Unless you prefer cold beans straight from the can and tea that's not even tepid, a camp stove is an essential item for time on the trail. While stoves of my youth were prone to leaky gas, flare-ups, clogs, and flames that stubbornly refused to stay lit, modern stoves make camp cooking almost as easy as staying at home and firing up the barbecue. Push-button ignitions, flame-control adjustments, self-cleaning fuel jets, and sophisticated mixtures of fuel make these backcountry cookers easy to use, even for those of us who are admittedly culinarily disadvantaged. And the best news is that despite significant advances in fuel and technology, increased market competition has kept prices down, so even after you buy a stove, you'll most likely have sufficient funds left to add some pork to those beans.

Price

Prices for camp stoves run from about $20 for a bare-bones model to a whopping $250 or so for an ultralight titanium cooker. A great deal is the Camping Gaz Twister 270 HPZ, a 10 oz stove with a push-button ignition. MSR (Mountain Safety Research) offers the DragonFly for $100 (1 lb, 1 oz), a liquid gas stove that burns white gas, kerosene, aviation fuel, jet fuel, petroleum naphtha (a distillation of crude oil with few additives), and solvents. One of my favorites is the dual burner Peak 1 Xpedition ($90). Since it runs on a single propane/butane canister, you can still go light while boiling water and cooking breakfast simultaneously.

Peak 1 Xpedition by Coleman

Compressed or Liquid Gas?

Camp stoves can be divided into two categories. Both have their strengths, as well as their limitations. Cartridge stoves are generally lighter and more maintenance free than those fueled by liquid gas. Cartridge stoves also simmer better than their liquid gas cousins. On the other hand, liquid gas stoves are usually less expensive, more environmentally friendly (most cartridges are disposed after use, although some are recyclable), and hotter burning in all types of weather.