If you’re car camping, chances are you’ll be cooking on the grill or two burner Coleman Classic Propane Campstove. If so, you’ll want a piece of low-end cookware that can handle heavy loads. Chances are if you’re car camping, you’ll want to show off your backcountry gourmet skills to friends and family. We recommend a durable anodized aluminum cooking pot and a non-stick ceramic pot that can handle subtle changes in temperature for boiling, baking, and drying. Our camping favorites are the GSI Escape Pot + Frypan or the GSI Pinnacles pot set.
If you intend to place your cookware directly in the fire, stainless steel is the only material that manufacturers recommend that can survive that type of flames. The MSR Alpine Stowaway (our best stainless steel pick) is a pot we’d recommend.
If you’re car camping, you’ll probably have multiple burners available and you should get as many pots as you have kindling. You’ll also want plates, bowls, and cups and a frying pan. In this article, we’re only considering cookware, although the GSI Pinnacle cookware set we recommend includes a pot, pan, plates, bowls, and cups.
If you are packing a bike or a bike tour: packing will be the most important thing for you. See our guide to How to Start Bikepacking or ours Cycling Packing List for more information.
What is your budget?
You can find a very light cooking pot out there made of titanium, but aluminum is a little heavier and a heckuva lot more affordable. Anodized aluminum is equally conductive (it’s often used as a material for pots and pans in your kitchen, too). But it can be quite expensive and often comes with a non-stick coating that some people may wish to avoid.
How long does this take? Are you okay with hot spots that change color?
Titanium and aluminum are lightweight, but they can bend, dent, and scratch easily. This may drive some people nuts.
Titanium and stainless steel are sensitive to discoloration in the vicinity of a flame. But stainless steel cookware will survive serious abuse, even if it turns a nice color. Stainless steel is the only material that manufacturers suggest will be safe to put in a fire.
If you know you’re heavy on gear, or you’re backpacking with kids, you might want something heavier, like anodized aluminum or stainless steel. A little tougher but even better for cooking, hard anodized aluminum is durable and resistant to the dents and scratches you might normally experience while camping.
What is your cooking style?
Your cooking style will determine the cookware you choose. While we recommend anodized aluminum for campers, if you know you’re the type of backpacker who makes a backcountry feast, lightweight anodized aluminum cookware will be your best friend. Hard anodized pots take longer to cool than other materials but are less likely to rust.
How important is heat distribution to you?
If you are cooking eggs, fresh meat, or vegetables, go with hard anodized aluminum. Real ingredients (not pre-packaged to be freeze-dried or dehydrated) are very sensitive to temperature changes while cooking and will see how the hard anodized aluminum can spread the heat evenly throughout the pot. Hard anodized aluminum has better heat distribution than other materials, making it better for cooking real ingredients.
Aluminum is the best at conducting heat (think of heating without burning your pan). Even if you’re cooking soup, if it needs to boil, an aluminum pot can handle that task better than titanium (which can cause bits of soup to burn to the bottom of the pot).
If you know that you will be boiling a lot of water in the backyard, titanium cookware is very convenient and will do the job. It is a favorite cooking pot for those who travel fast and light such as hikers, hikers, and cyclists.
How much weight are you willing to carry?
Different people have different willingness to carry weight. That’s why we considered pots of different weights.
As mentioned above, walkers, hikers, and cyclists with quick and easy goals will choose a titanium pot. Titanium cookware is about 45% lighter than steel and stronger than aluminum.
Backpackers and travelers who intend to catch fish or eat mushrooms and fry them may choose a pan that can distribute heat evenly and prevent burnt food, such as anodized aluminum or ceramic. Anodized aluminum is, in our calculations, 150% heavier than a titanium pot of the same size.
Residents who are concerned about durability and price may choose a stainless steel pot. It’s very heavy but will last a long time (and it’s the only thing that can safely go straight through a fire).
Do you avoid teflon? What do you think about non-stick coatings?
Forever chemicals like PFAS and PFCs are found in waterproof outerwear and cookware. Many outdoorsmen are concerned about the potential dangers associated with them non-stick materials such as Teflon. Because of this, REI is PFAS-free cookware and many outdoorsmen are thinking more about their pan coatings.
When you’re at home, it’s easy to avoid scratching Teflon non-stick household cookware. In the backcountry, there is a high chance that scratches will develop during the packing or unpacking phase or as your cookware bounces around in your backpack.
Additionally, the production of non-stick cookware may release permanent chemicals into the environment.
Non-stick ceramic cookware is popular in home cookware and is starting to appear in outdoor cookware as well. Unlike Teflon, non-stick substances from your food are ineffective. This is in contrast to Teflon and other chemical non-stick materials, which some scientists believe may have harmful effects on human health or the environment.
As for Titanium or Stainless Steel cookware, there is no non-stick coating. Don’t expect non-stick to prevent your food from sticking to the floor if you’re doing any real cooking. But then again, you don’t have to worry about the potential health risks from that sticky adhesive, either.