Hi everyone! So I'm in the market for a new electric griddle. I've had 2 over the last few years but one got ruined when my mom somehow spilled lighter fluid on it and the one I replaced it with is now starting to die, it keeps turning on and off while I'm cooking so I think the heating element is dying. I have a nice big gas fueled outdoor griddle that cooks some good food but it's a pain to clean and it's below zero right now outside so I won't be using it for a while lol. I'm also going to be moving to an apartment in the next couple months so I need to downsize anyways

I've been shopping lately and I see that they now offer ceramic griddles and copper ones too, does anyone have any experience with them? The copper ones are more expensive I think. I feel like the ceramic ones would get damaged easily if you're doing something that involves chopping, like cheesesteaks, so I'm hesitant about that kind. My last 2 were just average non-stick ones, and I'd be down to get one like that I guess, I just want one that will last! The one that just died on me is a Rival, can any of you suggest a good brand? It would pretty much be used for pancakes really. Thanks!

https://www.cuisinart.com/products/grills/gr-4n/

That's mine. Works well when I have call to use it, amazing for doing paninis and searing because of the design(folds out full griddle mode). (In the past I used it at the table Teppanyaki style even, with people dipping thin meat slices in sauce options, searing it on the griddle, then right to plate/mouth.) At the least I like it better than other brands or styles of electric griddles/grills/etc. I've used, but it's not perfect. Can't chop on it (non stick surface), but never been an issue for me since I prep and slice ahead of time (or if I absolutely have to cook a cut unsliced, I'll just remove it to a cutting board for a second, my knife would demolish 99% of griddles anywah).

I have an Elecholmes griddle. It's glass ceramic. I love it. Nothing sticks to it and it cooks very evenly. It's not immersible though because the controls are LED. You also can't bang it around because it's ceramic. But it's an awesome griddle if you take care of it.

I have a really dumb question. Why don't you use a Cast Iron Griddle. The surface is nearly indestructible and cast iron will last beyond a life time. If that's not big enough, they have square one that can occupy two burners. I had to give up my old one because it wouldn't work with a glass top range but I am thinking about getting this one to replace it. I am currently using a aluminum teflon coated one which works well but I don't use anything on it that might scratch it and I keep the temperature under control.

I have a cast iron griddle built into the stove. I can flip it as one side is smooth and the other has ridges. The burner for it should be more powerful, but it works. Once you season cast iron and maintain it, it always works well. For nonstick work, I use TFal pans. They are inexpensive and work well, they heat up quickly too. Worst nonstick buy was a food network square griddle for stove top. The nonstick becomes stick when used much beyond medium heat while I can sear scallops with the TFal.


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thanks for the input everyone! It sounds like ceramic may be the way to go. I have a cast iron pan already, and I like it for stuff like home fries but I think eggs would be better with ceramic. I can still use the cast iron for stuff like cheesesteaks that involves chopping, and I've actually used my pan to make pan pizza before! I want a griddle because of the space, it's super easy to just do 2 or 3 pancakes at once and have them come out really good, same with french toast. I don't think I've cooked pancakes on ceramic before though, maybe I'll do some research!

Quote from: Dena on January 05, 2018, 03:03:26 PM
I have a really dumb question. Why don't you use a Cast Iron Griddle. The surface is nearly indestructible and cast iron will last beyond a life time. If that's not big enough, they have square one that can occupy two burners. I had to give up my old one because it wouldn't work with a glass top range but I am thinking about getting this one to replace it. I am currently using a aluminum teflon coated one which works well but I don't use anything on it that might scratch it and I keep the temperature under control.

I have a cast iron griddle but it's too small to make a bunch of pancakes or whatever at once. Our stove has a griddle but you have to take out two of the burners and replace them with the griddle and then take it out and put the burners back if you want 4 burners. It sounds simple but it's not. The griddle part is in the basement I think, we've never used it. It's just much easier to use an electric griddle.

So I got a griddle on Sunday. I got the copper one. I guess it's not actual copper, just some special spray coating. I got it because it had good reviews on JC Penney's website and the price was right. the list price is $60 but there was a sale online for $45. I went to the store and they said it wasn't on sale at the store but they price matched it anyways, and then I had a $10 rewards coupon, and then a gift card covered the rest

I let it run for 10 minutes last night for the initial burn in and then I cooked my first meal with it tonight. I did pancakes and the results were less than favorable lol. On my old griddle I used to set it to 400, but I knew that there was an issue with that griddle and it didn't run as hot as it should have. the manual for my new griddle said to cook pancakes at 400 degrees, but I backed it down to a little under 375, and that was still too hot I think. I make a really good batter and my cakes are a bit thicker, so I think I just need to do a lower temp and cook longer or else they will be burned outside and raw inside. The ones I did tonight got dark on the outside but they were still salvageable, they tasted better than they looked! I'm gunna try again this weekend I guess. I'm bummed though because you can see that there's light spots and dark spots on my food, which means that they weren't cooked evenly, so I may look into returning this after another cook or two but I'm not sure that they will take it back. I do gotta say though that the non-stick coating is great! very smooth!



Luckily I made some home fries as a backup, they're some of the best ones I've ever done! Those were done in my cast iron skillet though

Wow, yeah, that is definitely not cooking evenly.

well I tried the griddle out again this weekend. It made some pretty solid bacon, I actually think it did a better job with the bacon than my big expensive outdoor griddle! I think the oven is still my preferred method for that though. I'm really loving the non-stick, it makes cleanup after bacon soooo easy! I did some pancakes again at a lower temperature.  They still browned more around where the heating element is, but really it only affected the looks, the taste and texture was fine so I think I can live with this griddle, I'll hopefully at least get another 5 years use out of it!

If you use spray on oil or a little butter the pancakes will come out better


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Quote from: Gertrude on January 15, 2018, 07:06:54 PM
If you use spray on oil or a little butter the pancakes will come out better


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the instructions actually said not to use a cooking spray because it will leave a residue with the copper finish. I've cooked a couple things with butter so far and I haven't seen a residue from that yet so I think it's safe. With pancakes I don't usually put butter down before the batter. A while back I remember watching a tv show where someone at a diner said that there's so much butter in his batter that he doesn't need to use it on the griddle because it never sticks. I use a decent amount in mine too but what the heck, I'll give it a shot next time

Quote from: Maddie86 on January 16, 2018, 06:01:27 PM
the instructions actually said not to use a cooking spray because it will leave a residue with the copper finish. I've cooked a couple things with butter so far and I haven't seen a residue from that yet so I think it's safe. With pancakes I don't usually put butter down before the batter. A while back I remember watching a tv show where someone at a diner said that there's so much butter in his batter that he doesn't need to use it on the griddle because it never sticks. I use a decent amount in mine too but what the heck, I'll give it a shot next time

One tip, when going for non-stick with butter, you should always use a little bit of a real, high quality butter, or at least partially clarify some. The super watery butter, particularly store brands, just does not work at all, has to be pure fat almost. I learned that the hard way.

Quote from: Roll on January 16, 2018, 09:46:50 PM
One tip, when going for non-stick with butter, you should always use a little bit of a real, high quality butter, or at least partially clarify some. The super watery butter, particularly store brands, just does not work at all, has to be pure fat almost. I learned that the hard way.

I never knew that, thanks!

Quote from: Maddie86 on January 17, 2018, 04:41:27 AM
I never knew that, thanks!

Oh, I'll add I think the stuff labeled European style is usually higher fat content, but I'm not positive. Stupid watery butters now just separate and burn instantly and don't really do anything. With higher fat contents which take it closer to oil or lard you can straight up stir fry with it. (Ever seen people cooking in restaurants like behind the counter at a diner or a hibachi place? Those slabs of butter have more fat in them than an entire 4 stick box from the grocery store probably, heh.)

Quote from: Roll on January 16, 2018, 09:46:50 PM
One tip, when going for non-stick with butter, you should always use a little bit of a real, high quality butter, or at least partially clarify some. The super watery butter, particularly store brands, just does not work at all, has to be pure fat almost. I learned that the hard way.

That is so true. Though it's expensive I get land o lakes butter. It's definitely worth it. I've learned that you can't send a guy to get butter. I once sent my brother to the store to get butter. I told him exactly what to get. He cane home with this ginormas tub of margarine that was even below the store brand. When I told him that wasn't what I asked for he said yeah, but that was a huge thing of butter and one little box of what I told him to get was 4 times more expensive. I told him it was margarine, not butter. He said " what's the difference, it's all butter". Sigh.......

Butter can not take high temperature as it will begin to burn and turn brown. One of the ways I combat that is by adding some canola oil. Butter begins to melt at 90 degrees and burns at 300 degrees. Vegetable based oil has a smoking point of 450 degrees. Even olive oil does not smoke until 375 degrees.   The copper griddle looks good but the surface is sprayed on over aluminum which tends to heat unevenly and I would suspect scratches over time and it is copper colored not copper coated. The ceramic also seems good and as long as the surface remains polished it should not stick for a few years. But I have an iron griddle that has not stuck for 20 years. or about the last time I washed it as it usually just takes a paper towel to clean it.

In my experience with butter as a nonstick medium, while it does burn quicker than oils, when cooking something like pancakes that is usually not a problem. As they often preclude higher temps to begin with, and they absorb the fat readily it tends to prevent it from burning and doesn't make the food feel/taste greasy, when by the same token the oils often will--even though you'd probably have to oil the pan far less often (light brush once will do it, where with butter it's add more for each individual pancake). Though honestly I usually use the butter flavored sprays for waffle irons or griddles when doing stuff like pancakes and waffles, which is a nice in between, as it doesn't mess up the flavor profile like most oils do and feel but at the same time doesn't burn virtually instantly if the pan gets too hot for even a moment. Of course it definitely only works for the stuff you can cook a bit lower to begin with.

Butter also works great as a sort of "after thought" with a non-stick effect for some foods, as it melts and absorbs into stuff like vegetables or rice it helps to prevent them from sticking without really burning at all, while adding that great rich flavor. (To go back to the hibachi reference above, like they do with the butter at Japanese steak houses on the veggies and fried rice.) Sometimes I will use some watery butter in place of actual water to deglaze pans and make a quick sauce out of the stuck on bits with the butter base.

Quote from: Roll on January 17, 2018, 12:40:28 PM
In my experience with butter as a nonstick medium, while it does burn quicker than oils, when cooking something like pancakes that is usually not a problem. As they often preclude higher temps to begin with, and they absorb the fat readily it tends to prevent it from burning and doesn't make the food feel/taste greasy, when by the same token the oils often will--even though you'd probably have to oil the pan far less often (light brush once will do it, where with butter it's add more for each individual pancake). Though honestly I usually use the butter flavored sprays for waffle irons or griddles when doing stuff like pancakes and waffles, which is a nice in between, as it doesn't mess up the flavor profile like most oils do and feel but at the same time doesn't burn virtually instantly if the pan gets too hot for even a moment. Of course it definitely only works for the stuff you can cook a bit lower to begin with.

Butter also works great as a sort of "after thought" with a non-stick effect for some foods, as it melts and absorbs into stuff like vegetables or rice it helps to prevent them from sticking without really burning at all, while adding that great rich flavor. (To go back to the hibachi reference above, like they do with the butter at Japanese steak houses on the veggies and fried rice.) Sometimes I will use some watery butter in place of actual water to deglaze pans and make a quick sauce out of the stuck on bits with the butter base.

I would use nothing but butter for vegetables. If you use vegetable oil or canola you don't add a lot. Just enough to keep the butter from burning. It will still taste like butter. This works great for searing meat which requires high temp.

Butter consist of three things. Water, fat and milk solids. When you clarify butter, you remove the water, the milk solids and leave the fat. The Milk solids are the part that burn however they also contain a good deal of flavor. There are products that just contains the milk solids that you can use for flavoring if you don't want the fat in your diet.