Blackstone 101 - The Ultimate Beginner's Guide
So, you got yourself a Blackstone. Now what? If you're wondering where to begin, just take a deep breath. You're not alone. There's a bit of a learning curve when it comes to cooking on a flat top. But once you get the basics down, cooking on your Blackstone is really easy. This detailed guide will teach you everything you need to know to go from Blackstone rookie to a seasoned pro.
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How To Season A Blackstone
Before you start cooking on a new Blackstone griddle, you need to season it. Seasoning helps protect it from rust, and it gives the cooking surface a nice non-stick coating so your food doesn't stick while cooking.
Some people tend to freak out at this stage and panic about what will happen if their Blackstone isn't seasoned perfectly. Please don't freak out. It's not that deep folks. Just follow my simple step-by-step instructions below and you'll be just fine.
- Wipe down the griddle surface with water to clean it, and dry it completely
- Turn the griddle on and set the temperature to high heat. Let it heat up until the surface color starts to darken (roughly 10 to 15 minutes)
- Add a small amount of oil and spread evenly across the surface using tongs with paper towels or blue shop towels. Don't leave any puddles. Just pretend your kid spilled something and you're wiping it up, that's how little oil should be left
- Let the griddle smoke and darken until it stops (about 15 to 20 minutes)
- Repeat these steps 3 or 4 times to build a nice layer of seasoning
- Let the griddle cool completely
Many beginners make the mistake of using too much oil. It's better to do several very thin layers of seasoning rather than trying to take a shortcut. Plan to spend an hour to an hour and a half on the initial seasoning process. It's the perfect time to pull up a chair and grab a beer!
Note, these instructions are for the first time you season your griddle, but they are really the same when it comes to re-seasoning in between cooks. The only real difference is that the cooking surface will already be dark since it's right out of the box.
What's The Best Oil To Use On A Blackstone?
The best oils to use on a Blackstone griddle are canola and avocado oil. Canola oil is inexpensive, has a neutral flavor, and a relatively high smoke point and is perfect for everyday cooking. Avocado oil is somewhat pricier, has a richer flavor, and has a very high smoke point which makes it great for cooking over extra high heat.
If you want to dig deeper, I wrote up a separate article with a lot more info on the best oils to use on a Blacksone.
Can I Use Bacon To Season A Griddle?
Blackstone specifically recommends not using bacon for the initial seasoning of your griddle. Bacon contains salt, sugar, preservatives, and other additives that will prevent your flat top from properly seasoning.
However, once you've completed the initial seasoning, you can cook all the bacon you want on your Blackstone.
How To Clean A Blackstone After Cooking
Keeping your griddle clean will help avoid rust, prevent sticking, and ensure your food tastes great. Below are the basic steps you should follow for general cleaning after each cook.
- Turn the griddle on low heat and use a scraper to push any loose food debris and grease into the grease cup
- Use paper towels or a scrubbing pad to remove anything leftover
- Squirt some water onto the griddle surface and use the scraper to clear more gunk into the grease cup
- Dry the cooking surface completely with paper towels or shop towels
- Turn the griddle off and add a thin coat of oil to protect it until your next cooking session
Why Is My Griddle Flaking And Rusting?
I've written a a detailed guide on how to fix a griddle that is flaking and peeling so you can check that out if needed. Long story short, you need a little elbow grease and patience to remedy the situation. But no matter how bad you think your griddle is, you can bring it back to its former glory.
What Griddle Accessories Do I Need?
There are only a handful of griddle accessories that I would consider "must have" for beginners:
- Spatulas - You'll need a few and it helps to have different sizes
- Tongs - I know most people like really long tongs when grilling but I like to have some that are shorter and offer better control
- Scraper - Absolutely essential for cleaning your griddle
- Thermometer - A decent infrared thermometer is inexpensive and will pay for itself 100 times over as it keeps you from burning your food
- Squeeze Bottles - Needed for your cooking oil as well as homemade sauces
- Cooking Dome - Use it to trap heat to speed up cooking time and melt cheese
Why Is My Blackstone Griddle Flame Low?
If your Blackstone's flame is really low, first check to make sure you aren't out of propane. If your tank is full, there's a good chance you accidentally tripped the safety mechanism inside the propane regulator. Don't worry, that's a really easy fix. Here's what you do:
- Turn off all burners on your Blackstone and turn off the gas at the propane tank
- Open the lid of your griddle or grill
- Disconnect the hose from the propane tank. You’ll usually hear a short hissing sound
- Wait about 30 seconds so the regulator can reset. It should now be out of safety mode
- Reconnect the hose to the propane tank and hand tighten it
- Slowly open the valve a half turn at a time. You want to prevent a sudden surge of gas that could trip the regulator’s safety mode all over again
- Turn the burners on one at a time and light according to the manufacturer’s instructions
FYI - this fix also works for any gas grill with a low flame.
How To Control Temperature On Your Blackstone
Learning how to manage temperature is one of the most important skills required for cooking on a flat top. You can adjust the heat using the knobs, but you can't just set it to a specific temperature like you can with a pellet grill.
Plus, the cooking surface is a large piece of rolled steel and it heats much like a cast iron pan. It's easy let your griddle get too hot and once it does it takes some time for it to cool down. In the meantime, your scrambled eggs and pancakes end up burnt.
As you get more practice cooking on your Blackstone you'll get better at managing the temperature, but the only way to really know how hot your griddle gets is by using an infrared thermometer.
And as you will see, most Blackstone recipes will simply tell you to preheat your griddle to "low" or "medium-high" depending on what you're cooking. Below is a rough guide you can follow to get the right temperature for everything from pancakes to smash burgers.
- Very Low (Warming) - 200 F to 225 F
- Low - 250 F to 300 F
- Medium-Low - 300 F to 325 F
- Medium - 350 F
- Medium-High - 375 F to 400 F
- High - 425 F to 475 F
- Very High - 475 F to 550 F
Or if you're more of a visual person, I asked Chat GPT to create a helpful chart using my numbers, and I think it looks pretty good.
Feel free to print it out or save it to Pinterest so you have it for future use.
How Hot Does A Blackstone Griddle Get?
According to Blackstone themselves, "Under ideal conditions, Blackstone’s gas griddles can reach over 650 F, but there are very few instances where you would ever need to cook at this high temperature."
But that’s under ideal conditions. Like when a car commercial states their model can go from zero to sixty in 5.6 seconds, that’s on a closed course with a professional driver and perfect weather conditions.
Forget about ideal conditions. What we really want to know is how hot does a Blackstone griddle get in your own backyard.
In order to determine how hot a Blackstone can get, I first tried some real-life trials using an infrared thermometer to take the temperature of the griddle surface. and then scoured the internet to find other samples to reference.
For my 36 inch Blackstone, the maximum temperature I was able to achieve was 618 F. My buddy Matt has the same model and I asked him to test the temperature on his. The max temp he got was 612 F.
So we were both very close, but I wanted to dig a little deeper. After some online sleuthing, I found a YouTube video where a griller tried three different Blackstone models and he was able to achieve a temperature of 635 F to 640 F. That’s slightly higher than Matt and I got but close enough to call it even.
In this Reddit thread, a Blackstone owner states he left it on high for an hour and it got to a temperature of 777 F. That seems hard to believe, but he doesn’t give enough information to really understand the circumstances or prove his claim.
Can You Boil Water On A Blackstone Griddle?
Well that's a fun question, and the answer is yes you can boil water on a Blackstone griddle. Of course it's not the most efficient way to do it. Kind of like using a flame thrower to light the candles on a birthday cake.
And I know this for a fact because I tried it! Hey, I was curious.
Anyway, here's how I tested it out...
I poured one cup of water into a small sauce pan and placed it on the cooking surface of my griddle. I have a 36 inch Blackstone with four burners. I placed the pot with water directly in the center of the griddle and turned the two inside burners on high. The two outside burners were left off.
The pot of water was uncovered, mostly because I forgot to cover it until after I started the timer. Oops.
Anyway, I used the stopwatch on my Apple Watch to monitor the time and as you can see from the picture below it took 12:40.96 for the water to begin boiling.
I repeated the experiment inside on our electric stove. Same pot, same amount of water, stove set on high.
The result? The water began boiling in just 4:13.66.
Pretty crazy huh?
But not totally surprising. Here’s why:
There’s a lot of surface area on a Blackstone griddle. That means the heat coming from the burners is spread across the entire surface, even the side sections where the burners were turned off.
In other words it’s not very efficient to heat up the entire cooking surface just to heat one tiny pot because the pot itself will only get a fraction of the total heat generated by the griddle.
The Blackstone is designed for cooking large amounts of food spread across the entire surface.
By contrast, the stovetop is designed to funnel heat directly into the pot sitting on its gas burner or electric heating element. Much more efficient.
Using the Blackstone would be like trying to heat the entire surface of your stove instead of just the one section where the pot it sitting. It will work eventually, but it’s just not the best method.
Where Are Blackstone Griddles Made?
Many people don’t care where the items they purchase are made. But others feel very strongly about it. They go out of their way to shop American and are always on the lookout for the “Made in USA” sticker.
If that's you, you should know that Blackstone griddles are not made in the USA. They are manufactured overseas in China and Vietnam.
Now I should tell you there are some websites that claim Blackstone products are made in the USA but that’s just not true.
How do I know?
Well first I went to their website to see if I could find the answer there. According to their About Us page, Blackstone “products are designed and engineered in the USA with the latest technology and innovation.”
But that doesn’t clearly say they are manufactured in the USA does it?
So I decided to go a little further and reach out to Blackstone to ask them myself. Here’s their response…
Thank you for reaching out. No, they are engineered and designed in the United States but we build them in factories overseas, China, Vietnam, etc. All of our consumables are from the USA.
So there you have it. Direct from the source itself. Blackstone grills are manufactured overseas, but their consumable products (sauces and seasonings) are made in the USA.
Oh and here’s a picture of a label taken from my actual Blackstone griddle that clearly says “Made in China".
Now, being manufactured in China doesn't mean the Blackstone isn't a terrific product. But I've been asked about it several times so I thought it was worth sharing here so you know too.
How To Level A Blackstone Griddle
Your Blackstone griddle doesn't have to be perfectly level. But if it's noticeably tilted it can affect both cooking and grease management. You don't want oil, grease, and other liquids to run away and pool at one end of the cooking surface. Trust me, it's pretty darn annoying when you're cooking chicken cutlets on your Blackstone and the oil keeps trying to run away from the chicken.
Luckily, leveling your Blackstone is usually a pretty simple thing to do. The easiest way is to just move the griddle to a more level location. Sometimes just moving it a couple of feet or shifting it 90 degrees is enough to solve the problem. But if that's not possible you just need something to raise up the lower end of the griddle enough to make it level.
Amazon has leveling shims made specifically for grills and they're pretty inexpensive. Or rig something up yourself. I picked up a couple eye bolts at Home Depot for maybe two bucks and they worked like a charm.
All I did was lift one end of the Blackstone and slide the bolts under the two wheels that needed to be raised. Here’s what it looks like now:
A quick word of caution: leveling a Blackstone griddle isn’t difficult but you do need to be careful. The Blackstone is heavy and having a buddy there to give you a hand is the best way to stay safe and avoid injury.
What Is The Weird Spring Thing On My Blackstone Leg?
The silver metal spring mounted on one of the front legs of a Blackstone griddle is the leg lock. If you need to transport your griddle you can fold the legs and the spring loaded lock will hold them in place.
If you still have the user manual for your flat top you should be able to find an image like the one below. I’m pretty sure it’s the only place in the manual that mentions the leg lock so it’s easy to miss. But there it is in black and white.
Is The 36 Inch Blackstone Portable?
At a hefty 120 pounds, the Blackstone 36 inch griddle is not designed to be carried around regularly. But if you need to transport it from one location to another you can remove the heavy flat top and fold up the legs to make it small enough to fit in your car. The Blackstone’s portability makes it easy to take along on vacation or for tailgating.
What Are The Best Food To Cook On A Blackstone?
Now that you know all about seasoning, cleaning, and managing the temp on your Blackstone, you're ready to start cooking on it! Here are some of my favorite meals to cook outside on a griddle:
I hope you found this beginner's guide to cooking on a Blackstone griddle helpful! If there's anything I forgot please drop a comment below and let me know.
Happy griddling!
This blackstone user guide is perfect timing since we just picked up a 4 burner over labor day weekend. thanks for putting this together, very helpful!
Good luck with your new griddle Melissa!