Blackstone/Grilling Thread

[Passacaglia]

So my questions about Blackstone in the random thoughts thread got responses from multiple people, and it felt like it was getting to the point where it did deserve its own thread as I went forward. So I figured I'd start a thread about my adventures in doing this, and figure the thread can include anyone else who wants to talk about grilling, too.

I looked for deals on Prime Day, but I didn't see anything cheaper than this deal at Walmart, so I'm going to pick it up tonight. I see a model with a hood for $100 more -- has anyone found that to be worth it? I think I'd rather have the flat hard cover so there's no space for mice to live (more on that later), but if anyone thinks it's worth having a hood, I'd love to hear why.

link

I am seeing this Prime Day deal, for a Weber griddle that looks like it's the same size. I'm willing to be convinced if anyone thinks this one is better, but it's $150 more, and I don't see anything better about it. Plus, since I don't know what I'm doing (more on that later), I feel like I'd rather get the one most people have.

Amazon.com : Weber 36" Gas Griddle, 4 Burner, Black : Patio, Lawn & Garden

If anyone has other suggestions for what I should be getting instead, or where to get it, let me know!

Mice -- So in the random thread, I mentioned getting rid of my grill because I found a mouse inside it. I wanted to get the griddle because it seems fun, but on doing some research, I've convinced myself that it will prevent that from happening again. It's only happened the one time in the 7 years I've lived here, but the neighborhood is known for having mice, and I don't want it to happen again. With my old gas grill, I just cleaned the grates, and stopped cleaning the bottom after a few times, so grease probably just collected a lot down there. My hope is the griddle remedies this by collecting all the grease in the grease trap. I just ordered these, which were on sale for Prime Day:

Amazon.com : TIFMI 50 Pack Grease Cup Liners for Blackstone Griddles 36'' 28'' 22'' 17'' Inch, Aluminum Foil Drip Pan Liners, Grill Grease catcher for Blackstone Griddle Accessories : Patio, Lawn & Garden

I'm also seeing some silicone liners. I saw someone on reddit say they use the disposable liners (the foil kind I linked to), and toss it after every use. That sounds good to me. Anyone have the silicone liners and like them more?

Seasoning -- I don't know what I'm doing here (more on that later). I see that Blackstone sells some, but I also see people say it's better to use your own oil. What have you all used, and how did you do it?

Accessories -- What else do I need? I figure I need a soft cover. Does anyone have any they recommend? Do I also need squirt bottles for oil and water? I'm seeing a silicone mat to protect the griddle. That seems like a good idea to me because of the mice issue, but I'm also considering just detaching the griddle when I'm done and bringing it inside.

Process/recipes -- I already feel like I'm not very good at grilling, and stuff I make ends up undercooked, even when I grill things way longer than I'm supposed to. So I'm hoping this gives me an opportunity to "reset", start with something else, and see how it goes. Anyone have ideas or recipes they suggest? I mentioned squirt bottles for oil and water earlier -- I assume those are meant to be used during the cooking process sometime? If so, when?

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

Accessories -- What else do I need? I figure I need a soft cover. Does anyone have any they recommend? Do I also need squirt bottles for oil and water? I'm seeing a silicone mat to protect the griddle. That seems like a good idea to me because of the mice issue, but I'm also considering just detaching the griddle when I'm done and bringing it inside.

Don't have one, but I want one so I don't have an opinion on much else. I would definitely want the oil and water squirt bottles, along with a griddle utensil set. I want all the presses and scrapers and such.



I looked like you did at Prime Day prices and was underwhelmed. I think I'm leaning toward getting the smaller tabletop version and a camp table so I can take it camping.

[Atocep]

I got the Costco one that comes with a lid and a cover for $399. Walmart has a 36" that's usually priced around $299 but doesn't have a cover and is 38k BTU rather than the 60k the Costco one has. I'm not sure how much the BTUs matter though. Longer to season and cooking mostly on med-high rather than low-med is my guess.

Tips based on my experience so far:

To do initial seasoning: fire it up on high and use your selected oil (I used canola but a lot of people swear by grapeseed) and use tongs and a few balled up paper towels to spread a light coat of oil evenly. Wait the 3-5 minutes for it to burn off. Repeat that 4 times. I then let it cool (takes 30 minutes or so) while I cut up a ton of onions. I used an entire costco bag. You want enough to be able spread them out across your entire cooking surface with a bit of oil. You then just move them around a bit as they cook down. Once cooked down I took them off the cook surface (the wife used them for french onion soup) and I used the tongs and fresh paper towels to give it a light wipe down to remove any left over onions. I let the onion residue sit on the grill overnight though. The next day I heated it back up, wiped it down again, then added another light coating of oil, let that burn on for a couple minutes and turned it off. We did our first cook the next day. Do not use bacon or any processed meat for your first cook. The reason you use onions is the acid in onions helps the oil bond to the metal as they break down.

Cleaning is incredibly easy. When you're done cooking, while it's still on you either just lightly scrape to the rear where the grease trap is if there's little residue left over or you squirt water on tougher spots and lightly scrape toward the grease trap. Then squirt a touch of oil and spread evenly using the tongs and paper towels. Then immediately turn off and let it cool before covering.

If you go to the blackstone website the accessories I'd recommend are the long spatulas, a shorter scraper spatula, squirt bottles for oil and water, and a press. The pair of long spatulas and squirt bottles are a must.

The biggest tip when cooking is have all ingredients ready to go and organized. Whatever you're cooking will cook fast. Faster than you're used to so there's rarely time to go get something ready while cooking.


We're about month into owning ours and we have absolutely zero regrets. My wife and son both enjoy cooking on it and the food that comes off it is consistently fantastic. I'll say again, smash burgers on these will ruin other burgers for you.

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by Atocep

I got the Costco one that comes with a lid and a cover for $399. Walmart has a 36" that's usually priced around $299 but doesn't have a cover and is 38k BTU rather than the 60k the Costco one has. I'm not sure how much the BTUs matter though. Longer to season and cooking mostly on med-high rather than low-med is my guess.

I can actually shed some light here. I saw mentions of a 38K and a 60K version. I looked on the Blackstone site and didn't see a 60K, so I chatted with one of their agents. They told me the 38K is a newer model, and because of the Omnivore Griddle it has, it doesn't require as much BTUs to heat it.

I checked the costco website and they didn't have anything like the 36" at Walmart, they had one for $879 with an air fryer and some other bells and whistles that I don't care about, and actively don't want because I'm worried mice will get in there. But maybe if I go to the store they'll have more in stock.

To do initial seasoning: fire it up on high and use your selected oil (I used canola but a lot of people swear by grapeseed) and use tongs and a few balled up paper towels to spread a light coat of oil evenly. Wait the 3-5 minutes for it to burn off. Repeat that 4 times. I then let it cool (takes 30 minutes or so) while I cut up a ton of onions. I used an entire costco bag. You want enough to be able spread them out across your entire cooking surface with a bit of oil. You then just move them around a bit as they cook down. Once cooked down I took them off the cook surface (the wife used them for french onion soup) and I used the tongs and fresh paper towels to give it a light wipe down to remove any left over onions. I let the onion residue sit on the grill overnight though. The next day I heated it back up, wiped it down again, then added another light coating of oil, let that burn on for a couple minutes and turned it off. We did our first cook the next day. Do not use bacon or any processed meat for your first cook. The reason you use onions is the acid in onions helps the oil bond to the metal as they break down.

Thanks! The onions seem like a lot of work, but interesting.

Cleaning is incredibly easy. When you're done cooking, while it's still on you either just lightly scrape to the rear where the grease trap is if there's little residue left over or you squirt water on tougher spots and lightly scrape toward the grease trap. Then squirt a touch of oil and spread evenly using the tongs and paper towels. Then immediately turn off and let it cool before covering.

If you go to the blackstone website the accessories I'd recommend are the long spatulas, a shorter scraper spatula, squirt bottles for oil and water, and a press. The pair of long spatulas and squirt bottles are a must.

Do you use the shorter scraper spatula for scraping grease to the rear?

The biggest tip when cooking is have all ingredients ready to go and organized. Whatever you're cooking will cook fast. Faster than you're used to so there's rarely time to go get something ready while cooking.

Good tip, thanks!

We're about month into owning ours and we have absolutely zero regrets. My wife and son both enjoy cooking on it and the food that comes off it is consistently fantastic. I'll say again, smash burgers on these will ruin other burgers for you.

My wife likes thin burgers, but not smash burgers. I'm figuring she'll either like smash burgers made on this, or she won't and we'll figure out some way to make them thin but not smash.

[Passacaglia]

My Blackstone arrived today! I got the one from the Walmart link above. I saw that today they were having a sale, but this model wasn't part of it. But it may be worth checking out for anyone looking at other models of grills.

We're supposed to get rain tonight and tomorrow, so I'll season it in a couple days. I was just at Costco yesterday, and should have bought onions. Whoops.

Anyone have recipes that I should try?

[Atocep]

The wife and I have just been going off of tik toks we've seen. It's officially become our go to for making garlic bread. Slice open a French loaf, put some Safeway garlic butter on it, and let it cook face side down for 3-4 minutes and it blows away any frozen bread.

It's getting was more use than either of us expected.

[Swaggs]

You guys are killing me.

I wish I hadn't just gotten a new grill about a year and a half ago.

[Passacaglia]

Finally used mine last night. I put it together a couple days ago with my 12 year old. I asked him if he prefers charcoal or gas when grilling, and he said, "I don't know, either way seems pretty bad for the environment." Thanks, buzzkill.

I didn't go to the lengths of Atocep when seasoning. I just followed the directions in the manual, spreading canola oil over it three times.

Anyway, I made burgers pretty much the same way I always did. Pretty thin, but not smash. They had the look of smash burgers very quickly after putting them on, though. Most of the family (including me) were just happy we were finally grilling since it had been a while since the old one was tossed, but I think some legit liked them more.

I got a scraper and scouring pads, Robot or human? -- they seemed to do an okay job cleaning it, though I was worried the scraper would scratch it. The manual for the grill said that after cleaning, I should cover it with a thin layer of oil. I didn't bother with that, since I felt like it was still pretty oily even after cleaning it. Is it a big deal to skip that?

Tonight I'm going to try chicken. Nothing fancy, just marinating some in Sweet Baby Ray's, some in Bachan's Japanese BBQ sauce, and some in whatever else I have in the fridge, and seeing how it compares to when I did that on the grill.

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by Atocep

The wife and I have just been going off of tik toks we've seen. It's officially become our go to for making garlic bread. Slice open a French loaf, put some Safeway garlic butter on it, and let it cook face side down for 3-4 minutes and it blows away any frozen bread.

It's getting was more use than either of us expected.

Good call, I'll try that, although we're pretty big fans of it when it's frozen. Speaking of bread, what do you do for hamburger buns? I'm used to sticking them on a wire rack that was about a foot above the grill, but that's not really an option here. Are there wire racks you can buy? Even if there are, that's probably a hassle to put it on every time. Do you just (for this and the garlic bread) put it on a burner set to low heat and take it off before it burns?

[Atocep]

As long as you're not pressing down hard or using the edges of the scraper you're not going to scratch it. Light scratches will happen from time to time but you just season right over them. It'll be fine. That grill surface will outlast the scraper.

[Passacaglia]

I grilled chicken last night. Again, same method as I would have done on my old grill. I felt like it charred faster, so I needed to turn the heat down after noticing that. I went to get a meat thermometer since I thought cooking times might be different, but both of them weren't working. I took the thighs off after I felt it had been a while, and kept the breasts (which were really thick) on until everyone was ready for dinner. Results were about the same -- the kids liked it fine, and my wife didn't, but she usually doesn't like grilled chicken. I'm thinking next time I'll marinate it longer (I usually do an hour or two, maybe I'll try to do it overnight), or I'll take advantage of the flat surface by cutting it up before cooking.

This morning, the kids wanted turkey bacon, and I thought about seeing what it'd be like cooking it out there. I hadn't showered and was still in pajamas, so I felt too grungy to be out in the heat, though.

Next up will probably be hot dogs tonight.

[GrantDawg]

My wife doesn't like grilled chicken, either. Ot is my favorite way to eat chicken so it sucks.

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