Customer Reviews

Lodge Original Finish Pro Grid/Iron Griddle

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

There are many combo grill/griddles on the market at a much higher price. None, however, perform like this one, IF properly seasoned. All cast iron cookware, WHEN properly seasoned, in my opinion, are essential weapons in the kitchen.

The comments critical of the reversible sides and the effect of heat on the griddle down (or grill down) entirely miss the point. Cast iron is seasoned with oil, fat, etc. All are hydrocarbons. As oil on the cast iron is heated, the hydrogen molecules crack off, leaving a carbon residue. Carbon is an excellent heat conductor, and is the perfect non-stick surface. Over the years, this carbon residue builds up to form a perfectlhy smooth surface, that is a better non-stick than Calphalon II, and you can use a knife on it without damaging the surface. The only problem is that developing this carbon surface takes time. Not simply one seasoning session in the oven, as suggested by the Lodge literature. But everyone who knows about the benefits of seasoned cast iron, immediately recognize that the Lodge recipe of seasoning is bull. You must have patience, and the best will come.

Your best bet is to get your grand mother's cast iron skillet. It will be black, smooth, indestructible, and cheap. If that is not possible, get a Lodge, and invest a few years with the seasoning process. Fortunately, the stuff works pretty well after the initial oil and bake routine. But to get the smooth carbon finsish, you must have patience. Season it. Cook fatty meats in it. Always wash it with a soft cloth and soap. Oil it with shortening. Bake it. Whatever. But in a year you will have what I consider the first essential item in any kitchen.

The above comment addressed cast iron in general. My grand mother did not have a grill/griddle combo, on so I had to season this myself. Unlike the negative comments, I found that the reversable side feature, actually speeded up the seasoning process. My grill side, after only a few weeks of griddle use, looks and cooks like my grand mother's old skillets. We don't even take this baby off the stove. From pork chops to salmon, and KC strips to vegies, the grill side is used daily. Burgers and crab cakes are done on the smooth griddle side. For pancakes, however, we still use a non sexy electic Farberware griddle that I once bought for a hunting trip.

I have a cheap gas stove and I always wanted one of those expensive versions. (You know the one's on everyone's TV kitchen) ... This griddle cooks pancakes, french toast, cheese sandwiches and eggs on the smooth side wonderfully. Just kick the burners on high, let it warm up, knock them back to medium until its hot evenly and throw the food on. Don't worry about heating an empty pan, Cast iron can take it. When a water droplet bounces and its not smoking its ready. (Smoking is too hot, duh!)

The other great use is to put it in the oven, turn the broiler/oven on and let it heat up. Then toss on the steaks, ribs, or fish! Yum!

The Lodge seasoning is ok for that first time cooking. You do need to wash off the manufacturing dirt, and a good coat of oil is a good way to start that carbon buildup.

On the down side, the burner grates on my stove instersect with the indented handle slots. There is a slight lip on the pan so that it rests directly on the grate. If you slide the pan down just slightly and to the center of the stove, it sets in just right. But I could see that on not all stoves it would fit as well. The alternative would be to get two of the open cast iron rings that fit on the stove grates and put the griddle on top of them. (These rings are normally designed to aid in holding a small pot over a larger more open gas stove grate) (I got two cast iron grates from the hardware store. I think they were "storm" grates. In an outside fire I burnt the paint off them and now they work fine holding the griddle up off the stove. Also Lodge has a 8" castiron trivet which looks like it should work as well.)

It is heavy, yup. It doesn't fit in my sink very well, but then if you've ever watched the guy at the bar & grill clean his grill, he does it right on the stove. So while the giddle is hot, give it a good scrape with the spatula, and wipe it with a paper towel. You'll get 90% of the food/grease off the pan. Then a quick rinse when it cools down gets the rest. (In the sink put a large sponge under the edge and one behind it to avoid scratching things.)

Also if you cook bacon, or other high fat food, it splatters. Since the lip is low, it doesn't catch the grease spatters the way a good fry pan does. More stove cleanup...While it grills ok on the stove top, It's not a replacement for the charcoal cooker. You will need a good vent hood to catch the smoke. (Well yeah)

Also if you plan on using it inside your oven, measure first! Not all ovens are 20" wide inside.

(I have much older cast iron fry pans and everything that's been said about them becoming smooth and non stick is true. Took about 5 years of off and on cooking to do it, and 10 to become perfect. Grandma's pans went to my mother so I had to season my own pans myself. This pan because of the dual sided cooking only took about a month to equal that old fry pan.

I bought this griddle because I wanted to cook better pancakes, since I am cursed with an electric stove. (I rent) This griddle performs very well. It took a minimal amount of effort to season it (grease it permanently - instructions are included) and since then it has been non-stick with a minimal amount of PAM.

The griddle has two sides, one is smooth, for pancakes, and the other is ridged for steaks and suchlike. It works very well and considering I have cast iron that was my grandmother's, it should last forever, assuming you take care of it properly.

For pancakes, this iron griddle heats slowly and evenly, and it holds the heat better than a teflon griddle but...you...must...season this and instruct well-meaning helpers NOT, repeat, NOT to use any soap of any kind, sponge, steel wool pad, on the griddle. Ever. If you are worried about cleaning it, you can scrub the surface with a hot, clean water, handful of cooking salt and a clean paper towel. After seasoning, pancakes cook evenly and this is wide enough to go over two burners and really get some production going at breakfast. Just remember about the seasoning and the No-Soap.

This is a great griddle/grill. It's a huge chunk of cast iron so it's going to be heavy. You should just expect that. But that's one of the things that make cast iron so great. It's sturdy, indestructible, heats evenly, and holds heat well. It's the closest thing to grilling besides actually firing up the grill. Food cooked on the grill side has a smoky, grilled flavor. The griddle side is great for bacon, sausages, hash browns, fajitas, and cheese steaks. I haven't been brave enough to try pancakes yet. Clean up of the grill side is the only drawback, as even a well-seasoned piece will occasionally have bits that stick and burn, especially at high heat. Even so, this is a very minor inconvenience for such a great piece. A good exhaust hood or a couple of open doors or windows will make use easier also. I just consider it part of the experience. We love to take ours camping. Over the fire or on a camp stove it's a large, versatile piece of cookware. Breakfast for the whole family can cook on one side. Season and wash correctly and this will give you lifetimes of use. I'm sure your kids, grandkids, and great grandkids will love it too.

Once seasoned this is a great,if messy item to use. Lodge is about as good as cast irons get; their products have a nasty habit of out living those that purchase them. There would be many more used pans around but many were melted down during WW II. Try to set up a surround to catch the splatter. Check out the grill area in your local diner. Many times these type of grills are shown in adds cooking bacon and eggs. Yeah,right. Eggs O.K., Bacon? Nah! If you can't get your irons from a restaurant going out of business or a farm sale(Check institutions also. I picked up a great set of three pans for $20.00 from a moving company selling off abandoned belongings.)Season well before first use. A rule of thumb is to use it for french fries for the first 5-6 times. NEVER try to cook starch or sugar foods (Pan cakes, Tomato sauce etc. etc.)the first Ten times of use!!!!(Tomato products never.) Pro cooks never use the first crepe even though their pans are well seasoned. For the best seasoning build a fire outside and put the iron in it. This will burn off the wax coating or SOAP residue and tighten up the metal. If that seems a little over the top for you, put it in the bottom of your oven for about a month. Some smoke will always be present when seasoning an iron which is why I suggest doing it outside or letting your favorite restaurant do it for you. Just drop it off and they will burn and abuse it into terrific shape. In about three months your iron will be like teflon;ugly as sin,but a great pan. When cleaning: NEVER NEVER use soap!!!(The chinese never use soap in their woks and they are made from plain sheet steel). While I do use dish soap on the outsides I never use soap on the cooking surface of any of my fry pans be they stainless,aluminum or iron. Just wipe it out with a paper towel or damp cloth and immediately add a light coating of oil. If necessary, use plain hot water and a little E grease. On occasion when there is something burned onto the surface,I put a small amount of water into the pan and bring to a boil then gently scrape the surface with a straight edged spatula or a piece of fine plain steel wool (Not Brillo). Empty the water and IMMEDIATELY coat with corn or veg oil. And NEVER EVER let an iron soak..If you do, you will probably want to throw your rusty and pitted iron away. The next time you use it rub a few drops of oil over the surface,place on the heat then add your cooking oil. Also,whenever possible, after cooking outdoors,use the fine talcum like dust left in the BarBQ. Scour with the ash, rinse well and coat with a neutral oil and put on a heat source if possible. Allow to cool and wipe off residue. Again,these iron grills are great for vented cooking but they will produce smoke. Use one on the barbie for adding grill marks to fish and steaks. They can be a real mess indoors especially if you do not have a vent hood. And don't forget the wrap around splatter screen. Finally,if your not real dedicated to this type of cookware FORGETABOUTIT. It can be a pain. stick with your usual teflon cookware. That's why they invented the stuff.

Great to cook lots. There is lots of space to cook perfectly several steaks at a time.
I use it for meat, it's make's it very similar cooking than with a BBQ.

Indestructible!

CAREFULL:
* This needs to be hand washed, it MUST not go in the dishwasher
It's not that easy to clean specially on the striped part.

* You need to prepare the grill before you can use it the first time or it will get very rusty. Preparation: putting a layer of oil and baking it in your oven for an hour. (Oil smell in the house and oil all over the kitchen)
More explanations on the lodgemfg.com web site

* It takes a little while to cool down.
That means keeping it on the stove until its cooler, it's heavy and there are no handles.

I do recommend it; I enjoy it very much it's worth the hassle.
But don't want people to be surprised!

It's my own fault, I suppose. You see everyone on the kitchen shows with their reversible grills and think you need one, too. First the positive: This is an excellant price and you can't beat with the free shipping offer. For some this would be a great additional to your kitchen but not for little ole' me. First it takes a long time to season and is quite heavy. Since you can't put it in the dishwasher (dah) you have to wait for the grease to cool, use paper towels to soak it up, then haul it over to the sink for a cleaning without a hard brush, no soap. Then make sure you dry it well as it might rust. Just know what is involved before purchasing. For someone like me that uses it once every other week, it's wasn't the smartest thing I've ever purchased.

One of these big, heavy, griddles will fit smartly over two burners and let you make a lot of (for example) pancakes or French toast at one time. If you season as directed, and use oil or fat in addition, sticking won't be a problem.

Lodge cast iron is great, but this griddle is not well-designed. Its two-sidedness at first seems clever but in fact, by being "reversible," with both sides usable for cooking, the "seasoning" on the side toward the burner gets wrecked each time you cook. In addition, being virtually handleless, it is nearly impossible to move when hot. It's meant to stay put - on your stove. You have to leave it alone for a good hour, before washing up. Later, in the sink, the weight and size of this griddle is inconvenient. (Cast iron scratches porcelain.) I went back to my pans.

This item is sweet! It is not the perfect grill that I thought it would be but it is very close.

Positive:
*quickly became an awesome non stick surface.
*Great substitute when preferring to grill indoors.
*Food tastes great!

Neutral:
*Very heavy. This is a plus since it makes the food cook so well and it is durable, a minus when it comes to moving it.

Negative:
*The heat surface is about the same size as your burner, if a steak or item is larger than the burner the middle will get done first.
*Basically it gives two hot areas, one for each burner, which means only 2 pancakes or what ever you are cooking at a time.
*Grilling does mean some spattered grease that needs to be wiped off of the stove.

Overall, I use it a lot, and I like it very much. Non of the negatives are very surprising...it just didn't occure to me when making the purchase. I would recommend this item...