Cooking to Save Fuel

White gas, kerosene, isobutane, and denatured alcohols are common fuels for backpacking stoves. Fuel savings greatly depend on the efficiency of the cooking process, as well as the stove and type of cooking pot. One of the best ways to conserve fuel is to avoid energy loss during cooking. You don’t want to run out of fuel mid-hike and be left eating cold freeze-dried entrées. Here are a few strategies to conserve stove fuel.

No flame in vain

Only allow the fuel to burn when it is at work, or heating your food.

Before preparing food: Collect all your camp kitchen equipment – stove, fuel, cook pot, utensils, lighter, meal, water – and keep it all within arm’s reach. Open the package and have everything ready before bringing your water to a boil. You don’t want the stove burning off precious fuel while you try to locate your foodstuff, or fidget trying open the packaging.

• Light up your stove after you have added the necessary ingredients to the cooking pot, such as water. If you don’t need to add the ingredients right away, at least make sure the packaging is opened up.

Use an optimal amount of water

Only use as much water as you need. The more the water, the more the fuel required to bring it to a boiling point. Never drain off any surplus cooking water; find a use for it or drink it later, rather than lose the precious nutrients. If the entrée is too soupy, grab some bread to soak up the excess liquid.

• • Cooking Pasta: Use 1.5 times of water per measurement of pasta to allow for proper absorption.
  • Other Instant Grains (Rice, Quinoa, Oats, Polenta, Lentil): 1 to 1 ratio of water to instant grain for proper absorption.

Pasta cooking tip: Cooking whole wheat dry pasta will take a few minutes longer than the processed instant variety. When cooking dry pasta follow the boil-soak method. In other words, bring a covered pot of water to a boil, stir in the pasta, turn off the stove, and allow the residual heat to finish cooking the pasta. It will take about 8-10 minutes for whole-wheat pasta to cook al dente. If you insulate the pot, you can shave off another minute or so during the soak time.

When you cook pasta this way, always use less water than the package recommends and retain any excess cooking water! The pasta water has starch (calories) that you do not want to waste. If you are making something else, use the extra pasta water for the sauce, potato flakes, hot cocoa, soup, etc. Heat and air decrease the amount of soluble vitamin content in prepared food, which means dehydrating foods depletes vitamin content, cooking depletes vitamin content, and further losses occur if you discard the cooking water. Don’t do it!

Use a tight-fitting lid

The most important step you can take to reduce fuel consumption on the trail is to use a lid. Ensure the lid fits tight enough to keep the water vapor sealed inside. By covering the pot with a lid, the energy contained in the steam is utilized and transferred to cook the food, rather than lost through evaporation by steam. In fact, use of a lid can conserve as much as 40% of your fuel. The fuel savings are even greater if the wind is blowing.

Use the proper size cook pot

The contact the cooking pot makes with the flame is very important when it comes to fuel conservation. The best gains in fuel efficiency come from the size of the pot itself and its ability to transfer the heat without obstruction. The flame under the cooking pot should make direct contact with the pot without the flame spilling over the edge. Any excess flame that travels up the side of the pot is lost to the atmosphere, which is wasted fuel.

Most backpacking stoves tend to have small burners, so picking a pot that is too small for the burner is normally not an issue. Broad bottomed, shallow cooking pots tend to be the most energy efficient. Tall and narrow cooking pots tend to be less efficient, especially if the flame creeps up the side of the pot. If this happens, reduce the flame to low in order to save on fuel.

Decrease or eliminate the flame once water starts boiling

Once the water has reached a boiling point, turn down the flame or shut off the fuel. Boiling water will never exceed boiling temperature (roughly 212°F or 100°C based on atmospheric pressure & salts). Once water reaches the boiling point, it will remain at that temperature until all the water boils off, or evaporates. While a big flame will bring the water to boil faster, a lower flame will use less fuel even though it takes more time to bring the water to a boil. Experiments demonstrate that the additional time to achieve a boiling point at a lower flame consumes less fuel than a faster boil time at a higher flame. Decide if your time or fuel is more valuable to you.

Clean the stove burner

Liquid-fuel backpacking stoves need to be cleaned and maintained regularly. With time, carbon and soot can build up around the burning mechanism and increase fuel consumption. To check for efficient operation, look for a bright, steady blue flame. A non-uniform, yellowish flame usually means the burner is clogged and needs to be cleaned.

Soak ingredients before cooking

As mentioned in our previous post, soaking food ingredients, such as pasta, lentils, and rice before cooking and following the boil-soak method saves even more on stove fuel.

All these fuel savings strategies will provide a significant saving – pack weight, money, and the environment.

Related Posts:

• Pasta vs Noodles: Which one is better for the trail
• Avoiding Dishes in the Backwoods: Cooking Bag Pot Liners
• How to Cook when Backpacking
• Packing and Preparing Backpacking Food from the Grocery Store
• Fueling the Firefight: Meeting the Energy Demands for Wildland Firefighters