Whether you enjoy hamburgers, crepes, or even chicken, a griddle will always come in handy. However, this griddle will not serve you efficiently or give you the delicious meals that you want if it is not cleaned properly.
Of course, there are different cleaning methods and materials but having a clean and hygienic griddle is necessary whether you are a professional chef or just someone who loves to cook.
In this article, we are going to explain how to clean a griddle with a grill brick. Ever heard of it? Probably not but not to worry because this cleaning method will not take more than 10 minutes.
What You Need
- Cooking oil and vinegar
- Griddle scraper
- Soda water or club soda
- Cleaning rag
- Grill cleaning brick
How to Clean a Griddle with a Grill Brick
As we said, the cleaning process is not a cumbersome one and does not take up too much time.
Step 1
On your hot griddle surface, pour about 1 cup of vegetable oil or any other kind of cooking oil. You also want to pour about a cup of club soda onto your warm griddle.
The carbonation from the soda helps lift and loosen stubborn grease. You also want to keep a scraper at hand to remove any excess food or grease.
Scrape any food remnants into your griddle’s waste drawer. You can empty it when you are done.
Step 2
Take your grill brick and start scrubbing the griddle surface until it is clean. More often than not, your griddle will be greasy and that is why it is important to use the grill brick when the surface is still hot.
As you rub the brick on your griddle, you want to do it in the direction of the grain. This is guarantees that you do not scrape off the stainless steel surface.
Step 3
At this point, you want to have a grease trough at hand for purposes of discarding the scraped off grease. Remember that your griddle should be off at this time.
That said; some grills do come with waste drawers and if yours has one, you need to sanitize, wash, and empty it after each use.
After that, use a clean piece of cloth to wipe the front of the griddle
Step 4
Take your vinegar and measure half a cup. Pour it onto the griddle surface and spread it out evenly on the entire surface. Never allow the vinegar to pool.
Vinegar helps eliminate any smells that are left on the griddle from your cooking.
Step 5
In your cooking oil, soak a piece of cloth and rub your griddle’s surface to polish and re-season the steel.
You now have a properly cleaned griddle so sit back and enjoy your cooking.
Maintenance Tip:
Unplug your unit at least once every week and let your griddle cool completely. Use a non-abrasive griddle cleaner and a piece of cloth to clean the surface. Rinse thoroughly with water afterwards.
After the weekly cleaning, it may be necessary to re-season the surface depending on how often you use the griddle. Meanwhile, apply a thin layer of cooking oil to keep corrosion at bay.
How Often Should You Clean Your Griddle?
How regularly you clean your griddle depends on how often you use it. If you use it every day, then you should clean it daily.
However, if you use it every once in a while, you may want to go easy on the cleaning and do it maybe once in two or three weeks.
Cleaning makes your griddle more efficient, prevents flavor transfer and oil contamination so you do not want to skip this important practice.
Why It is Important to Clean Your Griddle
You can cook meat, sandwiches, burgers, or even pancakes but always remember to clean your griddle on a regular basis.
Look at it this way, whatever you are cooking is likely to leave debris, juices, and fats, which will remain, or your griddle’s surface.
If you fail to clean such messes, the juices, and fats, will build-up and form a sticky layer that will carbonize into a something hard. Of course, you are going to have a difficult time getting rid of this.
That is not even the worst part. Should you go on cooking on such a surface, heat will not be evenly distributed and this will compromise the quality of your food. We know that is the last thing you want.
Benefits of Cleaning Your Griddle
Regardless of whether you own a chromium commercial griddle or a stainless steel one, you want to take great care of it for efficient cooking.
Here are more benefits of cleaning your griddle.
- Cleaning keeps your unit in good operating condition for a long time
- It ensures that flavors are not transferred to different foods
- You get to prevent cross contamination of food
- Heat is evenly distributed to food as it cooks
- A clean unit motivates you to cook
Final Thoughts
You probably want to make your menu more appealing and diverse and one of the best ways of doing that is by equipping your kitchen with a griddle.
You can use it every day, or whenever you need to, the choice is yours. However, it is extremely important to clean your griddle to prevent flavor transfer and maintain cooking efficiency among other things.
There are many ways of cleaning your griddle but if you are interested in using a grill brick, we believe this article has equipped you with all the information you need.