Carbon steel skillet for camping

D

D2FB

Joined
Aug 14, 2009
Messages
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Saw this carbon steel blini pan and decided to give it a try; for $5 and made in Spain, I figured what did I have to lose. I have a carbon steel crepe pan and it has become my favorite fry pan for eggs, pancakes, searing a piece of fish or other meat indoors, etc etc. I also have a couple of larger and deeper carbon steel frying pans but always go to the crepe pan if possible.

The blini pan would be perfect for ... well blinis, pancakes, single serve egg, one serving size meat searing. Being 14 cm / 5.5 inches in diameter, it has me thinking it might also be a good pan for camping. Ben's Backwoods sells some larger carbon steel skillets. The site also has a lightweight carbon steel skillet that is approximately 6.5 inches in diameter but it is VERY lightweight and almost more like a cake pan. The blini pan is a true heavy duty skillet in a personal size.

Any thoughts on using in your camp cook set?

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Yeah, much the same as I do now. I'm a big fan of a kettle for water boiling efficiency and to keep my coffee water apart from the vessel I cook in. I recover that weight penalty by means of some disposable heavy duty aluminium foil dishes. So, boil water in kettle and dump over couscous in foil dish. While that's doing it's thing slice up some chicken breast and bacon bits and get that working in the pan [bits of sausage works too, but I'm less fond of that]. Dump that into the couscous pan when it's done. Chuck a few ripped up mushrooms into the residual pan grease with some garlic and whatever else I'm in the mood for and dump over the couscous when done. Ticks loads of boxes for me. Only the bacon and the chicken have any real weight to them and not much goes a long way. The yield volume is enormous and cooking for four is only a few knife slices different from cooking for one. It's fast because you're multitasking. The pan is working while the couscous is doing its thing. It tastes like food. While I do eat noodles and so forth I don't have a lifestyle that eats from packets and tins very much at all, and this keeps me closer to that course that some pre-treated crap. Clean up is quick and hygienic, especially since two or three of those heavy foil pans is still very light. Crush 'em and bag 'em as you go.
 
After seasoning and a couple of uses today - a couple of spots that need some more seasoning but more cooking should handle

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I like & use steel skillets. Lodge cast iron cook wear co. has a new line of steel skillets. 8", 10" & 12", all preseasoned.
 
I have a number of carbon steel skillets I bought in Spain. They're terrific. I treat them like cast iron or woks (they appear to be spun steel like woks, but of heavier construction) . I don't use soap - just water and and a steel "wool" pot scrubber, wipe it out and dry it. For the first several washings I dry it over the fire then rub a drop or two of peanut oil in while still hot. They're not exactly non-stick, but they're close. I follow these rules. No oil in a cold pan. No food in cold oil.
 
I only use Carbon Steel skillets for camping. Just a tip-- try not to cook highly acidic foods in this pan. The acid can strip away the "seasoning" or coating on the pan and your food will start to stick more.
 
I just bought a aluminium pan from Primus today, the Litech pan. I got it so I can fry fresh caught fish in the field. I opted for aluminium only because of the weight, as ill be carrying it in my backpack all the time.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Here's an EXCELLENT article on the science of seasoning pans. Apparently organic cold pressed flax oil is the best stuff to use as it creates the hardest finish.
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its not. well i wont say its not but there are others that work as well. the trick is to treat them with high heat 450+. her blog has the right idea but there are better oils (crisco, pam) and cheaper. i did flax on my first cast irons. it worked but it did flake some when i started to cook with them. so i did an experiment. one with flax and one with crisco only seasoning. wanna take a wild guess at which one was far superior as non stick? crisco, hands down. i no longer use flax. that beings said i like the fact that flax does give you a rock hard finish but it sucks as a non stick. if you were to use flax use it on the outside of the pan and crisco on the inside. cook at 500 for 1 one hour and repeat as many times as you need to. basically you are polymerizing the fat. you can do that with any oil just some are better than others and non beat crisco.

if you want to know more go to http://www.griswoldandwagner.com

btw do NOT bring up flax in their forum. they do not use it for many reasons. crisco and pam is their thing and those folks know a thing or two about iron.
 
Interesting. Any thoughts as to why the Crisco works better? Not trying to challenge you or anything--I'm genuinely curious. There doesn't seem to be a lot of resources online regarding the actual science behind it so that was the most in depth source I had found.
 
I'm trying to get rid of weight my pack :) But hey if you're happy to hump it, you do get the creature comforts of real cooked food!
I have to admit that I did buy a lightweight aluminium non-stick frying pan .... but it mostly gets left behind except when I want to cook pancakes in the park!

When I did solo stuff, most of the time I just forgo eating hot food / hot drinks and no need for cooksets.
 
I’ve got a couple of the carbon steel skillets from Bensbackwoods and they are now a permanent part of my cooking kit. After a good seasoning treatment, they have cleaned up well even after using cheese and other burned on food. I pack a small bottle of olive oil and heat that up after using the skillet and just wipe out the gunk and store it up. Even with the high humidity and rain we get in the summer down in Georgia, there’s not even a hint of rust. These are a thinner carbon steel and no heavier than most of the other backpacking skillets.

ROCK6
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Interesting. Any thoughts as to why the Crisco works better? Not trying to challenge you or anything--I'm genuinely curious. There doesn't seem to be a lot of resources online regarding the actual science behind it so that was the most in depth source I had found.
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well i cant give you science in regards to crisco but its been used by iron collectors and iron cookers for eons. even after it changed from lard to pure veggie oils. i just know for fact with my own experience that flax is not the perfect oil. it does stick but it does leave a good hard layer. thats why i said if you wanted to use flax use it on the outside of the pan but use crisco or pam on the inside cooking part. i just use crisco all over. Evern since i did a ton of reading on WAGS and had some of those really nice folks give me more info i switched back to crisco. i am seasoning some old more valuable griswolds right now and they are coming out FANTASTIC. just a few cookings on them and the non stick value has increased a LOT. it helps having a great quality iron as well. hard to beat a gris or other OLD smoothed interior pans. if you are truly interested in this go to wags and bring up flax. you will get bombarded by old discussions and "proof" that its not that great. i value their opinions. they are serious collectors and cooks :D

also keep in mind that no matter the fat once its polymerized its no longer the same. that being said when crisco, animal fat (lard) and or pam is polymerized it has a far better non stick property than most other oils. why i dunno. i just know it works and works very well in comparison to others. believe me i have tried many oils. flax being the latest and still go back to the tried and true crisco.

one thing i noticed with flax. once you start cooking on it with other oils it broke down fast. you could see it when you wiped it down. you dont get that with just crisco.

btw the blogger is a "know it all" type blogger. she blogs from everything to hair cuts to you name it. she has the right idea just wrong execution.
 
Thanks for the info, dude--I appreciate it! You'd think it'd be a more studied subject in culinary science...maybe I'll check with the folks at UMaine's culinary department and see if they have any input.
 
I don't backpack so weight is not an issue. I do use a small carbon steel wok. I can fry or boil in it.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Interesting. Any thoughts as to why the Crisco works better? Not trying to challenge you or anything--I'm genuinely curious. There doesn't seem to be a lot of resources online regarding the actual science behind it so that was the most in depth source I had found.
Click to expand...

FortyTwoBlades said:
Interesting. Any thoughts as to why the Crisco works better? Not trying to challenge you or anything--I'm genuinely curious. There doesn't seem to be a lot of resources online regarding the actual science behind it so that was the most in depth source I had found.[/QUOTE

Flaxseed oil starts out primarly as a relatively short carbon chain unsaturated oil. It has omega 3/ omega 6 fatty acids. Crisco is primarily a saturated fat with longer carbon chains. This is why it is a solid at room temperature. If the two polymerize in a similar fashion this just leaves the length of the carbon chains and the omega 3/ omega 6 fatty acids as the difference. The omega 3/omega 6 fatty acids are where trans fatty acids are made in partially hydrogenated oils. The omega 3/omega 6 sites have a double bond where chemical reactions can take place. During seasoning, this is a supposition cross linking (bonding to other carbon chains) could take place at the omega 3/omega 6sites, which would result in a stronger polymer. However, if a substantial portion of the omega 3/omega 6 sites did not react while seasoning, this would leave them free to react with other chemicals, like oils, that they come in contact with while cooking. This would ultimately weaken the coating causing it to flake off.
If this is what is happening, seasoning a little longer or hotter with flaxseed oil might result in a stronger, more durable coating.
This also leads to the question, What would happen if one were to season with an even longer saturated carbon chain wax like bees wax?
Click to expand...
 
Bo T said:
FortyTwoBlades said:
Interesting. Any thoughts as to why the Crisco works better? Not trying to challenge you or anything--I'm genuinely curious. There doesn't seem to be a lot of resources online regarding the actual science behind it so that was the most in depth source I had found.[/QUOTE

Flaxseed oil starts out primarly as a relatively short carbon chain unsaturated oil. It has omega 3/ omega 6 fatty acids. Crisco is primarily a saturated fat with longer carbon chains. This is why it is a solid at room temperature. If the two polymerize in a similar fashion this just leaves the length of the carbon chains and the omega 3/ omega 6 fatty acids as the difference. The omega 3/omega 6 fatty acids are where trans fatty acids are made in partially hydrogenated oils. The omega 3/omega 6 sites have a double bond where chemical reactions can take place. During seasoning, this is a supposition cross linking (bonding to other carbon chains) could take place at the omega 3/omega 6sites, which would result in a stronger polymer. However, if a substantial portion of the omega 3/omega 6 sites did not react while seasoning, this would leave them free to react with other chemicals, like oils, that they come in contact with while cooking. This would ultimately weaken the coating causing it to flake off.
If this is what is happening, seasoning a little longer or hotter with flaxseed oil might result in a stronger, more durable coating.
This also leads to the question, What would happen if one were to season with an even longer saturated carbon chain wax like bees wax?
Click to expand...

i thought the same thing. but at 500 degrees for 1-2hrs thats plenty of time to change the composition of flax oil. it still did the same as i had mentioned above. another reason why i switched to Pam and or Crisco. that being said i would do a dutch oven with flax. bc it did leave a hard layer on the outside. as long as you do not use other oils and you put enough coatings on there you will be fine. flax is too expensive to toy around with and experiment. i bought 3 bottles of it and went to town on my many irons. ill stick with pam or crisco. easier, cheaper, BETTER non stick properties and it doesnt flake off. it will only burn off at a very high temp. a temp in which you do not cook at anyway
Click to expand...
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Thanks for the info, dude--I appreciate it! You'd think it'd be a more studied subject in culinary science...maybe I'll check with the folks at UMaine's culinary department and see if they have any input.
Click to expand...

do that and let us know. if you would, please post that in the food and drink section. in there i started a thread on just cast irons. there you can post pics of pans you cleaned, bought, cooked in and liked. etc etc.. i kind of wanted to start an iron thread bc a lot of folks are going back to the tried and true iron pieces. with in a couple weeks ill post pics of before's and after's cleaning iron skillets that i find here and there.
 
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