While the first seasoning is integral to your griddle’s success, regular maintenance is crucial to ensuring that you can smash patties and whip up French toast for years to come. Luckily, it’s easy to keep a griddle in tip-top shape — no soap or special cleaners required.
What you’ll need:
What you’ll do:
- After cooking, and while the griddle is still hot, use a metal spatula or a scraper to scrape all excess grease or stuck-on food into the grease hole. The heat makes it much easier to loosen stuck-on food bits. Apply an even amount of pressure, and be careful not to use too much pressure, which can damage the griddle top and strip away seasoning.
- Run a wet flour-sack towel, held with a pair of tongs, across the griddle’s hot surface, steaming away any lingering grease and food bits. You may have to repeat this scraping-and-steaming process a couple of times to get all of the food and grease off, but it shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes. Do not use soap on the griddle, since it can compromise the seasoning you’ve built.
- Once the surface is clean, dry it completely with a paper towel or cloth.
- Swipe a new, thin layer of oil over the griddle’s cooking surface. Doing this after each use helps to protect the griddle from rust and maintains the seasoning.
- Clean the grease trap with soapy water and a sponge after each use. You can use soap and water to remove grease and dirt from the body of the griddle as well. (Just don’t use it on the cooktop.)
When it comes to storing your griddle, preventing rust should be your top priority. Remember: Moisture invites rust, which is a griddle’s nemesis. Always make sure your griddle top is completely dry after cleaning.
In our guide to outdoor griddles, we recommend models with hoods to protect the cooktop from the elements. We also recommend investing in a heavy-duty cover for additional protection. But keep in mind that even these precautions won’t make a griddle completely impervious to moisture, so your griddle may still rust if it goes unused for a long time.
If you use your standalone outdoor griddle only seasonally, we recommend that you wipe the body down; then remove the grease trap and the cooktop, and store them inside somewhere dry when not in use.
