Cookware for Camping and Campervans

Space is the one thing you never have enough of in a campervan or a packed boot, and cookware is usually the first casualty. Pans get left behind because they don't stack, handles jab into everything else in the box, and a lot of "camping cookware" sold as a set is really just smaller versions of pans that were never designed to travel in the first place. The Pep Pans Griddle Pan with a removable handle solves a problem that's specific to van life and camping in a way that fixed-handle pans just don't.

The handle is the whole problem, and the whole solution

Think about how a pan actually gets stored on a trip. It's not sitting in a drawer, it's wedged into a crate, a cupboard the size of a shoebox, or stacked under a seat with everything else you own. A fixed handle sticking out sideways means the pan either takes up far more room than the cooking surface needs, or it gets stored handle-up, poking into whatever's above it.

Take the handle off and the pan becomes more like a square dish. That's a completely different storage problem. Square dishes stack, they fit into corners and narrow gaps on their side, and several of them together take up barely more room than one. The Pep Griddle Pan with removable handle is built around exactly this, the handle clips off in seconds and the pan can then be stored flat or stood with your chopping boards, which fits in the kind of gaps a van kitchen actually has rather than the ones a normal kitchen assumes you have.

Why this matters more for a griddle than other pans

A griddle earns its space in a small kitchen more than most pans, because it does the job of several. Bacon and sausages for breakfast, a steak or burgers in the evening, vegetables, even toasted sandwiches pressed under a second pan. In a van or a tent, where you might have room for one, maybe two pans total, something that covers that much ground without needing a grill, an oven, or a second ring is worth more than it would be at home.

The ridges also help specifically with the kind of heat sources you get camping. Gas stoves and campervan hobs tend to run hotter in the centre and cooler at the edges, and a ridged surface handles that unevenness better than a flat one, since the food isn't sitting flush against the hottest part of the pan the whole time. Fat also drains away from the food rather than pooling, which matters when you're cooking on an uneven pitch and don't want a pan half full of grease sloshing about.

Practical use around a campsite or a van

On the hob or hookup ring. With the handle attached, it behaves exactly like it would on a home stove, so there's no learning curve.

Over an open flame or a camping stove. This is where the removable handle earns its keep a second time. Plastic or rubberised handles, common on a lot of home cookware, aren't built for direct flame and can be damaged by heat, they were never designed to sit near. Taking the handle off before the pan goes anywhere near open heat avoids that risk entirely, and it means the pan itself can go closer to the heat source without you worrying about what's attached to it.

Cooling and packing away. Once you're done, the handle comes off, the pan cools, and it packs away without needing too much space. If you're travelling with a partner or a family and running two pans, they'll stack directly on top of each other once the handles are off, which two full-sized pans with handles fixed simply won't do.

A simple one-pan camping breakfast

This is the kind of meal that shows off why one pan can genuinely replace what would normally take two or three at home.

1. Start with sausages, if using, since they take the longest. Give them a head start of a few minutes before anything else goes in.

2. Add bacon alongside, and let both sear on the ridges. Turn occasionally rather than constantly, they'll colour better left alone.

3. Push everything to one side and add halved tomatoes and sliced mushrooms to the space that's freed up.

4. Once everything's cooked through, push it all to the edges and crack eggs into the middle. A ridged surface isn't ideal for eggs on their own, but with everything else already on the pan holding heat, a couple of eggs cooked gently in the last few minutes will work fine for a camp breakfast, even if it's not quite as neat as doing them in a flat pan at home.

5. Serve straight from the pan if you're short on washing-up water, it's one less thing to clean.

Cleaning up without a proper kitchen

Water is often the scarcest resource on a pitch, so cookware that doesn't need much of it is worth more camping than it ever is at home. A non-stick, ridged surface generally needs no more than a wipe with kitchen paper while it's still warm, followed by a quick rinse if you have water to spare. Avoid harsh scouring pads, they'll wear down a non-stick coating faster than the pan sees regular use, which matters more on a piece of kit you're relying on for the whole trip rather than swapping out every year.

What to pack alongside it

A single griddle pan with a removable handle covers a lot, but a couple of small additions round out a proper camp kitchen without adding real bulk:

• A pair of tongs, for turning without needing to lift the pan

• A small heatproof mat or trivet, so the pan can come straight off a hot stove and rest somewhere without marking a table or worktop

• A lightweight lid, if you have one that fits, useful for speeding up cooking on a low-powered camping stove where every bit of retained heat helps, or tin foil would also work well as a lid.

None of this needs to take up much room, and that's really the point. The less space your cookware demands, the more you've got for everything else a trip actually needs.

Get your own Pep Griddle Pan HERE!