The Best Camp Kitchen Gear: Essentials and Luxuries (Fall 2024)

We tested knives, coolers, stoves, and other kitchen essentials to highlight the best of the season

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Everything tastes better when you’re camping—that’s just a fact. Unless, of course, you char the pancakes over an overenthusiastic stove, or the milk curdles in a cut-rate cooler, or you impale yourself on some flimsy, dull excuse for knives, cutting your trip short (not to mention your precious fingers). You get the picture—hazards abound.

Luckily, our fearless team of 13 testers put 40 pieces of camp kitchen gear on the chopping block to bring you the seven best accessories we could find.

All gear in this guide was tested by multiple reviewers. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside. Learn more.

$70 at REI $70 at Amazon

Weight: 1 lb

Pros and Cons⊕ Easy to use and clean⊕ Double the capacity of the cult-classic original Aeropress⊗ Filter cap doesn’t fit many mugs

The Aeropress XL incorporates the same plunging tech as the backcountry barista-approved original version, but with double the capacity—a volume boost that allows car-camping couples to streamline their mornings by fixing one batch of brew instead of two. “My partner and I efficiently enjoyed excellent-quality coffee together every morning while camping thanks to the XL,” reported Chris Cloyd, a June Lake-based hut keeper, ultra-runner, and coffee addict (with a “Death Before Decaf” tattoo to prove it). For anyone intimidated by the looks of this gizmo, Cloyd describes the XL as “easy to use, and easier to clean.”

Testers reported that the XL filter cap does impede the press from being used directly with many mugs, making it important not to lose the included plastic carafe. If you’re rolling solo, try the more compact, single-serving Aeropress Clear ($50).

$139 at Amazon $139 at Radius Outfitters

Weight: 3 lbs

Pros and Cons⊕ Extremely tough and well-made⊕ Makes on-the-road organization easy⊗ Pricey

When professional chef-slash-vanlifer Cody Buccholz got his paws on the Radius Outfitters Kitchen Organizer, he ditched his knife roll—a massive statement for any culinary pro. “I’ve bragged about how efficient, protected, and organized my tool roll is now to every chef I’ve gotten to cook for since I started testing it,” raved Buccholz after a California-to-Colorado road trip. “These guys came up with a better design than anything I’ve purchased in my career.”

Three levels of sleeves accommodate 12-inch utensils, two zippered compartments house 15-inch tools (grill masters, slot your spatulas and tongs here), while a cutting board pocket, two additional transparent pockets for smaller essentials, and an integrated bottle opener get the party started. Crafted from a 1680D Cordura exterior and lined with a glossy, easy-to-clean PVC Tarpaulin, the Kitchen Organizer is “tough, well-designed, and built for life on the road–just like everything else we’ve tested from Radius so far,” commented test director Drew Zieff. Also available in a smaller version.

$40 at Sea to Summit

Weight: 5.2 oz

Pros and Cons⊕ Weighty, reliable handle⊕ Apt size for working in tight quarters⊕ Affordable⊗ Possibly too small if you’re cooking for a crowd

Sea to Summit’s new, comprehensive Detour line of mostly collapsible car-camping cookware has two main ingredients: stainless steel and hard nylon.

Testers offered mixed reviews of some of the company’s products: the collapsible pots are impressively compact, but the silicone siding wasn’t ideal for even heat transfer. But there were no mixed reviews on the Detour Kitchen Knife, a compact, dexterous, multi-purpose knife with a razor-sharp, five-inch stainless steel blade. “I’m working in a small space with a tiny cutting board and this small, sharp knife was perfect,” commented Buccholz, who used the Detour kit to whip up his favorites on a road trip, among them butter chicken, green curry, and tortilla soup. “I love the way this knife felt in my hand—it’s heavy and strong, and the shape of the handle felt secure in my palm.”

$500 at Huckberry $500 at Oyster Tempo

Weight: 12 lbs 6 ozDimensions: W 20.1 x D 11.8 x H 12.6″Volume: 23LCapacity: 36 355ml Cans & 2 Ice Packs

Pros and Cons⊕ Double-walled, vacuum-sealed design is thermally efficient⊕ No ice required⊕ Lid opens from both sides and is completely removable⊗ Hefty price tag⊗ One size only⊗ No drain for rinsing or melted ice⊗ Dents easily

The Oyster Tempo’s selling points are solid, and they better be—the sleek cooler is pricier than rotomolded options many campers already consider exorbitant. While status quo coolers call for a hefty ice-to-drink ratio, the aluminum Tempo skips ice completely. Instead, it pairs two flat, purpose-built ice packs with a thermally efficient double-walled design similar to that of your favorite water bottle. The result gives campers more packable volume (a 23-liter Oyster with ice packs keeps 36 cans cold, while a 24-liter rotomolded cooler with ice only handles 18 cans), takes up less trunk space, and still keeps contents frostier longer than the competition.

When test director Drew Zieff arrived home after a three-day trip and emptied the Tempo, he noted that his leftover beers “still felt as though they’d been plucked from a glacial stream.” Chris Cloyd, a hatchback-driving hut keeper, dug the sexy profile and compact build. “It takes up less space than our rotomolded cooler, which made trunk management easier,” he reported. When asked if he’d recommend the product to a friend, however, Cloyd joked, “Depends on their tax bracket.”

$28 at Amazon $28 at MiiR

Pros and Cons⊕ Nostalgic look gives off camp vibes⊕ Push-tab lid is road-trip-friendly⊗ 12 ounces ain’t always enough

Were it a cocktail, MiiR’s Camp Cup would be equal parts contemporary and classic. The double-walled, vacuum-insulated, stainless steel mug sports an intuitive push-tab lid—everything a modern cup collector covets—but it’s available in bright, speckled hues that salute the enamel mugs of yesteryear.

Amanda Monthei, a wildfire podcaster and hot beverage connoisseur, tested a green-speckled Camp Cup while camping in Umatilla and Gifford-Pinchot National Forests and loved both form and function from first sip. “It doesn’t burn your mouth—that’s the one thing I hate about real enamel mugs,” she reported. “And then by the time the cup has cooled, that hot drink is also cold!” The MiiR version, she opined, offers campers the best of both worlds: it’s a clear stylistic homage to those cute, spatterware relics, but modern insulation minimize chances of a seared upper lip or, worse, a lukewarm drink.

$300 at Backcountry $300 at Amazon

Weight: 13.8 lbs

Pros and Cons⊕ Dual-purpose fire pit and grill combo⊕ Quick-and-easy fires no matter where you roam⊕ Extremely compact⊗ You may want to purchase a new 5-lb propane tank⊗ Cooking for groups is challenging⊗ Oven mitts aren’t a bad idea

Fire ban? Meet the FireCan Deluxe—Ignik’s durable, shoebox-sized, propane-powered firepit and grill combo.* “It’s a safer solution to campfires,” commented Heather Hendricks, a part-time vanlifer and Colorado-based digital nomad who loved having a warm, enchanting, and contained fire no matter where she parked. Having a powerful propane grill or a firepit at this size is a win for any car camper—having both is the dream.

Grilling is simple: just attach a propane tank via the included Quick Connect hose to the marked grill input, light it with a long lighter, and drop in the grill attachment. “It gets hot—fast. I was blistering peppers within minutes,” chimed in Tahoe-based category manager Drew Zieff.

Testers had a few complaints: removing the grill and adjusting the lid can be finicky, so one recommends bringing oven mitts. Also, three or four salmon filets max out the grill, so feeding a bigger group necessitates cooking in shifts. For the most part, though, FireCan feedback was warmer than its 38,000-BTU output. You may also want to get a smaller 5-pound tank—20-lbs tanks are overkill for a quick camping trip.

*In certain conditions, such as high winds or severe drought, all open flames may be banned. When in doubt, check in with local rangers, forest service, fire departments, etc.

$110 at Gerber Gear $110 at Cabela’s

Weight: 4 lbs 4 ozDimensions: 9.6” x 15.6” (Bamboo cutting board), 8.9” x 14.3” (polypropylene cutting board), 6” blade (Chef’s Knife), 3.25” blade (paring knife)

Pros and Cons⊕ Self-contained cutting board kit⊕ Comes with kitchen essentials⊕ Storage space for you to add your favorite tools⊗ Cutting board lid can get dirty on the road

Nothing excites car campers like space-saving gear, and that’s exactly what Gerber’s new Compleat Cutting Board Kit is. Approximately the size of a casserole dish, the six-piece set features a striking bamboo cutting board that doubles as a lid, another polypropylene cutting board, two sharp, ergonomically handled knives (a 3.25-inch paring knife and a six-inch chef’s knife), and a two-piece set with nifty storage space for additional kitchen tools.

For category manager Drew Zieff, the set was a brilliant addition to the kitchen of his custom-built 2006 Chevy Express, replacing cutting boards that used to flop off the counter whenever he hit a pothole. Overall, the Gerber piece is a game-changer—it sits self-contained under the stove, no storage bin required.

$165 at Field Company $165 on Amazon Weight: 4.5 lbsDimensions: 10.3″ x 16.3″ x 2″

Pros and Cons⊕ Durable⊕ Versatile⊕ Cooking surface improves with time and seasoning⊕ Lighter-weight than other cast irons⊗ Not non-stick, even when well-seasoned⊗ Requires more care than other pans

There’s something magical about cast iron. What other cookware ages like fine wine and looks as good on a French range as it does over a campfire grate? Case in point: Field Company’s utilitarian No. 8 Cast Iron Skillet. This machined-smooth, 10.25-inch-diameter skillet is as durable as it is versatile, and it’s become a go-to pan for category manager Drew Zieff over the last few years. “From whipping up vegetable stir-fries in the van, to cooking fresh-caught trout over the campfire, to searing ribeyes at home, the skillet just does it all,” he reported.

Field Company crafts its skillets from recycled iron here in the USA, using traditional sand-casting techniques. (Essentially, molds are made from a master pattern using a wet, untreated sand mixture, then molten metal is poured into the mold. The resulting casting is cleaned, thinned, and smoothed by machine before it’s pre-seasoned and prepped for your stove.) Field Company aims for a relatively lightweight construction, centering heft at the base of the pan for searing prowess and then thinning it out toward the sloped rim. The 4.5-pound pan is about a pound lighter than standard cast-iron skillets. Testers also appreciated the ergonomic handle, which is convex and curved to fit comfortably in the hand. Thanks to the light weight and good grip, it was easy enough to pull one-handed from campfire to boulder. Still, cast iron isn’t ideal for the faint of wrist—especially when the skillet is loaded with a juicy, coiled tenderloin or packed with venison medallions. The handle can also get hot, too, so a handle cover ($29, sold separately) isn’t a bad idea.

“The durability and versatility of cast iron is a major draw for me,” said Zieff. Most testers were grateful to have a pan that could handle a high-powered two-burner camp stove and campfire cooking alike. And thanks to coils on the bottom, it can handle an electric range at home, too.

The biggest downside to the No. 8 is the same downside that befalls all cast-iron skillets: maintenance can be finicky. You won’t be able to use soap on the pan, and you may have to oil it regularly if you want to keep its seasoning—i.e., cast iron’s natural, stick-resistant coating—intact. The No. 8 skillet does come pre-seasoned with three coats of grapeseed oil, which we found plenty non-stick for most camping foods. Still we’d recommend cooking on it for a few weeks before you jump into something trickier, like fried eggs.

$200 at Gerber $200 at Cabela’s

Weight: 10 lbDimensions: 10″ x 2.5″ (sauté pan), 10″ x 5″ (stock pot), 6.7” x 2.6” (bowls), 8.7” x 1” (plates), 8.8” x 7.1”(mixing bowl)

Pros and Cons⊕ Space-saving nesting design⊕ Enough plates and bowls to feed 8⊕ Generously sized pot and pan⊕ High-quality stainless steel⊗ Squeezing the kit back into its storage bag isn’t easy

Gerber’s ComplEAT 16-piece Cook Set is the Russian nesting doll of camp cookware. The stars of the show are the 2.6-quart sauté pan and 5.6-quart stock pot. Both are crafted from stainless steel with a substantial, three-ply base construction, which distributes heat better than most purpose-built camping pots and pans. It’s easy enough to clean, too: even after we charred a chicken stir fry past the point of no return, distracted by the sunset on an Oregon surf trip, we were able to clean it with a pot scraper and a little biodegradable soap. Plus, the 2.5-inch rim of the sauté pan and five-inch-deep pot provide so much culinary real estate that cooking for four is no problem, and cooking for eight is possible with a little forethought.

When it comes time to dish up, the set also includes polypropylene dinnerware. You get four lipped plates that can handle chilis and stews, four bowls so deep they can double as helmets, and a large mixing bowl. The set also comes with a silicone-wrapped handle for the sauté pan that pops off for storage, a pair of perforated lids, and a nifty silicone heat pad.

If you’re doing the math, we’ve only touched on 15 pieces. The 16th is the cherry on top—a dual-handled carrying case. This cinch-closure storage bag is about the size of a small bear canister, and it fits the rest of this gear—so long as it’s neatly stacked. If you’re packing components willy-nilly, however, zipping the bag shut can be difficult—our testers’ biggest gripe. Do it right, though, and you’ll be rewarded with serious space savings.

“Thanks to the nesting design, I was able to replace a tub of pots, pans, plates, and bowls that was twice the size of the packed storage bag,” said category manager Drew Zieff.

$450 at New West KnifeWorks

Weight: 7.7 ozDimensions: 12.1″ x 1.9″

Pros and Cons⊕ Full tang provides durability⊕ Sharp, high-quality steel⊕ Versatile for a wide range of camp uses⊗ Expensive⊗ Sharpening serrated blades is tricky

New West Knifeworks’s Tactical Outdoor Chef may be pricey, but it’s one of the few chef’s knives we’ve found that you don’t have to baby. Over a summer of testing, it was capable of handling all the tasks we’d expect of a chef’s knife, as well as all the tasks we’d typically leave to a full-tang bushcraft blade. It’s durable, well-made, endlessly useful, and, to be quite honest, rad as hell.

As the name promises, the TOC is a mash-up of tactical military blades and every culinary artist’s go-to brush: the chef’s knife. Designed with the help of a Navy Seal, the TOC sports a razor-sharp, 6 ⅝-inch blade that riffs off the classic, curved shape of the bowie knife, a weapon typically reserved for stabbing bad guys. We stuck to stabbing fungi during testing, and the TOC made quick work of Operation Shiitake.

Jokes aside, we loved cooking with the TOC, whether we were slicing garlic with the pointed tip or chopping chicken with the belly of the blade. The asymmetrically serrated section, however, is what made our test team fall head over heels for this knife as a utilitarian camping companion. “This is a very weird use case, but I needed to shave off a millimeter or two from this one spot on my warped van bumper because it was catching the trunk door,” recounted our rather sheepish category manager Drew Zieff. “That serrated section carved off sliver after sliver of hard plastic bumper—something I never would’ve thought to do with any other chef’s knife.” It’s not just a work of art, said Zieff—it’s a workhorse, too. Over a summer of testing, it held its edge without issue.

Whether you’re shaving bumpers or trimming pork tenderloins, the resilient, stain-resistant, American-made steel is ultra-sharp and resists dulling. The full-tang construction is balanced in-hand and beefy enough to tackle tasks like splitting squash or chopping rope. And while the ergonomically contoured handle looks like wood grain from afar, it’s actually a composite of G10 fiberglass and rubber, a combo we found confidence-inspiring while working with fresh fish, poultry, and other slippery proteins. Yes, it’s expensive. But from blade to butt to the handsome leather sheath it comes in, get what you pay for.

$80 at MiiR $80 on Amazon

Weight: 1.8 lbDimensions: 6″ x 6″ x 10.5″

Pros and Cons⊕ Sleek design⊕ Two-piece construction makes for easy cleaning⊕ Big enough to serve four⊗ Included lid isn’t leakproof

Ever wished you could bring your Chemex camping without constantly fearing for the glass gizmo’s well-being? MiiR’s got the answer with its indestructible and ingeniously designed New Standard Carafe. The coffee contraption is crafted from double-wall, vacuum-insulated stainless steel, which is both ultra-durable and ensures your brew stays piping hot for hours. On chilly fall mornings in the Sierra, we were able to enjoy what hobbits affectionately call second breakfast, finishing off still-warm java up to two hours after brewing. The New Standard Carafe is easy to use and compatible with most carafe coffee filters. Our coffee-savvy testers found it did the job well—and that the resulting pour-overs were crisp and smooth.

Testers in the Sierra loved that the carafe held a generous 33 ounces of brewed coffee. That was enough to caffeinate our group of four runners and climbers during a trip near Tahoe’s Donner Summit: each person got an eight-ounce pour to greet a sunrise over Frog Lake. Our favorite feature, though, is the brilliant two-piece design. The top half of the carafe unscrews from the bottom, facilitating easy cleaning at home or on the road. One major con: the Carafe’s included lid isn’t leakproof. If you want your brew to be portable, you’ll have to shell out for MiiR’s additional Leakproof Lid ($10). But we found the add-on worth it: simply screw the lid to the bottom section of the carafe to eliminate chances of spillage while driving to the trailhead or hiking up short spurs to watch the sun rise.

Our testers run the gamut, from car campers who care more about efficiently shoveling down calories than fixing ornate meals, to gourmet chefs whipping up five-star cuisine in teeny van kitchens and over bonfires on the beach. This diverse team road-tripped, car camped, boondocked, and vanned all over the American West for months, cheffing up meals and taking notes all the while. Upon return to civilization, they filled out review forms for each camp kitchen item, ranking aspects like durability and practicality on quantitative scales. Then, they dove deeper into qualitative questions. For instance:

Last but not least, our lead tester and category manager, Drew Zieff, analyzed as much gear as possible himself, sifted through the review forms, then compiled the reviews.

Drew Zieff is a Tahoe-based freelancer who writes for Backcountry Magazine, REI, Gear Junkie, and Forbes, among others. A regular Outside contributor, he heads Outside’s winter snowboard gear coverage and summer car camping accessories and kitchen reviews. His appreciation for cooking can be traced back to his formative years in high school, when he inexplicably began to experience red eyes, a dry mouth, and a sudden, overwhelming passion for the Cooking Channel. In 2018, he and his partner turned a plumbing van into their dream adventure mobile—a speedbump-filled odyssey. After a couple of years of vanlife, during which he took the lead on camp cookery, the couple put roots down in Tahoe. They still take as many van trips as possible and love to whip up elaborate meals in BLM pull-offs and Walmart parking lots.

Amanda Monthei is a writer, public information officer on wildfires, and the host of the Life With Fire podcast. A former wildland firefighter herself, she applies her knowledge gleaned from the front lines to educate the public. She’s written about wildfires and natural disasters for Outside as well as NBC, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post. She’s also an avid angler, surfer, and skier, and pens stories on a range of outdoor subjects. Whether traveling for business or pleasure, she’s used to camping for extended stints in her 2000 Tundra, whipping up meals on backroads shoulders and backwoods campgrounds, and reviewing car camping accessories for Outside along the way. Monthei tested camp mugs, pots, and more while road tripping throughout the Pacific Northwest this past summer and fall.

Cody Buccholz is a professional chef who enjoys surfing, snowboarding, and adventuring in his 2008 high-top Sprinter with his pup, Jefecito. When he’s not slinging gourmet grub, you can often find Buccholz posted up in a beach or trailhead parking lot, whipping up savory meals for new and old friends. He tested a small mountain of gear for this article while on a long, detour-filled road trip from California to Colorado, and brings a discerning, professional perspective to our camp kitchen gear testing.

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