Cooking Utensils
As to other cooking utensils, aside from stoves or other appliances to be used in connection with cooking fires, the camper has the same wide choice that he has elsewhere. He may have everything going or almost nothing. He may use a skillet for both his coffee and his frying, making the coffee first, and keeping it hot in his pail while he fries his bacon. Then, with tin cup, plate, knife, fork and spoon he may make out to his satisfaction. Another motor camper, however, will be satisfied with nothing less than a complete folding kit of the latest and best cooking outfit offered by the market. Naturally Mr. Average Man will come somewhere in between the extremes noted.
Cooking utensils may be taken along from home, but such will mostly be rather bulky and will not pack together well. There are many comparatively inexpensive outfits that nest together and so take but little room that will meet all the needs of the average motor camper. Almost anywhere the motor camper may buy aluminum ware that nests together and that will meet all requirements.
In buying aluminum ware for camp use it is well to remember that aluminum cups have a tendency to burn the lips because the metal is such a good heat conductor. So agateware cups will prove more satisfactory for the camper’s use. Likewise an aluminum skillet for the same reason is liable to burn on the bottom, and a steel skillet with a folding or [[70]]removable handle will fill the bill better for the motor camper than one of aluminum. Aside from these cautions the motor camper may go as far as he pleases in buying aluminum ware, and he will be pretty sure to meet with satisfaction. There are, indeed, some campers who feel that lightness compensates for the disadvantages named above even in the case of cups.
A standard aluminum cooking set for two persons, to nest together in a canvas bag eight inches high and nine inches in diameter will cost about twenty dollars and weigh about five pounds. Such a set will consist of 1 seven-pint cooking pot, 1 ten-pint cooking pot, 1 four-pint coffee-pot, 1 frying pan, 2 plates, 2 dessert spoons, 2 cups, 2 soup bowls, 2 knives, 2 forks and 2 teaspoons. As has been seen above, it will be well to substitute for aluminum ware agateware cups and a steel frying pan. These sets come also for three, four and six persons with a corresponding increase in the number of utensils.