My three:

8-qt Circulon non-stick interior, stainless stewpot
12" non-stick frypan
3-qt non-stick saucepot

and if I might add one more essential: heavy-weight half-sheet cake pan. I have two and use at least one three or four times a week.

Of course I would rather not pick only three, but if reduced to that, I would pick my large Magnalite (similar to Caphalon, but discontinued in the 1990s) skillet/saute pan with a large domed lid, a large stock pot with insert for pasta and steaming, and my largest sauce pan. I would also like to have a cast iron skillet and a cast iron grill pan, but they are heavy, and the Magnalite can work almost as well as the cast iron plus do things well that they cast iron cannot. I would want to have a small sauce pan and a wok as well, but they would not make it into the top three.

If I had to carry it on my back, the Magnalite skillet would be the only one I would take (I'm thinking Davey Crockett style).

In my camping gear/earthquake emergency supply, I only have a medium sauce pan (with lid) that fits on a propane burner plus a coffee pot for boiling water, but for tea instead of coffee.

Lars

The Fagor Splendid multi set, with a 8qt stockpot and a 4 qt saute/fry pan would count for 2 pans. You can use either pan as a pressure cooker or as a regular pan. It lists for $119 but is routinely available online in the $80 to $90 range.

Then an inexpensive aluminum nonstick frypan of whatever size is appropriate to your needs. Sam's and Bed Bath & Beyond have them.

Here is a link that might be useful: fagor pressure cooker set

Similar to jkom51, but I'd say

8-qt Circulon dutch oven (can be used in oven)
12" non-stick fry pan
2-qt copper-bottom saucepot

and if I could add one more it would be a cast iron fry pan. :)

Only 3!! On regular basis, I use a 2 qt non-stick sauce pan, one of 2 different non-stick skillets, and try to rotate use of cast iron skillets. Sure I have WAY more pots/pans than one person actually NEEDES, but they don't collect dust.

12" skillet with lid, sauce pan in the neighborhood of 2.5 quarts, 8 quart dutch oven. For durability and weight considerations the sauce pan and dutch oven would be SS clad. I'd reluctantly make the skillet non-stick. Unless I could sneak in a fourth pan. :)

The three pans I use the most:

10" non-stick skillet
3 1/2 qt. Le Creust French Oven
flat bottomed Joyce Chen stir fry pan

Of the pans that I currently own...I'd choose the 6qt Presto pressure cooker, 12" Calphalon skillet & 3 qt Member's Mark annodized aluminum saucepan. (I plan to upgrade to a 8 qt pressure cooker one of these days.)

1. Large (12"?) saut� pan, aluminium with stainless steel interior, pretty tall sides and helper handle, a KitchenAid that my second mom found at a flea market for $15-ish and decided I needed. Uses: general frying, braising, saut�ing. A couple times each year I take a buffing pad, drill, and metal polish, shine the interior to a mirror, the pan is slick like ice for awhile.

2. Medium (10"?) cast iron pan, some cheapo Taiwanese no-namer, that the same friend got for me at the same market for the same price. Uses: searing, stirfrying, general frying. So easy to clean, nothing ever sticks, happiest when it's smoking.

3. 7 qt Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker, bought with the encouragement of the CF, and opened whole new vistas through the magic of time compression. Uses: slow cooking fast, fast cooking faster, stocks, stews, pot roasts, legumes, grains, also works as an everyday deep pot.

If I was putting together a traveling kitchen, I might bring the smaller pressure cooker and a smaller saut� pan, just depends on space restrictions.

I think what I use the most are the one very large non-stick skillet with a lid, my dutch oven and my largest sauce pan. That would probably get cooked whatever it was I needed to cook while traveling...

Me too bought a big dutch oven,love,griddle,sauce pan,cant think of name red heavy castiron.