What can be done to make my kitchen smaller? Assume freezer bag cooking using 16 oz. of hot water for the food bag, then a second use of the stove for a hot drink from the pot. My reflectrix cozy travels on the outside of my keg pot so that is a big bundle. With glue-on velcro, I could open the cozy to a flat sheet for storing in the pack. Suggestions on using a different pot-stove combo or a thinner cozy material would be welcome.

My dilemma is having to heat water twice in a smaller pot or just once in a larger one. Currently my pot is too big in the pack and too small in the kitchen, but the weight is fine. Good size, good function, or good weight, I need some help on which two I get to have.

Edit: The "keg pot" is 24 oz with the cozy shaped to travel on the exterior of the beer can. The alky stove is a V-8/Red Bull size to throw more heat on the narrow pot. In the field, in conditions where both food and a hot drink is needed, I doubt the little stove will boil 22-23 oz. of water in a tall, narrow can. I'm carrying both more insulation and more pot volume than can be utilized. Thank you phat, kbennett, and Barry, the solution is a wider pot, almost full of water, on a more powerful stove with a take-apart cozy that is stored flat. My reflectrix bag or can sleeve is too bulky and works too well when only 10-15 minutes of FBC time is needed. I'm going to look at Sarbar's fabic or a smaller bubble wrap in a mid-sized tyvek envelope. I have some surplus poncho liner fabric that might also work for that use. My summer pot and stove are not my winter ones, even with the +20 to +50 degree daily winter temps here.

How big is your pot? I usually a pot with about 3 cups or a little more in capacity (anti-gravity gear 3 cupper) - with a cozy - So my usual kitchen tack when I want a hot drink as well is to do an essentially full pot worth of water, take out 2 cups into the freezer bag for the food, and make the "rest" (a cup or so) into a hot drink, with the pot in the cozy.

My stove, stand, small cup, windscreen, and a small bottle of alcohol, and mini-bic are packed inside the pot.

Since you're pretty specific - maybe tell us what you are using or include a picture.

To be clear, is your cozy one that fits around the pot, or is it a sleeve that the freezer bag goes into? I like the latter, one that holds a quart sized freezer bag. This works great solo hiking, or in fact can work good for a couple of people sharing food so long as their caloric intake isn't super high (a quart F.B. was right for me alone when thru-hiking, but would be enough for my wife and I together on a more normal trip).

I bought my cozy from Sarbar's site.

Heating water twice: my personal solution to that is to simply not do it, no hot drink, but each to their own there of course. A couple times this year my wife joined me on my long hike and I heated water twice (for two dinners), didn't seem to be a problem.

I can't think of any technical approach that allows you to heat more water than a given pot size will hold (!), so IMO it ultimately comes down to a personal trade-off based on your hiking style and what you want to optimize. The vectors of investigation for me would be (a) attitude adjustment to be happy with less water or heating twice, (b) a big but light pot you can strap on the outside like a tinker ...

Combo of "big" pot, stove, fuel bottle, spoon...dispatched in the pack, "flat" cosy, and as much other gear like clothes as possible stuffed into the pot.

Titan Kettle (4.2 oz): boil 2 C for freezer bag, 1 C for hot chocolate. Nice and small for pack and my complete stove/kitchen set fits in it. I do not need a stuff bag for this since the lid stays snuggly on in the pack. Alcohol cooking keeps the pot clean so no smears on pack contents. And the titanium does not get dinged.

For ziploc bag cooking, I cut a ¼” CCF pad about 6”x18”. This is then rolled and held in place by a velcro band or large rubber band.. The Ziploc bag sits inside. On real cold days <32F, I’ll have a CCF bottom and top for it. In the summer, I don’t use a cozy because the water will stay too hot for too long.

-Barry

I use a 700ml pot, with a pot cozy *and* a bag cozy. Heat 2 cups of water, pour into freezer bag meal, put bag in bag cozy. Heat 1.5 cups water, add coffee or tea bag, place pot in pot cozy. If I time it right, the meal and the hot drink are ready at the same time.

I boil 4 cups water in most cases. I often make a couple cups more later for tea time (it has become something a couple of us ladies do - we have after dinner tea :p )

4 cups seems to be perfect for me - enough for dinner, drink and I can clean up my hands/face as well - warm water is so nice in winter.

My pot choice changes by the trip - but if going light I carry a tea kettle that holds said 4 cups