It's not so much a need for speed as a need for improved time management.  I recall one occasion when having just pitched tents a pal with a pressure stove was mocking my Trangia for being so slow as he set up his flamethrower up.  I challenged him to a race, first to a hot, cooked dinner.  He laughed at me and accepted, and lost the bet 30 seconds later as I'd set the Trangia up before I pitched the tent and had it looking after itself heating up my dinner the whole time...

If you want hot water really quickly then taking it from a flask which can be refilled at leisure is an ideal solution.  it adds weight, but being able to have a hot drink any time during the day as well means it can be a proce worth paying, expecially in conditions and temperatures where a hot drink make a big difference.

I think a lot of the point of boiling time is it's actually a hard, objective comparitive measurement that any reviewer can make, and with the dearth of hard information in most gear reviews that is seen as a Good Thing but in practice it's not really that useful.

why dosent somebody design a simple compact stove with say three burners, that can be folded up or something

Because it would weigh and bulk about three and a bit times as much as a single burner stove, I expect !  Now, what might be useful would be a split feed pipe so you could power twin stove heads from a single fuel bottle.  Trangias will run multiple instances from a common fuel supply, of course, probably one of the reasons they're such popular group stoves.

we want the conveince of a domestic cooker for basic trail camping situations in rural settings but for us to feel that we are all still doing something primal

Lugging all the extra weight and bulk would be fairly "primal", I suppose...

Pete. 

in its simplest form three hexi type burners or coke can cookers stuck together somehow

Even simpler, and much more flexible in how you arrange them for your cooking, if they're not stuck together: it just adds an extra complication that doesn't really gain you much, and also means if you only need two rather than three you're not stuck lugging around more than you need.

Pete. 

At home my microwave and my conventional cooker are not connected in any way.  But I can (and do) use them simultaneuosly to prepare different parts of a meal at the same time.

I don't see why connecting 3 burners together is really that much more useful than having 3 separate burners stood next to one another.  Why complicate matters with modular slotting setups when it will work percetly well without them?  And if you think of the size of even a small frying pan, you'll need your burners separated by the sort of distance that allows two of those to be placed side by side: that's actually quite a lot of stuff you're adding on that you don't actually need.

There's nothing at all far fetched aboy wanting decent fresh food.  But there's also nothing about linking 3 stove heads to one another physically that makes it any easier than if you just have three unlinked stove heads.  Also the case that even with just one burner there's no particular problem having fresh and tasty food, though it helps if you emphasize the sort of meals where everything is mixed in together.  But the world's cuisine has no shortage of such recipes!  My wife and I practically never use foil packets or pot-noodles.  We usually only just take the one stove too, but we eat tasty food made from fresh ingredients quite a lot. 

Pete. 

even with two burners, the effect is the same as heating one pot and cosying it whilst heating another pot on the stove. whatever you eat outdoors just requires some organisation of both time and what you eat.

as peter says, one of the best benfits of a meths stove is setting it going before pitching because you can just leave it to get on with it - it's "slow" so tends not to weld stuff to the bottom of your pan and it stops when the fuel runs out. i'm not advocating meths cookers, just pointing out some of their advantages.

Fair comment that it's not really fair to compare a small bowl of spirit to a large and expensive permanent feature of a kitchen...

Try working more to the strengths of a spirit burner: chesse fondue is easy to make and actually benefits from a low power portable stove: you can keep a low heat on while it's being eaten, and everyone can dip stuff in gathered around a table.  Dips in the form of boiled veg can be prepared in advance over as long as it takes, and if you can't be bothered then raw dips like peppers, cucumbers and bread still work fine.

(Actually have this quite often as a camp food: it's delicious and an excellent communal meal). 

Pete 

I think it's the case that people making fresh food in the wilds are just doing what they do at home with some allowances for a more limited kitchen.  Folk generally aren't discussing what they had for dinner at home because it's pretty mundane...  On the other hand there's plenty of talk about lightweight and low bulk foods because it's an imperative that doesn't affect what you eat at home and does make a difference if you're counting grammes.

Even if you just stick to food for home, most of the advertising and buying pressure seems to be for pre-prepared "ready meals", so I'm not that surprised that the more specialise outdoor market, where there is more demand for easy cooking, is similar.

But there is always the option, either at home or in your tent, to start with fresh ingredients and a recipe.

(actual recipe for cheese fondue for 4, btw...

400g Gruyere, 200g Emental, grate or chop as fine as you can bothered.

couple of cloves of garlic, crushed or finely chopped

white wine, an indeterminate quantity but you can just drink what you don't use... 

Heat a little of the wine (enough to cover the base of your pan by a few mm) and then add the garlic, let it cook for a while as the wine heats.  Gradually add the grated sheese, stirring constantly.  If it gets too gloopy, add a little more wine.  Keep stirring in cheese and adding wine occasionally until there's no cheese left, announce it's ready and get dipping (preferably with one person keeping stirring at all times, makes the washing up easier!).  Drink the rest of the wine as you eat en-cheesed dips.

It really is that simple, and delicous. 

Pete. 

Plenty of ideas here David. It's all been done before.

david fowler 2 wrote (see)

i know about this company but i want real fresh food not tined or tried stuff