Bushwalk Australia

I'm not entirely happy with my current cooking pans, but I've been unable to find anything that meets my requirements any better. I often like to cook real food (not just boil water type packet meals), and this means that I sometimes need two pots, and a fry pan. Eg, sometimes I want to be able to cook a main (eg, curry) and a side (eg, rice) for dinner; and I sometimes want to have a fry-up for breakfast (eg, bacon and egg is my standard breakfast at home, and I often have it on a muffin on walks up to three days; sometimes I like to do pancakes also).

One of the main sticking points (pun not intended) is a decent small frypan, that nests nicely with the pots so as to not take up any extra room in the pack, and to also act as a lid for the pot. On the sets that meet all other criteria, the frypan is titanium, and frying on a thin titanium surface is an excercise in frustration. The heat does not spread over the surface at all, and bacon and eggs are difficult to cook, with pancakes being impossible (unless you like a combination of burnt and raw bits).

So my requirements are:

• Two pots plus a frypan that doubles as a lid
• All items should nest together so that it can be packed as one unit taking up no more space that the larger pot
• Frypan must not be titanium
• Frypan sides must not be vertical (so I can get a spatula under the edge of a pancake)
• Frypan must not have a heavy/solid handle. (These are a pain when trying to balance on a tiny stove).
• Frypan must not have any kind of non-stick coating (eg, Teflon is out of the question).
• Smaller pot must be able to fit a folded Kovea Moonwalker stove inside
• Larger pot must be able to fit a gas canister inside

I'm willing to mix and match items from different sets or brands if I can find a combination that works well.

If I can't find the perfect nesting set, I'd still be keen to find a decent frypan, as this seems to be the most difficult item to get right.

What are my options?

For reference, my current solo cook set consists of the Snowpeak 'Trek 700 Titanium' and the Snowpeak 'Trek 900 Titanium'. They are explicitly designed to nest withing each other, and to be able to fit gas cannister and/or stove inside. I'm mostly happy with this set except for the frypan/lid on the Trek 900. It's rubbish even as a lid, because it doesn't sit nicely on the pot (not at all when being squashed into a pack), and it's terrible as a frypan due to being titanium (as per reasons above) and because of its steep and relatively high sides.

http://www.gsioutdoors.com has range of frying pans...in aluminium, steel or stainless/aluminium core.

Trangia pots can be bought separately, are fairly wide & nest well...maybe with a different frying pan that suit your needs.

Asian/indian shops have small frying pans too...

ofuros wrote:http://www.gsioutdoors.com has range of frying pans...in aluminium, steel or stainless/aluminium core.

Trangia pots can be bought separately, are fairly wide & nest well...maybe with a different frying pan that suit your needs.

Asian/indian shops have small frying pans too...

I do like my Trangia fry pan - it cooks pancakes very well, which is the ultimate test. The downside is that the sides are too steep (annoying when trying to get a spatula under something at the edge of the base) and of course it won’t nest with my preferred pots when I’m not using the Trangia. (I still love my Trangia, but I only use it when cooking for a large group, which is rare these days).

Thanks for the GSI linkl. This one looks interesting but is quite heavy unfortunately. About 3 times the weight of my current pots and pans. Steel is nice to cook with though.

I think you are going to struggle with that. If it was me, keep your SnowPeak and add a MSR Alpine Fry Pan. Over 300g but with your requirements, I don't think you'll find anything worthwhile that is much lighter.

Use a Titanium plate - these have sloping sides for your spatula. Then use a heat spreader underneath. There are many types of heat spreaders from some corrugated Al flashing, dense wire mesh and so on.
A second Ti plate underneath with some edge clipped spacers or sand might work too.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000PGG5BW?tag=vglnkc6761-20 Best of luck.

Some serious fry pans here https://frybake.com/products/alpine-pan/

Mission impossible...the perfect bushwalkers frying pan.

How about a indian hand beaten thin copper serving dish with the handles cut off...use a pot gripper instead.

...or a lightweight heat diffuser for those sloping/round sided frying pans.
http://belmont.co.jp/bm-111

Avatars suggestion of thin plate with curved sides( non titanium) with a pot gripper will go close to the holy grail, may warp if too thin though.
I like the shape of a Snow peak trek plate...but its titanium & not what your after.

Pancake/crepe pan with the handle cut off ?

Aluminium mess kits...Coleman, Anaconda....

IKEA frying pans ?

Japanese omelete pan ?

Goodluck. It'll will be interesting to see what you settle for....

crollsurf wrote:I think you are going to struggle with that. If it was me, keep your SnowPeak and add a MSR Alpine Fry Pan. Over 300g but with your requirements, I don't think you'll find anything worthwhile that is much lighter.

Yes, I did have an MSR frypan at the top of my list before I started this topic. My main issue with that one is that it wont nest nicely with my existing kit, making it a bit more annoying to fit in the pack. But it's still a good option to consider.

ofuros wrote:Mission impossible...the perfect bushwalkers frying pan.
...
Goodluck. It'll will be interesting to see what you settle for....

Some good lateral thinking ideas there. 'settle' is what I think will end up happening. The frypan I really want doesn't appear to exist.

GregH wrote:Some serious fry pans here https://frybake.com/products/alpine-pan/

Ah... now this one looks good! It still suffers from lack of nesting with my existing kit (or any other kit?), but it looks like an excellent frypan. Considerably lighter than the MSR too. Although I'd have to add a handle/gripper/prondonicles, which would add some of that weight back in. It's a bit expensive at $58.75 including shipping.

Thanks for this pointer. I reckon this one might be my preferred option now.

Still looking about for something that will nest with other pots though.

I got this one recently
https://www.msrgear.com/ca/cookware/cer ... ex-skillet
I wanted to do pancakes and fish etc.
The pancakes worked well.
I use MSR pots too- this is a bit larger. It can use the same handle as the pots

Lizzy wrote:I got this one recently
https://www.msrgear.com/ca/cookware/cer ... ex-skillet
I wanted to do pancakes and fish etc.
The pancakes worked well.
I use MSR pots too- this is a bit larger. It can use the same handle as the pots

Looks fairly good, and the Quick Skillet appears to be a slightly smaller version too... more likely to fit better with the pots. Smaller and lighter than the Frybake Alpine but somewhat more expensive (at least at Paddy Palin it was $75!) and has vertical sides, which are annoying. But this one is still high up on my list. It did sort-of nest with the equivalent MSR pot - ie, the post sits nicely in it. But then the whole package is a bit larger than my current kit, which I'd like to avoid.

I've gotta just add that the range available in all 6 bushwalking shops in Launceston is terrible. At least two of the shops had no fry pans in stock or on display at all, and most of the others had only one or two. I'd like to buy local if I can, but if they don't stock what I want, I ain't gonna buy it from them.

For reference, I've just added the following sets to my list:

Snow Peak Mountain Aluminium cook set to my list. It has one pot, one fry pan and a lid that fits both. Sort of nests OK.
EDIT: Argh... I was nearly set to buy this one, but it appears to have a flourine coating (ie, non-stick coating like teflon). That has put me off.

Kovea Solo 2. Nest of 2 pots and two lid/fry-pans, but has vertical sides on the frypans.
EDIT: I can't find this for sale anywhere. However, it looks almost identical to the following (marginally different capacities and dimensions):

Macpac Duo Pot Set. Hard anodised aluminium, fully nesting, two pots, two lids which double as fry pans. Less than $50 for the full set (Macpac 'club' price). Seems decent.

Use a crepe pan with the handle removed?

http://www.everten.com.au/pyrolux-indus ... e-pan.html

I've used a lot of frying pans; also sauteuses and crepe pans, girdle pans etc
There really is no really satisfactory lightweight alternative, if you really need or want to fry something i think you need to simply accept that you have to carry the weight.
The 45 degree angle on a frypan is there to accommodate the oil volume increase as you put stuff in so I have to ask how much oil you are using when frying.
Frying pans and spondonickles do not match in my experience but you are in a bind here if you are going to use any of the real stuff on a small stove.
One of my beloved winter staples is my fried cheese sandwich and using the one pan I try and use I have I burned at least 50% of them.
I got my "frying pan" from the cheap ALDI set and I keep loosing the LW wire flame spreaders so I also have that hot-spot problem
A while ago Safeway had a square non-stick coated aluminium stove top sandwich toaster and they sold out and never came back, but those had a handle I do wish I had bought one to trial it but again not LW

If your serious about your omeletes, pancakes or bacon & eggs etc etc...a pan with a thicker base is the way to go...which also means a bit more weight.

Had a pancake play this morning...thin titanium, aluminium & stainless steel frying pans...burn, burn, burn.

A thicker base $9 pan from a Asian shop, 6inch diameter, made all the difference, controllable heat...golden brown pancakes.
Weight penalty is the only downside... or is it ? Depends on how much you love to fry in the bush.

ofuros wrote:If your serious about your omeletes, pancakes or bacon & eggs etc etc...a pan with a thicker base is the way to go...which also means a bit more weight.

Had a pancake play this morning...thin titanium, aluminium & stainless steel frying pans...burn, burn, burn.

A thicker base $9 pan from a Asian shop, 6inch diameter, made all the difference, controllable heat...golden brown pancakes.
Weight penalty is the only downside... or is it ? Depends on how much you love to fry in the bush.

Agreed. But it doesn't need to be terribly heavy. I've found that my large Trangia lid does pancakes perfectly (and bacon & eggs). The Trangia lid is aluminium, and it is somewhat thicker than their other pots, without being overly heavy.

I suspect the specific pan you want does not exist.

This one may satisfy most requirements but at 8" perhaps a little too big. Sea to Summit X-Pan


It is also offered as a set of pot, pan and kettle. Sea to Summit X-Set 32

Yes, those look good, but as you say, they're a bit on the large side. If they made a smaller version (~6"), that would be good.

I know this is not the answer you are looking for but the info may help. A few years ago at Aldi I was able to buy a pressed steel fry pan. It is about 1/3 the weight of the equivalent cast iron fry pan but is about 90% effective. With some googling you may be able to find something similar that is the right size. I don’t think it is going to be ultra light but still may be manageable. I reckon fry pans are a correlation choice, weight equals effectiveness and there is always compromise


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Somebody on an American forum just asked the same question
These are the general recommendation
https://frybake.com/products/
Never seen or used them and they are not cheap or UL

Dig around and you will discover Metal forging is a cottage industry in the US and there are various sites making steel skillets with holding handles, such as this one which offers a 6.5 inch pan.

Turkey Foot Trading Company and Forge

Moondog55 wrote:Somebody on an American forum just asked the same question
These are the general recommendation
https://frybake.com/products/
Never seen or used them and they are not cheap or UL

I think I saw a set a few years ago before I knew what I was looking at. From a very hazy recollection I thought they were pretty good. It was the shape of the grips that is triggering my memory.


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rurik wrote:

Moondog55 wrote:Somebody on an American forum just asked the same question
These are the general recommendation
https://frybake.com/products/
Never seen or used them and they are not cheap or UL

I think I saw a set a few years ago before I knew what I was looking at. From a very hazy recollection I thought they were pretty good. It was the shape of the grips that is triggering my memory.


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And at 350-400 grams for an 8” pan with lid it doesn’t seem that heavy.


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Moondog55 wrote:Somebody on an American forum just asked the same question
These are the general recommendation
https://frybake.com/products/
Never seen or used them and they are not cheap or UL

Yeah, someone posted a link to these early in this topic. They do look like the goods. 8" is a little larger than I'd like, so it won't fit/nest nicely with any of my other pots, but it does look like the best option available in all other respects.

I have a Kovea Escape which meets all but one of your criteria:

http://kovea.com/product/escape/

I'm not sure of the dimensions of your Moonwalker (folded up) but I've had the Kovea Escape for about 7 years and love it. It's light(<0.5kg), everything fits together in the mesh bag, including the gas canister and is reasonably easy to clean. While the capacity of the pots are listed 0.6 and 1 litre respectively, the volumes are about .85 and 1.25L. The only miss on your criteria is the frypan edge (straight). I don't think you can have a set that nests together without a straight edged lid.
The only con for me is the lid doesn't fit snugly - a small bump will knock it off. Other than that, it's great. It maybe smaller than you want but the Kovea you nominate looks the same, just a size up and a different handle configuration (both light weight). I only ever take the large lid/frypan to save on weight/space.

You probably got a nice pot set from Santa but I thought I'd mention the Kovea (can get on Amazon?).