I'm looking to replace my mess kit. Any thoughts on whether to go with aluminum or stainless steel? My current thoughts are to go with stainless steel with the copper coated type bottoms for heat transfer and stainless steel for ease of cleaning. I saw some Stansport and Texsport ones for around $25 in a basic 3 piece set. Anybody have an experiences with these? I'm guessing you get what you pay for and these what stand up to the test of time??

Do you carry a traditional mess kit for a reason? There are more weight efficient cooking gear set ups to carry. Regardless, if you are carrying it on your back, aluminum. Neither brand you mention is exactly top tier. I'm fond of GSI gear for quality, aluminum cookware.

I'm using the term mess kit more in a generic term, really I'm just needing a pot and a pan or 2 to fit in a compact package. It's not needing to be the traditional military mess kit setup. If I could get a cup and utensils to all fit in that same compact package, all the more better.

Try Snow Peak mess kits.

I have a couple of different set ups, one in stainless steel and cooper coated bottoms..IMHO, the copper coating doesn't make the slightest difference..In fact, I'd say your far better to allow the outside of the utensils black up...

One set I have just bought on recommendation from somebody here is the Stanley Adventure Cook set, which is stainless steel. It comes with two double walled plastic cups which nest inside.


I use just the one cup, and find can I put a Primus gas stove and an inverted MSR gas cartridge into the "pot" and still get the lid on, which makes a nice compact set for hiking ect and is relatively cheap. To finish off my set up, I need to knock up a foil wind shield when I get a minute or two..

If you search on Youtube there are a few reviews of it..

The Stanley pot will also apparently nest inside a GSI stainless cup, and should you want to brew up using this cup, the Stanley lid will also fit the GSI cup.

Regards,

Peter

SS for vehicle use. Ti if I have to carry it. Nothing wrong with Al but they get beat up PDQ. My Ti MSR kettle has been used a bunch and is dent free.

Only choose aluminum if you value gastro distress over price. Stainless or titanium all the way

What gastro distress does hard anodized aluminum cause? Just curious as I used it for years before my first ti pot and haven't noticed a difference.

Over the years, I've used mess tins, water bottles, mess kits as well as saucepans at home all made from ordinary aluminium with no ill effects..The only thing I'd avoid is cooking anything too acidic.

The use of Aluminium for eating utensils was thought to be linked to Alzheimer's, but that has been discredited now...

These days, I tend to use SS a lot, but I don't have an issue using aluminium as required..

Anodized should not be an issue. However I have heard aluminum kits that have not been used for a long time, can cause issue. I suspect non anodized.

There aren't a whole lot of non-anodized/coated options in the quality aluminum department. The weight to cost ratio is tough to beat. Again, if you're car camping, it doesn't much matter except most camping grade stainless doesn't distribute heat as evenly as aluminum, so I stick with aluminum for that as well.

Ti, now I didn't even think about that. That's probably the cream of the crop. I wonder if there are any negatives to Ti camp cookware?

No.



Travis

First thing is ... do you really need a mess kit?

I used to do most of my hiking in late spring while it was still fairly damp and again into deer season when it was again damp. It was no issue to have a camp fire. As I've moved into deep summer for more hiking and have to consider complete bans on any fires, I've moved to a gas stove. With the pot that comes with the stove, there's no need to also carry a mess kit. I carry one or the other but not both. I find the convenience of the gas stove great enough that I generally cook with it now even when it is ok to have a campfire. My old aluminum mess kit hasn't been on the trail in at least 5 years.

However, if I were looking at a mess kit .. or just dishes .. I'd get titanium for cookware and probably hard light plastic to eat on.

Tom

What I feel that I need is a pan, a pot, a cup, a utensil and preferably but not necessary is a plate. The pan for frying fish, pot for water, rice and the such. I need it to all be as compact as possible for fitting into pack. For instance, last weekend we boated down the river snagging paddle fish. Camped on the side of the river, fried fish, rice, vegetables and the such. While being on a boat and not hiking, it was still beneficial to have a kit in as very compact package.

This would be a good set to keep in your pack.

http://www.backcountryedge.com/snow_peak-3-piece-titanium-cookware.aspx

I assume you want the pan because you use a stove? If not, and you use an open fire, I use something similar to this. Mine is titanium also.

http://www.purcelltrench.com/grills.htm



Travis

Have you ever seen a trout cooked to this level of perfection?





Travis

That's obviously a carp......

Shhh...




Travis

You fed that to Ingwe?

For boat & vehicle travel, stainless is a no brainer: bombproof tough, relatively low cost, relatively easy to clean. Go with Ti if you are going to carry it with human power, and buy it instead of stainless if you find it on sale. FWIW I wouldn't even consider aluminum.

Went to stainless steel in 70's, to Ti in early 90's and strongly dislike aluminum. Don't like the taste of it that sometimes transfers to food either! For roughly cleaned outdoor use, hard finish coatings on aluminum won't last long.

added: merely adding one codger's agreement to the consensus.

Price is a bit disconcerting... But the stuff weighs practically nothing
I use a Ti MSR pot and a stainless fry pan my whole kit alcohol stove/ homemade wood stove/ pot/cup/frypan/spork/2 lighters/ windscreen weighs on my digital scale 21oz. If I ditch the SS fry pan I can be just under a pound and That is with no fuel. I want to find the powdered alcohol!

Titanium is fine for boiling water, but I wouldn't try to cook real food in it. It's very thin and doesn't distribute heat very well, stuff burns very easily in it.

Travis--that is the best way of cooking fish I have ever seen!

It may not look like much, but it taste damn good that night.



Travis

I don't doubt that at all. Throw some wild asparagus, morels and maybe a strip of some venison backstraps on there and that would be hard to beat anywhere!

For backpacking If I am just boiling water, I use titanium. If I actually want to cook, I use hard coat anodized aluminum and for frying prefer a light weight carbon steel pan that is well seasoned.

Hard anodized aluminum is amazingly durable. I use metal spatula for scraping the pan clean. I have a couple GSI hard anodized pans that one or the other gets used at home nearly every day and has been that way for 7-8 years.

Coatings like Teflon or non stick silicon coatings, come off pretty easily in my experience.

I don't care much for stainless steel for cooking and if I had pack stock, I'd carry cast iron.

They must be making that anodized coating stronger. I believe you, Ed, and I admit that I haven't used aluminum in so long that my data is dated. 'Course I often use sand to scrub camping pots. True enough that IME stainless and Ti both tend to burn and stick food in hot spots.

There is this Scotch Brite sponge stuff that weighs almost nothing, cleans well and has been found to be slightly less abrasive on cookware than sand, pea gravel or granite blocks.

Not knocking Ti for the UL crowd or SS for the hale and hearty or motorized, but there must be a couple of different versions of aluminum in the conversation that are very different. From many of the comments, I'm picturing a circa 1972 K-Mart brand aluminum mess kit that must be generating the ill will. I had one of those as a kid and used it as a toy. It certainly didn't look good enough to eat out of.

Most premium kitchen cookware is aluminum for a reason. Even the high end stainless, like my wife's All Clad, is a mix on the bottom to ensure even heating.

For folks interest in stainless steel pots, I can recommend the MSR Stowaway range. Not the lightest, but very good quality, with an excellent lid that locks in place for transport/storage.

Must be one of those new high tech items I haven't caught up with yet!

Funnily enough I prefer Titanium to Aluminium for cooking.

I find that while the Aluminium conducts heat well it does not HOLD heat well. On the other hand Titanium does not conduct heat well but does hold it well.

I use a woodstove a lot and tend to rotate pots off and on the stove. I have observed that aluminium pots once off of the stove lose their heat quickly while Titanium holds heat. I once did a one on one contest between the 2 on a 2 burner Coleman stove and the Aluminium pot boiled water far more quickly but needed to be put back on the burner frequently to maintain heat. Meanwhile while slower to boil the titanium pot could be taken off of the stove and set aside. It would hold enough heat to cook the rice , pasta etc even if set on snow or cold, cold ground.

Anyway, if your concern is not just about fast boil time then Titanium is a good option.

Patrick