# Survival > Survival Kits & Survival Products >  How big a pot and how many pots?

## Tokwan

When you pack your bag, what is the usual size of the pot u are packing and usually how many pots.
I am using either the Trangias or the Esbits and wondering if there are any better ideas or pots?
I am more concern about the sizes.

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## Rick

The only thing I usually care are two canteen cups and a U.S. G.I. mess kit. There are lighter alternatives but those have served me well for a long time. I have tried other cook pots but always return to the military stuff.

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## hunter63

My go to is the GI canteen/cup/stove.....and have added a Billy pot...or know as a corn broiler....6" steel fry pan.

Or

Full blown cast iron set, enameled plate bowls cup etc......

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## TXyakr

IMO “cook pot selection” depends on many factors that include the type of camping trip, number of people, stove type, climate, food choices, and obviously personal preference.  I have over 20 different camping cook pots and a several pans (don’t tell my wife, she may go ballistic). However, many of mine are from thrift shops and yard sales, only a few are titanium from REI etc.

For me: Snow Peak 900ml works well for 2 people but there are smaller and cheaper from brands that include:

http://www.keith-ti.com/en
http://toaksoutdoor.com

Also from Hong Kong there are cheap alternatives from DX dot com but these are not always the lowest price and quality can be poor so shop around, buyer beware.

If you are new to Wood Stoves, I recommend buying a cheap aluminum or SS pot used from a Thrift Store. Don’t obsess about the soot it only improves the efficiency of the cook pot, just take care in handling and packing it. Wrap in Reflectix cozy or whatever.

One other pot I often use is wide and shallow, so it works well for frying fish etc. From Brunton but other brands are fine.  (This one was sold to me by a friend who owns an online camping supply store.) Includes nesting 2nd pot, pot cozy neoprene insulator, and detachable handle. I also have an REI brand 3 pot/3 pan nesting aluminum pan set with detachable handles. Alcohol or canister stoves fit inside almost all of my camping cook pots. Canister stoves or white gas are either a requirement or strongly encouraged by Rangers during burn bans in western wilderness areas. Wood fires and Alcohol stoves may be highly restricted or banned, and canisters do not work well if temps are well below freezing. This can influence your pot choice for a particular trip. (both metal and organic if you have THOSE types of traveling companions, mostly I avoid those types of folks.)

At local thrift shops I am always on the lookout for Paul Revere brand or similar Stainless Steel with copper/brass bottom small pots or pans because these are very efficient on fuel and time but expensive to purchase new. (Not idea for backpacking obviously.) Also Cast Iron Dutch Ovens and fry pans, all mine I purchased new but used is good if you know what to look for.

The most difficult thing about buying used is a matching lid. As the Afghanistan people say a “widow who has lost her soldier husband is like a pot without a lid.” Very sad. Even a $2 silicon lid from a pet supply store works for backpacking, or 2nd pot or pan inverted. Glove, shammy towel, neoprene, silicone pad or whatever as hot pad. (I did NOT mean to imply that an Afghanistan soldier was like a $2 pet food lid, please do NOT misquote me. I have much respect for those soldiers defending their land from extremists who are destroying it.)

Edit: I also have a heavy cast aluminum pan with non-stick ceramic, "Green pan" that I got for under $2 at a Thrift Shop. It works well for frying fish when canoe camping like during the white bass spawn a few weeks from now.

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## kyratshooter

Like Hunter, I have been a reenactor for many years and we get into the best of both worlds.  

I have a full camp kitchen with 4 nesting cast iron dutch ovens, cast iron skillets and hand forged campfire gear, all of which requires helper springs under the Cherokee and heavy duty tires on the cargo trailer.

I also have 18th century trekking gear in plenty, which is mostly nesting tin-ware with a 1 quart pot being home for the 1 pint tin cup and the deep sided lid of the 1qt pot also being a serving bowl.  there is a 6" skillet with folding handle that goes with that set too.

Strangely enough in the modern world much of that transfers and I favor a one pound coffee can as my primary hiking cookware with a smaller tin cup nesting inside.  Winnie gave me a spork a couple of years ago and I have made good use of that device too.

When camping out of the vehicle I take whatever I feel I need from the kitchen, although I do prefer the enameled sheet steel skillets and pots just for the "outdoorsy" feel they give the camp.

I also have the echo of my mom's words in the back of my head; "You can cook a little bit in a big pot but its hard to cook a lot in a little pot."  Good advice when camping with a group, and more of my efforts are now group camps, either family or friends.

The 32 cup coffee pot is a must as well as the smaller 12 cup unit.  The big pot is for hot water near the fire at all times and the smaller coffee pots get rotated in and out of the fire at a rate dependent on how many people are standing around talking.

I will also use disposable cups, plates and utensils whenever possible because I am a lazy rascal and do not like to wash dishes.

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## TXyakr

Baking outdoors: I have recently experimented with primitive baking, the easiest methods are probably with a Dutch oven that is preheated and then to use small balls of dough that have been pre-chilled in snow or ice.  Therefore winter time of year is ideal for this. My mother baked loaf yeast breads on a clay stove my father built on a crude table top constructed of sapling tree trunks, she used aluminum pots and wood as a fuel. Not as simple as bannock bread on a stick over a fire but it taste much better. I have tried cookie and various biscuit mixes in Dutch ovens, these will go flat if the oven is not preheated and small dough balls are not very cold.  Next is to try much lighter weight pots surrounded by heated rocks, or cardboard coated in aluminum foil over a small camp stove. Or just a small oven constructed of clay and/or stones and use wood fire coals. The variety of dry dough mixes is unlimited: leavened or just with baking powder etc. Ideally it would be backpackable, or canoeable not requiring an MRAP transport vehicle. One friend of mine often does canoe with 2 large Dutch ovens in his 17 foot solo canoe in this region and 16 foot solo raft on the mid Salmon in Idaho.  I call them boat anchors. He calls them essential gear. LOL Hit a sharp or hard rock and all is lost very quickly.

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## hunter63

We do a lot of baking in Dutch ovens.

Secret is to have a trivet on the bottom inside the DO or in our case a hand full of like sized gravel, a pie pan for the bread, pies, corn bread.
Actually the same gravel has been in there for 20 plus years.....LOL

I place a preheated DO in a 16" cast iron fry pan set on a trivet....filled with coals (or charcoal)......put bread in pan, into oven, then cover up then shovel coal on top.(or charcoal).
Don't put in DO over fire unless you are doing stew, soups, etc.......Baking no.

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## TXyakr

hunter63 gravel is great idea! I never considered it. I had tried inverted disposable aluminum pie pan, and also cut and folded a pizza pan etc even double layered cookies which was a bad idea because bottom layer baked faster (in a deep DO). Mostly use parchment paper to save time. Bottom line best to minimize empty space and seal tightly. I agree use coals below and above, there are charts online to give estimates on temperature based on rough number of coals and size of DO but best to experiment because how much food, moisture content etc are additional variables, how many times you open how many DO and pans are stacked, if DO(s) are in feed pan to buffer wind and reflect heat back etc. I can cook/bake/roast with just about anything outdoors but cast iron is the most fun if I have the time. Virtually anything that fits can be cooked in one.

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## TXyakr

Here is a simple cheap idea I had with an aluminum "grease pot" (1.5 quart) and canister fuel that fits completely inside it which can be found at most local Wal-Mart stores for about $15, or extra $30 for the stove. Good to know if something ever happens to your primary cooking setup and you need a quick cheap replacement and are near some small town with a WM. Add some instant mash potatoes or rice, trap or shoot some squirrels or rabbits and you have a quick "shepherd's pie". Can of vegetables if your wife insists on it.

cookpot.jpg

Edit: Personally this would not be my first choice, I am not a big fan of Coleman or Imusa.

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## randyt

I use a mors bushpot, sometimes a canteen cut and a 6 inch carbon steel skillet.

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## Tokwan

Reason I am asking is I have a few cooksets. I sometimes do not know which one to pack. I do love the old GI mess tins ( a pair) and the water bottle and cup. But sometimes, I was thinking that if I have one big pot, then my cooking is limited to one. I might need one big pot and one small pot...then the packing comes into play. I want to save space and weight. I would put the smaller pot into the big pot, and all the food in there too....sometimes, I just couldn't make up my mind..its when , where and how you are.....but sometimes, it just kicks you in the butt for bringing the wrong set. DILEMMA!!!!!!

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## Tokwan

The ego of having the branded and expensive cook sets, and then opting them out and going for the old GI mess tins and cup...really hurts your ego.........sigh!!!!

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## Batch

I have a kit that has a frying panish size nestled in a bigger pot. It is a cheapo kit that came with two plastic coffee cups. I have a stove that nestles into that same rig. That was my original back pack set and it is still just as functional. I have a jetboil also. I have a billy can style pot. 

For big camping trips I vary between my expanded metal grill over a fire with a cheap skillet. My cast iron. I also have a 3 burner propane Camp Chef Big Gas Grill with the grill and the 16" X 37" cast iron griddle top. 

It depends on if it just me. My brother Sean and I.  Or, if we start getting bigger crews.

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## Winnie

It would seem the mess tins win out. I have a nice nesting billy tin set and I may even get round to using it, but I usually pack just the mess tin and a metal cup.

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## kyratshooter

One of my favorite sets is the result of being a cheapskate.

I found a set of kitchen canisters made from spun aluminum, without seams.

A simple installation of wire bails provided me with a set of 4 nesting pots/cups with lids that has proven very versatile over the years.  

I do not pay much attention to the name stamped on the cookware.  It's all going to be set in the middle of the fire to boil water for rehydration of meals or coffee.  That does not require a $100 pot!

It's also the reason I horde 1 pound coffee cans.

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## TXyakr

> Reason I am asking is I have a few cooksets. I sometimes do not know which one to pack. I do love the old GI mess tins ( a pair) and the water bottle and cup. But sometimes, I was thinking that if I have one big pot, then my cooking is limited to one. I might need one big pot and one small pot...then the packing comes into play. I want to save space and weight. I would put the smaller pot into the big pot, and all the food in there too....sometimes, I just couldn't make up my mind..its when , where and how you are.....but sometimes, it just kicks you in the butt for bringing the wrong set. DILEMMA!!!!!!


Typically I try to plan the food for a trip by the weekend before at the latest so I have a good idea of what pot(s) I will need to cook the various meals in. I also take enough protein (meats and beans etc) even if the fishing, hunting and foraging is expected to be very good. If I bring back lots of food (often do, sometimes pounds of frozen chicken on primitive canoe trips) then that is just fine. I prefer to just extended the trip but other people generally veto that. If not cooking a gourmet meal that requires multiple pots, I may use the 2nd/3rd to boil water by the fire or settle out sediments with alum/sulfate or something. I added some photos of some 59 cent to $1.79 pots that nest inside each other (from Thrift Store). These can be packed with food (instant/minute rice or noodles etc.) or a stove and fuel or whatever as well. The cost does not need to be high. I never assume that I cleaned them well enough to keep near my shelter so put in a bag and hang from a tree when I go to sleep, thus I am not fond of the idea of keeping my food cook pot with my water container. Raccoons like to carry off these things. If I loose my cook pot and stove I can survive without these, but that would really bite. No water container and I might die.

Once a raccoon removed the lid of a very large 16 or 20" D.O. a friend had left out overnight without cleaning.

Pots1Nested.jpg

Pots2Display.jpg

pots3nestTopView.jpg

Stanley small stainless steel pot (Wal-Mart or sports store) is my one person option when camping out of a very small white water kayak, weight not an issue but space a premium. This is not as easily crushed as aluminum or titanium. Plastic nesting cups it comes with are fairly useless, better to fill with alky stove and dry food or fuel. WW yak because it is a lot more fun than open canoe or raft, difference between Testarossa and Pickup Truck.

Edit: it is a little dangerous in a tent one of reasons I prefer tarps,  but you can use an extra pot with small tea or similar candles (citronella), solid fuel tablets or coals to reduce the moisture and insects in your shelter even (especially) when you are not there i.e. cooking breakfast or whatever. Especially if in a 3 season tent put stone or wood under the pot or you could burn a hole in the bottom.  Not advisable in most nylon tents especially if you are sleeping in there at the same time. Probably my last choice of shelter.

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## randyt

here's my mors pot getting broke in.

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## Old Professor

Sportsmans Guide.com has Czech military surplus mess kits on sale, two for $18. A big pot, a small pot(nesting and a plate/bowl).  Not the smallest kit I have seen but I no longer back pack, so it should work fine.

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## xjosh40x

I got with my canteen cup and G.I. Mess Kit. Sometimes if I feel like hearing the clang I'll strap on a 8" boiling pot I have had for years. My mom got a new pot set and I got one if the old ones and used to cook soups and such in it as a kid in my clubhouse and still have it today.

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## Adventure Wolf

I have a Stansports pot I use when I go camping. It's stainless steel, and I bought it from a Kmart awhile back. It's a 3/4 liter pot. It's big enough that it can make soup for me and a companion.

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## Tristar777

Hi.  I don't "cook" when Im out so I can get by with a canteen cup on its own.  I do have an MSR stowaway 775ml size that also doubles as a PSK carrier so that too is often with me or a SAS evasion pouch that holds a mess tin but that's about it!

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## finallyME

If I am car camping, then I bring a dutch oven and maybe a big pot.  However, if I am backpacking, then I only bring a small pot, about a liter.  Since I am generally with a group, we split either one or two jetboil parts up: someone takes the stove, someone the pot, someone the fuel.....We use a 1.5 liter pot for the group jetboil.  We don't cook, just add boiling water to dehydrated food.  We also don't drink coffee, but sometimes hot chocolate.  Everyone brings a 1 liter pot and a plastic mug.

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## Traditionalist

Canteen cup and usgi mess kit for me, inside the mess kit I keep a msr micro rocket, a case hobo tool and a few instant coffee, salt, pepper, tea packets

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## Traditionalist

If I'm with a group of my friends we usually bring a cast iron dutch oven pot and tripod, and we carry them 3 miles to our usual campsite

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## Davidlastink

Never did any big cooking... Camping...... I try not to bring a kitchen.

Depending where you are large leaves, banna etc, or even just some good wax/parchment and aluminum foil. Season to taste add a small amount of oil, fat, butter, what ever you have. Bury under coals.

Any boiling is just done in canteen/gi cup. 

Different strokes and all. When I was small my father did bring along a coleman type stove / pot set with canister gas, always ended up cooking on the fire sometimes borrowing the grill grate from it.

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## Grizz123

I've heard of people using pressure cookers on open fires and watched some youtube on the subject, anybody here try that?

I'm interested because it seems like a great way to thoroughly cook anything, quickly. It will kill any no-see-ems and save on firewood plus the food taste great.

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## Rick

I have not tried that. I would think you'd have to be ever vigilant lest the pressure gets too high. Then you won't know whether to grab it off the fire or run like mad.

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## kyratshooter

Both of my grandmothers used a pressure cooker on the wood fired kitchen cook stove.  It might as well have been an open campfire.  

I can still remember being banned from the kitchen because apparently they were cooking a bomb and it was expected to blow at any moment.

BTW, I now know there is a pressure release valve that hopefully releases any unwanted build up.

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## Grizz123

> I have not tried that. I would think you'd have to be ever vigilant lest the pressure gets too high. Then you won't know whether to grab it off the fire or run like mad.


Many of the pressure cookers I've seen have a pressure relief valve (some are adjustable) and I've seen a pressure gauge on one. I have a big one I use in the house for canning and soon I will be cooking with it (I've been talking about cooking with it for close to a year now, UGH!!). I think pushing coals around a pot in a open fire wold work as long as you had the valve working and didn't try to blow it up.

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## Rick

Ask Nell about those pressure relief valves. I'm sure she'll chime in here.

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## Davidlastink

problem with pressure valves is making sure they stay clean. A fouled up valve can impede flow and thus cause over pressuring of the container, resulting in catastrophic results.

Also if you buy pressure cookers the FBI will tag you and put you on a watch list.

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## kyratshooter

> Also if you buy pressure cookers the FBI will tag you and put you on a watch list.


How are they going to do that?

Have they tagged every home canner in the US?

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## Rick

I think there's a "bazinga" on the end of that sentence.

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## Tokwan

Pressure cooker...? Love them but would not back pack them..and I work in a pressure cooker company...muahahahahahaha

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## Rick

Really? I'll bet you are under a lot of.....wait for it......pressure in your job. (I slay myself).

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## hunter63

> Pressure cooker...? Love them but would not back pack them..and I work in a pressure cooker company...muahahahahahaha


I guess they gotta come from somewhere.....

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## Davidlastink

> How are they going to do that?
> 
> Have they tagged every home canner in the US?


lol.

Not a serious statement, sorry if it came across as that, humor is hard to convey through text alone.

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## TXyakr

I purchased a 6 Quart Pressure Cooker at a Thrift Store but the Pressure Regulator was missing and it needed a new gasket so I told them I would only pay $9 for it, they wanted $15, new these are about $40 or more and the new ones in stores are not as good IMO. Personally I am skeptical the FBI tracks this information, but if they do "good luck with that" put me on the list. There are ton of these at yard sales all over the country ha ha ha. Perhaps they track BBs and thumbtacks ha ha ha…

https://www.gopresto.com/products/pr...?stock=01/PCA6

"Parts is parts"

Now does the FBI track acid tone and peroxide? and people forming crystals in their refigerators? Seriously…

All the women buying finger nail polish removal and hair bleach, how many of them are fixin' to blow up something. ha ha ha

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## Rick

Normally, they don't. But when they see all those red flag words in a post they do take interest. You might want to have your wife answer the door for a while.

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## TXyakr

> Normally, they don't. But when they see all those red flag words in a post they do take interest. You might want to have your wife answer the door for a while.


They've know me for many years, next time I go skeet shooting with them they'll probably laugh, especially at all the red herrings I included in that post. Assuming I remember to show them the post.

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## edr730

Pressure cookers spit and sputter and they let you know when to adjust the temperature. I have to adjust mine a few times when I cook on my gas stove. I've used my wood stove but never tried a camp fire. I can't see much difference. I'd prefer a tall tripod on a campfire, but you do what ya gotta do.

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## TXyakr

Pressure cookers are typically thicker metal than most camping pots so not ideal for backpacking obviously but for other types of camping like car camping, canoe, horse, ATV they may make sense because they cook stuff faster and thus use less fuel. This is especially true of items like beans (not instant) and wild game that is tough.

here are some recipes from Pesto:

https://gopresto.com/recipes/index.php

Just pressure cooker recipes from presto:

https://gopresto.com/recipes/pressurecooking/index.php

As a kid when we lived for months in very primitive places my mother would cook beans, rice and wild game in a pressure cooker mostly over a wood stove but occasionally used butane (which was scarce, flown in by small plane). One other advantage was that after she removed some meat, she could reheat it thus killing the bacteria and reseal the lid and sorta pot the meat with the beans and rice for a meal the next day. (We had no refrigeration.) After about the 3rd day the meat would get very stringy and lose almost all flavor. So we would REALLY be looking forward to a successful hunt or fishing trip, or be thinking about killing a chicken or duck from the village. Beans and rice with no meat gets really old after a week or two. I'm just sayin'.

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## Davidlastink

I know there are dry methods for slow cooking but has anyone tried dry methods for pressure cooking?

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## hayshaker

beans and rice with lechon for supper to nite.

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## Nighthawk

I live near Boston and I shutter to think what would happen if I had a pressure cooker in a back pack, even in the woods!

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## hunter63

> I live near Boston and I shutter to think what would happen if I had a pressure cooker in a back pack, even in the woods!


Yeah, no ship!....and dressed in black fatigues wearing a bigazz survival knife.....
Good call....Wise Man.

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## randyt

I use a canteen cup now and then. Here it is at a boil

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## Adventure Wolf

> The only thing I usually care are two canteen cups and a U.S. G.I. mess kit. There are lighter alternatives but those have served me well for a long time. I have tried other cook pots but always return to the military stuff.


I agree with Rick on this one. I use the same.

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## NightSG

> Stanley small stainless steel pot (Wal-Mart or sports store) is my one person option when camping out of a very small white water kayak, weight not an issue but space a premium. This is not as easily crushed as aluminum or titanium. Plastic nesting cups it comes with are fairly useless, better to fill with alky stove and dry food or fuel.


I've got the same Stanley in my 72 hour kit.  I do keep the cups in it, and a tiny alcohol stove made from some of the undersize soda cans, along with a bottle of alcohol that will get me 2-3 boils of a full pot.  Works well over wood too, though I did melt the plastic tab on the lid.  No big deal as the mount is welded on; just burn out the rest of the tab and put in a loop of wire to pull the lid off.  Mainly, I like the snug fit of the lid, so I can make teas and such in the pot, and strain directly through the lid holes without another utensil.

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## randyt

I have  Stanley pot too. I melted off the plastic tab and replaced it with a split ring from a key chain.

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## jdbushcraft

I did the split ring and added a wood bead to it.  Makes it easier to lift and doesn't get hot.

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## NightSG

> I did the split ring and added a wood bead to it.  Makes it easier to lift and doesn't get hot.


Good idea; I've been trying to think of something to add so I can grab it when the pot is boiling.  Somehow, wood beads slipped my mind.

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## DSJohnson

Pots? Hmmmm.
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By the way this is NOT my back packing kit.

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## hunter63

> Pots? Hmmmm.
> 
> Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.
> 
> By the way this is NOT my back packing kit.


Does the bottom DO in the front have anything in it?..... or just to provide a place for coals on the upper DO?

BTW I use my big cast iron fry pan filled with coals sitting on a trivet. 

Not my back packing kit either....LOL

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## randyt

That's a nice set up.

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## DSJohnson

Hunter:  Yes sir the bottom DO has another peach cobbler in it.  Using the coals on the lid of the bottom DO to heat the bottom of the top DO.

randyt:  If you are speaking about my set up, then Thank you.  Hunter's is pretty slick also.

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## randyt

I didn't realize Hunter slipped a photo in on his post, it is a slick set up too.

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## hunter63

That the "gator pit" not really a good pic of the cast iron and fire irons.....was taking a pic of our Tipi....
This was back when we didn't take pic's of everything....had to pay to develop.

We had a 25 # wild turkey and a 12 # capon on the spit....two DO baking bread in between as well as stuffing....oyster stew in the cast iron pot.

Was asking about the DO as we do stack them but do use the trivet and fry pan......keep a more even heat for baking.
Mostly just use coal form the pit and a shovel.
When I saw it I was thinking...hey good idea...use another DO instead of a fry pan that I have to clean later....LOL

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## Winter

I have 3 that are commonly used.

Group shot.
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First one is an aluminum canteen cup. Danish I believe. It has a 2 cup capacity. I have a bunch of these. I bought like 24 of them for $10 20 years ago. All my friends use them as well. This one is for all trips but gets more use on lighter trips for making Mtn House, ramen, and the like. On longer trips it is a serving bowl/coffee cup. Quality whiskey there ONLY for size comparison. 

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Next is a 1 qt stainless sugar bowl with a bale. I found a securely locking container that fits it quite well. I put canned goods, pilot bread, rice, or whatever will fit in it. This one is always in the pack and has been used for everything including hanging from a tarp as a water collector.


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Then the big one. 20qt stainless pot. This one goes on boat trips. It's not packed in. It's used for water collection, washing dishes, large cooking tasks like crab boiling, and it makes a sexy helmet.

If you take a canoe, or car/truck, to camp, always take a big pot like this. On day 3 on a trip, having enough hot water to soak your head will make it feel like day 1 again.

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## hunter63

Is that shot glass getting emptier?....LOL
Like your selection.

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## Winter

> Is that shot glass getting emptier?....LOL
> Like your selection.


You have a keen eye Sir.

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## hunter63

One must have priorities .........

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## Rick

It's the angels' cut doncha know.

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## Winter

> It's the angels' cut doncha know.


That's the first time I've ever been called that.

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## Rick

You gotta start treatin' your wife better. Mine calls me that all the time. Right before she wants money come to think of it.

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## 1stimestar

Oops, wrong post.

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## gustafsj

As for size, I usually figure about 1/2 quart or 500ml per person.  We usually do soups for meals and lightweight but durable for most everything.  I generally avoid aluminum because I don't like the fact that I can usually scrape of aluminum with my fingernail, that can't be good to ingest aluminum...  The same goes for non-stick anything...  So, I stick with stainless steel or titanium, cast iron if car camping.  I just found a 3-liter titanium pot on craigslist for really cheap, going to go pick it up today.

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## woodsbum

I use a 4 quart dutch oven and an 8 inch "Cowboy" tin skillet. When I cook bacon, I cut it into one inch squares so that I can stir it instead of having to turn. It works great in a 4qt. dutch oven this way.

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## hunter63

> I use a 4 quart dutch oven and an 8 inch "Cowboy" tin skillet. When I cook bacon, I cut it into one inch squares so that I can stir it instead of having to turn. It works great in a 4qt. dutch oven this way.


Hunter63 saying Hey and Welcome.
There is a Intro section to say Hello to all at:

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...-Introductions

What pots and pans you carry are really a personnel and situation choice.

I like your idea of cutting the bacon in small pieces.

I'm a dutch oven guy and use them a lot....but pack them in a vehicle.

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