A versatile outdoor cooking system is made up of a stove, cookware (pots & pans), serving utensils, and personal mess kits. There are countless arrangements, which means finding the perfect cooking system can be quite challenging. Luckily the differences are subtle and it's easy to switch methods. My golden rule for outdoor cooking is to bring just a few pieces of gear that serve a TON of tasks. This approach means there is less to carry, clean, and care for while also fulfilling all the needs to create tasty and healthy gourmet meals in the outdoors.
Lightweight backpackers enjoy the simplicity of only using a small pot and spoon for all of their cooking. The pot allows them to heat up water for their meals while also doubling as a bowl. This is a simple approach that works if you're traveling solo or with one other person. However, once more people enter the picture, the cooking situations gets more complicated.
Cook groups is a common approach to dealing with food preparation for more people. Each cook group has a set of cookware (pot, pan, utensils), and each person has their own mess kit (bowl, spoon, mug). This help keep everything hygienic in camp by eliminating cross-contamination from each other's dishes.
With a pot you can cook your food, heat your water, and store your leftovers for the next morning. The simplicity that comes with cooking with just one pot cannot be overstated. It's quick, requires almost no cleanup, and is extremely lightweight. The major downfalls are that this system only works when preparing food just for yourself or one other person, and your meal options are more limited.
