The Bobcat Cooking Systems
Bobcat Cooking System Stored
The Bobcat Cooking System
We set out to design a complete cooking system that would allow you to cook the foods you only could dream about while backpacking. Not only did the system have to accommodate various cooking technics, it would also have to meet the demands of a through hiker: reliability & robustness. The Bobcat Cooking Systems are compact and are designed to so that all of the gear will nest inside your cookware.
We designed our cooking systems around titanium pots. We carry the Evernew product line because they are recognized as the world-wide leader in lightweight, functional cookware. We also carry the TOAKS Outdoor product line as we believe that they are the value leaders in Titanium cookware. The Bobcat Cooking System was designed around the most popular sized backpacking pots. We support pot sizes ranging from 0.6 liters to 1.3 liters.
We offer three sizes of Bobcat Cooking Systems:
Bobcat – 5.9” diameter (Evernew 1.3, REI TiWare 1.3 TOAKS 1350, Vargo 1.3 & Open Country 2 qt) with optional 6.5″ wide mode (2 snap) / 6.8″ Ultra wide mode (less stable, 1 snap)
Bobcat Jr. – 5.4” diameter (Evernew 0.9, TOAKS 900 & Kmart Grease Pot) with optional 6.0″ Ultra Wide mode (less stable, 1 snap)
Bobcat Mini – 4.9” diameter pots (Evernew 0.6)
Bobcat Cooking System Assembled
At FLAT CAT GEAR, we are unique in that we offer a broad range of stoves to best meet your cooking needs. With our cooking systems, you can boil water, simmer a minestrone soup, fry a trout or even oven bake a cheeseburger! We have pioneered a light weight dry baking technique that allows you to make lasagnas, quiches and pizzas in the backcountry. Our stoves can burn denatured, isopropyl and gelled alcohol as well as hand sanitizer and Sterno. We also burn solid fuels like Esbit & Coghlans. Out Bobcat Original System (SS & Ti) also supports remote isobutane canisters stoves with a 1/4″ fuel line like the Kovea Spider and MSR WindPro II.
We offer our windscreens in a wide range of materials. Aluminum is the perfect entry level material, it is robust and inexpensive. Aluminum will hold up very well and has been used on all three of the major through hikes: the AT, the PCT & CDT. Titanium is for our most demanding customers who require the best lightweight option. We are also one of the few manufactures that offer windscreens in stainless steel. This is our thinnest and most flexible windscreen material. SS is more durable that titanium yet the cost is closer to that of aluminum.
We are the leaders in dry baking in the backcountry. We have systems that dry baking using Esbit, denatured alcohol or isobutane. The interest in baking is so high that we developed the Bobcat Backpacking Oven as well as the Snow Leopard Oven.. These are turnkey dry baking systems where all of the components will nest inside the pot / mug.
Bobcat Oven – 11.5 oz. / Snow Leopard Oven – 8.9 oz.
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VIDEO: SETTING UP A BOBCAT STOVE VIDEO: LIGHTING A BOBCAT STOVE
| Cooking Capabilities | Boil | Simmer/Steam | Saute/Pan Fry | Dry Bake |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FLAT CAT Std | √ | √ | √ | √ |
| Epicurean | √ | √ | X | √ |
| Multi-Fuel | √ | √ | ||
| Bobcat TiLight | √ | |||
| Focus Fire 14 | √ | |||
| √ = PREFERRED X = ACCEPTABLE | ||||
The Bobcat Components (click to expand)
5 Different Stove Options
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The Bobcat Standard Stove 2.0 – is the best all around alcohol stove. The stove is efficient: it can boil 2 cups of 70 F water using ½ oz. of alcohol in under 7 minutes. Additionally, the FLAT CAT Standard burns gelled alcohol, hand sanitizer and Sterno. With the optional Bake & Simmer Ring, you can simmer for about 30 minutes using ½ oz. of alcohol.
The Epicurean Stainless Steel Stove – Turn your kit into a Backpacking Oven! This stove a solid fuel stove that is unique in that we offer a dual heat mode: full on and low. We invented this stove and it can burn a single table of Esbit for 50-60 minutes. This allows you to simmer and dry bake with Esbit, all but unheard of a few years ago. While in simmer mode, the stove does not smell and will not leave soot on your pot.
The Multi-Fuel 1.1 Stove – was originally designed to burn isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol and HEET in the red bottle). With isopropyl alcohol, this is a fair weather stove. It is difficult to light below 35 F and performance drops off above 5,000 feet. That being said, isopropyl alcohol is the most commonly available alcohol in the world and is easy to find. Since the initial release, we have tested the Multi-Fuel stove with denatured alcohol, gelled alcohol, hand sanitizer, Sterno and Esbit with great success. We have traveled around the world and have always been able to find a fuel to burn in this stove. While it will burn other fuels, the fuel efficiency os less than the Bobcat Stsandard
The Focus Fire 14 – was designed to burn Esbit efficiently. A good Esbit stove can boil 3 cups of water using a single Esbit tablet. With the Focus Fire 14, we have been able to heat 4 cups of water up to ~200F.
The Bobcat TiLight Stove – is an alcohol stove designed for the gram counting minimalist. This stove weighs 5.0 grams and is made of CP Grade 2 Titanium. The Bobcat TiLight stove will boil 2 cups of water using ½ oz. of alcohol and will do so in 8 minutes. The stove will hold approximately 50 ml of alcohol.
Titanium Pot
Why do we like titanium pots?
If you are just boiling water, almost any kind of pot will do. From a cost and heat transfer standpoint, aluminum is superior to titanium. We prefer to cook real meals while backpacking and that is where the differences can be seen. Titanium is basically bullet-proof. You can clean out dirty, stuck on food with a slurry of sand and gravel. You won’t damage the surface at all. Additionally, we store the cooking system inside the pot and the parts move around while hiking. The surface of a hard anodized aluminum pot is just not as robust as a titanium pot. A well made titanium pot is more robust that an aluminum one; titanium can be manufactured much thinner and can be lighter weight as well.
Bobcat – 5.9” or diameter basically 1.3 liter pots. Evernew 1.3, REI TiWare 1.3 TOAKS 1350 (all TOAKS 145 mm pots), Vargo 1.3 & Open Country 2 qt
Bobcat Jr. – 5.4” diameter (Evernew 0.9, TOAKS 900 & Kmart Grease Pot)
Bobcat Mini – 4.9” diameter pots (Evernew 0.6)
Heat Shield
The heat shield will protect the environment from potential scorching and spillage (leave no trace). In wet/snow environments, the heat shield will reduce your boiling time by up to two minutes. Heat shields are one of the most important parts of a cooking system.
The It's-A-Snap Windscreen
The It’s-A-Snap 1.4 windscreens are designed to be rolled up and stored inside the pot. We use snaps to hold the windscreen in the open position while cooking and in the closed position for storage. We offer windscreens in 3 different materials: 6061-T6 aircraft aluminum, 304 Stainless Steel and CP Grade 2 Titanium. Aluminum is the most cost effective material and will meet your basic needs. Titanium is the choice for the lightest weight /robust requirements. Stainless Steel has excellent flexibility / robustness at a reasonable price. It takes less than 30 seconds to assemble or disassemble the windscreen. The It’s-A-Snap 1.4 windscreen also acts as a pot stand. We use a pot holding pin and the pot handles to hold pot in the optimal position above the stove. With the optional extension stakes, we now support pot sizes from 4 1/2″ to 6 3/4″!
Flat Cat Hat
The FLAT CAT HAT reduces the heat loss through the lid by 20%. This is important when simmering, steam baking and dry baking. Additionally, the FLAT CAT HAT can be used as a cozy, a pot holder and an insulator when cooking on the snow. It packs neatly inside the pot along with your all of your other cooking gear. The FLAT CAT HAT is made of carbon felt.
Aluminum Baking Pans
We also offer a 4 inch and a 5 inch aluminum pan for baking. These pans have an anodized finish and are FDA approved for baking. These heavy walled pans will produce a nice, even brown crust on your muffins and biscuits. We offer a trimming surface to remove the rolled lip on the pan. This allows you to a) use baking pans in smaller pots and or b) reduce the weight of the baking pan and c) allows you to use the largest pan possible for your pot. These pans are used in conjunction with the Epicurean Titanium stove or the Bobcat stoves with the Bake & Simmer Ring. We use these pans to bake bread, lasagnas and quiches. See our cooking videos on our YouTube Channel.
Bobcat Cooking System Specifications
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Stove – Stainless Steel | 1.0 oz. / 28 gm. |
| Windscreen (Al) | 1.9 oz./54 grams | |
| Windscreen (SS) | 2.0 oz./ 57 gm. | |
| Windscreen (Ti) | 1.48 oz./42 grams | |
| Pot holding pin | 0.1 oz. / 3 gm. | |
| Heat Shield | 0.3 oz. / 9 gm. | |
| Total Weight (SS) | 3.42 oz. / 97 gm. |
The Bobcat Standard 2.0 Stove
We custom-designed the Bobcat Stove specifically to be a high-efficiency, low-profile stove This stove is an open reservoir design and does not need priming, doesn’t have a wick and doesn’t need to “bloom’ before use. You fill it up and lit it: that’s it! Below are stove specifications and lab test results. The Bobcat Titanium stove has slightly better performance and weighs about half as much as the stainless steel model. The Bobcat stoves have been validated to 12,000 feet!
 |
Materials – Stainless Steel |
| Weight – 0.85 oz. / 28 gm. | |
| Capacity –2 oz. / 60 ml | |
| Diameter 2.7 in / 68 mm | |
| Height – 0.7 in / 18 mm |
The Bake & Simmer Ring
The Bake & Simmer Ring for the Bobcat stoves allows you to either dry bake food or simmer meals. The Bake & Simmer Ring is designed to be used on the Bobcat stoves in the Bobcat Cooking System. Baking is accomplished by elevating the pot inside the windscreen by using staked through the outlet vents on the windscreen. Baking will use 1 oz. of fuel in about 35 minutes. In the Simmer mode, the stove will use about 1 ounce of fuel in an hour. Weight – 16 grams
The Flat Cat Simmer Ring
The Flat Cat Simmer Ring allows you to simmer meals with minimal effort. The Flat Cat Simmer Ring can be used on either the Bobcat or Snow Leopard Cooking Systems. In the simmer mode, the stove will use about 1 ounce of fuel in an hour. Weight – 16 grams
The Epicurean Stainless Steel Stove: an adjustable solid fuel stove
The Epicurean Stainless Steel Stove is our finest stove for baking and simmering. The Epicurean SS Stove will boil 2 cups of water in 8 minutes or simmer/bake for 50 minutes on a single 14 gram Esbit tablet. The Epicurean SS stove works with both the Bobcat and Snow Leopard Cooking Systems and has been validated up to 14,000 feet!
The Epicurean Stainless Steel Stove weighs 16 grams
The Epicurean Titanium UL15 Stove: an adjustable solid fuel stove
The Epicurean Titanium UL15 Stove has the same performance as the original Epicurean Titanium. Due to the thin materials used in the construction, the Epicurean Titanium UL15 needs to be handled carefully. The stove can be deformed by squeezing the stove in your hand. However, being titanium it can easily be reshaped. This stove is specifically designed for people who count every single gram in their backpack.
The Epicurean Titanium UL15 Stove weighs 6 grams
The Multi-Fuel 1.1 Stove (ISO-Clean) – for use with isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and many other fuels
For the Bobcat and Snow Leopard Cooking Systems
We invented the Multi-Fuel (ISO-Clean) isopropyl alcohol stove and it burns rubbing alcohol without creating soot! This is a great stove when a) denatured alcohol is not readily available and b) excellent for people who have concerns about handling methanol. The Bobcat System is capable of burning 70% to 91% rubbing alcohol: we recommend using 91%. Using 91% isopropyl, the Iso-Clean stove will boil 2 cups of water in ~10 minutes using ½ oz. of alcohol. For the best soot free operation, the stove needs to warm up prior to putting the pot on. The Multi-Fuel stove can also burn denatured and gelled alcohols as well as Sterno and Esbit. Weight 1.0 oz. (30 grams)
You can now simmer by using the Lukazs Ring,
See the Hiram Cook video where he tests the Iso-Clean stove!
Baking Supplies for the Bobcat Cooking System
The Bobcat Baking KitThe Bobcat Baking Kit is used in conjunction with the Epicurean Stove to expand the capabilities of the Bobcat System. Now, you can dry bake on the trail: fresh biscuits, cakes and more are now at your fingertips. The kit contains a FDA approved, 4″ anodized pan and the FLAT CAT HAT for insulation. The pan has a 1 3/4 cup capacity, we also offer a larger, 5” diameter pan (3 cup capacity). The 4″ pan weighs 3.15 oz. / 89 grams and the FLAT CAT HAT weighs under 0.5 oz. / 13 grams. The 5″ pan weighs 4.25 oz. / 120 grams.
The FLAT CAT HAT for BobcatThe FLAT CAT HAT is made of carbon felt and is used to help keep your food warm. When used in conjunction with the It’s-A-Snap windscreen the heat loss can be reduced by 30%. We also use the FLAT CAT HAT while baking as it will keep the oven 10 F to 15 F warmer by reducing heat loss through the lid. The FLAT CAT HAT can also be used as a ground insulator when cooking on the cold ground or snow. You can also use the FLAT CAT HAT as a hot pad or oven mitt. Weight 13 grams