I have had it with junk cooking sets for camping!

I need your guys limitless wisdom to help me find a good 3.5-4 qt pot for cooking.

I am having issues with food sticking and burning to the bottoms of the pots I have even on low heat. My newest set I have tried is the Stanley cook set and it just doesn't get the job done.

This would be multi-use for BWCA and just general camping and I wouldn't be using it over the fire just on a stove.

What have you guys and gals had success with and what should I avoid? I trust your opinions more than what a review website would tell me works ( I never can tell if they are being paid for the review or not....)

Thanks!

That's a big pot you're looking for! Personally, in the boundary waters I've always used and highly recommend MSR cookware for cooking over a stove.
At 2.5 liters it's a little smaller than what you are looking for, but this is what I bring when we have four in our group, and it's a great deal:
MSR ceramic pot

unshavenman: "That's a big pot you're looking for! Personally, in the boundary waters I've always used and highly recommend MSR cookware for cooking over a stove.
At 2.5 liters it's a little smaller than what you are looking for, but this is what I bring when we have four in our group, and it's a great deal:
MSR ceramic pot "

Yeah we rarely take a pot that big to BWCA. It's mostly for normal car camping but it's possible I could take into the wilderness. Sometime we like to make a soup or something depending on group size.

I've got this Primus stainless steel kit with a 1.8L and 3L pot and enjoy cooking with them. They aren't too heavy at all. I weighed the entire kit with the frying pan at 59oz (little under 4lbs). https://primus.us/products/campfire-cookset-s-s-large-5

If 3L isn't big enough for you, they have a 5L pot (5.28qt) as well. https://primus.us/products/campfire-pot-s-s-5l-6

That being said, they aren't the easiest to clean and they aren't nonstick, BUT, they heat evenly, and they have stood up to both fire and stove use for me. The leather tab on the lid is a nice touch and the vent/drain holes on the lid are also useful.

Beyond this, I'd suggest a cast iron dutch oven, but the weight.....

jdoutdoors: "I've got this Primus stainless steel kit with a 1.8L and 3L pot and enjoy cooking with them. They aren't too heavy at all. I weighed the entire kit with the frying pan at 59oz (little under 4lbs). https://primus.us/products/campfire-cookset-s-s-large-5


If 3L isn't big enough for you, they have a 5L pot (5.28qt) as well. https://primus.us/products/campfire-pot-s-s-5l-6


That being said, they aren't the easiest to clean and they aren't nonstick, BUT, they heat evenly, and they have stood up to both fire and stove use for me. The leather tab on the lid is a nice touch and the vent/drain holes on the lid are also useful.


Beyond this, I'd suggest a cast iron dutch oven, but the weight....."

+1
I have the Primus 3L pot. My main reason for buying this one was the dimensions as I was building a nesting cookset and this fit perfectly, however, it seems to be very well built. I've been using it for a couple of years and other than some soot on the bottom from cooking over fire, the pot looks brand new. I don't cook too many things in the pot that have a chance to stick and burn so although I've never had an issue I can't promise it wouldn't happen if you were to scramble some eggs or something in it.

I've been using this Texsport set for quite a few years. I don't take the fry pan but the pots have held up very well cooking over the fire.

The Primus Campfire stuff is very high quality reasonably thick stainless steel. The ones I have looked at seemed thicker than my MSR Alpine 4 pot set and that is thicker than my Alpine Gourmet 2 Pot set.
Burn spots can have as much to do with the stove used as the thickness (heat transfer) of the pot Cooking over a fire and grate have little to nothing to do with pot wrecking, the temperatures of the flame is very similar.

I've had good outdoor use of cookware from Resturant Supply Linked is an inexpensive induction ready (normally thicker magnetic bottom), 3.5 Winco pot $20. Remove the handle if you need to. Also a very good source for frypans and skillets.

butthead

Double post

I have one of the Primus stainless steel skillets. It's very heavy duty as far as camp cook gear goes. I was planning on ordering their bigger pot set but noticed that Lynn from Voyageur North had some big used aluminum pot sets for sale.

If you aren't as concerned about weight I would say Primus is the way to go. If you are ok with aluminum I'd give Lynn a call and see what she has. She had some good options for larger pots when I called that weren't listed on the website.

Most of my trips are solo or with one of my sons. For one or two I take a 12 cm IMUSA pot or my Banks Deep Alpine Fry-Bake pan .

I often accompany my sons' scout troop on backpacking trips. I found their large pots with wire bales and oversized handles difficult to pack and a bit overkill for back-country cooking. What I really wanted was a streamlined pot that packed well and was sufficiently large to feed a patrol of up to 12.

While not exactly "high quality", the closest I found was a Stainless steel utensil holder similar to the link but, much cheaper. I think the one I found was less than $20. Because it is slightly thicker than a lot of camping cookware, food does not burn as quickly. The abscence of a wire bale or side handles make the pot easier to pack and make it super easy to fabricate a Reflectix pot coozie. Filled to the brim, mine holds 3 quarts but, it has been perfect for cooking well planned one-pot meals on the trail. Mine, with coozie and lid made from aluminum pie pan, weights about 350 g.

Hope you find something that works for you

Beavers: "...Lynn from Voyageur North had some big used aluminum pot sets for sale."

These are Open Country cookware sets (or perhaps a similar knockoff, as they seem to be discontinued). A search for that brand might still provide some leads.

Nice large and medium pots, covers useful as frying pans. We have had ours since the late 70s (when it was known as the Mirro Weekender). We supplement it with a Teflon-coated griddle of the $20 Coghlan's variety. All work well over the fire or stove.

I like non- stick cookwear. Msr is good. Rei brand might be a bit cheaper. Holds up fine.

For what it's worth - I just got a kick out of it. Was watching Naked and Afraid and noticed they gave them the Primus 3L for the 60 day challenge. I can't imagine many better tests of durability