Cooking
What tableware and pots to take camping
One pot, one pan, a bowl, a mug and cutlery per person cover nearly every meal. Materials, packed size and washing up at camp: the choices that matter.
5 min read
In a car boot, camping crockery almost always ends up in excess: twelve plates for four people, three saucepans of which one will be used. The answer fits in a line. Per person, one deep dish, one mug and one set of cutlery; for the group, one pot and one frying pan or stockpot, with a second pot once you cook for more than four. The rest isn’t useless, but it earns its place through a specific habit, not on principle.
How many pieces, really
Count what you will have to wash, not what you will carry. Every extra piece is something to rinse with water that sometimes has to be hauled in. That is why a deep bowl, which takes pasta and breakfast alike, beats the flat plate: it keeps heat, stops sauce running off and cleans in one wipe.
| For | The bare minimum | The comfort |
|---|---|---|
| Each person | 1 bowl or deep plate, 1 mug, 1 spoon, 1 fork, 1 pocket knife | 1 flat plate, 1 tumbler |
| The group (2 to 4) | 1 pot with lid, 1 frying pan, 1 ladle or serving spoon | 1 stockpot, 1 board, 1 colander |
| Shared kitchen | 1 paring knife, 1 peeler, 1 tin opener | 1 whisk, 1 timer |
The lid matters more than the diameter: it shortens the time water takes to boil, and so the gas you burn. For the heat source itself, see our guide to the camping stove; the pot should suit the flame, not the other way round.
Materials and what they cost you
No material wins on every count. Three things matter: mass, heat conduction and how it stands up to daily use.
- Aluminium (density 2.7): conducts roughly ten times better than stainless steel, so it heats fast with no hot spots. Light but soft; anodised or coated versions resist scratches better. Bare, it is slowly attacked by acidic food (tomato, lemon).
- Stainless steel (density 7.9): inert, practically indestructible, can be scoured with wire wool. It is heavy and conducts poorly; without a thick base it catches. A “sandwich” base corrects some of that.
- Titanium (density 4.5): about half the weight of stainless at equal thickness, and lighter still because the walls are very thin. That thinness, plus low conduction, makes hot spots: it boils water, it doesn’t simmer a sauce.
- Enamelled steel: glass fused onto steel. Clean, tasteless, pleasant in the hand and on the table, but heavy, and the enamel chips on impact; the steel rusts where it does. For the camp table, not the rucksack.
- Food-grade plastic: for bowls, mugs and plates only. Light and quiet on a table, but it can’t take a direct flame or a pan fresh off the heat.
A simple rule: conductive metal for what heats, an insulating material for what you hold or put to your lips. A single-wall metal mug burns the fingers with tea at 90 °C; a double-wall or plastic one doesn’t.
Packed size: the art of nesting
Volume sometimes weighs more than mass. A well-designed set nests everything: bowl in pot, mug in bowl, cutlery and a small stove inside the mug, the gas cartridge alongside. Pots of graded diameters stack inside the largest and take the space of one. Fixed handles forbid nesting; folding or detachable ones save several centimetres for a few grams. In a car boot the question is loading order more than volume; see our piece on planning the journey and loading the car.
Car or bivouac: two opposite logics
With a car, mass barely counts and sturdiness and ease of washing do. Take stainless or enamel, a bowl each, a large stockpot. Everything is set out on the table as described in our article on organising your camp kitchen.
On foot, every gram is carried for hours and the rule reverses: a single pot of about 0.7 to 1 litre for a solo walker, one vessel doubling as a bowl, a long spoon for eating from freeze-dried pouches. Titanium or aluminium win out, and shared crockery disappears. The bivouac kit list gives the weight total not to exceed; the general camping kit list covers the opposite case.
Washing up at camp
The principle: little water, lukewarm rather than hot, and as late as possible. Scrape first, with paper or a spatula; set fat goes in the bin, never into the shared sink or the ground. Then one basin to wash, another to rinse, and a drop of biodegradable soap. “Biodegradable” means it breaks down in living soil; it does not mean harmless to a stream.
On a campsite, empty into the points provided. In the wild, where the practice is tolerated, move about 60 metres from water, strain out the scraps and scatter the water thinly rather than in a puddle. Rules differ between countries and protected areas, so check before you leave: what is tolerated in one place is banned in another.
One last detail that changes a lot: a tea towel drying on a cord, and a storage bag that closes. Crockery put away damp smells of mildew within two days.
For your next trip, lay all your tableware on the table, then remove whatever you didn’t touch last time. What is left is your kit.
Frequently asked questions
- How many pieces of tableware per person?
- A bowl or deep plate, a mug (insulated or metal) and a set of cutlery (spoon, fork, pocket knife) cover almost every meal. One deep piece that does everything is quicker to wash than three different plates. Anything beyond that is comfort, not necessity.
- Aluminium, stainless steel or titanium for a cooking pot?
- Aluminium conducts heat very well and is light, but it scratches and dislikes acidic food. Stainless steel is the toughest and easiest to maintain, at the cost of weight and less even heating. Titanium is the lightest, but it heats in hot spots and suits boiling water best. For car camping, stainless is a sensible default; on foot, mass takes over.
- Can you tip washing-up water onto the ground outdoors?
- On a campsite, use the sinks and drains provided. In the wild, remove solid scraps first, use very little biodegradable soap, and scatter the lukewarm water about 60 metres from any stream, lake or water source. Biodegradable soap breaks down in soil, not in a stream. Local rules always come first.
- Is plastic tableware a good idea?
- It is light, unbreakable and doesn't burn the hand, which suits children and the camp table. It scratches, holds on to grease and smells, and warps against a hot pan. Check for a food-safe mark on the base.