Good Stove / Fry Pan Combo?

I almost never cook in the backcountry, I just prefer the simplicity of freeze-dried meals.  But several years ago, on a paddling trip through the Boundary Waters, I cooked up a breakfast of hashbrowns (from dehydrated), bacon (shelf-stable precooked) and scrambled eggs (Ova Easy).  I used a 10 inch Sea to Summit Alpha Pan on my PRD.  I first used the pan to heat up the bacon, then to fry the hashbrowns, then to cook the scrambled eggs.  I was amazed how well it worked, even with the tightly focused flame patttern, everything cooked pretty evenly, and cleanup was easy.  This pan is a pretty good balance of weight and functionality, and the folding handle is nice.  Though the PRD has a tight flame pattern the excellent flame control is beneficial for actual cooking.

MSR windburner personal stove 1L, with accessory frying pan? I have both but have never really used the pan yet. I have messed with it at home and made srambled eggs with veggies…

It’s not the lightest option but I have a $5 one egg frying pan from IKEA with a Teflon coating. I’m guessing it is 6” wide. I can weigh/measure if you want. I cut most of the plastic handle off. It’s been used when car camping with a Snow Peak stove and it works great for eggs, hash browns, bisquick biscuits and pupusa. I lose interest in cooking when backpacking and generally just snack sunup to sundown so I’ve never backpacked with it.

I’m using a Soto Windmaster with an Evernew 7.5” dia pan. The Soto is awesome; the pan is mediocre but does the trick for frying trout.

I use an MSR BlackLite pan (obsolete now) along with a diffusser plate.  Works well for me.

Dimensions   7.25 x 1.75 inches

Material(s)   Aluminum

Weight   5.4 ounces

I am no expert but I got a MSR Quickskillet and paired it with my Soto Amicus. I cooked some turkey patties, eggs, and even two 6oz ribeyes and that combo with a little movement on the pan to prevent hot spots did very well.

@snowfiend131, I was just searching BPL with the same question – what stove/pan setup did you go with?

The heat from the stove was very concentrated in the middle of the pan, and the thin aluminum didn’t spread it very much. I had to physically move the pan around on the burner the entire time to compensate. 
Is that so hard to do?
Cooking on a gas stove at home with a light pan usually requires moving the pan around too. Watch a French chef cooking pancakes or omelettes: constant motion.

Cheers

It’s not especially light (~12oz), but I’ve had good results with the MSR Alpine Fry Pan.  Most recently, scrambled eggs and cooked hash browns.  No nonstick coating, so needs plenty of cooking fat.

What characteristics would make for an ideal backpacking frying pan?

I feel like it would be made from aluminum because of its heat conducting properties. The pan would be a moderate thickness of 2–3mm.

I think I’d want a nonstick but I’m sure some would rather avoid that.

I would want very little lip. A shallow pan would suffice for eggs, hash browns, a steak, or a trout. I’d probably prefer a minimal radius so that the bottom of the pan was as large as possible relative to the outer diameter of the pan.

I think I’d want it to be pretty small, maybe 6”?

I would want a minimal handle.

I’m asking this because I think it would be interesting to discuss the ideal characteristics and then search for a pan that fulfills those specifications.

Have used the following for many years to fry and bake with good success:

BANKS FRY-PAN 8″ dia – Alpine (7.5oz), SPATULA (.80oz),SOTO  POT LIFTER (.5oz), HANDY WIPE (.35oz), BAG (.2oz) – 9.35oz

@ Matthew K – It would probably be better to talk about desired results rather than physical attributes at the start.  For me, with an “ideal” frying pan, you could make a pancake that was “uniformly” brown across the face.  With an “ideal” pan, I could scramble eggs and slide them onto a plate by tilting the pan.  My 2 cents.

That’s an excellent point, Jon. A steak might lead one to a different pan than a pupusa.

I don’t care about the weight…when I want a steak or some bacon and eggs in the am (I’m only going overnight) I bring the best lol. My “real” food weights more than the stove, frypan and the gas lol. I really like the Primus Express Spider (great flame control and is a remote stove so great cooking surface…nice and wide…feels like cooking at home). I use this with the Jetboil Summit Skillet 8” frypan. Easy as pie to clean and cooks eggs well. I test most pots and pans along with the stove by cooking eggs. Stove and pan have to cook evenly and clean easily. That means the stove has to have some simmer control and the pan has to distribute heat well. I’ve cooked many things with this combo…corn beef and hash with eggs and bacon are one of my go-to’s. Again, I’m not worried about weight…I’m worried about making a damn good meal 😋 frypan also comes with a spatula that clips into the frypan handle. I can be picky about a spatula and this one actually works well.

Adding to this discussion since I’m going to be going on a group trip and we will be doing some cooking.

Boundless Voyage now sells lightweight titanium non-stick pans (6 and 8 inch diameter sizes). I got the 8 inch one and will be pairing with a Windmaster since I have successfully used it with another pan. It is light without the stuff sack, coming in at 4.4oz on my kitchen scale. This is less than half the weight on the jetboil 8 inch pan. If you’re going solo, the 6 inch is 3oz.

https://www.amazon.com/Boundless-Voyage-Titanium-Non-Stick-Backpacking/dp/B0B3ZYNVS3/

To minimize burning the non-stick coating, you should never pre-heat titanium pans, instead put all ingredients in a cold pan first. Also, even with the non-stick, I’ll be using plenty of either water or oil to make sure there’s convective current to take away heat from hot-spots.

Will report back on how the pan does.

I have an aluminium/Teflon frying pan weighs 3.4 oz. Aluminium is a better heat conductor than titanium.

Cheers

I’ve been most happy with the Pam Bsnks Fry/Bake pan. Got the 8” Alpine deep dish skillet with lid. It is 7.7 oz for just the pan but has a thick enough stock to make perfect pizza, pancakes, cakes, steak and chicken for two. Browns perfectly, heats evenly and doesn’t scorch the center while leaving the edges raw like thinner pans I’ve used on a backpacking stove. Banks makes a shorter 8” Alpine skillet that weighs a bit less. These are HA aluminum. They are designed to work over campfires or stoves. The lid will hold coals. We only do the stove.

Of course wider burner head is best. The Trangia lpg burner made by Primus works perfectly for us. There are plenty of other wide burner stoves.

Now when the above are paired with the Outback Oven we got when available anything at all is possible. This isn’t ultralight but it is in the light class for its performance. If you car camp on the way to backpacking trips this is superb. Your own gourmet bistro is easy to have onboard.

If you are searing a steak the pan needs to be hot enough for a drop of water to bead up and roll around. If the drop explodes the pan is too hot. If the water doesn’t come together in a bead then its not hot enough. Same with most everything you want to brown up properly, pancakes etc.

I don’t have any suggestions but just wanted to say that I’m overjoyed that Matthew is cooking backcountry pupusas. :)

12 ounce fry pan? Ain’t gonna happen.

Although I once had the good fortune of spending a day and evening with a good fisherman who brought in a heavy fry pan, oil, flour and all the rest. He shared his catch with me, and yes…he did it right.

Me? I carried a Tenkara and considered trout to be delicious protein that I couldn’t count on, since I’m a poor lake fisher. Years ago I'[d make a small fire and wrap the trout in tin foil and cook it that way. More recently, I’d simply poach the trout in water in my usual cook pot.

Then it occurred to me: nothing attracts a bear like the smell of trout cooking. Another advantage of freeze dried food is, it’s less smelly.

For me, between the choice of fresh caught trout and freeze dried food, the trout will win every time.

In the interest of full disclosure I have only made pupusas outside of the house once and it was car camping. Front country.

I did think of you Greg.

Hot, fresh blueberry/chocolate chip scones are killer.

“For me, between the choice of fresh caught trout and freeze dried food, the trout will win every time.”

True.

Instead of getting a new stove you could get(or make) a diffuser plate.  It goes between the fry pan/pot and your stove.  I made some out of thin metal plate for our old scout trip, because I was tired of the kids loosing the commercial made plates.    Attached is a pic of a commercial one made by outback ovens.  Here is a thread on them in BPL.  https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/73579/