I get exasperated with what passed for cooking pots and pans now-a-days. The accent seems to be on light weight and the functional aspect comes in way second. What I've wound up doing is going to the local thrift shop and adapting regular cooking ware to my camping needs. Now I absolutely agree it's heavy but I feel it's worth it for a kit that works.
Up till recently I've had only spotty luck with frying pans; a lot of sticking and subsequent scraping. The newest frying pan had been badly abused and after I got it all cleaned up and tried it out, it too stuck with the best of them. It's a quality pan; Revere Ware with a copper bottom to even out the heat so what is/was going on? Well, after asking several good cooks the distillation of advice seems to be: surface of the pan and temperature and oil.
My skillet was clean but the surface had a multitude of small scratches from the scouring. Using very fine (1400 grit) emery paper I polished it to a very passable mirror finish.
Now about the heat and oil; heat the dry pan up to about what the cooking temp will be and then add the oil. Note: if the oil turns brown to black you are way too hot.
Something about the hot pan will allow the oil (pam in my case) to adhere better and then you add the food food to be cooked.
Well, it flat blew my sox off, the eggs and then the cornbread slid off the skillet so slick! Now, no doubt in the future I'll manage to stick things again but at least I have a direction to work towards.
Best Wishes, Rob

I was told; "hot pan - cold oil" when using a SS fry pan.  And, I bet Snow_Dog can give you the best method for seasoning a SS pan.

I use a T-Fal non-stick skillet. Have had it for many years, and like SD, I keep it padded with dishtowels or hotpads. Mine is square, which I'm not sure is made anymore.

I use an REI teflon fry pan. It's been through the wars and despite my lack of care, the pan still manages to do just fine. 

I agree with DB... I don't think heating a "teflon-type" fry pan dry on the fire would be advised. 

prouboy

Kerry -- got a picture of the pan?

prouboy

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Aha, figured it out.  The pan has the fish in it and you can see that it is just a regular 12" T-Fal nonstick with the handle removed.  I then use one of those portable pot holder things that grip on to the lip of the pan.

Nice pic Kerry. A handle-less frying pan with the pan holder is a great idea.  I like my frying pan, but I get tired of frying endless rounds of fish fillets.

Another great idea of putting a large frying pan on the bottom of the food barrel.  I have the large barrel (I painted it green as I can't stand the blue color) which should accommodate a large frying pan.

Thanks for the ideas!

prouboy

Prouboy,

Just be careful putting that fry pan (or other pots) at the bottom of the barrel.  Those 'dimples' in the bottom of the barrel can put 'dimples' in your fry pan.  With a T-fal or another tougher pan, it might be ok, but the REI one is a bit softer.  Voice of experience here....fortunately, I caught it before it got seriously dented.  Place something beneath it...some foam padding, some food items, or whatever to keep that from happening.

pd

T-fal is just a popular, fairly inexpensive brand of non-stick cookware.  You can pretty much find them anywhere but I'm sure other brands will do just as well.  T-fal type cookware will be much sturdier than the very thin made for camping variety.

Yeah, my "Goodwill hunting" hasn't turned up any square frying pans, which is something I've been wanting.  Then again, the hunt is as much fun as the finding.

prouboy

Good work Kerry! I am mostly interested in the fry pan but will probably be glad to own the set. This would be the type of set that would excel over campfire cooking with an open flame/grill IMO.

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Whatever your pan material of choice, you want to season it and like a non-stik pan, wipe clean sans soap. If you use soap, you have to re-season.

This video shows you how. She explains the physics behind how the seasoning process works as well. Check out the omelette at the end, made without addtional oil.

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My ultimate "over the fire" square fry pan showed up today......Hurrah! All metal, non stick, folding metal handle, no rubber or wood to catch fire or melt.

Upon opening the box I believe an expletive might of leaked out . My 13 x 13 fry pan was in centimeters, not inches (For crying out loud!). It just might be able to fit a single egg inside......

OK......the joke is on me and a rather pricey joke at that. I'm starting to laugh about it now because it is so ridiculous.........do not buy this set online, it is available at 1/2 price from MT enterprises 

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MT, did you ever see the movie, This is Spinal Tap?  It’s a comedy about an over the hill heavy metal band planning a last big show.  They are going to have this incredible stage set, a model of Stonehenge with dry ice and the whole deal.  On the day of the performance the set arrives except the measurements were in cm instead of feet so instead of a full scale Stonehenge they get something not much bigger than your head.  And so they go on stage with the big musical build up, smoke rising and the Stonehenge is lowered onto the stage – all of 2 ½ feet tall.  That’s what your story of opening the box brought to my mind.  How deflatingly disappointing.  But also pretty funny.

AHA!!

I took a good critical look at the tiny fry pan and have decided that it would be the perfect little pan to take on backpacking trips to use when frying the little trout that I every so often come into contact with. Perfecto-mundo! (that's Spanish...sorta)