The folks at Survival Hax asked if they could send me one of their Camping Cooking Kits in exchange for a review on my blog. I wasn’t sure I need a cooking kit because I usually go “stoveless” but since I have been thinking about getting a backpacking stove and may even make one myself, I thought it would be fun to start doing some comparisons.
The kit does total out at 14.9 ounces, which is a bit less than comparable aluminum cook sets. It also comes with some fun accessories to help when cooking up meals if you are getting started in adventures in the great outdoors.
It is designed for 1-2 but I think that you might not actually cook food for two people but if you were just boiling water to rehydrate food you would be fine. The pot holds 3 cups of water and the pan holds about 1 1/2 cups. The lid only fits the pot.
I’m not sure I would use the metal spoon or soup spoon it comes with as I prefer my bamboo spoon, but the spatula is handy and the loofah is light for washing. Everything fits nicely within the pot. You might even be able to stash a MSR pocket rocket in there…
Taking this as an opportunity to experiment with a “cat” stove and fuel tablets, the cook set would help me test how well they would work. I wrote in THIS post about how my friend had bought a Esbit stove set and really enjoyed it. I have been meaning to make a ultralight stove and see if it was something I could end up using in the those times I wanted to heat up water on the trail.
Starting out with an actual cat food can, I made some holes with a large screw but realized it would take more holes than the thin can could handle. So I switched to a canned salmon can and a can opener and that worked much better so the tablets didn’t extinguish when I put the pot on.
I heated water for some purple sweet potato noodles that I had pre-cooked and dehydrated. Both the pot and my little stove worked great for the conditions. That’s to say it was cold enough to start hailing while I was testing this outside. I did manage to get the water warm enough to soak the noodles until done.
As for the pan, I thought I would try an egg.
I tested out using a vitamin bottle to hold the egg in and I think I could hold up to 4 eggs in there.
It worked great for pouring right into the pan. I left it whole for demo but I imagine if I did this in the wilderness, I scramble it.
The egg cooked fine and I was able to “flip” with the bamboo spatula. I would still recommend some kind of butter or oil for cooking even though it says non-stick or you will have to soak the pan after cooking.
Wondering what would happen if the hard plastic handles were exposed to flame, I took a lighter to one of them to see what would happen. They did hold up to direct heat and only began to blacken a bit after a minute or so without actually melting the plastic itself. I think you could use these on an open fire if were careful to keep the flame down. On another note, because the pot and pan are so light, when you open the handles the weight redistributes. The pot did okay with water in it but the pan was a bit awkward with just the egg in it. I found I had to either close the handles or hold onto them while cooking to keep it balanced.
It was a lot of fun testing both the cook set and my homemade stove out. I think the stove would only last through a few meals but I have plenty of those cans to recycle. There will definitely be a windscreen to be made to keep the stove isolated, since it decided to hail and storm during my testing session and I got to see how my stove set up would work under less than ideal situations.
This a fun and practical little kit for car camping or short trips into the wilderness for your weekend warrior backpacker. At the price they are asking, if you only need parts of the kit you could just buy it and substitute your favorite spoon or bowl.
You can find our more about this product and how to purchase it at Survival Hax.
Weights:
14.9 oz with everything and bag, 14.4 w/o the bag.
Pot and lid alone: 6.9 oz
Pan alone: 4 oz
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