Group cooking with alcohol stove: large or many small pots?

Alcohol is a tricky for big groups.

I would go 3 – 3 – 2 person sized cook-groups.

A 3 person team neads a 1.4 liter pot (at least) and a two person team needs a 900 ml pot (at least). Round up slightly if needed.

The TRANGIA stove works great under a 1.4 liter sized pot using a caldera cone, this really cranks the heat out. Don't try and use the little soda pop can and expect a quick meal.

THe TRANGIA stove is pretty cheap, and is indestructable. About 19 bucks.

First of all, you might want to check with the Backcountry Office at Yellowstone. They are very sensitive about open fires of any kind. Alcohol stoves should be legal.

Personally, I would never even dream of trying to cook for eight people with large pots and Caldera Cones. I guess it is OK if you are willing to boil over and over.

The best bets are a butane canister stove or two, or a white gas stove or two. My old rule of thumb was to use one stove for every four people for a winter trip, and one stove for every six people for a summer trip. The reason for that is cooking capacity. My rule of thumb is that I need to generate at least 16 fluid ounces of boiling water per person, minimum. That is a pint per person, which is eight pints total, which is four quarts. I doubt that your pots hold four quarts if you intend them for a Caldera Cone.

Now, I agree that you can scale that down a bit, but that is the most practical cooking system for a group like that. I used to do a lot of eight-person central commissary trips.

–B.G.–

Several times I’ve fed 12 people (2 families or 10 scouts). All I had was 2 pepsi stoves and a .9L and 1.2L pot. The whole key though was eating in shifts. We would be boiling water continually for 30 minutes. All the shifts were done eating 45 minutes from the start of the first boiling. We did all freezer-bag cooking and had hot chocolate at the end. I’m just impressed how well alcy cooking works.

-Barry

As it turns out all of my sites but one don't allow wood fires. I thought was going to be in heaven, but no. Ah well!

And thank you all for your recommendations. My kids are new to alcohol stoves, so I think I'll go that route with a small canister and Soto stove as a backup. Should be fun!