A Quick Tour of My (Compact) Kitchen Kit - Show Yours

[Glenn MacGrady]

This was on a weekend canoe trip in New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the summer of 2025. I used a new and compact kitchen kit I bought during Covid. Prior to that for 15 years, I used a somewhat similar JetBoil kit.



I don't need much to cook freeze-dried meals and make tea.

Let's start: A GSI stainless steel 0.5 liter pot/mug with a foam insulation outer sleeve and a sipping lid. I don't actually drink out of the pot/mug, but just use it as a small water boiling pot.



Inside the pot is: an isobutane canister, a folded MSR PocketRocket 2 stove head, and a folded security base for the fuel canister.



Attached magnetically underneath the metal fuel canister is an orange GSI Microgripper Pot Holder for two fingers and a thumb, with which to pick up the hot GSI pot after it's boiled water on the stove.



Of course, I have to take the foam insulation off the cup before I boil the water.



After the water is boiled in the hot pot, I pick the pot up with the finger pot holder and put it back into the foam insulation sleeve, so I can then hold the pot to pour the hot water either into a bag of freeze dried meal or into my separate tea mug.



Along with my red stainless steel tea mug and my long titanium spoon, that completes my kitchen hardware.



That's all, folks! Nothing to wash and just a a teabag to dispose of.

I do have a back-up alcohol stove and Firebox twig stove, but I've never used them.

The fireplace—for me, if I use it at all—is just for heat, bug banishment, and blank staring into while I sip herbal tea.

 

[Ralph]

The mug with the complete stove inside is extremely efficient. Well thought-out and very impressive. The size and make-up of my kitchen varies with the size of crew and itinerary of the trip but, even at my most efficient, I'm no where close to you. I'll see if I can get my act, and kitchen, together and post something.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

The mug with the complete stove inside is extremely efficient. Well thought-out and very impressive. The size and make-up of my kitchen varies with the size of crew and itinerary of the trip but, even at my most efficient, I'm no where close to you. I'll see if I can get my act, and kitchen, together and post something.

I've only cooked for myself for many decades now since my family no longer goes on canoe or camping trips with me, so I no longer need any big kitchen stuff. Even on a rare group trip, I make it clear that I will cook for myself and only for myself. No one has ever cared.

I want no part of food prep, kitchen arts, clean-up, anything more than trivial waste disposal, and certainly not the weight of pots, pans and big utensils. I've never enjoyed doing any of that at home, and it is intolerable to me to waste time doing so on coveted canoe trip time. I realize that I'm on one far end of the spectrum for kitchen enjoyment while canoe camping, and that many others delight in wilderness culinary prowess. Well, maybe the backpackers are with me.

Different TOAKS for different folks.

If others want to show their cooking kits in this thread, I think that would be an interesting idea. In fact, I'll change the title to encourage that.