I absolutely adore this griddle, and I use it almost every day.
At first, I wasn't sure that I wanted a cast iron griddle.They are HEAVY and not dishwasher safe . . . so I tried a few nonstick brands first --top dollar brands with high ratings.
I hated them.The nonstick surface was inferior.On a reversible griddle, the underside became sticky and difficult to clean.The heat was distributed unevenly.One claimed to be dishwasher safe, yet when I put it in the dishwasher, some of the nonstick surface came off.
I am extremely health conscious, and I use very little oil when I cook.Food often stuck to the "non-stick" surface -go figure.
I wanted to find a great griddle that I could use for many things, including cooking like the chefs in Japanese Steak Houses -I dreamed of using a small dash of my favorite oil and flinging shrimp, chicken and veggies on the griddle like a pro.No, I didn't think I could toss my tools in the air or catch the shrimp in my pocket . . . I just wanted the flavor and the ease of cooking.
By this time, I was on a quest, and the non-stick stuff just wasn't cutting it.I did a little research, and I learned that pros recommend the Lodge griddle, so despite my apprehension, I thought I'd give it a try.
Wow!The pre-seasoned surface is perfect and better than any non-stick surface I have ever used.Just a tiny bit of non-stick spray is all I need, and everything from pancakes to eggs flip with ease.Grilling Japanese style works perfectly.
On the grill side: whole steaks, chicken, fish -fabulous, fast, and everything has those beautiful grill lines.Nice for grilled vegetables, too.
The griddle is indeed heavy, but it's okay.I wouldn't recommend lifting it if you have serious muscle or joint problems, and I wouldn't want to drop it on my foot, but otherwise, go for it.I'm a softie, and if I can handle it, so can you.
As for not being able to put the griddle in the dishwasher:I don't believe I'm going to say this, but I don't care about having to handwash it.The griddle cleans so easily, a few swipes and I'm done.If I forget to clean it and wake up to it the next morning (okay, so I'm not Suzy Homemaker), I just lay it straight across the top of my sink -not IN the sink, but rather, balanced from edge to edge, on top . . . and I run a little water over it, let it set for a few minutes, and it'seasy to clean.
A word of advice:Just as it says in the instructions, you need to clean the griddle without soap (water only) to preserve the pre-seasoned finish.However, should you want to use soap, you can.There are instructions included in how to re-season the griddle -it's easy.
I frankly didn't like the idea of not cleaning with soap.I didn't feel as though the germs were destroyed . . . but soap doesn't really kill germs, it merely works as a surfactant that makes water wetter so things become easier to clean.
If you want to kill germs, heat is one of the best ways to do it.Every time you use the griddle, you preheat it on the range for about five minutes or so -you're killing far more germs than if you had used soap!
You can also rub your griddle with a very light coating of oil, stick it in a hot oven and disinfect it that way (this is also similar to how you reseason it).
This is one of the easiest, most wonderful kitchen tools I own.It is a breeze to use, I feel like a pro flipping all that food around.Everything comes out great, and it is very easy to use, and food does not stick.
I have since added six more pieces of cast iron to my collection, one triangle cornbread/scone, a round muffin/biscuit, and four cast iron skillets.Two of the skillets are antique -talk about well-seasoned!I do not use the bread/muffin bakers as much as I thought I would, but I use the skillets almost every day.I love them.
PS:I remember reading somewhere that using cast iron also adds iron to your diet -not sure how true or how much, but if it does, it is a nice extra, yes?
Goodness I see two chief complaints posted here: First, some people say it's heavy. Well, yes, it is. It's over 200 square inches of iron, folks.The weight is clearly advertised, so I'm having a hard time understanding this complaint. The second complaint some have is uneven heating. Lodge could fix that all they have to do is make it thicker and much heavier, and even more people would be unhappy about the weight.
Since the number of comments about the weight and the uneven heating seem about equal, I'd say Lodge did a great job of hitting a happy middle ground. Personally, I count on a little uneven heating, I'll sear breakfast chops on one end over a high burner and flip eggs on the other over a lower burner I've even been known to run mine on just one burner, cooking on one end and warming on the other. When I was a grill cook, that's how I ran my grill, hotter at one end. You also have to allow for some "settle time" for cast iron compared to aluminum, it's a fairly slow heat conductor, which gives cast iron it's wonderful thermal stability. But it takes time for the heat to distribute, so give it a few minutes.
I can't comment on the factory coating I strip and season the cooking surfaces on all my iron, new or used. I made one modification to mine, which Andrew pointed out I took a dremel and ground a shallow notch in the outer lip of one end of the grease gutter to help pouring the grease out if you do this, be sure to smooth the edges of the notch to avoid heat stress cracks they love to start at sharp corners and don't make it too deep just a small notch makes a big difference when dumping grease.
While I'm at it I'm a heretic a blasphemer an apostate. My confession? I sometimes clean mine with soap to be more precise, detergent, which most modern dish soaps actually are. I think the "no soap" thing is a bit of mythology that's come down to us from Great-Grandma, whose dish soap was basically lye and some type of animal fat (my grandma used bacon grease for her soap). So yeah, maybe lye soap was a bad idea, but it had a very different chemistry from today's dish detergents, and as far as I can tell, modern detergent won't touch the baked-on grundge on the bottom of my aluminum and enamel cookware, and they don't touch my properly seasoned iron either. I do always make sure to rinse very thoroughly, and re-oil after cleaning, however, as that thin film of oil is life to cast iron.
I love this grill on the cooktop, but if you want to see this beauty at it's best, and you have at least a 20" charcoal grill, set it on your charcoal grate and have some fun. I don't think mine ever cooled off during the week or so after hurricane Charley, while we had no electricity. I had stocked up on hardwood charcoal before the storm, and as my neighbor's fridges warmed, and their freezers thawed, they kept bringing me food to cook before it spoiled and of course, they shared with the cook. The neighbors saved some of their food, the Lodge grill got quite a workout, and my family ate very well!
It's a well-made product. It's American. And it's a great value. What's not to love? Just don't drop it on your foot did I mention it's heavy?
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With all the reviews raving about this griddle, I was quite excited about my purchase.I had planned on using this on my gas range over two burners for cooking pancakes and such. The dimensions of my burners seemed to be a great match for the size of the griddle, but it turned out to be unusable. I returned it.
On many gas ranges this griddle will not lay flat, but will be tippy and unstable. The reason for this is the handle cutouts on the griddle. It is a little hard to explain so I have uploaded a video to illustrate.
If it weren't for the cutout handles, this griddle would be perfect and would work on a much larger set of stove top ranges. However, the current design limits its use for many potential users.
Other than that, the quality appears good. I have several other Lodge products and have been happy with them.
Update: I didn't measure the dimensions between the inside edges of the handles before I returned it. This would be helpful those considering this griddle. If anyone has this griddle, if they could post this measurement in the comments, that would be great.
If you found this review helpful, let me know with your vote below.
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I just received my griddle last week and I've been using it daily with excelent results every time. Mine arrived with a few minor scratches on the preseasoning but all of them seem to be disappearing quite soon (I spray a little pam all over the griddle before using it). I cooked some hamburgers on the grill side which turned out delicious and they got those great grill marks on them also. I've had no sticking problems at all with this thing so far. Cleanup is easy providing you have a stiff brush, a large sink and the strong arms required to carry it from the stove to the sink every time you wash it (this thing weighs 15 pounds). I highly recommend this griddle to anyone, it's very well constructed and looks like it will last a lifetime with proper care.
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I've owned this grill for over a year now, and I want to let you know how it has worked out so far.
It fits over two burners, so it's great for cooking several items at once.It heats evenly but tends to overheat a little with the burner at the highest setting.(DUH!).Even then, I have not experience damage to my stove-top.
I love the way it "releases" everything it cooks.I have cooked the best Japanese style grilled beef/potatoes, South American arepas and cachapas, and everything in between.You name it, it can do it!.Even after I grill fish, or anything which makes a mess, all you do is pour some water on it while it's hot, and wipe it down with a terry cloth.No soap is needed.Then I cover the surface with a light oil rub and it's ready for storing. In fact, mine sits on the stove top for the most part, and it blends nicely with my kitchen.I recommend that for older folks having difficulty lifting it.You practically never have to move it, if you don't want to.
I live in a condominium and chose not to buy a patio grill.I don't need it with this grill.
I bought another for my sister!!
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I looked at them all.The $40 grills, the $80 grills...and I thought, it's cast iron for goodness sake just try the cheap one!I am not disappointed.I can't believe we didn't have one of these sooner.It's pre-seasoned nicely -little to no sticking during the first use.It retains a nice, even heat very well.There is a small section on the griddle side that is somewhat irregular but I wasn't aiming for the perfection of Teflon anyway.I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars because it seems a bit narrow and there doesn't seem to be a lot of space for grease to go.-We generally don't cook with high-fat meats so it won't be a problem for us.
