In those days before processed foods and slow cookers, the majority of the food we ate was fried, and cast iron skillets were excellent for frying. The other major method of cooking was roasting, and cast iron roasters turned out wonderful pot roasts and chickens.

You just couldn’t beat cast iron for dispersing the heat evenly. Sometime in the late 1950s, however, my grandmother did away with the cast iron cookware in favor of more modern, aluminum pots, pans, and roasters. Even though Teflon hadn’t been introduced yet, and everything stuck to the aluminum cookware, she wanted to keep up with the times.

You can imagine my surprise, then, when I started seeing cast iron pans in mail order catalogs again in the 21st century. The Lodge Cast Iron company, the premium maker of cast iron cookware, is still very much alive and well in South Pittsburg, Tennessee. In fact, they’ve been in business for over one hundred years. They still offer a line of cast iron cookware that looks just like the old pans my grandmother used to use, but with a modern twist. The old time pans needed to be broken in, so to speak. They had to be used over and over and over again before they developed a desired patina known as seasoning.

For 21st century users, however, the pans now come pre-seasoned as Lodge has now developed a coating which seasons the pans and makes them perfect to use new from the box. If you ever get down to southeastern Tennessee, you’ll want to be sure to visit the Lodge plant. They have an outlet store where you can purchase high-quality cookware for a fraction of its mail order price along with all the accessories you’ll need to use it. You still can’t beat cast iron for even heat, and it makes excellent cookware for campers and people who like to barbecue.In spite of innovations Lodge has introduced over the years, it’s a part of our American heritage that’s changed very little except to get better and better.

Stainless steel
Stainless steel is generally the most versatile and durable material for cookware. It’s the most popular kind of cookware among chefs because you can get really good quality for a reasonable price.
Downside of stainless steel is that it conducts heat not very good – thus stainless steel cookware should have a copper core.

Copper
Specially gourmet cooks go for copper when they have to cook foods at exact temperatures. Copper is the best choice in this case because there is no better conductor of heat. You can cook at exactly the temperature you want, e.g. you can cook at 78 degrees celsius if you wanted to. Great for frying and sauteing.
Downsides of copper are high price and the fact that copper reacts with food when heated and thus needs special coating (most of the time stainless steel).

Aluminium
Great heat conducter (almost as good as copper) and it’s cheap and strong and durable.
But it reacts with acidic foods and thus should generally have a coating to prevent leakage or taste alterations (this is specially true for spinach).

Non-Stick
Non-Stick cookware is great because it allows for low fat cooking and is easy to clean.
Downsides is that non-stick cookware doesn’t last very long and has to be maintained carefully.

Cast Iron
Cast iron cookware is kind of a special case. It needs to be conditioned before using it because it will otherwise react with certain kinds of acidic foods and absorb the flavors of the food. (There’s a special kind of cast iron that doesn’t need conditioning – enameled cast iron cookware. A hard procelain enamel coating protects the cast iron from the food and vice versa.) The advantages of cast iron are that it provides even heating at high cooking temperatures and retains the heat excellently. One downside of this material though is that it heats up slowly.
Cast iron cookware is excellent for baking, browning and frying foods.

Anodized Aluminum
Anodized aluminum cookware has all the advantages of normal aluminum (except for the low price) but makes up for some of regular aluminums disadvantages. A chemical process makes aluminum much more durable and gives it a kind of non-stick surface and also prevents leakage of toxic substances into the food. It really is kind of the cheap version of stainless steel. Can be great for roasters, Dutch ovens, stockpots and saute pans.
However, you’ll have to handwash it because dishwashers might damage the surface. You also should not use steel wool or other aggressive scrubbing tools or corrosive detergents.
Another problem can be that because of it’s dark color it can be hard to observe the food – sometimes you’ll have to judge your food by it’s color and that might be difficult with anodized aluminum if you don’t have optimal lighting.

Glass
Glass cookware is a good choice if you use your microwave a lot. While most of the times it’s used for baking, there is also stovetop glass cookware available (it usually needs special handling though). Foods sticking to glass cookware is pretty unusual because glass is in itself already a non-stick material.
Disadvantages are that it’s heavy weight, and it’s heat distribution (not evenly) and that it’s not easy to handle. Glass is a very save cooking material, I have never heard of negative health effects from glass cookware.

Ceramic
Ceramic cookware has very similar characteristics to glass cookware (and can also be used for microwave cooking and is pretty non-sticky) but retains the heat better than usual glass cookware, distributes heat very evenly and is oftentimes also non-sticky. Oftentimes it’s used to make creme brulee, flan and custard.
Unglazed ceramics like terra cotta have are kind of spongy (that means they have lots of tiny little wholes inside) and thus can make the food a little juice, because the surface of the cookware add moisture in the form of steam to the food.
One thing that you have to be very cautious of when purchasing unglazed ceramic cookware is that the clay doesn’t contain lead.
Ceramic cookware might brake if you don’t handle it careful – but it’s also pretty cheap generally.

People who often use the microwave will love the fact that they can place their glasscookware in the microwave – which isn’t true for aluminum. I’m not a big fan of microwave and some studies suggest that microwaving food isn’t a good way to heat up your meals because it might damage nutrients, others claim that it’s radiation is harmful. For me it’s just the taste – microwaved food tastes different from cooked food and I prefer the old school way.

Although glass cookware is much heavier than aluminum or even stainless steel it is easy to clean and will look like new for many years if handled properly.

Another downside of glass cookware is that it is sometimes not easy to handle because of it’s design and weight. Most of the time you’ll need to put on heat-protective gloves.

There is both non-stick glass cookware n and pure glass cookware available. Non-stick glass cookware is simply coated with a protective layer. As with all non-stick cookware this needs special care in maintenance – for example no scrubbing with steel wool, no harsh detergents, no wire scouring pads but instead handwashing with hot water and soap.

If you are looking for non-stick glass cookware you should definitely be ready to invest some money as when it comes to non-stick you either want high quality (which is expensive!) or none at all. Cheap nonstick-coatings will cause you so much nuisance along the way that the high-quality choices will actually end up being cheaper in the long-run. However, keep in mind that nonstick cookware still isn’t as durable as other kinds of cookware. Manufacturers might tell you that you can put it in the dishwasher and it will be with you for twenty years or more, but reality still is different from my experience and the experience of my chef-friends.

Backpack cookware should also be easy to store – for example detachable or foldable handles. And then there’s the question for how many people you will cook – are you a happy family chap with 12 kids or a lonely ranger? It’s no fun having to cook for a dozend people in a one-person-meal pot, but if you are on your own then family size won’t do it either.

The most popular choice for backpackers is aluminum. It’s reasonable priced and lightweight – and it really has the typical “camping feeling” to it when you cook your meal in a aluminum pan.
Aluminum cookware also has a dark side to it. Food usually sticks to it quiet easily and when you are in the wilderness cleaning is never as easy as in a kitchen. But the biggest issue might be health concerns – aluminum can react with foods, contaminating it with toxic substances. So if you are going to eat several months out of the year out of your camping aluminum pan, I suggest you consider buying another model (see the options below). But if it’s just for maybe two or three weeks a year then aluminum is still a good choice in my opinion and save to use. Just maintain it properly – when you buy aluminum cookware the manufacturer will most likely also include maintenance instructions that you simply should adhere to.

For long-term backpackers I suggest lightweight stainless steel cookware. It has all the characteristics of stainless steel but is much lighter (and unfortunately but not surprisingly also more expensive). Heat distribution won’t be as good as aluminum, so that means you’ll have to stirr your food constantly so that it doesn’t get burned. But it’s very strong and will stay with you forever.

And if your budget allows so – go titanium! Titanium cookware is lightweight, durable and has very good heat conduction and is non-stick.

And another really basic thing is to look for are tight closing lids – they will reduce your cooking time substantially and thus save you lots of fuel (which means you don’t have to carry a lot of fuel around or pick up lots of firewood after a long days march).

I hope you found these tips on high quality cookware for backpackers useful – if you have any comments or questions please just leave a comment here and I will look into that.