I purchased this 10” Alpha Frying Pan for $26.00 (shipping included). Specifically for cooking up my breakfast eggs in the morning. The price seems to vary between $23 to $28, but regardless of what you pay within reason, this pan is worth it. Also, it does NOT contain the harmful PTFE or PFOA’s which is very important to me.
Why am I including it as an Adventure Gadget? Well, two reasons: 1. It’s just an awesome pan that I can’t help but share. 2. This would be my goto pan for CAMPING!
I’ve used many pans over the years to cook with, including other nonstick’s and cast iron, stainless, etc… Some had a claim of being nonstick and they were, to varying degrees…
Buy Alpha Pan Here
Note: The seller may change over time, but you will always be directed to a secure site with a solid guarantee such as Ebay or Amazon, etc…. ALSO, it’s been my experience that quite often the price $$ will drop after some time especially when the item was originally offered new for the first time.
This pan i’m writing about today is certainly not the only quality nonstick that will get the job done – there are other pans that certainly will. But it just happens to be the one I ended up choosing. “Made in Korea” and when I read that, the first thing that came to mind was “If anyone could construct a quality pan, it would be those Koreans who have just a little bit of experience frying up food to eat ; )”
Before buying the 10” Alpha Pan, I had purchased an 8” stainless steal pan after resigning myself to the fact that there was just no such thing as nonstick that wasn’t some sort of unhealthy useless gimmick, like what you see on TV sometimes. As a matter of fact I was almost ready to take the plunge and purchase one of those ‘As Seen On TV’ pans until I read the reviews… ”I knew it was just to good to be true!”
Even some of the more expensive pans I researched seemed to have issues and were NOT truly nonstick.
Another concern is the toxic PTFE/PFOA’s. Surely one can find a pan that will perform well in the no-stick department, even for a short time, if some of those unwanted chemicals are used – but at what cost? Both in health and money spent when the pan gets gouged up and loses it’s ‘nonstick’ ability.
I was unwilling to chance it and just bought a basic stainless pan that ended up having to be scraped out with the edge of a spoon every time before use. At least there were no health worries, but the scraping GOT REALLY OLD REALLY QUICK!
The Discovery of a Very Fine Nonstick Pan
So, I went on another internet quest to find the best of both worlds. What I found was beyond my expectations! Believe me I was skeptical about this pan, given the price and lofty customer reviews. But really, it was the overwhelmingly positive customer reviews that convinced me to click ‘BUY’.
Awesome pan so far!! It’s truly nonstick – 100%. I like to use a little bit of butter since it is considered the most healthy when cooking anything (better than coconut or olive oil). Although i’m really only using the oil as a moisturizer & flavoring at this point because the pan really does not require ANY oil at all to keep the food from sticking – a little disclaimer here, I have only used it for my eggs, and sometimes cheese is added, cooking over a fairly low heat. There are other sticky foods that I have not tested yet, but eggs are one of worst for sticking to everything, so I’m pretty confident about the pans ability to handle other foods.
I COOK WITH LOW HEAT for health reasons and to facilitate the pans “nonstick-ability.” Let me clarify – I use the minimal amount of heat needed to get the job done. For both health and taste reasons – who wants their eggs to come out like rubber? THE HIGHER the HEAT the more it changes the foods natural characteristics & completely destroys most or all of the micro nutrients present. ALWAYS use the minimal amount of heat necessary and you’ll be better off for it.
Buy Alpha Pan Here
How It’s Constructed
The pan construction is pretty impressive I think. I’ve included a cross-section image of how it’s put together.
Notice they use an aluminum base and layer other materials, having marble as the last & final surface that the food gets cooked on. From what I have researched it’s infused with ceramic too. Whatever they did, it works very well!
And again they specify that the pan contains NO PTFE/PFOA’s
There’s An 8” Version Too
The image here is from the smaller 8” Alpha Pan packaging; By the time I decided to write a post about this pan upon discovering how awesome it is, I had thrown out the packaging. After looking all over the internet for an image and not finding this particular one, I decided to buy a smaller version (about $22 for the 8”), plus I needed a small sauce or sauté pan anyway.
What About Durability and Life Expectancy?
As of this writing, I have not logged that many hours using the pan, therefore cannot report on it’s longevity, but can recommend that using Plastic and Wood Utensils ONLY will ensure the longest possible service.
Also, I would not wash it in the dishwasher, there’s NO reason to! If it needed soap and water – which probably wouldn’t hurt every so often to make sure it stays bacteria free, particularly the handle area – then a quick hand wash will do it.
Generally speaking though I don’t wash it out because it’s soooo nonstick, there’s really no food to be washed off. Plus leaving the residual layer of butter or oil (seasoning) will be good for the next meal even though, like I already said, there really is NO NEED FOR OIL TO KEEP FOOD FROM STICKING.
Best to just use a clean paper towel and wipe it occasionally.
The 10” Alpha Pan Was About $26 (Shipping Included)
Now, you could say that $26 is so cheap (price seems to fluctuate and may be more by time you access the included buy links), what’s the catch?… given all the praise I’ve heaped on it, OR you could say “that seems kind of pricey.” Personally I’d be willing to pay double that with how well the pan has performed so far AND especially if it lasts for a few years. ALL those HOURS SAVED not having to scrape it out or wash after each meal, plus the beautiful way it cooks my food.
So How Well Does It Cook The Food?
Plus another reason I think the pan is an excellent value for the price is that it actually does a tremendous job in this department; the heat is dispersed very evenly and efficiently and it does a solid job!
There doesn’t seem to be any hot or cool spots – just even steven all the way across the pan.
The Dimension of the 10” pan are: 2.1” high x 20” long x 10” (interior dimensions of cooking area)., Weight: 1.8lbs.
The purchase was made on Ebay. I’m sure you could find one on Amazon too, though I’m actually finding Ebay to be slightly cheaper AND I personally don’t like supporting Jeff Bezos, but that’s your preference.
Buy Alpha Pan Here
If you do decide to purchase one of these awesome pans, lemme know what your experience is; good, bad or ugly, I’d like to hear back from you.
This post contains some affiliate links, so if you click on a link and buy something I will get a small percentage to help pay the blogging bills and keep my site ad free. But don’t worry, it’s absolutely NO extra cost to you. Thanks!
