|
 Consider this, Considering Cooking seems to be a good title for cooking aricles, and so it shall be from now on at Adventura Company. As I have mentioned before, tasty food is one of my favorite things in the world, which means I write articles about cooking gear.
Today let's talk Cookware. We have been trying out our new MSR Stainless Steel Cookset and it seemed like a good time to go over the basic things to look for in camp cookware along with a brief look at MSR's offering tomorrow. Typically, I look at 5 important criteria when choosing cookware. Weight, Heat Dispersion, Durability, Cost, and likelihood of ingesting toxic materials used to make the cookware. Understanding these categories should give you all the knowledge you could want next time you anguish over what outdoors cookset to get... **In a related note to Considering Cooking, Jason has a great way to cut down on dishes.**
Let's get right to it. Outdoor cookware decisions tend to come down to materials used to make the pan. Combinations are nearly infinite it seams along with treatments done to the pan such as non-stick surfaces. The most common base materials for outdoor activity friendly cookware can be broken down to Stainless Steel, Aluminum, and Titanium. Ingesting Toxic Materials Ingesting toxic materials sounds as bad as it is. I always encourage to be aware of aluminum cookware and to a lesser extect, cheap non-stick cookware. Aluminum is a great material for cookware in many ways, but aluminum by itself is very soft, making it scratch easily. These scratches can in turn result in aluminum particles in your food. Like most metals, small amount can be dealt with by your body, but build up over time can make for a sick body. Many aluminum products exist that mitigate the dangers of aluminum, so ask questions when you shop! Although aluminum toxicity does not appear to be super common, we have seen it happen and awareness of the possiblity can't hurt you. Cheap non-stick cookware can chip and peel over time or with even mild abuse while quality non-stick pans hold up much better. It shouldn't be surprising that it looks like ingesting teflon isn't really good for us. Studies of the long term effects of teflon ingestion are ongoing but we seem to be finding that teflon should not be eaten. Weight Weight is mostly important to backwoods activities that require packing in gear. Pretty straighforward, the more you pack in the more important weight is. Titanium is often the lightest option, but suffers in other areas like heat dispersion and cost. Heat Dispersion Cooking faster and more evenly, espescially in cold weather, is the game with heat dispersion. Design does play a part in heat dispersion, but the metal matters most. Copper is great at this but heavy, costly, and soft making it rarely if ever used for camping cooksets. Aluminum is nearly as good, but make sure the cookware is not exposed untreated aluminum as per the warning above. Stainless Steel is middle of the road here and a safe bet. Durability Stainless Steel is the durability king. It is strong and malleable. Titanium is strong but brittle. Aluminum as mentioned can be quite soft. Anodized pans if done properly should hold their finish pretty well. Cost Stainless Steel has a good leg up on cost to performance right now. If you want a capable cookset at a very good price you will probable end up with the stainless. Auminum products tend to be middle of the road cost wise. Titanium products are more costly but may still be worh it for backpackers and the like. Non-stick surfaces and anodizing should add some cost as well, but if you want the easy clean aspects don't go super cheap here. Closing A nice thing about cookware in general is that typically you get what you pay for, making it easier to find a quality product if you know the basics above. Good luck, and look for some cookware reviews coming soon on AdventuraCompany.com. |
