Gathering around fire with friends, family, and neighbours is one of the most exciting activities you can do in life. Though there are several types of grills out there, if you chose to work with a flat top grill, you haven’t made a bad decision.
Flat top grills get rid of excess fat and oil in the food, making it one of the healthiest forms of cooking. Not only does it have a large space for cooking, it also heats up pretty fast!
Hey, I’m sure you want to know more about this amazing equipment, which is why we wrote this article for you. So let’s not waste any time, and get on with all the details!
Types of Flat Top Grills
Did you know that flat top grills have ‘types’? Now you do. Let’s have a look at them first!
Get to Know the Flat Top Grill:
Flat top grill is a cooking device, which is great for cooking fried rice, vegetables, seafood, pancakes, eggs and meats requiring a very high and even temperature.
It provides steady heat which results in delicious and properly cooked food. It enhances the flavour of dishes by emitting a smoky flavour.
You can cook food directly on a flat top grill as well as cook in pots on a pan!
Commercial Flat Top Grill:
Restaurants use the commercial griddle which is a flat metal plate as they can easily multitask. Gas, electricity, wood or coal is used to heat up the restaurant flat top grill. Griddle is used for multiple cooking techniques at a time.
You can create various areas of temperature in your griddle to cook several dishes with different temperatures. The upright heating section located below the plate creates three different zones of temperature – namely very hot, reasonable hot and warm – on the same plate.
Furthermore, a griddle can also be used as a home flat top grill.
Flat Top Grill for Home Use:
If you love outdoor BBQs, store your home flat top grill in a place that doesn’t get damp to avoid rust. At the same time, the place should not be too hot as this may pose risk due to the use of a propane tank.
Besides, you should cover your flat top grill with a heavy-duty canvas wrapper to keep it in fine-working condition.
How to Clean a Flat Top Grill
Flat top grill cooks food evenly as it produces even heat. You can cook anything from eggs, pancakes, seafood and sauces to chicken breasts, BBQ ribs and steaks. The workhorse is put through cheese drippings, grease build-ups, charred pieces of foods and many more.
However, most importantly, you need to clean your flat top grill regularly as food sticks to it. Dirty grill cooks unevenly and transfers flavour between foods. Grease also builds up on the grill surface. If you know how to cook on a flat top grill, you should also know how to clean it.
Frankly speaking, cleanliness is essential whether you are running a kitchen professionally or cooking for your family at home. The food will not be considered edible if you cook in unhygienic conditions.
But not everyone abides by the rules of cleanliness as they should. Besides, there are various thoughts on how often a thorough cleaning and seasoning is performed. Some do this every day while others do this when needed.
Dirty kitchen is a violation of health codes and leads to illness. Besides, piled up junk is harder to clean. Moreover fragments of previous flavours spoil the new food.
Therefore, there are a number of methods you can apply to clean your flat top grill. The methods include the usage of anything from copper brushes to sponges, dishwashing detergent to baking soda and forceful scraping to gentle scrubbing!
Lemon Juice and Water Mixture:
Most people use soy sauce, salt, herbs, spices and a lot of oil for frying food. The oil becomes thick as time goes on, leading to grease build up.
Eventually, the food debris and grease layer becomes hard. Hence, follow some of our easy steps to clean grimy flat top grills with lemon juice! This’s one of the best ways to clean a flat top grill.
Step 1: Switch on the grill to heat it so that the hardened debris softens.
Step 2: Scrape the food debris and filtrate by using a grill scraper.
Step 3: Spray the lemon – water (one fourth – three fourth) mixture on the grill.
Step 4: Use a grill brush to spread the mixture and scrape the troublesome fat.
Step 5: Wait for five minutes so that the mixture seeps into the char and food debris.
Step 6: After five minutes of waiting, it becomes easier for you to remove the food debris and grease.
Step 7: Scrub the flat top grill in a circular movement with a scouring pad. Use a rag to wipe the grill surface.
Now, you know how to clean a flat top grill with lemon juice easily.
Vinegar and Water Mixture:
Cleaning the flat top grill with vinegar and water mixture will help you to get rid of troublesome fats that remain on the grill after use.
The process of cleaning a griddle with vinegar – water mixture is similar to that of lemon – water. Only the proportion of water is different – vinegar and water will be equal in amount.
Lemon and Soda Water:
You can also use lemon and soda water to polish this grill.
Step 1: Heat your grill to soften hardened food debris and extra fat.
Step 2: Scrape off all debrises with a heavy-duty scrubber.
Step 3: Spray lemon juice and soda water on the grill.
Step 4: Let the mixture soak for 5 minutes.
Step 5: Scrape the grill in a circular motion and wipe the debris to have a clean surface.
Raw Vinegar:
Cleaning a flat top grill with vinegar is one of the easiest methods. You just have to apply raw vinegar for this purpose.
Step 1: Spread raw vinegar across the surface of your grill.
Step 2: Scrub the grill with a scrubber in a small concentric circular motion.
Step 3: Scrape the food debris and get a polished top grill.
Grill Brick:
Grill bricks will make removing grease and food debris easier. You can remove even the small particles from the surface of your grill. If you want to know how to clean a flat to grill with grill brick, here are some directions.
Step 1: Pour about one cup of oil onto the surface while the grill is still hot.
Step 2: Scrub the surface with a grill brick in concentric circles until it’s clean.
Step 3: Pour the oil into the grease holder and get rid of it.
Step 4: Pour one cup of vinegar – water mixture onto the still-hot grill to soften and lift the hardened grease.
Step 5: Scrub the surface with a grill brick in concentric circles and pour the remaining liquid into the grease holder.
Step 6: Pour half cup of the vinegar – water on the grill surface and rub it with a clean rag until it’s clean.
Dish Washing Liquid and Sponge:
Using dish washing liquid and sponge is the traditional way to clean a kitchen flat top grill. Just spread some dishwashing liquid on the grill and scrub it with a sponge.
You can also clean your used flat top grill without using any chemicals. Let us explore some ways about how to clean a flat top grill without chemicals!
Water and Steam:
You can also clean your grill even without any flat top grill cleaner!
Step 1: Switch on the grill heat and scrape away all dripping with a grill brush.
Step 2: After sprinkling water, use the brush to spread it on the hot grill to soften up the residue.
Step 3: After draining the previous water, add more water to the grill and repeat the process.
Step 4: Drain the liquid.
Onion Scrubbing:
You can easily clean a flat top grill without any grill brick. Onion works as the only flat top grill cleaner here! The method is not only effective for grills, but also for trays which are thicker. In this process, you just have to use an onion to scrub the surface while the grill is still hot and clean any dripping with a paper towel.
Soda Water and Carbonation:
Carbonation relaxes and eradicates hardened food debris and extra fat. So, pour some club soda on your flat top grill when it’s hot.
Scrub the exterior of your grill with a griddle brick in concentric circles. Remove the loosened dirt from your grill.
Beer Cleaner:
Who knew this was a thing! Just pour some beer on the warm grill and scrub it. Then drain the liquid off to get a shiny surface!
Coffee Soak:
You can also try coffee as a flat top cleaner to clean your kitchen grill. You need to bathe it with coffee to loosen up food debris, dirt and oil. Then simply scrap off the food debris with a wire brush and drain the fluid.
Hot Oil Cleaning:
Pour oil on the grill when it’s still hot. Scrub the cooking appliance with a griddle brick in a circular motion to mix it with food debris and extra fat. Later just wipe the loosened debris and get a clean flat top grill!
How You Can Clean a Blackstone Flat Top Grill
Let us explore some easy ways on how to clean a blackstone flat top grill.
Scrubbing the grates:
If the grates of your Blackstone flat top grill is highly messy with food debris, use a hard copper brush and scrub the grates until all the fat or juice is removed from the grates. Turn the grates over to be sure if you have gotten rid of them.
If there is any remaining grease left on the grates, then scrub them off. Besides, you can use soapy water to soften the fat first. You can also use vinegar solution to clean them.
Wash the burner protectors:
You know, burner protectors get dirty very quickly as they prevent the burners from getting clogged with dust, dirt or grease. After removing the protectors from your kitchen flat top grill, soak them in soapy water and scrub them with a sponge.
Clean the rust on the flat top grill:
Clean the rust by using your Blackstone cleaning kit which you have received with your grill. At first heat up the grill to loosen up the rust from the grill.
Before scrubbing the rust with a grill stone, drop a few drops of oil and liquid soap on the top. If you don’t have any grill stone, you can use sandpaper to remove all traces of rust from the top of the grill.
Clean the bottom side:
The bottom part is the most challenging part of the grill as all the grime ends up there. A sponge and soapy water will not be enough to get rid of the char and gunk off the plate. You need to scrape them off by using a grill brush.
Cleaning Tools You Can Try Today
If you are wondering which cleaning tools you should use for cleaning your flat top grill, you can check out these kits:
- Cuisinart CCB-500 Griddle Scraper
- Best Music Posters Grill Brush Scrapers
- Blackstone 1542 Griddle Accessory Tool Kit
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Let’s dig into some of the hottest questions people have about flat top grills!
What can you cook on a flat top grill?
You can cook anything from eggs, pancakes, seafood and sauces to chicken breasts, BBQ ribs and steaks.
A flat top grill has multiple rounds of heat elements. You can cook food directly on the surface. Furthermore, pots and pans can fit anywhere on the surface of the grill.
Is cooking on a flat top grill healthy?
Grilling is healthier than frying for sure!
You can make delicious grilled swordfish, which is very easy to cook with oil, mint, lemon juice, basil and garlic. Preparing the grill with medium-high heat, just whisk all the ingredients in a bowl to blend. Before grilling the fish steaks, you have to brush the steaks with lemon juice and olive oil mixture. Depending on the thickness of steaks, cook about 3 – 4 minutes per side. Now enjoy tasty and healthy steaks spreading the remaining sauce on your food!
You can also try many healthy, mouth-watering and easy recipes like Tequila Lime Chicken and Grilled Pork Tenderloin.
What makes grilling healthier?
Flat top grill provides a wide cooking area which prevents gathering of vapour and oil one one area.
If you marinate your meat, fish and chicken before grilling, it’ll prevent drips on the coals. Some studies shows, this simple act will reduce the formation of possibly cancer causing chemicals called heterocyclic amines (HCAs) by 92% to 99%.
Furthermore, cooking on grills prevents heart diseases including cardiovascular diseases as you can cook your foods by using less oil on your grill. Besides, it also melts fat from meat. You can also keep nutrients and flavours of the dishes intact since the cooking time on a grill is reduced.
Which one is better – a flat top grill or a regular grill?
Regular grills have no precise temperature to cook food whereas the flat tops have diverse temperature settings.
You can use the regular grill only for BBQ whereas you can cook pretty much everything on flat top grills. But the regular grill cooks meat faster than the flat top counterpart.
What are the best flat top grills?
Answer: Here are a few recommendations:
01. Blackstone 1554 Flat Top Gas Grill
02. Blackstone Cooking Station – 4 Burner
03. CUISINART CGG-888 Grill
Wrapping Up
Whatever method you prefer to use, it’s important to clean your flat top grill frequently so that it can last as long as expected by its manufacturer. If you clean and season the flat top grill by applying some oil on it, cooking your next meal would be much easier.
It’s essential to keep the grill neat and tidy to continue enjoying the delicious food that it offers and to maintain a hazard-free, clean environment.