Recommendations for stove/cooking set up to cook for group of 8

[baja bob]

This summer I am going on some backpacking trips with my son’s boy scout troop. We will be a group of 8 (3 adults and 5 young teens). We will generally be doing freeze-dried meals (Mountain House provided by the troop) and probably oatmeal and a hot drink for breakfast.

I am looking for recommendations for pot size/number of stoves/ideal canister size. To boil water for the group for dinner, I am assuming we need to boil 4 quarts (8 pints of water) given most of the freeze dried meals require 2 cups of water.

I am not sure what type of stoves they are supplying. I have not seen them yet. I have a Soto Windmaster and what looks like a knock off that came with a Widesea HX pot set I bought.

Never cooked for a group this big, so not sure if its better to go with a number of smaller pots and stoves or maybe 2 stoves with two big pots.

 

[Matthew / BPL]

I like the idea of redundancy and flexibility. Also, several smaller pots would mean that you could divide the responsibilities between more scouts.

I know that Philmont way emphasizes large pots but I don’t think that is a rational approach to backpacking. I guess it depends on what your goals are.

[David Thomas]

Cooking for lots of people (or melting snow) pushes me to HX pots.  The beauty of individual FD meals is that you don’t need lots of water at once – just repeated 2-cup batches, so you don’t need a big pot.  Any HX pot will save fuel and speed up the process.  No one will be hovering for very long over the stove and the next person can be cued up with their 2 cups of cold water ready to add to the pot.

 

For an additional $18 and 0.9 ounces, I’d bring along a BRS-3000T for some redundancy and possibly parallel boiling if you’re trying to get all the dinners soaking sooner and/or be making hot drinks at the same time.

[BlackHatGuy]

Not sure where I saw it, but someone/some company was selling a neat little doohickey that enabled you to connect two stoves to one canister. One stove sat atop the canister, and there was a tube (not what it’s called but I don’t know the proper name) that came off (like in a remote canister stove) that allowed for a second stove. With two of those you could have 4 pots going at the same time with two canisters. Might be worth looking into.

[Bruce Tolley]

@ Baja Bob

Since this is a Scout group, I would start with asking what sort of cooking patrols do you want? For example, should the adults be their own cooking patrol.

And since it is Scouting, the Scouts themselves should be able to make the decisions with guidance from you.  I personally would be thinking about 2 or 3 cooking patrols each with their own stove and a 2 liter pot, and probably a remote canister stove like the Kovea Spyder.  In other words NOT the Philmont method with a 6 or 8 liter pot for the whole 12 person crew…..

 

[Steve Thompson]

For a patrol of 6-8, I’d recommend 2 ~1 gallon pots, 2 cannister stoves, and 2 plastic communal dipping cups.  (Cups  with measurement marks).  +a couple pot grabbers.  Also suggest 2 foil pie tins that at need can serve as lids, frypans, or with a couple wood clothespins used as “ovens” in the coals of a wood fire.

[Steve Thompson]

An additional note – you can go lighter than this especially if the boys have a lot of experience, but if you have a mix of age/experience levels the items listed will provide a flexible and robust kit.

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