Frying Pan Dish (Large)

Cook on it, serve from it. A pan and a dish in one

The TAKIBISM Frying Pan Dish (Large) is an iron frying pan that takes real heat over an open flame, and equally a dish you plate straight onto once it comes off the fire. It cuts out transferring food and cuts down what you carry, finishing the job on one piece whether you are at a campfire or a home hob. It arrives with an oxide coating of baked-on oil, so once the oiled paper is unwrapped you can put it straight on the fire. For cold food, you can also chill the plate in the fridge before plating.

Where the Large comes into its own

This is the biggest in the series, and the deepest. The room to move ingredients around and the generous rise of the sides take it from searing a large cut of meat, through frying vegetables and meat together, to dishes with a little simmering in them — over a fire or in a kitchen. As a serving plate it handles a generous single portion, and equally a main dish laid out for several people to share. As a guide, one plate takes bacon and eggs for three to four, or a meat dish for two to three (it depends on the dish and on appetites).

Why there is no handle, and what that gives you

This plate has no fixed handle. Leaving it off means several can be stacked neatly and carried or stored compactly. A shape with nothing sticking out also goes straight into an oven, grill or toaster, which widens how you can heat it. For fire cooking you use a dedicated tool that hooks the rim and lifts. Neither tool attaches or locks onto the plate; the idea is to catch the rim only when you need to.

Two ways to hold it — both tools hook the rim with claws

• Use the bellows as the handle: swap the tip of the Breath to Fire for the Dish Joint (or Joint Short), then hook the rim with the claws and lift. Adjusting the fire and moving the plate become one motion.
• Use the standalone handle: the Dish Handle is a separate tool with a maple grip, and it too works by catching the rim. It fits the Small, Medium and Large.

Because the Large has weight to it, flipping the latter over and taking the rim on two claws makes it steadier to support.

Suited to a wide range of heat, from campfire to kitchen

It works on an open fire, of course, and on a home hob or in an oven. Only a microwave is out. Induction hobs differ by model in the base sizes they support, so please check your appliance's manual beforehand.

Care, and bringing it on

It comes seasoned, but iron can still rust depending on conditions and storage.

• Wash without detergent: loosen residue with hot water and work it off with a brush or a wooden spatula.
• Do not use metal scourers or abrasives — they take the oxide coating off. Keep a blade off the surface.
• After washing, wipe the water away, let it dry completely, then rub a thin film of cooking oil on with kitchen paper before storing.
• Seasoning it regularly keeps rust and sticking down.

An instruction sheet is included, so it is straightforward to follow the steps even the first time.

The cooking and plating only the Large allows

With the wide cooking surface and the depth, the Large gives you room across the heat range: meat seared hard on the surface and finished with butter or a sauce, a stir-fry with plenty in it, or something brought to the boil and then left low to take on flavour. Over a fire it also lends itself to setting the plate in at an angle to the flame and turning it a little at a time to bring the heat round, which helps keep the cooking even. As a plate, it leaves room for a one-plate main or for a spread several people share from.

Baking a pizza on the JIKABI (Hajime Sangawa's method)

On the JIKABI fire stand, start by setting the plate on the trivet so the base begins to bake from below, then slide the plate quietly underneath the trivet and let the radiant heat from above finish the cheese and the top of the base in one go. Adjust the position and distance from the fire a little at a time, and take it out when the colour and the melt look right.

What the makers and the finish leave in each piece

The Frying Pan Dish started out as a forging. Steel plate was heated in a coke furnace until it glowed red and hammered to draw out the curve, four or five rounds per plate — laborious work. Forming has since moved to pressing, which steadies production, while the finishing keeps hand work in it. That is why each plate varies by about 5mm in dimension and differs in surface texture. For the finish, oil is applied and baked on to form an oxide coating. The black lustre takes on an iridescent cast at certain angles of light, and with use the sheen and the marks of cooking build up on one another.

What TAKIBISM is about

TAKIBISM began when outdoor life advisor Hajime Sangawa and iron artist Noboru Makizuka (Makizuka Ironworks) set out to make the tools they needed themselves. Rather than maximising convenience, they keep thinking about tools for tasting a fire more deeply. Sangawa says he likes fire because it cannot be owned: you cannot touch the flame, and the wood becomes ash. "Not thick logs — a small fire built from thin branches." That regard for a small fire runs through the design of this plate too, which leaves the handle off and meets the fire with the least tooling necessary. The Setouchi Trilogy — the network of makers TAKIBISM works with (Makizuka Ironworks, Kurashiki Canvas and Daiko Products) — is the other half of that honest making.

Specifications