Skillet - frying pan for outdoor use, weight size and options

[Köld]

I am going on a longer than usual hike this summer (600+ km) and while on the trail I will be eating only meats and eggs together with cream and butter. Resupplying will be possible, but only maybe every 100km or so. I will be bringing some kind of camping stove with me, and there will be many opportunities for making a camp fire, but those will probably be made in the evening when there will not be much else to to than rest and eat.

I need a good frying solution for my food, since I would not want to eat only cold or boiled stuff for almost a month in a row.
The options seem almost limitless, but there is a good limit to what I will want to carry on my back Ideally the pan would be fairly wide, 25-30cm, have a metallic handle (that won't melt), and still not weigh more than say a kilogram. Non stick properties I would pass on given the opportunity since I will have butter to fry in, and also because a wood fire or petrol stove can be too hot for those plastic coatings.

Finding a frying pan made of stainless or carbon steel without the nonstick plating seems to be difficult today, especially when it needs to have a metallic handle, and weigh less than a cast iron pan. The Trangia frying pans weigh less than 200 grams, but are small, only 20-22cm wide, their largest pan is 24cm and weighs more than twice as much as the smaller ones. The MSR alpine frying pan is said to be over a kg in weight and it's the same size as the smaller trangias. Cast iron, 15-18cm diameter weighs over 1300grams.

I might need to bring some kind of metal mesh for grilling also, which will add to the weight unless I can put the frying pan on top of the fire, since a camp fire will be plenty nice to have once in a while. But if I can be without wood fire then I can leave the vildmarksyxa at home ... saving me 600 grams, and I would not need such a sturdy pan either. Hmmm. I am thankful for any advice on what to bring with me. (And thank you for reading!)

 

[drewdunnrespect]

i no this might sound mad but why not just take a swedish army trangia cos then you have billy can, a frying pan, a stove all in one

drew

 

[bilmo-p5]

Something like this would suit your needs. Get it well seasoned before you go and it will serve you well.

I have a similar pan 26cm diameter, weighing 1200g.

 

[Wayland]

A little smaller than you want but Primus do a stainless steel frying pan that is 20cm diameter at 340g which seems heavy for the size but is because of the thick laminated aluminium base which make it spread heat like a decent pan should.

You can see it sitting on my stove here and as you see it relies upon the pot grip for a handle and it comes as part of a set.

Alternatively they make a separate laminated frying pan with a folding handle at 393g and just under 22cm.

 

[ged]

Your specifications will be difficult to meet.

A disc of cast iron 30cm in diameter and 2mm thick will probably weigh over one kilo before you fit a handle to it. Most cast iron is brittle, and a pan so thin would probably shatter if you dropped it on a rock.

Mild steel is a little denser, and so it will be a little heavier, but it won't shatter under most conditions. However it will rust much more readily than cast iron.

The pan linked to by bilmo-p5 appears to have its handle welded to it, so it is almost certainly mild steel. Cast iron is notoriously difficult to weld.

There are many cheap kitchen-style stainless frying pans available, I think I would choose something like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Momoko-No...arden_Kitchen_Cookware_GL&hash=item2a1cb6894f

The cheaper pans tend to be made of thinner material, so they tend to be lighter.

 

[santaman2000]

Some good suggestions already given. You might also consider a small WOK instead of a frying pan; it can be used to fry normally, stir fry, or even boil in.

www.wokshop.com/HTML/products/woks/wok-our-hand-hammered.html

The first one pictured has a removable wooden handle but have a look around the site and you'll find others with all metal construction if you'd prefer.

 

[shaggystu]

cheap cast aluminum job from tesco and take the non stick off with some wire wool, it'll probably have a plastic handle so that'll need to be replaced, and i'm not certain how well it'll season but i don't see any reason why it shouldn't be fine. that'd be my approach anyway

HTH

stuart

 

[bilmo-p5]

The pan I linked is certainly mild steel. They're generally referred to as 'black iron pans' although they are made of mild steel. Good seasoning & regular use will keep them non-stick & rust free. Somewhat lighter than a CI pan of the same size.

 

[Teepee]

I've never had a problem with non-stick coming off in the fire, but then I do my best not to overheat them. Teflon/ptfe breaks down at 230C, this is too hot to fry most food IMO. I wouldnt hesitate to take a 99p Ikea frying pan out for a long trip, its light and easy to clean. For winter trips cooking over a fire, I wouldn't take anything else now.

The more expensive pans don't use teflon, they use a kind of ceramic coating. I have one at home that I forgot about on the hob that got far too hot, its still fine.

 

[Jared]

http://www.muurikka.se/kategori/stekhallar/

Either the picnic muurikka, though has no edge

or the handless frying pan.

 

[Shewie]

I'd buy a cheap non-stick pan and remove the handle in such a way that a piece of wood can be used instead. Some of the cheapo ones can be as light as the top end stuff. A couple of 300mm lengths of aluminium angle iron works well for a pot support, just use a log or rock each side of the fire.

 

[rik_uk3]

http://www.cave-crag.co.uk/trangia-frying-pan-non-stick Trangia non stick pan, with grips.

 

[Humpback]

I use the trangia non-stick on gas, meths, multifuel with no problems but the coating came off one when used on a camp fire.
Alan

 

[bb07]

Starfrit makes lightweight cast iron pans like this in different sizes. I have one and it's excellent, the properties of cast iron without the weight of the usual cast stuff.
Amazon.com: Starfrit 11 inch Light Cast Iron Fry Pan: Kitchen & Dining

Here's some carbon steel pans Carbon, Black and Blue Steel Pans

The ones I linked to above can likely be found in your area but the one bilmo-p5 linked to is probably the best, especially price wise.

 

[Köld]

Thank you all for your input. I went out to try a 20cm Trangia frying pan of the plain aluminium kind without handle, and while it certainly does its job it is really too small for doing bacon strips.

drewdunnrespect, I used one of those in the armed forces and I remember frying falukorv in the lid. Kind of heavy (we had the ones made of steel) and very limited space.

bilmo-p5, that one looks like what I would fancy to have with me, I had looked at a French pan very similar to the longlife pan you link to, but it was more than three times the price. I see they have both 20 and 25 cm pans and I now await a reply from them about their shipping charges. The price for the pans themselves will certainly be hard to beat, they are cheaper even than trangia pans!

Wayland, your setup looks great. The 22cm pan with the folding handle might be spot on for weight versus bacon capacity unless the bottom area is much smaller than what the pan's width would suggest, there is a bit of a taper to it. (The litech primus frying pan with a foldable handle has a 165mm diameter bottom and weighs 250g).

ged, I have the ultra cheap (is it really only 99p in the UK?! ikea frying pan, and it's light for a kitchen pan but has a bad handle made of plastic, and it is small. I have not seen any stainless frying pans locally which have not got the non-stick stuff in them, and they are usually heavy and bulky with big plastic handles. Amazon's got something close to a 10 inch cast iron disc (Lodge Logic Round Griddle @2,3kg). 1,5kg if made of "mild steel" instead (black iron pizza pan tray).
Then there are those crêpe pans ... 29cm 2,2kg ... 59 quid from le whatever.

Cheap and simple cooking utensils are hard to come buy up here, only ikea carry those types of things (btw they have a couple of griddle pans, GRILLA and SKA¨NKA which are just over a kg a piece) so ebay seems to be the place to look.

which brings us to
shaggystu, the problem is that trying to improve a nonstick pan will probably end up being something close to what primus and trangia offers. I have no clue about what material that should be preferred in a frying pan, since at home both nonstick pans and cast iron just works (with the proper care).

santaman2000, I had thought about a wok also, but not about it being able to work as a jack of all trades sort of pot. If I am not mistaken woks are made for giving thinly sliced food a quick heating to preserve texture. If I carry a separate container for boiling water the woks special features will be more or less useless for me, although not much more in weight even with those tall sides around it since woks tend to be made of thin metal. Also the base area is often small or very small if it's one of those that are made for use on a fire. There are also paella pans and paella woks on ebay that are mostly flat, 42cm diameter for 1,5kg is impressive a bit like the muurikkas those.

Teepee, a nonstick pan would be perfectly fine if I could have one that fits the criteria of being light, resistant to melting and having a largei surface area (mission impossible).

Jared, the handle-less frying pan is an interesting option, for some reason only 22-23cm like everything else, I have not seen any info on its weight. The picnic weighs 950g. I think I will order the one you suggested and see how it works, price is 20-25 pounds.


Shewie, TIG-welding a proper handle to the el cheapo ikea pan is certainly an option. Thank you for the suggestion for pot supports.

rik_uk3, my 20cm trangia frying pan is from one of their tundra sets, the pan for the 25 stoves is a couple of cm wider which is good and might be a good choice, not too much of a difference to the one I have though.

Humpback, I have used their non-stick pans on open fires with no apparent damage done, even while cooking bacon crispy as chips. The coating is not very effective when the temps rise high up as Teepee said. At least the whole pan did not melt on you as has been reported in some cases.

bb07, yes that those are much like what I had in mind at the right price. I hope the selfmart store will be able to send me a couple of them without the shipping ending up costing more than the pans.


Before I end this now very long post here is a pan I found with a folding handle called jägarstekpanna, or hunter's skillet, with a folding tube type handle that takes a bit of wood as an extension, like the above muurikka. It is also available with a non folding handle of the same kind. Bit small of course.


I read this kind of simple skillet is called luffarstekpanna, tramp's skillet.

With all this info I should be able to figure out what to bring with me, but you know how it is, before actually using something all the options seem overwhelming (and as studies have shown, an abundance of options makes people feel less good about their choice after having made their decision).

If someone is going to order one of these babies http://www.chefline.co.uk/index.php?cPath=107_118 , http://www.chefline.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=860&osCsid=pbelbak6ksmu3rrjitavcbfcs0 or http://www.chefline.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=863&osCsid=pbelbak6ksmu3rrjitavcbfcs0 I would be happy to join the shopping and pay whatever is needed for shipping it to me.

Aaand there's an older thread about skillets called Help with finding a skillet, here

 

[PeytonDurham]

Check out an skillet that has honeycomb base for the non-stick coating protection. Aside from that unique base property it is also full-bodied that could last for a lifetime.