Christmas in April? No. After what has become our routine here of breakfast out on Saturday morning with Steph and Dan, we went back to their house to do the first seasoning of our new Blackstone Griddle. After watching a bunch of videos on it, I could see that it isn't a big deal.
After assembling it a few days ago, we left it in Steph and Dan's garage - there just wasn't time to mess with it the past couple of days. We moved it into their back yard, and while I went to work on the griddle, Joan cleaned off the patio and patio furniture (that hasn't been used in a while). Lovely out there this morning - still in the 70s.
I hooked up the propane and fired it up. It lit... just like it is supposed to. It heated up pretty quick, and the gray surface started getting darker... just like it is supposed to.
Time for me to don my griddling apparel...
Joan told me she bought me an apron (along with a bunch of other accessories) - I asked, "Does it say 'Kiss the cook!'?" No, it is a manly apron, one that could be used for grilling or wood-working. She knows I am a messy eater, and assumes I will be a messy griddler. Speaking of which: when Joan first suggested getting a griddle like Steph and Dan's (only smaller), she assumed she would be doing the cooking. She was pleasantly surprised that I am excited about cooking on the griddle.
I started the seasoning process - which is just building up layers of the Blackstone Seasoning "oil"... which looks a lot like bacon grease to my untrained eye. That said, one of the video presenters from Blackstone said he doesn't recommend bacon as the first meat you cook on there after seasoning, due to the salt and nitrates in bacon. Back to the seasoning...
Looks a lot like that first photo, except there is "seasoning oil" burning in. They say, "Don't think of this seasoning as cooking, but more like chemistry - the high temperature and seasoning oil work together to provide that non-stick cooking surface. Assuming you have done it right.
After 5 rounds of applying the seasoning oil, I called it good and turned the griddle off - no cooking today, as we have other plans, and it involves Oregano's Pizza. I looked through all the accessories Joan bought; some we talked about, others she went rogue. I did get the infrared thermometer out to check the griddle surface temperature after it had been turned off for 10 minutes; it was still almost 300º. I didn't check the temperature of it while in the seasoning process, but I was glad to have the gloves Joan picked out that protect you from the heat; even with those, I think I may have lost some hair on my arms. Yep, this thing gets real hot. On the bright side, the gloves have blue flames on them, so that seems appropriate.
When the griddle had cooled off enough to move it around, we moved it just off their patio...
That is Steph and Dan's big griddle to the right (under cover), with about 12 times the griddling surface area. I may be exaggerating - it may be 15 times bigger. Guessing I won't have the need to cook 72 of any particular item (that seems to be the capacity of their griddle) for just the two of us... although I do hope to make us some smash-burgers tomorrow. We were looking for that "Goldilocks" of size that will be big enough to use at home, but portable enough to take it with us in the motorhome. We'll see how that plays out.
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