Carbon steel griddle?

[dgaddis]

Hey, got shipping notification this morning! Hopefully get to season it up and use it next week.

[dgaddis]

Came in yesterday. Got it pretty well seasoned and did a bit of testing on the stove top.

If you bring the heat up slow and give it time the heat distribution is pretty even. But you really need to give it time to even out, if you bring up the heat quicker it's very uneven, as much as 100*F difference on the back where the eye is small and off to the side (measuring centered over the eye vs directly left closer to the edge). Another problem is just handling it...it's heavy, and with no handles or anything you can't set it down gently, at some point you have to pull your fingers out from under it and let it drop, which isn't ideal on a glass stove top haha. Our particular stovetop also has a bit of a lip around the edge, so when it's time to pick it up you can't slide it forward so you can get your fingers under it, I had to use a spatula to get it lifted enough to get my hand under it. No ideal.

So, to solve both the heat distribution issue and make it easier to get on and off the stove top I've ordered some 1/8" thick aluminum plate that's 1" smaller in each dimension. I can set the much lighter aluminum down on the stovetop, then slide the heavy steel griddle onto it. I'm going to grind a 'ramp' in the underside edge of the aluminum plate so to lift it up I can just slide it forward and the ramp will allow it up and over the lip around the stovetop.

Last minor gripe, the etched logo...I don't need that. They could have at least made it smaller and put it in a corner or something.

First pic shows the grooved side and is before baking the first layer of seasoning on. The other pics are after the first round of seasoning. I did two more rounds and it's nice and dark now but didn't get pics.

[ColonelJLloyd]

Don't you want to have the logo side down when using it in griddle mode on the range?

[dgaddis]

Don't you want to have the logo side down when using it in griddle mode on the range?

You can do it either way. If you're not worried about grease/fluids putting the groove side down (logo up) gives you a little more surface area to work with.

[dgaddis]

Had a chance to use it a bit this weekend, worked great! Saturday morning cooked some egg-in-the-hole as the first thing cooked on it and forgot to put any oil down at all and there was just a smidge of sticking, but easily broke free with a thin metal spatula. Sunday we made pancakes, wiped it with a little oil first, zero sticking. Super easy clean up. The aluminum plate comes in today and then it'll be ready to really rock and roll.

[dgaddis]

The aluminum plate does indeed help with getting more even temperature across the whole griddle.

I've got to do more cooking on the other side, the finish over there is not quite as smooth as the groove side.

[rwsaunders]

Dustin...is that unit thick enough to also be used in the oven for pizza or bread?

[dgaddis]

Dustin...is that unit thick enough to also be used in the oven for pizza or bread?

Oh yeah, it's 3/8" thick. My pizza steel is only 1/8" thick haha. It's only 11.5" wide tho, so no big pizzas. The non-skinny version is 18x14 - https://bakingsteel.com/collections/...-steel-griddle

FWIW I once cooked a boule on my pizza steel and it was a disaster, with the faster heat transfer of steel (vs cast iron) the bottom was completely burned, like, it was charcoal. Thin fast cooking bread would be great on steel, but a big loaf that takes 40+ minutes it doesn't work.