Alcohol has ½ the btu output for the same amount of white gas (gasoline) so they are not as hot burning as a normal stove. But they are more then enough to do the job. You can cook on them just fine. I regularly use one to cook eggs, bacon soups the complete dinners you find at grocery stores. The problem with alcohol stoves in for the most part they have no simmer and you can’t turn them down. That and at most they run for 15-min on a fill up. But this is normally more then enough. If not just pour some more alcohol in it and keep going. Alcohol flames are hard to see in daylight, so make sure it’s out before you refill it.