Finally found my griddle


 

MikeLucky

TVWBB Pro
So, I used to love my little griddle that I had for my Genesis. It filled up most of the grill and was a fantastic griddle.

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For the sake of downsizing I sold the Genesis and have been looking for the perfect griddle replacement ever since.

I was looking for something that I could use for making breakfast, but also heavy enough for smash burgers and Philly Steak meat. Something that doesn't move when I scrape it. And, definitely something that won't warp on me whether I've got it over gas or charcoal. Oh, and I wanted it the perfect size to use on my kettle, my Q1200, AND my Go Anywhere Charcoal. Lol. And, I wasn't going to pay more for it than I actually paid for 2 of those 3 grills themselves. Crazy picky list of demands, I know. Probably why it has taken almost a year to get it done.

My benchmark was the Baking Steel products. Loved how pretty they are and knew they would never warp. However, they are expensive ($119+) and they don't have one that is the correct size for all 3 grills.

I actually got the Weber GBS grate and griddle for my Performer. I love the GBS griddle and it works well for most things, but only fits in the Performer and the Q1200. And, what I don't like about it is there's no way to set it up full heat on one side, but leave an indirect area on the grill. Either the coals are on one side creating uneven heat on the griddle or with the coals in the middle you get a nice hot griddle, but the whole grill is hot. Yes, the edge around the griddle is technically indirect, but it's still pretty hot and it's awkward space to use for some things.

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But, bottom line is I needed a griddle that worked on the Go Anywhere Charcoal and the Q1200 for when we're traveling/camping. I had come to the conclusion that I could use the GBS griddle on the Kettle and get a griddle for the portables.

So, that narrowed the search to 10x16 griddles, which is far from a common size. I had almost given up. I found a string of them that the reviews would be filled with reports of warping at high temps. Or, some were $100 or more. Just couldn't find the one.

Then came along the Rocky Mountain.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002L94LFI/?tag=tvwb-20

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Perfect size of 10x16. Heavy 12 gauge carbon steel. Slightly raised edges to allow for air flow. Heavy enough that it doesn't move easily, but can be picked up for pouring off excess grease with the rounded easy pour corners. No reports of warping. And, only $33.

Just got it today and got it out to check it out. It is really pretty. Lol.

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Go Anywhere fit:

Almost perfect. The lid won't fit because of the hang hooks inside the lid, although I would pretty much exclusively be using it with the lid off anyway.

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Just a tidy little gap for air flow to keep the charcoal nice and hot.

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Q1200 fit:

Again, pretty much perfect, and the lid closes completely on the Q.

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Air flow gap

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Performer fit:

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Decent fit that would allow for direct even heat on the griddle and still a decent amount of indirect area. Although, I'll probably stick with the GBS griddle on the Performer.

All in all, I'm super excited about it. But, I haven't used it yet, so we'll see how that part goes. Gotta get some high heat oil to start seasoning this bad boy. Somehow the only oil we have is olive oil. Ugh.

On edit: turns out we have avocado oil, which apparently is the best oil for seasoning due to its high smoke point of 520 degrees.
 
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I was kind of skeptical whether or not you'd find anything decent that would work with the Go Anywhere, but it looks like you did it. Just fired up mine a couple of days ago and that looks like it would work quite nicely. I'll keep any eye on your success and might pull the trigger and pick one up. Thanks for the info Mike.
 
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Well, since I posted this up until now it's been a crazy trial and error crash course on seasoning carbon steel. LOL. It's not quite as simple as cast iron, I learned.

First off I figured I'd just throw some avocado oil on it and heat it up a bit over two burners on my stove, then after it cools off I'd just give it a good scrape with the plastic scraper under running water and it would be good. Well, I added the oil and was cooking it off and letting the vent fan take all the smoke out of the kitchen. Then I just figured I'd try it out. beat up an egg real quickly and was going to do a nice silky multi-layered Jamie Oliver omelette just to give the griddle a run. poured it on the greasy griddle and went straight to "stuck on" and that was one hammered bit of scrambled eggs by the time I was done. lol. So, I then put the griddle under running water and scraped it off but noticed the oil had cooked into a gummy film, so I knew I had done something wrong.

So, I googled the process for properly seasoning carbon steel and boy did I learn it was a whole different world. Found a couple of videos about the seasoning of skillets, but particularly helpful in my case was a video of a guy "nuking a carbon steel skillet and re-seasoning." So, I followed those instructions. First, running water, steel wool pad, and dish soap to forcefully remove the baked on oil gunk and get it back to factory finish as possible. Then I learned that you don't use excess oil to properly season your carbon steel. It's much more sciency than that. So, if you use excess oil it will cook on as gunk. What you want is a super sheen thin layer of a high temp oil that you rub on with a paper towell, then cook it on for a period, then let rest and cool down naturally and the very thin sheen chemically bakes on to leave a non stick surface. Some places recommend a multiple time process of this baking on of the thin sheen of oil.

So, I nuked off the gunky finish I had already made, warmed it up on the stove top and applied my very thin sheen of oil, then shut off the heat and just left it overnight. Today I reapplied a very thin sheen of avocado oil and put it in the oven at 400 degrees and had it auto shut off at one hour and am leaving it in there for several hours to cool and hopefully set that thin sheen into a beautiful, dark , non stick surface.

I will report back more results as I get them.

But, look at this beautiful, dark, seasoned skillet next to a brand new unseasoned one. That left one is what I want this griddle to look and work like when I'm done.

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I have the same Little Griddle as you now have. I've had it for a few years and it's a permanent resident on my Gen 2000. I couldn't be happier with it.
Fits perfect and very sturdy and allows enough room for toasting buns next to it.
Hint: put some wet rolled up paper towels in the grease trough, makes clean up a whole lot easier.
 
I have the same Little Griddle as you now have. I've had it for a few years and it's a permanent resident on my Gen 2000. I couldn't be happier with it.
Fits perfect and very sturdy and allows enough room for toasting buns next to it.
Hint: put some wet rolled up paper towels in the grease trough, makes clean up a whole lot easier.

I loved that one but it got sold with the Genesis. The Rocky Mountain is what I have now.
 
Looks good, good to know there are still US made carbon steel griddles.

20 years ago I bought a Fry Clean carbon steel griddle (still have it) 9.5” x 17” and you wouldn’t want to drop it on your foot. It’s a gem.
 
After cooling down.... Getting a nice golden tint to it. And just feeling it, I can tell it's getting that nonstick surface on it.

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I think I'll run another seasoning on it to see if it gets even more non-stick.
 
After cooling down.... Getting a nice golden tint to it. And just feeling it, I can tell it's getting that nonstick surface on it.

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I think I'll run another seasoning on it to see if it gets even more non-stick.

So I just added another thin sheen layer of avocado oil. This time I set the oven for 450 degrees and 2 hours until shutoff. I'll check it in the morning to see how it went.

Avocado oil has a very high smoke point (500+) so that's why I decided to go with a bit higher temp. It's actually a bit cathartic to do this very specific and detailed process. I'm more excited about building up the beautiful seasoning than I am about cooking on it right now. Lol. It makes me want to replace all my non stick skillets and pans with carbon steel.

But once I'm done with this beautiful seasoning I will definitely post pics of the cooking on the thing in all 3 of my Webers that it fits.
 
Well it's definitely getting better each extra seasoning run I do.

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It definitely feels slicker to the touch after each one. I think I'm going to do another run today on my new Q1200. Lol. Someday I'll cook on it.
 

 

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