Cooking with Propane

When I’m teaching outdoor cooking skills, I’m often asked what are the essential items to get started? Whether you are backpacking or car camping, one must-have is a stove.

Backpacking Stoves

A backpacker’s stove of choice will be a one-burner lightweight, compact stove that will predominantly be used for boiling water that will then be used to rehydrate ingredients to make a beverage or a meal.

Canister stoves are the most common and convenient type of stove, and they’re the easiest to use. Liquid fuel stoves are the most efficient for high altitude or below freezing temperatures. Wood stoves are nice because you don’t have to carry fuel, but they don’t work for trips above the tree line or in most desert environments. Solid fuel stoves and alcohol stoves are generally pretty budget-friendly and they’re ultra light, but you can’t control the flame, they yield slow boil times, and they’re not great in wind. Do your research and factor in where you like to backpack and choose according to your budget and need.

If you’re looking for an all around 3-season option, canister stoves are light, compact, easy to use, and fast. With canister stoves there’s no priming, pumping, or maintenance of any kind. Simply screw the canister into your stove and light the burner for a quick meal. In addition, isobutane canisters are more efficient than esbit and alcohol, and they’re very easy to find in outdoor stores and online.

Car Camping Stoves

For car campers, the classic compact two-burner stove will get you started. It will heat water and make a pot of coffee. You can cook a pot of pasta or rice. You can make a pot of soup, stew, or chili. You can make breakfast or dinner in a skillet or on a griddle. If you have a gas stove at home, your camp stove will be very familiar to you. Camp stoves are usually allowed everywhere, even during a fire ban (check the regulations for where you will be camping before you go, just to be sure).

For fuel, you can use the 1-pound disposable propane fuel cylinder or you can hook up a larger propane tank. I don’t recommend stoves with a push-button igniter. Too often, I’ve seen them wear out and start failing. I just carry a long-nosed lighter and waterproof matches, and light my burner the old fashioned way.

Your average compact 2 burner stove is going to have about 10,000 BTUs per burner, which is great; however, if you want more BTUs for your buck and want something more heavy duty, you could consider a large burner option. These are a little more spendy, but you get more power (30,000+ BTUs per burner), and because the burners are larger, you can use larger pots and griddles, which comes in handy for group camping. These are typically free-standing but still highly portable and you will need to connect them to a larger propane tank. Depending on your budget and needs, you could opt for 1-3 burners, and they also have all kinds of accessories, including griddles, BBQ boxes, and ovens. Please read my blog post: “Product Review: Italia Artisan Pizza Oven.”

If you’re cooking for a crowd or just wanting more BTUs for hotter, faster cooking, a large burner cooking system is the way to go, and the available accessories give you lots of cooking options. However, if you’re just starting out and/or wanting something smaller and more compact, there are lots of good options out there.

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