My new garden dining area is nearly done so looking at what to cook with when the sun starts to shine
Thinking about egg type bbq but happened on electric griddles which seem cheap, easy to clean and great for burgers and breakfasts
I have a semi covered area with room for an outdoor kitchen type thing
Anyone got one? Tried for garden cooking?
Commercial type cast iron or mild steel flat plate with grease hole type thing is what I have in mind, any makes or tips?
I’ve used them commercially - don’t worry I’m not about to suggest something that costs £6k or anything.
Biggest thing is to look at how thick the hot plate is - the thicker it is, the less the temperature will drop when you put food on it. Not such an issue for a fried egg maybe, but more significant if you’re using it for steak / burgers etc.
Defo steak and burgers so that’s helpful thanks
Steel or cast?
Something that might be more of a subjective thing, but I’d never buy any griddle with the ridges in it. You’ll only get the browning happening along the ridges, whereas really you want it over the whole surface of a piece of meat.
Keeping cast iron flat-tops well maintained is a lot easier than doing a full scrub down of a stainless steel one imho - but you do need to ensure it remains properly dry. Stainless will also stick more at higher temperatures (generally the temperatures you want for searing steaks and burgers), whereas cast iron doesn’t once it’s well seasoned. If it’s a frying pan you’re using stainless isn’t such an issue because you can then deglaze the pan and have a lovely sauce, but that’s tricky on a flat top.
With u on ridges, pain to clean as well
Always liked the simplicity of scraping the crap off into a hole but no idea what is involved in scrubbing steel
Will be outside so dry but moisture in the air so does that mean steel better even if a pain to clean (happy to apply elbow grease)
In either case I’d get something like this for scraping:
You’d probably still want a metal scourer or similar to finish on a stainless steel surface.
I’m not sure about the cast iron outside. I suspect if it’s properly covered it should be ok, but the ones I used were basically indoors.