use campfire only while others need some equipment. There are many possibilities but what if they run out ? In this case it is good to have some kind of cooker. Not only for food, but also to boil a water. The cooker is practically a device that provides thermal energy for food or water. Camping stove should be compact for easy carry. An ideal category for those of us, who don´t want use campfire only.
Spirit vs Gas
There are many types of cookers. We could divide them according to type of fuel. We have solid fuel stoves, cookers that use liquid alcohol or gas cookers. Liquid alcohol cookers are not really common and serve more as a back up cookers for survival. It is quite dificult (and comical) to imagine to carry that much of liquid alcohol to be able to cook. However, solid fuel stoves that is something different. This type of fuel can be used not only for cooking but also to start a fire. It might be not as powerful but it offers another advantages such as compact size, etc. The last types are gas stoves and cookers. These seem to be the best option, especially for multi-day trips. However, we should not purchase them without knowing more about them so keep on reading.
Spirit not only for drinking
Spirit cookers are one of the oldest ones. Some might say that it is a waste of good alcohol, but we are smiling. This alcohol, when we talk about its liquid form, is technical, so it is cheap and as a fuel acceptable. These cookers feature reservoir that is filled with alcohol and top part for placing pots and mugs. Just pour the spirit inside and start cooking. The other type is solid fuel stove. It is usually small box with lid that is unfolded into two parts, which serve as legs and at the same time space for storing dishes. The solid fuel is placed in the middle of the bowl. These stoves are great as a back up cookers. They are lightweight, easy to store and not dangerous. We can use them for example when trying to start a fire in our campfire which is the thing we can not do with our gas stove.
We can hear the gas...
The most modern and most widely used cookers for cooking in nature are gas stoves and cookers. Their integral parts are cartridges and burners. Gas cartridge ? Don't worry, they are well thought out items that can handle event harder impacts. We have two types, either those with connection for screw cartridges or those that connect the tube that leads to the burner. It is difficult to say which one is better, although the second version can connect to even larger cartridges. These informations should be sufficient for your best selection. The burner fetures valve to regulate it. It is similar to our kitchen gas stove and we need to mention that it performs almost as well.