Originally Posted by
MichaelW
On many Euro tours I camp without cooking stuff, it really lightens the load*, but on my big adventures, i take a Trangia 27. Fuel usually comes in 1l bottles in Europe and 500cc in the UK. The bottles are not always pannier-proof so keep them upright. I have my eye on some Trangia bottles, 2x500cc for convenience rather than one big 1l one. There is a lot of variation in fuel strength, I managed to flame out with some German rocket fuel; could have been dangerous so always test new fuel. A few drops of water in the burner will tame a strong blend.
I like to cook real food, eg veg from the market. My finest meal was a 3 course steak dinner followed by pears poached in wine and honey, it required lot of pan jugging and careful use of the simmer ring. I've tried lots of different carbs, pasta takes up too much water, rice is OK but couscous is the most efficient in terms of fuel, water and time.
I made a cat stove this summer for an ultralight trip. My neighbour has a cat so i had plenty of cans to punch patterns in. I found them a bit slow compared to Trangia, not as stable or versatile but OK for a light weekend trip/brew kit.
As an OT comment, I bought some denatured alcohol in Edinburgh at an outdoor shop that was dyed purple, and it was lousy when used in my Trangia. It also left the jets in the burner clogged. It was messy. And it was available only in 500ml bottles. I'm not saying that was the norm, but it
was an outdoor shop, after all.
On the other hand, I picked up a litre of 90% denatured alcohol at a Dutch "dollar" store for less than half the equivalent price of the Edinburgh batch. It lasted us the tour up the Rhine River (although we didn't cook much in Europe overall), and I liked its efficiency. It also didn't leave a nasty black, oily deposit on the bottoms of the pots like the methylated spirits does in Australia, but rather a light brown one.
I noticed in a hardware shop in France that 90% and 80% (IIRC) blends were available.