ditching the pot for a skillet

This is exactly what I intend to do on my next 1-week trip. It will be a two person trip and we will take a MSR Quick Skillet for cooking and a small Ti pot for boiling water (for tea & coffee) which will also double as a bowl for eating and for mixing dough. I made a lid for the skillet to keep the heat in when baking flatbread, pizza, griddle scones etc. The thing I like most about the MSR skillet is that it has enough depth to be able to make the usual paella, pilaf, dahl etc. that I would normally make in a conventional pot.

I've contemplated using a skillet and leaving the pot at home, but not been bold enough to try it yet. I have the 6.5" Imusa skillet and have yet to figure how to lighten the handle. But it seems a skillet could do most of what a pot could do, and then some. The idea of warm bread (specifically, pancakes) is a big plus.

We went on a one-week canoeing trip of the Zambezi River between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Pretty much all of breakfast and dinner passed through a frying pan. It made for kind of a heavy diet because of the peanut oil used, but in a country with imperfect food inspection and hand washing, I liked knowing it all got to a high temperature.

On more seriously hunter-gatherer trips, I use a fry pan more than when BPing with prepared foods. I might sauté fern fiddleheads into a pesto to put on linguini. Or brown bear meat, make a roux into a gravy, and add veggies.

I don't think it is the most UL cook kit, but if you'd enjoy using it, go for it! Enjoyment counts for a lot and imagining you're going to catch and eat a lot of fish adds to your anticipation of the trip.

That said, Gollum caught his trout barehanded and ate them raw – the ultimate UL techniques.

The MSR Quick Skillet is a good choice. It is deep with straight sides, and cooks evenly. I carry one in my car camping/cabin kit, along with the MSR Flex 3 pot system.

I am not really interested in ditching the pot, but want a small skillet to supplement the pot and cook eggs, etc. Most skillets are too small, IMO. I purchased the IMUSA 6.3" Egg Skillet and am in-process on mod'ing it. Already ditched the lid knob for 550 cord. Now I've got to figure out the handle thing.

You can probably accomplish the same with a wide pot. I've been looking at low wide non-stick pots. The top of my list is the Evernew ECA421, which is just 600ml.

Vargo makes a 900ml version. If you just squint and look past the high sides, it's a fry pan :) Just 4oz too!

I've said before that I want a small Ti non-stick wok. The Snowpeak bowl would come close if it was non-stick.

Evernew does make Ti frypans. Not cheap.

I found this little 6-3/4" diameter aluminum pan at Goodwill for $1.99. It is all of 3oz. It will need a good dose of oil and constant movement for use over a canister stove. Note that it is essentially a pie plate with a handle, which could be duplicated with a non-stick cake or pie plate with a typical grabber handle.

Ti fry pans should be avoided at all cost. They get red hot and burn very easily. HAA works better in a more even cooking. My less-than-2-cents-advice ;-)

I bought a part from a small company in Utah a few years ago. In their parts section, found a Trangia lid that was non-stick. Over my old MSR stoves it can still cause food to stick, I'm guessing because the old stoves can't be throttled down enough, still producing too high of heat. Have not tried it on newer stoves, just love to take the old ones out when I fix bacon or sausage.
Duane

Assuming you're using alcohol stoves, I would really like to see the windscreen arrangements some of you folks have figured out for your fry pans…

…I find I'm generally fighting the windscreen when I frypan, and I know there MUST be better ways…

…or do you think alc stoves and frypans are incompatible?

I mostly cook over open wood fires, but I will need to find something for high alpine (and an inevitable fire ban this summer). I would think that the fry pan itself would provide a level of wind resistance from above. But yeah, I might have to try stacking some rocks up as a windbreak or something like that.

I've been pondering this as well, or at least the idea of adding a small skillet. Maybe I just want an excuse to fish more. The southern portion of JMT between MTR and Whitney seem like a great place to maybe put the fishing into overdrive – otherwise I may be looking at a bigger bear can.

It seems like the prices of quality skillets are very reasonable – or maybe I'm just freaking out looking at aluminum rather than Ti.

This is about as nice as it would get (but 11.4 oz): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LF3HZ8/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And this one might be serviceable at 5 oz: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GWG14Q/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Have I been brainwashed to think that such weights are "crazy"? Couldn't I potentially save more than that on carried food? Will UL folks snicker as I walk by with a frying pan poking out of my ArcBlast?

Found a set of deep dished aluminum plates with a steep wall in an old Coleman cook kit out in the shed. About 8" diameter at 2.8 oz each. Would work great with a pot gripper.