gosh this thread is both terrifying and extremely educational, and MintyMonkeyLove I love your setup, that's really good. I am going to have to sort something vaguely similar myself methinks.
Hi we have got a cotton frame tent and it was bliss to be able to cook inside.In our old nylon tent it was a 2 man or 1 woman and 1 man job if it was raining one to hold the umbrella or the plates while the other was cooking a meal.Going on Saturday for a week to Burnham on Sea weather looks fantastic better than the week we had in July. Cant wait so looking forward to it.
Since everyone appears to cook on gas, then I would say absolutely no way should you cook in a tent. Far too unsafe, even under the best of circumstances, given the explosive power of a gas bottle.
I use a backpacker greenheat type stove in a tent, but you still need to be ultra careful, and not be distracted by anything at all, the MSR I use outside, since it is a pressurised type stove.
As with all things, you need to be ultra wary, would you cook in your own house in the bedroom ?
Be aware and be careful, and think of others is the camping moto, or should be. After all a fire in your tent may well effect other campers and burn their tents down too.
I might consider cooking in a canvas tent, but never in a nylon job. In fact, I wouldn't even cook under the canopy - if that goes up, the rest will swiftly follow. I'm a bit paranoid about fires. I used to have a recurring dream about being trapped ina burning building, and always check where the fire exits in theatres, hotels etc.
We have a 4-pole windbreak with a "roof" for cooking under and it's fine in all but the most torrential downpours.
I think I may have been over confident in our tent.
The guide that came with the tent says that the tent is fire retardent, but not flame proof. I understood this to mean if a flame was put directly on to the tent, it would make a hole, but would not burn readily. The bedrooms, however, are not fire retardent, so I cook away from them.
Our last trip to Wensleydale was so windy, it was impossible to cook outside.
I think in future I will cook outside, unless the weather dictates otherwise.
I keep the cooking simple so I can do it outside or barbecue if we get the weather, if it's really horrid, well that's what the pub or the chippie is for.
I have an outwell side canopy that I've attached to all my previous tents, (see sig pic) and cook under that. The camp kitchen I use goes along the front facing the world so the actual cooker is no where near fabric but still under cover.
However just changed to a Kyham Longleat and as of yet not tried the canopy to see if it will fit. Hubby really mean on practice set up and would only do the minimum
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Topic: cooking in tents
