FiveStar’s Kitchen

I’m sure you’re looking at the photo and thinking “man, that’s a whole lot of shizzle, I thought he was an ultralighter?”

Well, the great thing about ultralight backpacking is that once you cut enough weight you can add back a LITTLE luxury weight.  For some people it might be a camp chair, for another it might be a book, and for another it might be a ukelele.  At least one person supposedly has thru-hiked the AT with a cat riding atop his pack. Hey, HYOH.  For ME, it’s gonna be about food, a combination of a few fresher ingredients to make some meals truly pop, and of course the extra stuff with which to prepare those meals.

I don’t always take everything that’s in this photo.  If I’m really going fast and light and eating freezer bag dehydrated meals or commercial meals, I’ll barely have a pound of kitchen gear including a small gas canister.  But when I’m in full-blown FiveStar mode, I’ll carry the above, which weighs roughly 2 1/4 pounds.

The items and why I carry them:

Evernew 0.6L and 0.9L pots:  Combined weight 7.0 oz.  It’s simple, a lot of my meals require 2 pots.  These particular two are sufficient for one or two-person trips.  If another 1-2 people are along, I’ll use 0.9L and 1.3L pots instead.

Evernew pot cozies:  For the 2 pots above, the two cozies come in at just under 2 oz.  Used to keep something hot while another pot or skillet is cooking.  If you’re using a cozy for freezer bag-type meals, they weigh approximately 1.5 oz., so this isn’t really much extra weight.

Evernew Skillet:  Weight 4.7 oz.  I don’t always pack this, but if I’m planning to make samosas, quesadillas, or fry up some trout, it’s essential.  You can make skillet pizza, skillet bread, skillet pot pie….there’s lots of possibilities.  You need to be a bit careful using it because titanium doesn’t conduct heat as well or as evenly as heavier aluminum skillets.  Not a big problem in my experience.

Fozzils Bowl:  Weight 1.3 oz.  Frankly, I need a bowl or plate for many of my meals, and since this is a multi-use item (doubles as a cutting board) it’s allowed.

Kovea Spider Stove:  Weight 6.0 oz.  This is a little heavy for a canister stove, and I may be substituting a Soto Windmaster that weighs half of what the Kovea does in the near future, but it has made my kit to this point because it’s great for simmering, and it allows you to invert a remote canister and cook in cold weather.

Gas Canisters:  Weight on my scale is 7.1 oz., of which 3.9 oz. is gas (i.e.”consumable”).  MSR IsoPro and JetBoil fuel are both fine by me.  The canisters fit nicely in my pots, even with a stove.

Long-handle Titanium Spoon:  Mine weighs 0.7 oz.  Beats whittling chopsticks, although I’ve had to do it before.  Like the time I forgot to pack my spoon.  Or that other time I forgot to pack my spoon.

Miscellaneous items:  Mini scrubbie, cut piece of microfiber towel, dropper bottle with biodegradable soap, mini Bic lighter, and superlight 1/4 cup measuring cup.  Combined weight 1.5 oz.  I mean, packing dirty cookware sucks, and smelly cookware attracts critters.  I carry the measuring cup because sometimes I need exact water volumes for recipes.

On occasion I might even add a 1 oz. mini spatula, particularly if I’m cooking breakfasts on a trip (eggs, pancakes, hash browns).

I can pack all of this and 5-6 days of food and still be under 30 lbs. pack weight at the beginning of a trip.  And there’s nothing like a great meal at the end of a long day of hiking, especially if you’re in a shelter and those around you are preparing ramen for the hundredth time….they will eventually drift your way and hope to yogi some of your feast.  One night in the Shenandoahs I was frying up some salmon cakes to go with my scalloped potatoes, and one of my shelter mates sauntered over and declared that I was an SOB for cooking something on the trail that smelled that good.  I said, “hey, here, have one of these salmon cakes, I made too many” to which he replied that what he meant was that I was the NICEST SOB, followed by “Holy $**t these are AMAZING!”  Later that night he shared some bourbon with me.