What’s the next kitchen item you plan to buy (2026)?

My wife picked this garlic chopper up recently from Sur la Table. If you see one, save your money. It's garbage.
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Meanwhile, I finally caved and bought an isobutane backpacking stove. I have alcohol stoves, Esbit solid fuel stoves, a titanium woodburning stove, and a nearly 30-year old Coleman Apex I Peak II white gas stove that keeps on chugging. I've been resisting making the leap into isobutane, since I don't like the idea of being reliant on canisters that generally leave you guessing how much fuel is left. But, they're very small and light, so I thought I'd finally give an MSR PocketRocket Deluxe a try. I hope to try it out this weekend.
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Gone Hiking said:
My wife picked this garlic chopper up recently from Sur la Table. If you see one, save your money. It's garbage.
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Meanwhile, I finally caved and bought an isobutane backpacking stove. I have alcohol stoves, Esbit solid fuel stoves, a titanium woodburning stove, and a nearly 30-year old Coleman Apex I Peak II white gas stove that keeps on chugging. I've been resisting making the leap into isobutane, since I don't like the idea of being reliant on canisters that generally leave you guessing how much fuel is left. But, they're very small and light, so I thought I'd finally give an MSR PocketRocket Deluxe a try. I hope to try it out this weekend.
View attachment 144088
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I like the MSR whisperlite, but I can't justify the expense
Other stuff to buy first :)
 
Gone Hiking said:
My wife picked this garlic chopper up recently from Sur la Table. If you see one, save your money. It's garbage.
View attachment 144087

Meanwhile, I finally caved and bought an isobutane backpacking stove. I have alcohol stoves, Esbit solid fuel stoves, a titanium woodburning stove, and a nearly 30-year old Coleman Apex I Peak II white gas stove that keeps on chugging. I've been resisting making the leap into isobutane, since I don't like the idea of being reliant on canisters that generally leave you guessing how much fuel is left. But, they're very small and light, so I thought I'd finally give an MSR PocketRocket Deluxe a try. I hope to try it out this weekend.
View attachment 144088
Click to expand...
We've only used gas stove (the Swedish make trangia) since converting to one back in 1995 i think it was. We still have the backup meths or ethanol burner that's with it and whilst we were cycling around the world, we carried a multi fuel burner for it as well (they all pack into there same storage, in side there kettle in a dedicated bag, there's never been a spillage issue).

Once you get the hang of gas canisters you can readily judge how much is in it. If you're only out for a day, it's no big deal. We carried a very small emergency sized gas canisters (the smallest we could find) as a backup whilst cycling) but never carried a backup whilst hiking or long distance walking. We very quickly learnt how long one would last with a standard use per day approach, so knew that 1 of a certain size would last a 7 day hike etc.

Plus you could write the weight and date on it when you buy it and once it runs out completely you'll have a rough idea on what you'll get from it.
 
ZCook said:
Interesting. Not a hiker or camper, so pretty ignorant on portable cooking equipment but looked it up - could be a useful rural adjunct. Looks like it's a user filled fuel canister?
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So, that one is a white gas (in liquid form) stove, similar to my old Coleman. That one has been enormously popular for many years, though I personally don't like all of the (weak) plastic that makes up the fuel cap assembly. For the longest time, that was the lightest, go-to stove available. What I like about white gas is that you only need to buy one fuel bottle ever, and then you just refill it from a 1-gallon can of white gas that you can purchase from most sporting goods stores. You also can physically see exactly how much fuel is left in the bottle. And unlike alcohol stoves, they perform well in colder temperatures, even if they're a bit finicky to light below freezing. The flame is also adjustable, so you can control the temperature if you want to actually cook something instead of just boil water. My discontinued Coleman had probably the widest adjustability of any backpacking stove. It's a shame that it was discontinued, really. It is bulkier and heavier than more modern stove types, but for the slight size and weight penalty, it really is the bomb.
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Isobutane stoves, on the other hand, rely on canisters of isobutane (in gas form). They perform similarly to white gas stoves, but most people are then typically bound to buying new canisters all the time for the life of the stove. There are adapters that allow you to refill them from larger isobutane canisters, but you can never be sure how much they're being filled, so most just buy new canisters. Not knowing how much fuel is left has always been a sticking point. You can weigh them or do a crude float test to gauge it, but that's about it. They're the lightest high-output stoves, though, so that is what most in the serious backpacking community have gravitated towards. I'm a little more old school, I guess, but I haven't bought a new stove in ages and thought I'd finally give one a try.

SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
We've only used gas stove (the Swedish make trangia) since converting to one back in 1995 i think it was. We still have the backup meths or ethanol burner that's with it and whilst we were cycling around the world, we carried a multi fuel burner for it as well (they all pack into there same storage, in side there kettle in a dedicated bag, there's never been a spillage issue).

Once you get the hang of gas canisters you can readily judge how much is in it. If you're only out for a day, it's no big deal. We carried a very small emergency sized gas canisters (the smallest we could find) as a backup whilst cycling) but never carried a backup whilst hiking or long distance walking. We very quickly learnt how long one would last with a standard use per day approach, so knew that 1 of a certain size would last a 7 day hike etc.

Plus you could write the weight and date on it when you buy it and once it runs out completely you'll have a rough idea on what you'll get from it.
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Cycling around the world must have been one hell of an adventure! I've never done anything close to that; just extended weekend backpacking and kayaking trips and tons of day trips to disappear for miles into the wilderness. I use both a brass Trangia and titanium alcohol stove quite a bit, as well as Esbit solid fuel stoves, especially in the warmer months They are super light, but don't put out the heat of white gas, isobutane, or propane, nor do they perform very well in cold weather, especially alcohol.
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Your tips are exactly as I've approached it. I bought three of the smallest canisters to start with, since small size/weight is the goal, and already marked the dates and weights on the bottom of all three. They're remarkably uniform. All three weighed in at 203 grams. I opted for the Deluxe model stove since I subscribe to "buy once, cry once" and I liked the larger burner. After a quick garage test, I have to say that it puts out a ton of heat. Hopefully, I'll be able to put it through its first field trial tomorrow.

Plan B is always "make a fire", and in fact, that's often Plan A in the winter, but depending on the location and fire hazard rating, fires are not always allowed, though I tend to allow common sense to prevail.
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Gone Hiking said:
So, that one is a white gas (in liquid form) stove, similar to my old Coleman.
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thats the same as the multifuel bottle and burner for our trangia. We like them because they are safe to use in all weather conditions, they come with their own built in windshield. As with you, we have used them down to -20C and below and they are bomb proof.

We have had several over the decades - we passed my original one on, and we had a larger version, which we switched to the Hard Adonised version whilst in Finland. I think it is this one Trangia Stove 25-8 UL/HA - Trangia (but we have all 3 fuel adaptors - the standard meths burner which happily burns 95% ethanol, the gas burner and the original multi-fuel pressurised burner). We also had the ultra light emeergecy stove at one point for when we used to single day climbs in winter
 
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