Expert: John Langenfelder - 7/20/2008

Question
I am looking for a propane stove for camping. I want a double burner that will facilitate a griddle because that is how i do most of my cooking. I also want to be able to do shrimp boils and possibly deep fry turkeys. I found a stove that has two burners that are 30,000 BTU an hour each. My question is will one eye at 30,000BTU be able to handle the shrimp boil and deep fry or do I need to find a stove that has a 60,000 BTU output.

Regards,
Eric

Answer
Eric,

Since your main use is as a campstove, I would stick with lower BTU.  My experience (which is limited) is that it is hard to control low temperatures on these big burners.  The bigger the burner, the harder to control low temps.  Using a griddle you might start burner things.  So the question is what will you be doing more of?  Griddle cooking or shrimp boils/turkey frys?  Also, what size pot do you use for shrimp and turkey?  The bigger the pot the higher BTU's you will want.  Most 30 qt turkey fryers are in the neighborhood of 55,000 btu's.