You’re jolly well screwed if you can’t eat during your camping trip. In camping, you usually burn more calories because your body is doing more work. So, food will most likely be constantly on your mind. You will not be able to happily survive on a diet of Granola bars. You will need to cook. And that means choosing camping cookware.

How Many People Are You Cooking For

Always keep in mind when choosing camping cookware that you will have to carry it around. You want as few pieces as possible to deal with. Figure out first how many people you will be cooking for. If you are only cooking for yourself, you only need a few pieces of camping cookware. There are camping cookware kits for just two people that are lightweight, fire resistant and tough. Even if you plan on camping by yourself, you should assume (or hope) that someone might join you. If the cookware is light enough, it’s good to have spares of:

knives

teaspoons

mugs

These items of camping cookware are the most inclined to go wandering off.

How Rough Is Your Camping Trip

People tend to enjoy camping because they are “roughing it”. However, camping out of the back of an RV or in a cabin with a kitchen is not exactly roughing it – but it does make a great vacation. If you are going to an all amenities campground, then you really don’t need to get extra camping cookware. Just select sturdy pieces from your kitchen, preferably pieces you wouldn’t mind being destroyed (just in case). Avoid plastic and wood. Aluminum, steel, iron and even CorningWare work great from microwaves to campfires. Teflon coated pans can burn up and melt if they are used on high-heat campfires.

If you are really roughing it and escaping from Western civilization for a spell, you need as lightweight and portable camping cookware as you can possibly find. I highly recommend checking out specialty camping supply stores that offer all in one camping cookware kits that are stackable, like those Russian dolls that fit all inside one huge doll. This kind of camping cookware is thin, so you need constant supervision when cooking with them to avoid conflagrations.

If You Get Nothing Else

If you don’t remember anything else from this article, please try and remember this – the most important item of camping cookware is some kind of water container. Whether it is a thermos, flask, bottle, or unlubricated condom (which can hold a gallon of fresh water easily), get it and guard it with your life. You can live up to three months without food. But you will die in three or four days without water.