The Blackstone griddle is an awesome tool for your backyard cookout adventures. We love it so much, we even have a whole post dedicated to our favorite griddle recipes. A properly seasoned griddle lets you fry an egg without oil, sear a steak without sticking, and grill fish without the skin flaking off. When you buy a new Blackstone griddle, you will need to season it before you can use it. Over time, the the griddle surface seasoning will need to be renewed, so we'll show you the right way to do it so you get years of enjoyment from your Blackstone griddle.
What Does Seasoning a Griddle Mean?
You can think about the griddle surface on your Blackstone like a high-quality cast iron pan. When a cast iron pan is clean, it's a difficult piece of equipment to work with. You have to season it first. In the same way that you use oil to season a cast iron pan, you'll season a griddle surface.
Seasoning is a process in which you will treat the griddle surface with oil and heat. The oil will burn off, leaving a layer of glossy black on the surface of the griddle that is impervious to sticky food and perfectly safe to cook on. The natural non stick coating is durable and protects the griddle surface from rust, too.
The reason this seasoning process works is because heat will take the oil past it's smoke point, burning off organic compounds and leaving polymers behind. The polymers create a molecular bond with the steel that prevent air and water from accessing the surface. Since you have a water-resistant surface, it's a non stick surface that doesn't rust.
How to Season a Blackstone Griddle
You've just got your brand-new Blackstone griddle all assembled and you're licking your chops thinking about the delicious meals you are eager to make. Before you can slap a steak on the griddle, you've got to season it. The process of seasoning Blackstone Griddle takes time and you can't rush through it. So plan ahead and give yourself a solid hour to an hour and a half to get your griddle ready for cooking.
Steps to Season a Blackstone Griddle
We're going to break down the steps for seasoning your griddle into an easy to follow process. Take your time and do it right and you'll be rewarded with a griddle that needs very little maintenance.
Supplies for the Initial Seasoning
Have these items handy before you start so that you aren't running around in the middle of the process trying to find stuff.
- Your choice of oil or seasoning conditioner
- Paper towels
- Barbecue gloves
Step One: Start Clean
When your griddle is shipped, it likely had a thin coat of oil applied to prevent rust while in storage and transit. Before you can season your griddle, you'll need to clean the shipping oil and any other contaminants from the surface. The good news is that this couldn't be easier.
Get a bucket of warm water and add a few generous drops of dish soap or Castile soap if you want to keep things organic and all-natural. Use a rag or a pan scrubber to thoroughly clean the surface of the griddle. Make sure to get the sides and the grease drip area, too. Rinse the surface with clean water. Now that the griddle is clean, it's time to get to the seasoning.
Step Two: Get it Hot
Turn the griddle on and set all of the burners to the highest possible setting. Step back and relax. This is a great time to go grab a lemonade or your choice beverage, because the next few steps involve waiting in between bouts of activity. The fresh, clean steel surface of your griddle will begin to darken and take on a toasty brown color. You'll want to keep this process going for about 15 minutes until the entire surface of the griddle is searing hot. Once the surface is sufficiently cooked off, shut the burners down and grab some paper towels.
Step Three: Applying the Coating
Now that the surface of the griddle is clean and burned off, it is ready for a coating of oil. You can use a wide variety of oils for seasoning, but the key is to choose one with a high smoke point. That means something like peanut or avocado oil is good, but avoid extra virgin olive oil because of it's low smoke point. In fact, you really shouldn't cook with extra virgin olive oil because it releases unstable elements when heated. Save it for the salad dressing.
For this process, we recommend wearing heat-resistant gloves. If you don't already have a set, pick them up. They are probably one of the most valuable griddle accessories you'll encounter and will save your skin more often than you'd imagine. Our Bearded Butcher carnivore gloves are heat-resistant up to 1,472 degrees.
While the griddle surface is still hot, put a small amount of oil on the surface. Immediately grab a handful of paper towels and begin to carefully wipe the oil across the surface, wicking excess off into the grease trap. The trick in this step is to make sure you get the thinnest layer possible. If your oil goes on too thick, it will create a sticky, gooey mess that won't give you the desired result and will require extra work to remove and start over. Just remember, thin layers spread evenly is what you are looking to accomplish.
Step Four: Smoke the Oil Off
Turn the burners back to high heat and step away from the griddle. Your thin layer of oil will quickly begin to smoke. If you see the oil bubbling on the surface, you've got too thick of a layer. Use paper towels to redistribute the layer of oil thinly across the surface before it burns. Again, those heat resistant gloves are going to be your friends here. That griddle surface gets hot fast.
After a minute or two, smoke will begin billowing from the surface of your griddle. Don't panic, this is what is supposed to happen. As the oil hits the smoke point, the organic components break down and burn off, creating smoke. The polymers left behind are preserved, won't go rancid, and provide a great nonstick surface. Keep the burners on high for about 30 minutes or until the smoke stops coming off the griddle.
Step Five: Do It Over Again
Wait, what? That's right, once isn't enough. Let the griddle cool a little and grab those heat resistant gloves and your oil. Do the same process as step three and four all our over again, making sure you wipe oil on in very thin layers. Sit back and let that oil smoke off. Once it stops smoking, shut the burners down and apply another coat of oil. Burn that coat off, too.
You want to complete the seasoning process three or four times. Doing it a few times makes sure that the coating is fully sealed and totally protects the griddle surface. You will know that you have a good seasoning when the surface of the griddle is a uniform black color that looks unsurprisingly like a well-seasoned cast iron pan.
Step Six: Final Coating
Once your griddle is fully seasoned, you will want to wipe a light coat of something on the surface to prevent oxidation. You can use the same oil as you did for treating the surface, but if you really want to do it right, pick up a tub of Blackstone Grill and Griddle Seasoning and Conditioner. This product can be used to season the griddle, too. It also works phenomenally for treating cast iron grill grates in your barbecue or smoker and makes the perfect solution to restoring rusty cast iron pans.
Maintain Your Blackstone Griddle with the Following Tips
Seasoning your griddle after each use is a good habit to get into and it prevents one of the biggest mistakes people tend to make: forgetting to clean up the surface. We also season our griddle lightly just before we cook to maintain a perfect non stick surface.
Season Your Griddle After Use
We use a metal scrapper to quickly remove any bits of food left on the griddle surface while it's still hot. A paper towel with a little oil or conditioner is all it takes and a few quick wipes to keep the griddle clean and ready. Wiping oil on after cooking will improve the cure.
What is the Best Oil to Season a Blackstone Griddle?
There are lots of choices out there for types of oil to season your new griddle with. We are going to give you a few of the pros and cons of different types of oil for seasoning.
- Flaxseed Oil – From a scientific perspective, flaxseed oil is the best natural oil on the market for seasoning a griddle surface. It creates a glossy, hard surface and applies in thin, even layers easily. The downsides of flaxseed oil are that it is expensive, has a low smoke point, and has a tendency to create a surface that is brittle. Scratches from metal utensils quickly lead to peeling which requires renewing the surface.
- Grapeseed Oil – This is the oil we prefer to use for seasoning cast iron and griddles. It creates a durable finish that resists chipping and flaking. A high smoke point makes it ideal for curing metal. Grapeseed oil seasoning requires upkeep in the form of regular wipe downs before and after cooking. Finding 100% pure grapeseed oil that is neither cold-pressed or virgin can be challenging.
- Avocado Oil – Even though it is difficult to find and expensive, avocado oil is one of the very best natural oils for seasoning. The oil is high in polyunsaturated fats that polymerize well. It leaves a neutral flavor and lasts a long time.
Avoid These Oils
We recommend avoiding olive oil, vegetable oil, peanut oil, and sunflower oil. Olive oil can become toxic when used in this process, so it is important to avoid that one for health reasons. Vegetable oil and sunflower oil, along with other similar types of oils, don't tend to create a very strong bond that leaves the surface sticky. Peanut oil and other nut oils including coconut will impart a very strong flavor that translates to your food.
How Often do You Season Blackstone Griddle?
The key to keeping a Blackstone griddle well-seasoned is getting a good seasoning on the first time. If you maintain the griddle and clean it after each use, you may go years without re seasoning it. If the finish starts to crack or peel, you will need to renew it.
Keep It Clean & Regularly Season Your Griddle
That's all there is to seasoning your new griddle and keeping it working great for years. The Blackstone Griddle is an amazing cooking tool that is tremendously versatile, so keeping it clean is important. You never know when the urge to sear a steak in ten minutes or less will come over you.
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