A cook kit IMO is the one piece of gear that can be changed often. Varies from trip to trip. However, I will use the same shelter & sleeping items (Hammock, tarp, top quilt & under quilt) through a season.

This weekend I weighed, mixed & matched various stove kits. I came up with six different stove kits! What’s a girl to do?! Some women have a closet full of shoes & purses —

Here’s what I put together;
Most of my dinner meals are Mountain house or similar. Breakfast is oatmeal & hot tea/coffee. Usually no cooking for lunch & snacks.

Gatorade Cook Kit
Container w/ cozy, monster pot w/ lid, reflectix band around pot, small piece of foil + cloth, weighs 135 grams or 4 3/4 oz with no stove.

Rollover stove w/ measuring cup (shown in picture) 9grams

Pros: UL, slim, short container will not take up too much space in pack, can use pot to drink from, gatorade container for food. More than enough space in container to re-hydrate most meals if not using pouch food came in.

Cons: smaller pot holds 1.5 cups of water. Normally more water is needed to re-hydrate a meal & have hot beverage at same time. Rollover stove has small fuel capacity.

If I don’t mind boiling two pots of water this kit works well with rollover stove. Perhaps having to refuel depending on weather/wind/temp of water. I can switch out stoves for longer burn times. A mini heat at 34 grams or DIY fancee Feast (less fiddle factor) at 19grams. Still makes a nice lightweight kit!

I drink plenty of 24oz monster drinks so finding a replacement pot when needed won’t be a problem.

Ziploc + 2Go container
In this kit I have a 2cup ziploc container & for the top, a plastic 2Go container snaps on to the ziploc bowl.

Kit weight with no stove & no top cozy: 134 grams – 4 5/8oz
Kit weight with mini heat stove & no top cozy: 168 grams – 5 7/8oz
Kit with stove + top cozy: 180 grams – 6.3oz

In my area of NW Georgia — I’m not convinced that during spring & summer a top cozy is needed. However, I do like the smaller piece of cozy I added to the bottom of the cook pot –makes it easy to hold the pot & drink hot beverages. More than likely when I grab this kit I will not bring the top cozy.

A little breakdown….
In the picture below I’m showing a Smokeeater908 Mini heat stove, with bottle cap & tube in plastic bag weighs 22grams. The pot stand weighs 12grams. (34 grams total for stove)

The container (ziploc bowl w/ 2Go container) is 6″ high and weighs 43 grams – 1.5oz
A kool-aid container for example is 5″ high and weighs 50grams.

The ziploc/2Go container combo is lighter & you benefit with 2 good sized bowls.

Pros: 2 bowls to cook enough food for 2 people. Foster pot holds 2cups of water plus. If using this kit with 2 people — with the mini heat you can keep adding fuel to boil enough water needed for two. Or if re-hydrating a meal that needs 2 cups of water & you want a large hot beverage the mini heat makes it convient to keep the fire burning.

Cons: diameter can be a bit large depending on pack space.

Comparing this with the Gatorade kit above; it’s 1oz lighter (w/o stove) more space to prepare & eat food. However a bit bulkier than the Gatorade container.

Foster Pot 2Go
The contents of this kit is similar to the one above however I used two 2Go containers. This Foster pot is a bit shorter than the one above — it’s measures approx 3.75″

What I did here is cut the rim off one of the 2Go container’s. Put a full cozy wrap around the foster pot. When I transport the kit — the cozy on the beer pot allows the top bowl stay snug.

This gives me a bowl to eat from, a 2nd bowl to mix or use as spoon rest & foster pot to drink hot beverages.

Kits with all pieces no stove weighs 129 grams — 4 1/2ozs
Kits with Zelph Fancee Feast stove weighs 154grams or 5 3/8ozs

Again, I have minimal reflectix on the bowls. For me this is enough around the one bowl to make oatmeal or many times I’ll eat half of a mountain house meal.

Heineken Pot
For me this is a 2 person kit. The large container allows to re-hydrate enough food for 2 people. Large cook pot can boil plenty of water for most meals & hot beverage.

Kit with no stove weighs 158 grams – 5 1/2ozs
Kit with DIY fancee feast stove weighs 176 grams – 6 1/8ozs

Snow Peak 600
This is the only one I’m showing here where I choose to put the pot in a campfire.

Snow peak kit no stove weighs 135 grams or 4 5/8ozs
Snow Peak Kit w/ DIY Fancee Feast Stove 153grams or 5 3/8ozs
Monster pot with cozy 43 grams
2Go bowl 13 grams

More than likely I’d throw in the Monster pot with reflectix band around it before I would bring the bowl. Even with weight penalty. The Monster pot fits inside the Snow Peak – where I would have to find a spot in my pack for the bowl. Plus I like the Monster pot to drink a hot beverage & use Snow Peak to eat from.

I have full size cozy lid on this at the moment. I might change it up to the design in the image below. Instead of a bulky cozy lid. In the example below I cut a circle of reflectix so it sits tight within the outter cozy.

Hope this helps anyone looking to put together a stove kit. I’ve experimented quite a bit by cooking with them at home often — so I know what each kit is capable of, how much fiddle factor or not, or how much volume of food the containers/cook pots can hold. When I decide what kit to use I factor in weather, how much time I’ll be hanging around eating, will I cook in campfire or not or how long the trip is.

The key to keeping a few of my containers lighter is use only what I need when adding a cozy.

Wait?? I only talked about 5 cook kits & mention 6 cook kits when I started the article. My next article I’ll talk about IMUSA pots :)

Thanks for reading & supporting OutdoorTrailGear!

– Claire / Shadowalpha