What is the best hiking cooking gear? In this article, I will try to cover all the best hiking cooking equipment. This article is meant for every type of hiker. It doesn’t matter whether you are going to make a fire every evening, use a cooking stove or even cold soak your food.
Lightweight hiking grill
As I already mentioned in one of my other articles, Cooking in the wild: how to cook without any gear, you don’t really need a grill. You could use a flat rock and place it on top of your fire or you could cook your meat directly on the coals. However, having a lightweight grill is a small investment (it’s both lightweight and cheap) and it can make your life on the trail a lot more comfortable.
DRIX Outdoors Campfire Grill
The DRIX Outdoors Campfire Grill is one of the grills I would definitely recommend to almost any hiker. Maybe with the exception of ultralight hikers. But I wouldn’t recommend to bring a grill anyway if you truly want to travel ultralight.
This grill is rather simple, there is nothing special about it, but it has everything you need. It has a large cooking surface, which makes cooking a lot more pleasant and it has a convenient cover that comes with it.
It’s definitely a lightweight grill, but there are certain competitors that go even lighter. Making a grill lighter will most likely mean a smaller surface area.
Last but not least, this piece of hiking cooking equipis rather high quality, there are almost no complaints about durability.
Check out the latest price on amazon: DRIX Outdoors Campfire Grill.
Stansport Pack Grill
A nice little budget grill would be the Stansport Pack Grill. It’s not only cheap, it’s also lightweight and easy to bring along.
This grill even comes with legs. However, I would personally leave the legs at home to save some weight, but that’s up to you.
This grill is around the same size as the DRIX campfire grill, which means it also has a rather large cooking surface.
The only downside is that this isn’t an extremely high quality product, as you can see on the picture. Cooking smaller things on this grill will be an issue because there is so much open space.
It’s not a perfect product, but it’s definitely good value for money.
Check out the latest price on amazon: Stansport Pack Grill.
Bushcraft Grill – Welded Stainless Steel High Strength Mesh
The last grill I’m going to recommend is the Welden Bushcraft Grill. This grill is very similar to the DRIX outdoor camping grill. It’s also high quality and it comes with a convenient cover.
The main difference is the weight and the size. This grill is truly lightweight, but this comes with a price. The cooking surface is very small. Most people who buy this grill are actually disappointing by how small it is. If you don’t mind a smaller cooking surface, however, this piece of cooking gear might be perfect for you. It’s also a bit cheaper than the bigger alternative.
Check out the latest price on amazon: Bushcraft Grill – Welded Stainless Steel High Strength Mesh.
Lightweight flatpack stove
A lightweight flatpack stove might be more optimal for hikers who want to make a fire in the evening, but an open campfire is not allowed. Or you could simply prefer a small, controlled fire over a big campfire. A flatpack stove is basically a stove that is made out of flat pieces of metal, you can use these pieces of metal to assemble a small cooking stove.
A word of caution if you are considering buying a flatpack stove, some of these are heavily overpriced. There was one flatpack stove that stood out because it was a good quality product and it wasn’t overpriced, the überleben Stoker Flatpack Stove.
überleben Stoker Flatpack Stove
I really like the idea of a flatpack stove, building a stove with flat pieces of metal allows you to bring a really compact stove on your trips. This is one of the few pieces of hiking cooking gear that actually got me excited.
However, I was not too happy about the prices I saw when I was checking out some of these stoves. I mean, it’s a cool concept, but the production cost should be rather low.
After searching for a while, I finally found a fair priced product that didn’t suck, the überleben Stoker Flatpack Stove. There were also a couple of cheaper flatpack stoves, but I found it hard to verify whether or not these products were high quality or not. Therefore, I stick with this recommendation.
Check out the latest price on amazon: überleben Stoker Flatpack Stove.
Lightweight hiking stove
We have covered both hiking grills and flatpack stoves, now it’s time to cover the more traditional lightweight hiking stove. It might not be as survival-like, but it’s still the most efficient way to heat up your food. If you are a hiker who likes to eat hot food, but you don’t want to spend a lot of time preparing it, you should stick with a regular cooking stove.
MSR Pocket Rocket 2 Stove
My number one recommendation when it comes to a hiking cooking stove would be the MSR Pocket Rocket 2 Stove.
It’s lightweight, durable and high quality. You get all this for a reasonable price. I wouldn’t call this a cheap piece of hiking cooking gear, but when looking at the value for money, this is certainly a good deal.
The cooking stove it self only weighs 2.6 ounces (74 grams). Note that this is only the stove, the fuel is not included.
Check out the latest price on amazon: MSR Pocket Rocket 2 Stove.
MSR WindBurner Personal Stove System
If you are looking for something less basic, the MSR WindBurner stove system might be the right product for you.
It’s a compact, all-in-one stove that features a secure-locking pot. It provides maximum efficiency by using a radiant burner and heat exchanger.
I could overwhelm you with a lot of other technical terms, but it basically comes down to: this is very high quality cooking equipment.
However, it does come at a price. Not only is it expensive in terms of money, it’s also rather bulky and heavy for a compact stove.
That said, it might be worth it in some cases. Especially when you are hiking in extreme cold/wet circumstances this might be worth the money.
Check out the latest price on amazon: MSR WindBurner Personal Stove System.
Full hiking cooking set
Having a full hiking cooking set is very handy for any kind of camper. That said, I feel like bringing an entire cooking set on a multiday hiking trip is often too bulky. Nothing forces you to bring every piece of the cooking set, however. Note that buying a cooking set might be a lot more budget friendly than buying the pieces of the set separately. If you prefer the ultralight method, you should probably only bring a single pot/mug instead.
MalloMe Camping Cookware Mess Kit
The next hiking cooking gear I want to discuss is the MalloMe Camping Cookware Set. This set is slightly more expensive than the previous set, but it’s still very budget friendly.
This set only comes with a single pot and a single pan, but there are a lot more additional goodies included in this set.
- Anodized Aluminum Non-Stick Pot (1 Liter)
- Pot Cover
- Non-Stick Pan
- Two (2) BPA Free Bowls
- Folding Stainless Steel Spork
- BPA-Free Soup Spoon
- Wooden Spoon Spatula
This is probably my personal favorite cooking set.
Check out the latest price on amazon: MalloMe Camping Cookware Mess Kit.
MSR Quick 2 Pot Set
For those of you who are not on a tight budget, the MSR Quick 2 Pot Set might be fore you.
It’s a very high quality, complete and good looking cooking set for 2 persons.
Looking at value for money, this is obviously not the winner of this list. However, if you can afford a more expensive cooking set, this is the one I would recommend.
Check out the latest price on amazon: MSR Quick 2 Pot Set.
Hiking cooking pot/mug
You don’t really need a lot of gear to be able to cook a meal. If you are on a multiday hiking trip, you might not want to carry the weight of an entire cooking set. Therefore, you might be more interest in carrying one pot/mug instead.
Stanley Camp 24oz. Cook Set
My first recommendation would be the Stanley Camp Cook Set. It’s called a cook set, but it basically only consists of a cooking pot and 2 cups.
This cooking pot is actually very well known among hikers and has received plenty of good reviews.
There is nothing special about it, it’s just a good, reasonably priced hiking cooking pot.
Check out the latest price on amazon: Stanley Camp 24oz. Cook Set.
Core Element Pot/Mug
The Core Element Pot is another piece of hiking cooking gear that’s very well received. It’s a little bit more expensive than the Stanley camp cook set, but this cooking pot looks so clean.
The main benefit from this pot is that it’s very light. The main negative is that the handles can get hot very fast.
Check out the latest price on amazon: Core Element Pot/Mug.
Hiking cold soak pot
The die-hard ultralight backpackers prefer not to bring a stove at all. They will cold soak their food instead. Cold soaking means letting your food soak in cold water for a couple of hours and eating your food cold.
This might not sound very delicious, but the benefit is that you don’t have to carry a stove, a grill, a pot, etc. All you need is a small plastic jar.
You can use any kind of plastic jar just make sure that it is lightweight and that it has a good sealing. Even something like a plastic peanut butter jar might suffice.
If you don’t have anything that could function as a cold soaking jar, I’ll include a potential cold soaking jar that you can buy on amazon.
Ziploc Twist ‘N Loc
As I already mentioned, the plastic jar should be lightweight and it should have a good sealing. Ziploc Twist ‘N Loc will definitely suffice.
Check out the latest price on amazon: Ziploc Twist ‘N Loc.
Hiking utensils
Last but not least, you will need hiking utensils. What kind off utensils depends on whether you prefer comfort or travelling lightweight.
TOAKS Titanium 3-Piece Cutlery Set
The first set of cutlery is the TOAKS Titanium 3-Piece set. This set consists of a high quality titanium knife, spoon and fork.
I would recommend this to every hiker who likes to eat with a regular cutlery set.
This might be a bit heavier than the alternatives, but it might be worth it for some of you.
Check out the latest price on amazon: TOAKS Titanium 3-Piece Cutlery Set.
HIKENTURE 4-in-1 Camping Utensil
The next item on the list is a very nice little tool. This 4-in-1 set comes with a spoon, a fork, a knife and a bottle opener.
It might not be as convenient as a regular cutlery set because you can’t use your fork and knife at the same time. The advantage of this set is that it’s very compact, I really like the design as well.
Check out the latest price on amazon: HIKENTURE 4-in-1 Camping Utensil.
Snow Peak Titanium Spork
The last item on our list is the Snow Peak Titanium Spork. This would be my favorite pick simply because I don’t feel like I need more than a simple spork.
A spork is a combination of a spoon and a fork. Because you have only one piece of cutlery instead of three, this will weigh less than the alternatives.
For the ultralight hikers, this is the right pick.
Check out the latest price on amazon: Snow Peak Titanium Spork.