How to Clean a Blackstone Griddle (Complete Guide)
Have you enjoyed cooking with your Blackstone griddle? From Sunday morning brunch to an evening barbecue with friends and family, you can cook a lot of delicious food. But not without a mess!
Whether you’re making burgers, pancakes, bacon, or stir fry, grease will build up quickly. You can’t just let that sit on your Blackstone griddle overnight.
Luckily, it’s easy to clean. We’ll go over everything from how to clean your Blackstone griddle for the first time to seasoning your Blackstone griddle to removing tough rust stains.
How to Clean a Blackstone Griddle for the First Time
When you receive your Blackstone griddle, it’s preseasoned. Remove this factory coating so you can add a stronger layer of seasoning. Here’s how.
What You Need
- Small bowl
- Water
- Dish soap
- Towel or rag
- Scrubby sponge
- Paper towels
1. Fill a small bowl with warm water and a few squirts of dish soap.
2. Dip a towel into the soapy water and scrub your Blackstone griddle. You can use a scrubby sponge to help remove the factory coating but it shouldn’t take much elbow grease.
3. Wipe off the soapy residue with a few wet paper towels.
4. Dry the griddle completely with dry paper towels. This will keep rust from forming.
How to Season Your Blackstone Griddle
Now that you’ve removed the factory coating from your Blackstone griddle, it’s time to season it. This process is quite similar to how you season cast iron pans.
What You Need
- Canola oil (or another oil with a high smoke point)
- Towel
- Tongs or other metal utensil
1. Wipe off the griddle with a towel to remove dust.
2. Turn the griddle on high heat.
3. Pour about a tablespoon of oil onto the griddle and spread it evenly using a towel. Move the towel with tongs to protect yourself from burns.
Other long utensils work if you don’t have tongs available. You just want to make sure that you don’t burn yourself when seasoning.
4. Let the seasoning polymerize for about 15 minutes. You should see smoke as the oil heats up.
5. Once the smoke dissipates, repeat steps three and four a few more times.
Each time you season your Blackstone griddle, it will turn blacker. This is normal
How to Clean a Blackstone Griddle After Cooking
After cooking, it’s important to give your griddle a quick but thorough clean. You don’t want baked-on food and grease to solidify. It’ll become nearly impossible to remove!
Dish soap is great to remove the factory coating. But for everyday cleaning, it’s not ideal. It leaves a residue on your grill and can impart a soapy flavor to your food. You don’t want to ruin your delicious barbecue.
Check out the video below to see this process in action.
What You Need
- Paper towels
- Griddle scraper (here’s one from Amazon)
- Canola oil or cooking spray
- Water
1. While the Blackstone griddle is still hot, lightly scrape it. Funnell grease and food bits into the grease tray.
2. Spray some water on the griddle. Lightly scrape it again.
3. Spray more water on the griddle and clean it with a few paper towels. Stack about three of them so you don’t burn yourself.
You can also use the scraper or tongs to move around the paper towels. This’ll allow you to press a little harder because you won’t have to worry about burning yourself.
4. Repeat step three until your paper towels don’t pick up grease. Make sure to go over the edges and corners of your Blackstone griddle.
5. Lightly spray the griddle with cooking spray or spread about a tablespoon of canola oil on the surface.
This will create a nice non-stick surface for the next time you cook.
How to Clean a Rusty Blackstone Griddle
What You Need
- Grill stone, medium grit sandpaper, or steel wool
- Canola oil (or other oil with a high smoke point)
- Griddle scraper
- Paper towels
1. Turn the griddle on high heat for 15 minutes.
2. Let it cool and scrape the griddle thoroughly. Don’t add water. You can use some force since we’ll reseason the griddle after removing rust.
3. Coat the griddle with a thin layer of oil.
4. Scrub the griddle with a grill stone, medium grit sandpaper, or steel wool.
5. Repeat steps three and four until the rust is gone.
6. Coat the griddle with a thin layer of oil again.
7. Wipe it clean with paper towels.
8. Repeat this process until your paper towels aren’t picking up residue from the griddle surface.
9. Season your Blackstone griddle.
All you need for this is canola oil or another cooking oil with a high smoke point. Check out our section above on seasoning your griddle to learn more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you use soap on a Blackstone griddle?
Only use soap to remove the factory coating the first time you clean your Blackstone griddle. For everyday cleaning, simply add water to a heated griddle and lightly scrape the surface. You might taste some soap in your food if you use it to clean your griddle.
Can you use butter on a Blackstone griddle?
Yes, you can use butter on a Blackstone griddle to add flavor to your food. Keep in mind that it has a much lower smoke point than cooking oils, so it might burn off if the grill is very hot.
How long do Blackstone griddles last?
A Blackstone griddle should last about 15 to 20 years if you keep it well maintained. Clean the griddle after every use. Make sure to remove all the tough grease and baked on food before it cools and solidifies.
How often do I need to season my Blackstone griddle?
After every use, clean the griddle and coat it with cooking oil. This’ll help protect it from rust and keep the non-stick surface intact.
Want to make your kitchen cleaning routine a breeze? Click here for our top degreaser picks.
Do you season a Blackstone griddle after every use?
You don’t need to do the full seasoning process after each use. Just clean your griddle, dry it thoroughly, and coat it with cooking oil after cooking. Each time you cook, the layer of oil will polymerize further, making the griddle more resistant and non-stick.
We hope this post helped you clean your Blackstone griddle. Cleaning and seasoning your Blackstone griddle doesn’t take a lot of time or materials. Keep your griddle well maintained and it will be in great shape for years.
For more grill cleaning tips, check out the articles below!
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