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- To say that a Blackstone griddle is fun is not enough. It’s a hell lot of fun! Blackstone griddles are excellent for frying bacon, eggs, waffles, pancakes, hash browns, vegetables (such as corn, onions, asparagus, eggplant, peppers, and mushrooms), French toasts, burgers, Quesadillas, fish filets, juicy chicken breasts, and many more with ease. Yet, after the pleasure come duties—keeping your griddle clean is one of them.
- The question is: How to clean Blackstone griddle to ensure its impeccable functionality and longevity? Keep reading to discover how to take care of your griddle properly.
How to use Blackstone griddles?
A griddle is like a hotplate—a flat, smooth, metal surface with the heat source underneath; a kind of a big frying pan without a handle.
Griddles combine the best elements of a restaurant cooktop and a grill.
Have we mentioned that a Blackstone griddle is magic?
Blackstone griddle has a large cooktop to prep multiple foods at once and cook for a crowd.
Check these “5 Best Dinner Ideas for Your Blackstone Griddle” by Get Away Couple to grasp what we’re talking about.
Griddles are a little less vigorous than grills. The latter gives off more smoke and heat. Griddle surface is safer since the food isn’t in direct contact with open flames; this reduces the chances of a flare-up.
While your portable griddle stone has all the potential to turn a dull evening into a full-fledged fest, it’s crucial to tackle how to keep it always clean.
Tip: Blackstones are easy to transport and they run on propane—you can cook just about anywhere!
Clean your Blackstone griddle
Your Blackstone griddle’s life span depends on how well you care about it.
Keeping your griddle clean is of vital importance.
Important: By cleaning the griddle improperly, you risk ruining its surface altogether.
To properly clean your griddle with a griddle stone or without, learning a few handy hacks is helpful.
After each use
Let’s say you’re in a high BBQ season. How to clean Blackstone griddle daily?
Clean a Blackstone griddle whenever you use it—before and after cooking.
- Before cooking, simply wipe down the griddle surface without scrubbing.
- After cooking, it’s essential to remove all soil, food debris, and possible greases from the griddle.
Scrape off all the grease and food particles left on the entire surface of your griddle every time you use it.
Avoid using soap on your griddle. To maintain a cast-iron griddle’s non-stick surface for long, avoid using soap when washing it.
Instead, use a scraper, scouring pad, or special cast-iron cleaning brush.
You can run the griddle under hot water while scraping. Remember to let it dry completely to prevent rusting.
Clean the surface meticulously if visible food particles are stuck on your Blackstone griddle. Otherwise, just wipe it with a dry paper towel.
Also, flush out your griddle’s waste tray—gunk and moisture that remains can seriously hamper the overall griddle.
Since we often use soy sauce, salt, herbs, spices, and oil for frying food, a significant grease build-up will appear on the griddle cooking surface sooner or later.
One of the popular methods to clean the grimy flat-top surface of our griddle is lemon juice (the best known way, actually).
Heat the griddle so that the hardened debris softens and scrape it. Next, spray the lemon juice (3/4 water, 1/4 lemon) on the whole surface of the griddle. Spread the mixture with the brush and scrape the remaining fat. If necessary, wait for about five minutes, so the food debris softens and becomes easier to remove. Next, scrub the flat top grill with a scouring pad. In the end, use a rag to wipe the griddle surface.
Every 1-2 weeks
To create a non-stick surface ready to handle even the most heavy-duty cooking, you need to get familiar with seasoning.
Seasoning protects and preserves the non-stick surface. A seasoned griddle is a cast-iron griddle rubbed with a thin layer of oil.
Season the griddle twice a week to reduce the chances of it getting crusty and dirty. If you feel that you don’t want to do it this often, the ultimate sign that you have to re-season your griddle is when your food starts to stick.
For the seasoning of a cast-iron, flat-top griddle, follow these steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Select an oil with a high smoke point (the temperature at which the oil will catch fire) of at least 400 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent the oil from catching the fire inside the oven; choose cooking oils such as vegetable oil, canola oil (it’s a perfect oil with 450-470° F smoke point), sesame oil, or flaxseed oil.
Watch out for unrefined coconut oil and extra-virgin olive oil as they have very low smoke points which makes them poor choices for seasoning griddles.
3. Wash the griddle with hot water with dish soap if it’s a new one still with a factory residue on it. Let it dry completely.
Important: Wash your griddle with soapy, hot water only after buying it to remove a factory residue. It’s not what your griddle wants or needs in the long run.
4. Now rub a thin layer of oil on the griddle surface with a paper towel or cloth. Use a clean towel to absorb too much oil to avoid pooling.
5. It’s time for griddle cooking. Place the oiled griddle in the oven and cook it (yes, we tell you to cook your griddle) for 40-50 minutes.
6. Repeat the oiling and cooking three times in a row. Watch out for the hot griddle not to burn your hands; wear protective gloves.
Tip: Every time you notice visible rust or charred buildup on the cast-iron pan, proceed with the seasoning.
A good practice is to oil the griddle after each use or cleaning. Place it on the stove’s burner on medium-low heat or in an oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit for twenty minutes. Rubbing a new thin layer of oil on the pan after each use or cleaning should also maintain its seasoning.
Once a week, it’s recommended to unplug and let a griddle cool down.
Wash your griddle thoroughly (deep clean) using warm water to scrub any unnecessary grease from the griddle top.
Then, take an absorbent cloth to wipe off all the excess water and moisture left.
Clean the flat top of the whole griddle every three weeks to ensure that you remove dust and, together with oil, so that they don’t create a nasty crusty surface on top.
Sporadically (remove rust)
After some time, you can notice that you’ve got a rusty griddle.
There’s nothing mysterious or rare in noticing a layer of rust on our Blackstone griddle.
Just the opposite; steel, air, and water—is a recipe for a rusty “success.”
Living in an area with high humidity means you need to find ways to prevent rust from appearing or discover how to remove rust from the Blackstone griddle.
The cleaning tools you will need are: a metal scraper, cooking oil, paper towels, grill stones, and heat-resistant gloves;
Now, here’s how to remove rust from Blackstone griddle:
1. Turn the griddle on to high heat. It will lead to the rust loosening and becoming easier to remove. Add some elbow grease! (wear heat-resistant gloves to protect yourself)
2. Take your metal scraper out (it’s one of the tools in Blackstone Accessory Toolkit) and scrape off the corrosion from the flat top surface of your griddle.
3. Let the griddle surface cool down and wipe off the debris.
4. Add 4-5 tablespoons of cooking oil to the whole surface of the griddle and start scrubbing it down with a grill stone. (it’s proven to be four times more effective than a regular brush)
5. After you’ve finished, wipe the griddle clean with a cloth or paper towels.
6. Add a thin layer of oil and wipe it down again. Keep scrubbing the remaining Blackstone griddle rust with oil until all the rust debris is gone. Keep adding oil as you go.
7. Season the griddle top to create a protective coating not to let rust appear again.
Ensure you keep your griddle stored in a cool, dry place, protected from humidity in the air not to let Blackstone griddle rust appear again.
Tip: Even if you don’t cook with a Blackstone griddle often, pull it out of storage for regular cleaning about every three weeks. By lightly cleaning up the Blackstone griddle, you ensure it doesn’t develop mold.
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