Griddle 101: Cooking In The Cold

Hello Friends,

I got a ton of responses from my email two weeks ago asking what your biggest griddle questions are. The most common ones were chicken and steak, which I covered in the past two emails. The next question I got a lot was about cooking in cold weather.

I’ve personally cooked on the griddle in temperatures as low as 20 degrees. Not because that’s all the griddle can handle—I’m sure you can cook in colder weather—that’s just as low as I’m personally willing to go outside, lol. The griddle itself works just fine in the cold; you just need to keep a few things in mind.

• Preheat on low. When the griddle surface is very cold, cranking it to high right away can shock the steel and potentially cause warping. Take your time and bring it up to temp slowly.
• Food cools fast. Once food comes off the griddle, it loses heat quickly in cold weather. Have plates ready and get it inside as soon as possible.
• Prep matters more than ever. You want this cook done fast. Running in and out of the house grabbing ingredients is no fun when it’s cold.

One more thing that comes up a lot in winter: propane tanks. Propane doesn’t “burn colder,” but in low temperatures it doesn’t vaporize as efficiently. That means you may notice weaker flames, longer preheat times, and it can feel like your tank runs out faster. The propane is still in there—it just isn’t converting to gas as well. Keeping the tank off frozen ground and using a full tank instead of a nearly empty one can help.

I’m also including a video today on griddle warping since it ties directly into cold-weather cooking and preheating the right way.

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Thanks,
Johnny