Griddle 101: Prevent Warping

Hello Friends,

My latest video is about how griddles warp — and it's a topic I know firsthand. A while back I put a 5-pound log of frozen beef on mine after a long preheat, over 500°, and the shock of it warped my griddle right in front of me.

Turns out there are four main causes:

1. Cranking straight to high, especially in cold weather. I start on medium-low for a few minutes first, then work up to high.
2. Running only half the griddle — one side on high, the other off. I keep it all on until it's fully preheated before I ever isolate a burner or two.
3. Dropping a lot of frozen food on a screaming hot griddle. I still cook frozen stuff, just at a lower temp like 375° instead of 500°+.
4. Dumping ice or cold water on it to clean. I still use water to clean, just warm water from a squirt bottle, not buckets of cold.

If it does warp, don't panic — most of the time it flattens back out once it cools. If not, contact the manufacturer (regardless of age), or try weighing down the warped section and running it on medium for 20 minutes to help push it back flat.

I go into a lot more detail on each of these in the video below, plus what actually fixed mine.

Has your griddle ever warped? Hit reply and let me know what happened.

Keep on griddling friends,
Johnny

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