i agree, pancakes on a Ti pan are a challenge -- a real wrist workout.

has anyone experimented with cutting and adding the bottom of an alum pie pan to a Ti pan for better heat spread with a cannister stove? i saw it referenced in the thread as an idea, but not sure if we have real world experience.

i'm thinking just JB weld the aluminum to the Ti and that would help by thickening the "pan" and providing better heat spread surface. Also maybe put a shot of muffler paint on the pan before applying the adhesive might also provide a little more spread.

thoughts?

You might find it tricky to get good heat transfer between the two metal layers, especially if they're not actually touching but are separated by a layer of what is basically an insulator. You'll pay a price in extra fuel for that.

Too bad its pretty tricky to weld or braze the two metals together.

Might take a bit of experimenting to see if the frankenpan does end up with the sort of better cooking that you're after without too great a cost in fuel... seems to me that some sort of aluminium skillet might be far more sensible ;)

Edited by Ruan on 01/30/2010 08:58:29 MST.

Guys, by the point you do that, any Ti pan will outweigh a similar sized thin aluminum pan, and still probably not transfer properly unless you can get an extremely tight weld.

Another option might be to attach a grid of thin copper wire, but then again, wt.

Another member on the thread I referenced found a thin side walled, medium bottomed Al pan at walmart that weighed like 4.8oz, without the handles, which is basically the same weight as any same sized Ti pan. The one egg wonder is even lighter san-handle.

Hi Ryan

> cutting and adding the bottom of an alum pie pan to a Ti pan for better heat spread

Try it by all means, but I am willing to bet that the Al plate will fall off when it gets hot - probably the first time. The adhesive won't take it, and the difference in expansion coefficients will kill the bond anyhow.

Cheers

Just going to throw this out here - what about finding a suitable size thin rock and frying on that? Sticky, but just throw it in a creek after, so no cleanup anyway. No more weight in your pack.

Haven't done any research on the subject other than reading cooking books, but it seems to me that there is a relationship between the ability of a frying surface to delivery even heating and its mass. (Super heavy cast-iron pans are really best for almost everything as long as you can live with the stickiness). This presents a major problem for LW backpackers, so - find a heavy rock instead?

Edited by dasbin on 01/30/2010 17:15:26 MST.

Look how simple trail bread is if you are a Balti man somewhere north of Pakistan. All you carry for food supply is a bag of flour. You start a small wood campfire. While that is burning down to hot embers, you mix up some of your flour with some creek water, perhaps using the top of a flat rock and your finger. Once that dough is starting to form, you put one of the smooth round river rocks into the hot embers to pre-warm it. Once it's warm, you knock it back out of the fire and form the dough around the rock. Then back into the fire. After a while, burnt bread is ready. You knock it back out of the fire, scrape the worst of the burned portion away, break the bread off the rock, and eat it.
--B.G.--

Edited by --B.G.-- on 01/30/2010 17:55:26 MST.