Solo cook pot for cosy cooking?

I recently changed from an 850ml deep/narrow pot to a 900ml shallow/wide pot and so far am quite happy with the change, although there are some trade-offs :)

Pros – 1: Eliminating the bag from FBC – the shallow/wide aspect ratio makes is much easier to eat out of. I think it would be much superior if I ever choose to cook in it. 2: Efficiency – much better use of the stove output…I estimate 30% faster boils. 3: Can hold my entire kitchen including the 110g fuel canister, stove and long folding spoon (which had to be stored outside the deep/narrow pot)

Cons – Not as easy to drink out of.

Lastly, and I’m not sure you couldn’t do this with any of Toak’s pots, the size and stretch of the mesh storage sack allowed me to construct a reflectix cozy that fits inside.  This makes a very nice, complete and compact system with enough volume to purify water is needed.

You mention your new 900 wide pot isnt so easy for drinking – but does it serve OK as a mug? I wouldnt want to bring a mug as well, just the one pot for everything. I had heard the wider pots are more efficient.

I works fine as a mug, just not as well as the deep/narrow pot as it’s easiER to tip it too far and dump your coffee all over your chest :)

I am a big fan of the MSR Titan Kettle.  850 ml, short and wide, great lid, big handles.  The Evernew 900 mug looks pretty nice as well.  My 2 cents.

Here’s a good link comparing lightweight pots (from 2015).  He likes narrow pots because the lids weigh less.  I had always thought wider pots were more efficient for cooking, but it begs the question whether the wider pot efficiency is really a measurable improvement.

Wider pots are tougher to pack, but easier to eat from.  I think that’s more relevant.

OP mentioned a 650 pot, and I have a Toaks light 650, which is a good 95cm diameter mug, but I just realized recently they also have a wide format version.  That would have a heavier lid, but might be big enough to cook with and not too big to drink from.  Other choices, slightly larger, that I like are the Batchstovez 12cm pot (upgrade from the Imusa) and 900 and 1.3L Evernew pots.  These are almost as light as the lighter mugs and you can cook almost anything.  Only downside is maybe too big to be a good mug for coffee.

Here’s the link

http://www.sparkyhikes.com/2015/03/small-cook-pots-2015-market-review/

I use the same 850ml pot as JCH did, with the idea that I would use it as both a mug and pot to boil water. That makes some sense when using a freezer bag, but now that I’ve moved towards cozy cooking in and eating out of the pot, it makes less sense.

I now also bring a mug, despite the added weight, so I can have a cup of tea while I have my breakfast or dinner.  As such, the taller and narrow 850ml pot doesn’t have much of an advantage. The wide, shallow 900ml looks like a better choice for this purpose.

That said, I do like that I can pack a windscreen, 450ml mug, alcohol stove, pot stand, folding mug, and a lighter, fire striker, or matches in the 850 ml pot, and it takes very little room. And the mesh bag does fit over the pot and reflectix cozy.

Overall, though, I’d recommend a slightly bigger, wider pot. 900-1100ml would be great. Not sure why I sold my 1100ml pot instead of the 850ml. Oh well!

Great suggestions and link, thank you. If possible I’d like to avoid bringing an extra mug for drinking, and just use the one pot. The 900ml wide pots seem great from the cooking point of view, but it’s towards the larger end of where I want to be. My style of cooking is similar to freezer bag style, only I dump the dried food in the pot rather than pouring the water into the food bag. How much smaller than 900ml can I go before the pot becomes too small to rehydrate a meal? The Snow Peak Trek 700 and the Evernew 700 ‘pasta pot’ (sometimes stated vol. 750) both seem a good size, but has anyone tried rehydrating a meal in either of them? If you need approx 300ml-400ml to rehydrate a meal, it doesn’t leave a lot of room in the pot for the food (which will swell as it rehydrates).

Seems the coffee mug capability is the hang-up.

I love my big ol’ strong, hot cuppa joe in the morning so I just count my GSI mug (3.6 oz!!) as my luxury item, but if I’m using the 28 liter pack and really cutting weight I will use one of the InCycle Cups, which were discussed Here last year. They weigh 4.5g on my scale.

I like a full 16oz of coffee, and I heat exactly 3 cups of water in the morning, so my strategy is to pour off some hot water while it’s on the way to boiling on my alky stove, drink the first cup somewhat quickly and then pour the rest into the cup after boiling, using the remainder for my instant oatmeal.

If you want to try ’em PM me with address and I’ll send a couple. I bought a tube of them, which is pretty much a lifetime supply for my purposes. :^)

I use a Toaks light 650 mug/pot and with handles removed and aluminum foil lid it weights about 2 oz. It is just barley large enough (for me) to eat a typical 4 oz. bfast or 6 oz. dinner. I just purchased a Toaks light 550 without handles, and I plan on reducing the size of my meals to make it work and supplementing with a granola bar or something to make up the rest of the calories needed.  I also like a cuppa in the morning but lately I have been just getting up and hitting the trail with a couple instant coffee packets in my water bottle (cold).  But I tend to be okay with a smaller cup of stronger (STRONG) coffee. My 2 cents.

Ben

Thanks Bob (PM sent)!

Ben – Interesting that you manage to rehydrate a meal in a 650 pot…so it might be possible after all, though when I’m working hard in the hills or doing long miles I need to eat quite a lot. Saying that, I could just eat more along the route in the form of snacks or like you say, supplement the meal with a bar. The smaller mug style pots appeal as they take up less pack space and are easier to drink out of, but looking that the weights there’s not much difference between these and something like the Evernew 900 pots.

+1 Bob.  I use the GSI mug as well since I too prefer a cuppa in the morning and tea with my evening meal.  I drilled a small hole in the lid to affix to the handle with high test fishing line to the handle so I wouldn’t misplace the top.

I currently use the Sidewinder with the Toaks 900ml wide pot and made my own reflectix cozy.  No problem with fitting the cozied pot inside the Toaks sack.  So far I love the set up!

There seems to be a real consensus on the 900ml size! However, if rehydrating a dried meal in a 700-750ml pot (rather than a freezer bag) looks feasible – I’m still uncertain – then these are the ones I’m interested in:

Evernew 750ml ECA521 ‘pasta pot’

Vargo Ti-Lite 750ml

Toaks 750ml

Esbit 750ml

Snow Peak Trek 750ml

Any feedback on these pots? Anyone ‘cook’ (rehydrate) in this size?

I am also changing my pot from my existing Evernew 0.9l pot which is great but the wrong shape for carrying on my bike now that I am going to bikepacking setup.  I also find that I really only need around 600ml of capacity to have a cuppa and a meal at either end of the day.

My list currently is the following:

Alpkit MytiMug 650 at 98g
Toaks 3in1 750ml 110g
Toaks 600ml 109g

Evernew ECA401 120g

Another possibility is a Toaks 550ml which comes as a part of a cookware setup weighing in a claimed 125g ex Aliexpress. Yet to check out the stove, but I do like that it comes as a complete kit. I need to revisit my stove anyway as I currently have a Caldera Cone and I believe the cone needs to match the pot. It seems Trail Designs no longer sell the cone on its own, only as a set which really pushes the price envelope.

@munro21

Pete,

It is barely large enough, and I tend to use less water to make it work. I am not too picky with my food when hiking as long as I get the needed calories, so these things don’t bother me. Unless the meal is just boring! I typically do Mike Clelland’s spud bomb for bfast, and that has been a challenge out of the 650. For dinners I willl do a soup packet mixed with mac and cheese, dehydrated home made chili (favorite), or something of the like.

You are right though, not much of a difference in weight to go with something a bit larger like a 750 or 900. I like compactness, and have become some what of a gram weenie. =)

Ben

3 years ago my laser-focused goal of weight reduction reached it’s end. My BPW was single digit, but in arriving there I had added complication and inconvenience. Since that point I have been slowly adding weight in (very) small increments, and only where doing so increased my backcountry comfort. Pot size (and stove/fuel type) is one of those areas.

Truth be told, I can do everything I need/want to do with 500ml pot. But…I found there was an ease of operation and a flexibility that came with increasing the pot size. For me, the wide Toaks 900ml pot is the sweet spot.

This has been so helpful, thank you. Seem then like I ‘could’ rehydrate in a 650-750 pot but really this kind of size is for boiling water only and then rehydrating a meal outside the pot, in a freezer bag for instance. For a very small weight penalty but greater convenience and a better cooking/eating experience a 900ml wide pot is the way to go. If I want to freezer bag cook or use Mountain House type meals, then I can go pretty small – eg 650ml, which has enough volume for a drink as well as a meal. Both seem very workable, just different for different types of hike I guess.

Not for me as I have ordered a Toaks 850 ml pot from Trail Designs which is similar design but if anyone is looking for a good one person pot option this Vargo Titanium Ti-Lite Mug at 750ml might be worth a look. Massdrop have it going out the door at $42 plus delivery. Weight at 105g is about the same as other similar pots from what I have seen.

 a 900ml wide pot is the way to go

That is indeed ideal for a lot of people. Nice having the ‘headroom’ for the occasional boil-over, and the wider base is IME more fuel efficient, at least for non-cone setups.

After quite a bit of stove and pot field testing I’ve settled upon a 3-season cook kit of Open Country 3-cup pot, Fancee Feest wick-type alky with built-in pot support, MSR Lite lifter and a simple aluminum windscreen.

Bob – just been googling around to convert ‘cups’ to ml – not a measurement I’m very familiar with! According to Google 3 cups is just over 700ml – which is kind of the size I’ve been contemplating. Sounds like a nice fuss-free set up. And do you rehydrate food in that pot or just boil water?

I can understand that 700ml is too small to actually cook a meal, but I’d have thought it should be just big enough for simply rehydrating a dried solo meal in.

Pete, the OC 3-cup pot has a little headroom, so to-the-rim capacity is going to be a little more than 800ml.

I have rehydrated Mountain House ‘2-serving’ (dry net wt ~4.5oz) meals in it — chicken a-la-king and lasagne — and it can handle those. However, spending a ridiculous amount of time scraping out the cheese from the lasagne quickly quenched my interest in that method. :^)

Quick alert, however… these pots used to be sold only by Trail Designs, and now I see that even they don’t carry them any more, and they also don’t appear on the Open Country website or anywhwere else I googled… grrrrr… a True Classic bites the dust!

OK well, the closest thing is the Toaks 900ml wide-bottom, (130mm) which I would get immediately if somehow my OC came to a bad end!

I don’t like to eat meals out of a plastic bag.   Too me, the meal might taste fine but just not relaxing and satisfying.

I use a toaks 700 ml wide pot with lid.

Usually I add one to two cups of water and boil, stuff pot in a cozy add the meat / vegetable.  I wait for the food to come to life then add water for the right consistency.  I try to keep my meals on the wet side to keep my body hydrated, helps fight dehydration in my experience.

After a meal I make a cup of tea to relax while I digest using the same toaks pot.  I can drink out of it just fine.

The weight of freeze dried meal bags and their desiccant add up.  I saved almost a pound of weight by switching bags and discarding desiccants.

Some freeze dried meals are high in sodium. I try to watch sodium and use dehydrated food, either pre-packaged and/or homemade.  I pack the meals in “bulk”, so you can make the meal as big as you want on the trail and even try new things.  One breakfast, I had mashed potatoes, eggs, bacon, and maple breakfast cereal all mixed in on pot that was delicious.

Happy Trails!

Ted.

Hey Ted – what you’ve outlined above is exactly what I’ve been angling at above and the fact you’re doing it in a 700ml pot is very encouraging. This is what I do in my larger pots (basically cosy cooking) but I’ve really been trying to find out if I can scale down the size of my pot yet maintain the technique. Because it’s basically rehydrating it doesn’t involve boiling the food in the pot (which makes it harder to clean), so it needs less capacity. Actually boiling/cooking a meal in a pot needs at least 800ml I think.

Good points too about dehydrated vs freeze dried foods. I really try to avoid the expensive prepackaged meals where possible, though they are useful in certain circumstances. I certainly wouldn’t make them my main meal source – far too expensive and most are too high in sodium, as you say. When i do use them i split them over two or three days, mixing in other ingredients. Generally though i think simple dehydrated ingredients are cheaper and more versatile than freeze dried meals, and one can do them at home – though I haven’t yet made the move to a dehydrator. Bulk packaging dehydrated ingredients, and combining them in one-pot cosy cooking is also a lot less wasteful when it comes to all the plastic packaging – whether that might be freezer bags or freeze dried meal packs. I reuse all my large ziplock bags, which have only had dried ingredients in them.

Thanks Pete!

You can do it, I stepped down from an old 950 ml that was tall and narrow.