The commercial griddle is the workhorse of many restaurants and foodservice operations. You can prepare a wide variety of foods on a griddle as well as using it to retherm fully or partially cooked foods for quick turnaround. You’ll also see griddles in the front of the house for display cooking or back of the house. Like all commercial kitchen cooking equipment, keeping your griddle clean is key to ensuring optimal efficiency and performance from your griddle.
Here are five easy signs that your griddle needs to be cleaned:
1. Food is sticking to the griddle when you are cooking
2. Foods cooked on the griddle are not evenly cooked
3. Flavor transfer is occurring between different foods
4. There is a build up of grease on the surface of the griddle.
5. You can see flakes of burnt oil in foods prepared on the commercial griddle.
Most commercial griddles are made of stainless steel, but you may also find chrome; or chromium, griddle surfaces. It is important that you do not use abrasive cleaners, grill bricks, or screens when cleaning a chrome griddle as these may void your warranty. Refer to your owner’s manual before cleaning if you are not sure which type of griddle surface you have.
Before starting to clean, it is a good practice to get all your supplies together. You will need the following materials, many of these are found in griddle starter kits.
• Griddle scraper
• Griddle pad holder
• Griddle scrub pad
• Grill screen
• Stainless steel cleaner
• Griddle scrub brush
• Soft cloth
• Warm water
• Cooking oil for seasoning
Once you have assembled all your cleaning materials, follow these five steps to clean your stainless steel griddle:
1. While the griddle is still hot, scrape the griddle surface clean of any food or grease buildup
2. Take the warm water and pour it onto the griddle surface to boil off any grease buildup, being careful of any hot steam. We suggest wearing steam gloves to protect your hands and arms.
3. Stack the griddle screen on top of the scrub pad and place these on the griddle.
4. Using the griddle pad holder, press down on the griddle pad and screen and scour the surface of the griddle being sure to scrub the entire area.
5. Rinse the griddle surface and wipe clean with the soft cloth.
If you have a chrome griddle, follow these eight steps:
1. While the griddle is still hot, scrape the griddle surface clean of any food or grease buildup.
2. Take the warm water and pour it onto the griddle surface and scrub using a palmetto or soft grill brush being careful of any hot steam. We suggest wearing steam gloves to protect your hands and arms. Do not use any abrasive brushes or materials including grill bricks or scouring pads.
3. Repeat cleaning with the soft grill brush if needed.
4. Allow surface to cool and dry.
5. Cover the flat top with a nonabrasive food -safe polish.
6. Wipe clean the griddle surface with a dry cloth.
7. Using a clean and damp cloth, remove all the polish compound.
Finally, after your griddle surface is fully cleaned, you need to season it again so that foods won’t stick. This is easily done by heating and oiling cooking surface. This prevents rust as well as keeping foods from sticking.
