GOSO Outdoor Gourmet 2-Pan Set

Review by Erin Trail

The GOSO Outdoor Gourmet 2-Pan Set is a STURDY cookware set made from carbon steel that’s a great option for overlanding or car camp cookouts.

Details

This set includes:

• 10″ Everywhere Carbon Steel Pan
• 8″ Everywhere Carbon Steel Pan
• 1 × BigBite Removable Handle
• Full-grain leather Scratch Pad
• Bee Grease Seasoning Paste

Pan details:

• 14-gauge carbon steel — made in the USA
• Naturally non-stick seasoning via the Bee Grease Seasoning Paste and seasoning process
• Works on induction, gas, campfire, and oven
• Pans nest flat for compact storage
• Patent-pending forged aluminum BigBite handle
• Lifetime warranty on pans and handle

Review

I met the GOSO folks at Overlander Fest last August.  I do weekend van trips and thought that these pans would be a nice option for some upgraded cookware for my van.  My van has a 2 burner gas stove.  The fit can be a bit tight for multiple pans, where my cast iron skillet takes up the majority of the space, making the 2nd burner impossible to use.  I typically cook one-pot meals for simplicity, but sometimes I like to get fancy and get a few different pans dirty.

The GOSO Outdoor Gourmet 2-Pan Set comes with a 10″ and an 8″ pan made from carbon steel.  These are pretty heavy pans – great for living in my van but not something you’d want to take backpacking.

The GOSO Outdoor Gourmet 2-Pan Set arrives as unseasoned cookware.  You season it yourself, layering on the Bee Grease Seasoning Paste and baking the pan in the oven. It was a fun process, watching the shiny silver pans turn into a non-stick patina.

The pans come with a BigBite Removable handle, which seems to be made from metal.  The handle is made from a 2-piece lever, which grips on the pan and latches with a squeeze and flip of a metal D-ring to hold the handle securely.  In talking with GOSO, I know they went through many iterations to ensure that the handle was sturdy and also easy for smaller hands to operate.  I found the handle a little hard to clamp down with one hand – I need to use both hands to squeeze the 2 parts together so the D-ring slides into place easily. But once you get the handle secured on, it’s not moving on you.

The GOSO Outdoor Gourmet 2-Pan Set is made from carbon steel.  These pans heat up QUICKLY on my van stove, much quicker than my cast iron skillet. Once heated, they retain heat, so I usually have to put the gas burner down to the lowest setting to cooking things too quickly or burning things.  As a warning, the handle also heats up, although not super quickly.  I usually end up having to grab a hot pad about half way through cooking to avoid burning my hands. The handle isn’t crazy hot (or has not as the pan), but it’s definitely hot enough where I don’t want to touch it without protection.

So how does the GOSO Outdoor Gourmet 2-Pan Set cook?

For dinners, I typically make rice + protein bowls with 2 generous servings.  I’ll have a protein (usually raw, but sometimes I’ll buy something pre-cooked).  I’ll cook the protein, add in veggies, add in pre-cooked rice and heat it all up.  With my giant cast iron skillet, I can easily fit everything into one pan without risking overflowing.  The GOSO Outdoor Gourmet 2-Pan Set is smaller, which is nice because I can use two pans on my van stove set up, but I can’t really do the one-pan thing for my rice bowls.  I tried and while it technically worked, I had to be super careful with how I moved things around inside the pan.

For our next dinner, I used the larger pan for the meat + veggies, and I used the smaller pan to re-heat the rice. The 10″ pan was plenty big enough for the meat + veggies but the 8″ pan was a smidge too small for all of the rice that we eat (I like carbs!).

My final test was breakfast.  I usually do a scrambled egg bagel sandwich for breakfast to get a good amount of protein + carbs in for a long day of riding.  With my cast iron skillet, I can toast 2 bagels (4 halves) at the same time.  Once toasted, I’ll set them aside and cook the scrambled eggs.  With the GOSO Outdoor Gourmet 2-Pan Set, I could batch toast the bagels on the 8″ pan (2 halves) while I cooked up the scrambled eggs.  For me, eggs are the true test of a non-stick surface.  I would give the GOSO Outdoor Gourmet 2-Pan Set a B+ for eggs.  The flat bottom of the pan performed well, with minimal sticking.  The sides did get eggy, but that’s more having to do with the shape of my spatula and this is something that happens on other pans.

In all of my cooking tests, I did use a small amount of avocado oil before cooking, to ensure things would stay non-stick but also because I like a bit of fat with my meals.

Cleanup of the GOSO Outdoor Gourmet 2-Pan Set is super easy.  I just add a bit of water to the pan after we’ve dished out the cooked food and let things soak while we eat.  The residual heat from the carbon steel helps to soften any bits that are sticky (rice is the biggest offender).  A few swipes of a non-stick appropriate scrubby sponge easily clean off any food residue.

I also noticed that some of the Bee Grease Seasoning Paste did come off while I’ve been cooking and using the pans, but this hasn’t affected the non-stick performance.

Closing Thoughts

The GOSO Outdoor Gourmet 2-Pan Set are a well made set of carbon steel pans that are best for vanlife, overlander, or car camping (or home use).  They are HEAVY, but conduct heat evenly and quickly while maintaining a seasoned non-stick layer.  For me, I think the size of the pans (10″ and 8″) are best for solo meals, mostly due to the size versus volume of food that our household of 2 people need after big days of riding bikes.

The GOSO Outdoor Gourmet 2-Pan Set does come in other combinations of 10″ and 8″ pans, allowing the user to optimize their cooking set up for their space and cooking needs.

Erin Trail

Trail Boss of Stoke

Erin Trail on her mountain bike at the World Tri Cross Triathlon World Championship race

Erin Trail on her running at the World Tri Cross Triathlon World Championship race