COOKING

HOW TO USE LIGHTWEIGHT STOVES
A camp stove gives you a fast, easy way to do your cooking. It produces heat just right for warming a small cup of soup or cooking a big pot of pasta. A stove won't blacken rocks and cooking gear or scorch the soil. With a stove, you can camp where there is no firewood or where campfires are not allowed. Stoves work equally well in deserts, high mountains, and deep forests, and are ideal for use in storms and on snow.

Many camping stoves burn commercial stove fuel or kerosene. Store these fuels in special metal bottles with lids that screw on tightly. Choose bright red bottles or mark them with colorful tape so there is no chance of mistaking them for water bottles.

Butane and propane stoves burn gas from small cans called cartridges. Carry cartridges and fuel bottles in the outside pockets of your pack where gas fumes can't get near your food.

When you are ready to cook, place your stove on a level surface free of leaves, sticks, or other burnable material. A patch of bare ground or a flat rock is all you need.

During winter campouts, put your stove on a piece of plywood about eight inches square. The plywood will hold your stove on top of the snow and prevent the cold ground from chilling the stove.