Alrighty . Confession time. How many of you still carry an old coffee can for your entire cooking set? Personally, I have upgraded to 6 cans. A big 5 lber for a pot, 4 v-8 to hold my grill up (2 of the cans are filled with water to warm for the doing the dishes) and my 1 qt 'er I use for almost everything.
Bucket, shovel,measuring device for water puricication and the only one I carry when practicing survival. ( I always carry full gear- in case things go wrong- no need to die trying to learn).

none, don't drink coffee <img src="images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> i'm usually the type who goes home before diner, so nothing to cook, besides your not allowed to have a open fire here....on a multiday trip i went, i used standard kicken wear ( dont have to carry it <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> )

i've used catering sized cans of beans as cooking pots before now, usually over an open fire, however if i'm hiking i usually use my 10+ year old set of pots from when i did duke of edinbrough. they are made by optimus, weigh about 550g, and are made up of a small pot, a larger pot, whose lid is also a frying pan. they are a bit dented now mind, but on the plus side in the small pot i can keep, my pocket rocket, lots of coffee/hot chocolate, a pan scrubber, the pot grips, matches, wind break, so i've all i need to brew up! bit off the topic i know but i got rambling on;)
stevec

For personal cooking I have my mess kit. <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I met a fella from Canada- works a trapper and he uses those stainless steel nested bowls you can get at walmart- he attaches bail handles to them when he uses them so he can also attach a hook. Tells me they are common.

I thought about using them (or one of them) for cooking. They're very cheap, i'm not sure about the weight though, haven't had a chance to handle them. For cooking at the moment I use standard British army mess tins and a plastic spoon with holes drilled in the handle. I'm trying to keep it as lightweight as possible. The british mess tin is suprisingly heavy and i'm looking for an alternative. Titanium is way to expensive and not readily available in britain. I'm thinking about using a cheap saucepan that costs about £1 and taking the handle off. It might be lighter than a mess tin <img src="images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />. Worth a try anyway for that price.

trangia makes a light and small ( compaired with the millitairy stuff ) aluminium mess tin, with some kind of lit and has insulated handle's. The shape should make it easy to pack...

Well, I saw a fella take a saucepan and cut the handle down- he riveted an aluminum ring around the handle stub and whittled and shoved a stick into the ring as a longish handle in the field.

Saw another fella who had an old US pot type helmet-- not the kevlar ones- removed the web gear and used it for a kitchen and for washing up.

I think you can also take a gallon fruit tin and cut it down to 2 inches - leaving a strip that goes all the way up- smooth the cut edge by bending down and then bend the strip down for a handle. I wonder if searching thru the grocery store would yield something better? Too thin and the thing will disintergrate in flames- We have all seen aluminum soda cans virtually disapear in flames and I have melted a pan while cooking when the the wind made the fire into a forge.

Pete,

Define cooking... if it involves boiling water, then it's hard to beat a 2 quart pot with bail and lid. I've been using the same inexpensive aluminum pot for about 25 years - I feel like something is missing if it's not in my pack. If you never ever have to melt snow for water you can get by fine with a smaller pot, but I'd suggest not going smaller than about 1.25 liter.

I just checked REI and Campmor and the closest thing to what I have is this, but the one I have is lighter and has a tighly fitting domed lid rather than the flat lid seen here.

I've also done fine over the years with just an issue SS US canteen cup of current vintage, although it doesn't have quite enough capacity for me. With a pot and the canteen cup, you can boil/simmer/eat/drink - covers most bases.

I've been flirting with a couple of MSR stainless steel kettles (one for wife and one for me) the last couple of years and I kind of like them (got factory blems cheap). Just went on their site and apparently these are out-of-production - styled like this but larger capacity - 1.5 liter IIRC - or perhaps it's 1.8 liter (?) same height and larger diameter - anyway, they have +/- over a plain aluminum pot so I'm not won over completely.

So... what do you need to be able to "cook" with your kit?

Tom