When you are at home nine times out of ten you will cook with either gas or electricity. When you go camping that choice opens out considerably. But you will not find electric cooking on the campsite, it virtually unknown. But saying that with the new age of camping with electric hook-up available you can take an electric grill and toaster which you do see more of. One of friends once took his George Foreman grill with him, but in view I think that that is cheating a little.
Gas is by far the most popular choice when it comes to your campsite cooking. Its clean, cheap and relatively safe. Another popular method that many campers use are liquid fuels, they often go by the name of Primus, this is a brand name from Sweden but liquid fuel stoves are generically known as Primus stoves. A liquid stove can use anything from petrol, paraffin and even methylated spirits. However gas stoves have stolen the march on liquid stoves within the last twenty to thirty years due to their ease of use. Gas or LPG is available in many containers or refillable cylinders. They can be either propane, butane or even a mixture of the two.
A double-burner stove is generally fuelled by refillable gas cylinder; the most common known to campers over the world is the famous Campingaz bottle. In the UK Calor gas is the most popular but is essentially the same as Campinggaz. What differs is the type of regulator needed for the bottle.
Coleman has come up with their own variety in the last few years known as Coleman fuel. This fuel is a special form of liquid fuel, it is almost you could say a very clean unleaded petrol. They are sold in small containers throughout camping outlets, but the more savvy users buy the fuel simply from their local petrol station. So in essence this a cheap way to run your gas stove compared to LPG canisters or Campinggaz bottles.
My double burner electric stove advice would be to start out with gas as it is very straight-forward and pretty much fool-proof, once you are experienced enough it is worth looking at the Coleman variety, but it can have a bit of a learning curve and as it is essentially petrol, you have to be careful when handling it, the downside for me as well is that the smell puts me off. But hey that's just my two cents, hence left to the more experienced camper.