The Story
In the early 1970's, Dad discovered a large frying pan in a hardware store in a small town in Saskatchewan. At the time, there was no-one around (and no internet) to tell him it was a paella pan, so he initially bought it as a joke; something he'd bring out on camping trips to get a laugh.
As time went on, he started using it to cook with over the campfire. He soon realized how well the carbon steel distributed heat, transforming even the roughest of fire pits into a gourmet griddle.
The pan accompanied Dad on camping trips throughout his life. It became a fixture around our camp, often hanging on a nearby tree. Its size allowed Dad to cook for groups of 10-12 campers easily. He always said how he liked everyone at camp to eat at the same time. Other, smaller pans, required the cooking to be done in stages as there was never enough pan-space handle enough food at one time.
Over the years, Dad developed a system for cooking, serving and even doing the dishes. Unlike modern paella pans, this particular pan was very deep. It allowed Dad to fill it with water and let it heat over the coals as we ate our meals. By the time we were done eating, the water was the perfect temperature for doing the dishes. To make the process even more streamlined, we did the dishes right in the pan. After the dishwater was dumped, the pan was rinsed, wiped and placed upside down over the coals to smoke-dry the cooking surface.
Dad's pan outlived him. It's now a cherished part of my camping equipment and a reminder of all the places we've been together.
Dad always said he could "sell a million of these things", but it was one of those dreams that seemed to get set aside. He passed away in the fall of 2014, and it was then that I realized that life is short, often too short to get all the things done that you want to. It was soon after he died that I decided to produce a few pans. While I'm not out to sell a million, I am proud to be able to share Dad's pan with the camping world. It has travelled into the far northern lakes and rivers of Manitoba and Saskatchewan and all over the Rocky Mountains, cooking everything from walleye to "sow belly".
It's a piece of equipment I know you'll enjoy. It's a conversation piece that will let you enjoy cooking over an open fire again.