You’re getting ready for a big camping trip, and you need a pressure cooker. Meal planning is a big part of how you survive in the wilderness, and campsite cooking is a vital skill. Regardless of why you’re camping, fun, training, or survival, what you eat is essential. Moreover, how you cook food matters. Fortunately, the faster you can heat your food, the fewer vitamins and nutrients it will lose. Hence, pressure cookers are ideal for making quick, easy meals outdoors. Luckily, you can eat well in any situation with the right equipment. I’ll walk you through what you need from a camping pressure cooker. Don’t burn your food or your fingers. Tasty tips and tricks will keep your energy and spirits high even in an emergency. Plus, pressure cookers make outstanding food. So you can eat like you do at home and save time while you’re at it.
Pressure Cooker Vs. Dutch Oven for Camp
It is an easy mistake to make, but a dutch oven isn’t the same as a pressure cooker. Although they share some similarities, like using lids to help keep the heat in and cook food quickly and evenly, the difference is vital. Most notably, the weight discrepancy is often massive.
Typically a dutch oven is made from cast iron. That means it stays hot for a long time, though it takes slightly longer to heat up initially. Additionally, cast iron is heavy. Although dutch ovens make delightful meals, they’re not the best for camping and emergency survival.
Waiting to cool off the metal for hours, and carrying extra weight isn’t a wise choice. Instead, a pressure cooker can give you a similar effect. Moreover, you can often cool down the metal faster, and they tend to weigh substantially less than cast iron of equivalent size.
Additionally, your pressure cooker has a lid that seals completely. Often there are clamps to hold it in place, so no heat disburses while the top is on. Resultantly, you get exceptionally fast and even cooking. Meanwhile, a dutch oven relies on the weight of the lid to hold it in place. To avoid spills and food loss, choose a high-quality pressure cooker.
Pressure Cooker Uses for Camping
Camping pressure cookers are fantastic for quick, nutritious meals. Because camping and survival are typically rigorous physical activities, your body needs vitamins, protein, and minerals more than usual. Faster cooking means preserving more of the inherent food value.
If that wasn’t enough reason to choose an anodized aluminum pressure cooker over more massive, slower options, consider this. In an actual SHTF scenario, you may not have as much time to stop. When you’re being pursued, or there’s a risk of trouble, the faster you can eat, the better. You might be a fantastic hunter, but eating raw squirrel or deer isn’t a good idea if you can avoid it.
Top Five Best Camping Pressure Cookers
Pressure cookers for camping should be standard supplies on any checklist. However, not all makes and models are the same. Not only do you need high-quality materials, but a home range-top pressure cooker isn’t quite the same.
Watch out for pressure cookers with a plastic handle on both sides. Holding a plastic handle at the edge of a campfire is alright, but you don’t want one in flames. Melted plastic can ruin your meal, your cooker, and your day. I’ve narrowed down a list of the top five outstanding camp-friendly pressure cookers to make it easier for you.
1. Hawkins B60 Pressure Cooker
When you’re cooking for a big appetite or a small family, the Hawkins B60 Pressure Cooker from Amazon is a solid choice. The single handle won’t leave you toasting plastic over a fire. Plus you can cook a meal for two to four people.
Eighteen-eight food-grade stainless steel holds up well under intense heat. More importantly, it’s sturdier than the cheap knockoffs that will leave you hungry, with burnt meals. Additionally, the even surface won’t leave you with hot spots, allowing for evenly heated dishes and no wasted time or fuel.
The Hawkins B60 Pressure Cooker comes from a known and trusted name that’s been around for over half a century. Hence, you can rely on making quick, nutritious meals for a long time. Plus, the included cookbook will help give you ideas for more diverse options.
Learn all about Hawkins here.
2. Prestige Deluxe Pressure Cooker
Like steel, hard-anodized aluminum makes an impressive cooker. The Prestige Deluxe Pressure Cooker from Amazon is lighter than its steel counterparts and far less weighty than a dutch oven. Resultantly, this cooker won’t weigh you down the way heavy pots can.
The Pi Pressure Indicator on Prestige Cookers helps keep you safe by indicating how much pressure is built up inside. You don’t want an exploding mess. Even if you don’t get burnt, too much pressure will cause spillage and wasted food. In survival situations, that’s a terrible thing.
Better yet, the Prestige Deluxe Pressure Cooker is ISI certified to meet international standards for pressure cooking. The GSR will release excess pressure even if the safety release valve gets blocked. Safer, healthier food on the go is the smartest choice, and Prestige can help you with that.
To get a Prestige Cooker delivered, order here.
3. Presto Aluminum Pressure Cooker
When you need a robust, durable, no-nonsense way to make meals quickly, the Presto Aluminum Pressure Cooker delivers. When SHTF, you won’t have to worry about extra weight or fancy features to confuse you. Hence, Presto is one of the most straightforward, high-quality options around.
You’ll be happy with how easy it is to make a hearty meal in this model. The Presto doesn’t require much monitoring to turn out a tasty dish in no time. Moreover, this cooker is better over a fire than on a coil stove, making it ideal for campfire cooking or gas stoves.
One of the things Presto Aluminum Pressure Cookers are most known for is their durability. A genuinely excellent pressure cooker like this should last for years if it ever wears out at all. You’ll be eating hot food even when the SHTF and society crumbles, but you don’t have to wait that long to try it out.
To check Prestos’ Amazon reviews, click here.
4. Hawkins Contura
Like the larger Hawkins that made the number one spot on our list, the Hawkins Contura is made from outstanding materials. Coming from a company known for its excellent products, this smaller, darker cooker will feed one or two people fast.
The curved body makes it easier to stir your food. Furthermore, this model makes an ideal substitute for a standard pot as well. You can leave the lid off for more versatile cooking options.
Annodized, rather than stained, the black body of the Hawkins Contura Pressure Cooker absorbs heat. Cooking three to ten times faster than a standard pot, when the lid is down, means you can get back on the trail more quickly. Additionally, this model is exceptionally corrosion-resistant, so it will last longer than the cheap kit cookers some campers buy and destroy.
Choose a Contura from Amazon by clicking here.
5. Prestige Alpha Deluxe
The unique alpha base makes the Prestige Alpha Deluxe stand out. Especially for those who use camp stoves instead of fires, you can make perfect, evenly heated meals quickly. The base distributes heat exceptionally well for better results.
Like it’s larger causing, this two-liter cooker is worth adding to any bug-out bag or camping trip. When you prefer to travel alone or with just one other person, the Alpha Deluxe is an excellent choice to cook for two. Once you’ve mastered the art of pressure cooking, you’ll wonder why you ever wasted time on other methods.
Retaining vital nutrients through faster cooking isn’t a secret, but it’s all too often overlooked in survival situations where every calorie, vitamin, and mineral matters. Luckily, you don’t need to worry about that with a superb pressure cooker like the Prestige Alpha Deluxe.
Use the pressure indicator screw to judge when the food is done efficiently. Once you can see the bottom of that screw, your meal should be cooked if you portioned it correctly. More importantly, you can boil with less water in a Prestige Alpha Deluxe, so you’ll have more left to drink in an emergency.
The pressure and heat retention boil water faster, which helps with more than merely food. You can sterilize bandages quickly if a member of your party is injured, saving vital moments while they could get infected or bleed out more than necessary.
To pick your prestige, click here.
Final Thoughts
It’s so easy to mistake a cast iron dutch oven for a camping pressure cooker. Both can perform similar functions. However, since the pressure cooker comes in aluminum and other options, it’s usually much lighter weight and more comfortable to carry.
Food and water will add substantial mass to a container. When in doubt, always opt for a durable and lightweight cooker. Whether you plan to cook for a family or prefer going solo, an excellent pressure cooker will feed you fast.
Learning to cook outdoors is one of the great delights of campers and backpackers. There’s nothing quite like sitting around a fire with hot food after a long day, and your pressure cooker will get you there faster so you can relax longer.