A griddle is very useful for cooking different dishes if you run a commercial kitchen or cook for your family. It is easy to use to make mouth watering delights and a wide choice of meals like pancakes, steaks, eggs, sandwiches, French toast and more and more. However, the downside is that griddles accumulate grease, sometimes food sticks a little to its surface and doesn't come off even after soaking overnight. Fortunately, you have this detailed guide on how to clean a pancake griddle here.
Methods to Clean a Griddle
As there are so many ways you can clean a griddle, you get one that you feel has the best fit for you. Another option is one that forces you to use cleaning items that you already own at home. Here are the five best methods for how to clean a pancake griddle:
Method 1: Soak and Clean With Grease Removing Soap
What you will need:
- Grease cutting soap
- Warm water
- Dishcloth
- Paper towels
- Nylon scrubber
The cleaning process:
- Unplug your electric griddle pan. Cool down for a few minutes and then begin again. Additionally, it is best to disconnect the plug from the port.
- Put some hot water in the sink except halfway and add your grease-cutting soap.
- Put the griddle into the hot water. Yet make sure you leave the connector port past the water. Soak for about 20 minutes.
- Take the griddle from the water. And if you shake it just a little you will see some bits of food falling off. Then you use a nylon scrubber to wipe out the bits of food. If you don't have one they can use a dishcloth to wipe the griddle.
- Turn the griddle over, and make sure there are no drips of bits of food hanging out there. Remove them if there are any.
- After that place it somewhere so it can dry out a bit, and then dry the griddle off with a clean towel. This will also help to dry completely any water that may have gotten into the connector port. Please note: Make sure you don’t have water go inside the connector port.
- If you smell the griddle, you will know it's a 100% clean griddle with no food sour to it.
Method 2: How to remove sticky grime
What you will need:
- A small bucket
- Griddle cleaning soap
- Cleaning cloth or griddle brush
- Paper towel/regular cleaning towel
The cleaning process
This isn’t like the first method where you said to soak the griddle in hot water, but in this method, you’re going to turn on to the temperature setting that would make the griddle warm.
- When food is stuck in the griddle, you will find it easier to remove if you heat the griddle. So turn on the heat.
- Pour warm water into a big bowl. Add griddle soap in the right proportions. These should be indicated on the soap packet. If not, you can check the user manual that came with the griddle. Submerge the griddle taking care not to get water into the connector port. Let it soak for about 10 minutes.
- Take it out of the water and if it does not have a drip tray, attach one. You should also have a small bowl or tray under the drain of the drip tray. This is going to catch the water that you use to clean the griddle.
- Remove the griddle from the warm water and use a griddle brush or sponge to scrub the surface. You can do that in an up and down motion or you can scrub it from side to side.
- To ensure that you are using soapy water all the time, just keep dipping the sponge in the water. You can apply more force if needed when scrubbing to take out the gunk.
- Sometimes, even forceful scrubbing with a sponge is not going to remove everything. Therefore, you can try a harder cleaning tool, for example, a scrubbing pad.
Method 3: Spatula and warm soapy water for stuck grease
If we have let the pan sit in grease for too long, it will stick. Thus you have to use a spatula to clean off the grease.
What you will need:
- Heatproof gloves
- A sponge
- Metal spatula
- Cleaning sponge
- Warm water
- Soap
The cleaning process:
- Turn on the heat on the griddle. It will help loosen the hard grease
- Take your spatula and gently scrape the grease off. It is important that you wear heat-proof gloves to protect your hands because the griddle is hot. Also, keep a fair distance between your body and the griddle to protect yourself from harm.
- Switch off the griddle once the hard grease is removed. Unplug your griddle and set it aside to cool a bit.
- If there are still bits of stuck grease in the griddle, pour warm, soapy water into it and let it stay for about 30 minutes.
- Take a sponge, dip it in warm soapy water and clean out the griddle again. This should take care of any remaining grease.
- Take a clean piece of cloth, dry the griddle completely. This should get rid of any watermarks.
- Soak a second clean cloth in cold water; wipe the griddle deeply so that you can get rid of any airmarks. You can repeat this a few times to be sure that your griddle is completely free of any marks.
Method 4: White vinegar and warm water method
What you will need:
- White vinegar “ 1" cup
- 2 cups warm water
- Sponges or soft cleaning cloth
- Paper towels
The cleaning process:
- Remove any hard grease on the pan. You can do this by using a spatula as discussed in Method 3. If there is no hard grease, carry on cleaning.
- Mix 1 cup of white vinegar with warm water
- Take a sponge, dip it in the water and white vinegar solution and scrub the griddle's surface firmly. White vinegar removes stains.
- When the griddle is clean, dip a clean sponge in cold water and wipe the surface thoroughly to remove any traces of white vinegar.
- If the stains are too stubborn, use a baking soda and water paste on the surface of the griddle. Spread the paste using a paper towel. Use a damp sponge to clean the surface with this paste.
Method 5: Soapy water and sponge
What you will need:
- Paper towels
- Clean cloths
- Sponges
- Dishwashing liquid soap
- Hot water
The cleaning process:
- Disconnect the griddle from electricity. Let it cool down a bit because a hot griddle can be dangerous.
- Remove any oily grease from the pan using a paper towel and then pour some warm water and dishwashing soap
- Rub the griddle with a sponge to get out any burnt food particles or any gunk that is stuck on the surface
- Dry the griddle with a clean cloth or sponge
- Pour water and dishwashing soap into the griddle again
- Take a clean sponge and clean the surface gently to get rid of any leftover food material
- Rinse the griddle in clean cold water to remove any traces of the dishwashing soap
- Wipe the griddle down with a paper towel or dry cloth
- Dry the griddle fully and then plug it in, ready for use
Why Cleaning a Griddle is Important?
Your clean cookware looks decorative and is safe for your health. The last thing you don’t want when you are cooking is contaminants getting into the food. When you leave leftover food on the side of your pancake griddle, the food will breed, and eventually spew into the food you cook next.
New food takes the taste out of the old food. As always, cook everything after cleaning the griddle. Clean the griddle plate with a little detergent and wipe off completely so you won't have any remains of the old food left on the plate.
With the continuous scrubbing they are subjected to when you clean your griddle often, you extend its lifespan by not having to scrub as hard.
The griddle can’t be cleaned with plain water. For that, you need a good product. The Scotch Brite Cleaner Pad that's on Amazon.com is an example of the kind of pad that will clean the griddle to perfection. You cannot use this anywhere near the highest operating temperature of the griddle without your heatproof gloves, but then it captures all the dirt and grease. At 3 pieces to a pack, it will be awhile before you need to buy a new pack.
Final Verdict
The more you let a griddle with grease, the harder it to clean will be. Thus, when you’re through with cooking, clean the griddle thoroughly or put it in soaking warm water to remove the grease. By now, you would have realized that all cleaning methods we’ve been talking about ought to use warm or hot soapy water. Heat is very effective in the process of how to clean a pancake griddle.
