Camp Kitchen
Good camp food starts with a stove that actually cooks and a cooler that keeps ice for days. These are our tested picks for feeding the crew outdoors.
A powerful two-burner with a genuinely effective windscreen that aced every test metric — boil speed, simmer control, and wind resistance. The stove most campers should buy.
Great simmer control, light, and runs off both propane and butane — at a price that's almost impossible to beat. Perfect for solo trips and tailgates.
Whatever stove you choose, stock extra fuel and a windscreen. Wind is the #1 reason camp meals take forever — the Everest's built-in screen is a big part of why it wins.
Thick rotomolded walls and pressure-injected insulation held about 80% ice retention over a three-day trip in our testing. Practically indestructible and bear-resistant.
Excellent ice retention for a soft cooler — 7 lbs of ice took 60 hours to fully melt at room temperature in testing. Light, grab-and-go ready for weekend trips.
Block ice and reusable cooler packs last far longer than loose cubes. Pairing them with a quality cooler is the cheapest way to stretch ice retention an extra day.
High BTU numbers look impressive, but in the field, wind protection determines real-world boil times. A two-burner with a good windscreen like the Everest 2X cooks faster in breezy conditions than a higher-BTU stove without one.
A rough rule: plan for about two-thirds ice, one-third food and drinks by volume. For a family weekend, a 45–65 qt hard cooler hits the sweet spot. Soft coolers like the ORCA are perfect as a drinks-only second cooler.
Cool your cooler with a sacrificial bag of ice for an hour before packing, and load already-cold food. A warm cooler burns through your first day's ice just getting cold.
Wind protection matters more than raw BTUs — a two-burner with a good windscreen like the Camp Chef Everest cooks faster in a breeze than a higher-BTU stove without one.
A quality rotomolded cooler like the YETI Tundra holds ice 3–5 days; pre-chill it and use block ice to stretch retention.
Plan for roughly two-thirds ice and one-third food by volume; a 45–65 qt hard cooler suits a family weekend.
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