A three-piece Czech mess tin is like a breath of fresh air in the traditional mess kit world. Unlike the kidney-shaped kits that everybody has, this is round like the lovely full moon over the Carpathians. We have had the original aluminum ones, but these are modern stainless steel versions. If you’re not a friend of aluminum, you’ll fall in love with Edelstahl.

This is the modernized version of the Czechoslovakian aluminum thingy. And by modernizing we mean that the material has been switched to stainless steel, which is fantastic for cooking vessels. It consists of three parts: the lid that works as a frying pan/plate, a larger kettle, and a smaller kettle. Both kettles have a folding handle.

Cooking with this thing is very simple. Put the food in one of the pots, set it on a camp stove or open fire, close the lid, and wait. The kettles are easy to move with the handles as long as you remember that metal can become hot. The lid can be used as a frying pan, but it is somewhat tricky to move around because it doesn’t have a lid. It does work better as a plate though. Made in the Czech Republic by MFH.