For over 20 years, Jetboil has offered some of the most streamlined backcountry stove systems available for backpackers, paddlers and other gram-counting muscle-driven explorers, delivering hot meals to fuel groundbreaking expeditions. Now it's pushing ahead into the expanded future of fast, light cooking with the Trailcook series. Designed for meals more ambitious than rehydrated bag-boil, the new all-in-one stove family simmers, sautés and stir-fries real meals together ... even in the most remote shadows of hard-to-reach backcountry.
Jetboil is still best known for ultralight packable stove systems derived from its Personal Cooking System (PCS), its very first product debuted in 2003. All components store away inside the boil pot for streamlined packing, then assemble to boil water efficiently for the purpose of rehydrating freeze-dried backpacking meals. These stoves continue to target the company's traditional market of backpackers, rafters and other human-powered backland adventurers.
For the past decade or so, Jetboil has also branched out into building up a lineup of larger, more versatile cookware aimed at the explosive market of overlanders, RVers, and vehicle adventurers at large that has emerged over that time period. Products like its folding Genesis Base Camp stove, frying pans and large pots are still compact and lightweight enough to easily stow in a gear-stuffed two-door Jeep Wrangler but robust enough to concoct actual meals from fresh ingredients and seasonings, not simply heat water for reanimating pre-seasoned, prepackaged bits of food.
The all-new Trailcook series finds some middle ground, putting Jetboil's more capable, robust cooking design into an ultralight, ultra-packable all-in-one format clearly inspired by its fully integrated PCS backpacking systems. The Trailcook stoves are meant to appeal to both fast, light athletes looking for a little more cooking capability and versatility and motor-vehicle-based adventurers looking to slim down the cookware in their camp kitchens to prevent vehicle overload.
At launch, the Trailcook series comprises two all-in-one systems that neatly exemplify the family's split-demographic inspiration. The larger of the two, the Trailcook 2.0L is designed to feed two to four people while still packing small enough to slide neatly in a chuck box or "kitchen"-labeled Wolf Pack Pro. It can work as either a primary cooking tool or a secondary burner option, and initial marketing focuses on it simmering on the tailgate and serving meals at multi-Toyota base camps.
As the name makes known, the Trailcook 2.0L holds up to 2 liters of food or liquid in a Dutch oven-inspired pot. It's designed to boil 1 liter of water in approximately four minutes 15 seconds. The full system weighs 22.2 oz (629 g) and includes a non-stick ceramic-coated pot with integrated handles that fold over to secure the lid and contents in place. The lid includes an integrated strainer, silicone thumb rests for safe, secure handling, and a center pull handle.
The Trailcook 1.2L is, of course, the smaller, lighter unit of the two, based around a 1.2-L ceramic-coated pot designed to feed a single adventurer. It weighs in at 19.4 oz (550 g) and is designed to boil a liter of water in about 4.5 minutes. A single folding handle provides a cool, safe place to hold and secures contents for travel. It also has a strainer lid with center grab handle. The 1.2 system is all about serving up fresher meals during the lightest adventures, from solo bikepacker feasts to post-packraft riverbank cookouts.
Note that neither listed unit weight includes the bright-orange gas canister supports shown in many of the photos. Those can be left behind to save weight but will help to steady the Trailcook stoves when cooking, especially important at minimalist camps in which you don't have a reliable level surface like a folding table. The stabilizers add an extra 0.9 oz (27 g) to each weight figure.
Each Trailcook variant comes powered by a foldable burner that features a precise flame control. Adjusted via a simple dial, the flame control is what separates the Trailcook stoves from older Jetboil models designed solely to boil water as quickly as possible. It allows camp cooks to better dial in heat from low simmer to high sear.
Like the dial Jetboil added to last year's updated Flash system, the gas/flame control dial also features an integrated ignition. This feature replaces the two-part button ignition/dial on older Jetboils and delivers faster, simpler lighting.
The textured grip zone on the base of the burner is also derived from the new Flash, making it easier to screw the gas canister on and securely handle the burner.
Each burner includes three fold-out pot supports sized precisely to self-center the Trailcook pot bottom and hold it securely in place while cooking. The pot bottoms themselves feature Jetboil's long-running flux ring base construction, a foundational element of the brand's cook systems that increases surface area for quicker heating and more efficient fuel usage.
We verified that both the Trailcook 2.0L and 1.2L systems use a 6,000-BTU burner with the same dimensions, meaning you could use the two pots interchangeably with the same burner. The burner is also designed to work with the 1.5-L Ceramic Cookpot and Summit Skillet Jetboil already offers.
If the Trailcook series catches on, we could see it growing into a full ecosystem of interchangeable cookware that includes the 2- and 1.2-L pots on their own, as well as packaged with the burner. In this way, adventurers could use the same burner while tailoring their cookware to the individual trip, loading up larger pots and pans for a group overland expedition or paring back to the lightest possible setup for a long-distance backpacking or ski touring adventure.
For now, though, buyers will have to choose from the two complete Trailcook systems that launched this month. The Trailcook 2.0L retails for US$200, while the 1.2L comes in at $180.
Source: Jetboil
