Skillet Wanted

Nov 09, 2025 Last reply: 7 months ago 9 Replies

No. I don't want to know what skillet you like. I'm sure its superior to the skillet I want in every way. I just want what I want.



Back in the late 80s I ran trap lines for two winters. The second season I was all in, running lines from first light to last light, and sometimes after. Often back in camp I'd be putting up fur and putting it on ice long after dark. I was out on a ridgeline once when the wind was so bad setting up camp was impossible, and visibility was so low I didn't want to risk taking my truck back down the trail. I dragged a sleeping bag up in the cab and slept fitfully through the night as the wind hammered the truck back and forth. Once I got both thumbs caught in a double long spring from the bottom side and had to dig holes in the sand for my elbows, so I had enough room to get my knees up on the springs. I broke through the crust over sugar sand and had to back my truck out 3-4 feet at a time with a piece of plywood for several hundred yards because flattening the tires wasn't enough to drive out. I once caught 21 fox in 18 traps in one night. It was the hardest I ever worked in my life, and the only job I ever truly loved. If I could have done it for a living I would have, but the fur market went bust the second season and I didn't even break even.



There are a lot of memories and a few THINGS I remember from those months on the trail. One was an inexpensive skillet. I had other kitchen wear in camp of course, but that skillet was just perfect. It wasn't a heavy well-seasoned cast iron skillet either. I like food cooked in one of those, but I'll leave the care and tending of cast iron to somebody else. My favorite skillet, and I've not found one exactly like it since, was aluminum. It was heavy thick aluminum with a nonstick coating and a long wood handle. Felt like oak, but it could have been anything. The thick aluminum spread heat evenly, the nonstick coating was, with the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, better than any I have used since, and the wood handle didn't burn my hand when I lifted the skillet off the shovel hole full of coals in the ground.



I often had a fire for heat through the night. I carried a stove in the truck, but most morning I'd dig two small shovel bites in the ground near my fire and dump a shovel full of coals in each one. One for my coffee pot, and one for my breakfast. Like having a stove burner on the ground. Often at night after cooking dinner I'd run some water (I carried plenty) in the skillet, but more than once I burrowed into my bag before doing proper cleanup. Many times I dumped the cake of ice out of the skillet in the morning and put it right on my shovel full of coals.



I didn't baby it. I'm not sure I had anything other than the regular metal implements. Maybe I had a PTFE spatula. I don't remember. I sure as heck didn't have silicone. It held up to normal use and careless handling, and it was still non-stick after a few years of use.



When I was going "back" to college I rented a trailer lot and acquired a "travel" trailer. Bigger than most travel trailers, but maybe not quite as big as a mobile home. It was cheaper than living in the dorms, and it gave me more freedom. I had a big lot, and working on a car outside was not even in the way. I had room for my car, truck, motorcycles, and a tool shed with plenty of room to spare. I had that skillet then. Sometime after that it disappeared along with my surplus store US Army machete. The one with the good stiff blade, and the fat handle that was comfortable in my hand.



I know I probably never will find one, but I've been looking for a skillet like that ever since. If I found one, I'd probably buy three of them.


Wouldn't mind finding a machete like that either. I have a Condor parang, but I always feel like my hand is going to slide down on the blade.

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I've played this game... Troll Ebay with a search something like this to start with:

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Once you see something close read the details for it. Like make, size, description and what was used for the listing Title. Refine your search as you go🤷️

From what you described this is kinda what I pictured it to look like:

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I think I found one. Yeah, they don't make it anymore. Looks like one made by Mirro.

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I have several Mirro pots/pans from my parents. They were a "solid" product. Not the best, not the worst...

There's a wiki page for them. Kinda interesting history. Made aluminum canteens for the military early on. Also got into making both aluminum and fiberglass boats😆️

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both aluminum and glass.

Its better than I remember. Seriously. The old used Mirro "Teflon 2" coated skillet works better than I remember. I've used it 9 days out of

10 since I got it, and it just works. I was afraid it wouldn't be as good as I remembered, but its better. I bought two more, and found some matching (I hope) Mirro glass lids for them.
10 since I got it, and it just works. I was afraid it wouldn't be as good as I remembered, but its better. I bought two more, and found some matching (I hope) Mirro glass lids for them. Bob La Londe

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Good for you!

Cast iron is good enough for my basement wood stove. I mostly have what my mother left and my sister didn't want. The selection was large since Mom worked in and understood Probate and took care of elderly relatives, then sold what she could and pushed the rest on us. I hardly ever bought new furniture or lawn and garden equipment.

A friend tried trapping and took me along, so I learned what to look for and how to skin them without damage. He quit when the price collapsed. I tanned a couple of deer hides in a trash can in the bathroom. Learning primitive skills made me appreciate my nice clean job in electronics, I could go logging for firewood only when I felt like it.

My best year trapping was the year the price collapsed.

When I turned sixteen I became full partner in my fathers registered trap zone, the next year after I received my license to drive, I purchased my first car when we sold our fall harvest.

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