How to Season Your Carbon Steel Griddle

Stovetop griddles provide a large cooking surface that's perfect for preparing foods like pancakes, smashburgers, and eggs. Since Carbon Steel heats up quickly and evenly, it's an excellent choice for Griddles.

If you want to protect your griddle from rust and keep food from sticking to its surface, you'll need to learn how to season (or re-season) a griddle.

Why Do Griddles Need to Be Seasoned?

When Carbon Steel Cookware is bare, it's vulnerable to moisture and rust. The seasoning process creates a protective coating of oil that seals the surface “pores” of your Griddle, that provides a non stick patina and prevents rusting. This is why it’s important to season your Griddle prior to its first use.

Our Carbon Steel Griddle comes pre-seasoned, but we still recommend adding an additional layer of seasoning to ensure an entirely non stick surface before you get cooking. This is also important to do if you ever need to reseason your Griddle—such as after cooking an acidic ingredient or if your Griddle rusts.

How to Season Your Griddle

Seasoning your griddle is essential, but thankfully, it's not a difficult process. While there are a few different ways to season Carbon Steel Cookware, the oven is the easiest and most effective way to season a large piece of cookware, like a griddle.

The oil you use to season your griddle must be a neutral oil with a high smoke point. Grapeseed oil is an excellent option, but you can also use sunflower or canola oil. You'll also need a Sheet Pan, aluminum foil, dish soap, and paper towels.

1. Pre-Heat Your Oven

Your oven should be preheated to the smoke point of the oil you've selected. Different oils have different smoke points, which is why it's important to confirm that you've set your oven to the right temperature. While your oven preheats, cover your sheet pan in aluminum foil.

2. Give Your Griddle a Scrub

Use dish soap and warm water to clean away the coating that's on your Griddle. To completely remove the coating, you'll need to scrub the Griddle for around 10 minutes. Use paper towels to spot check the griddle and confirm that it's actually clean.

3. Dry Your Griddle

After you've removed as much oil as possible, you should wipe away any moisture on your Griddle. Dry it off with paper towels, then place it on your stovetop over low heat. The heat of the stove should cause any remaining moisture to evaporate.

4. Add a Coating of Oil

Once your Griddle is completely dry, remove it from the stove and let it cool. Place some oil in a small bowl so that you can dip the paper towel in the oil. Carefully use the paper towel to cover the griddle surface in a thin layer of oil—you don’t need a lot to season.

5. Transfer a Sheet Pan and Your Griddle to the Oven

Place your sheet pan on the bottom rack of the oven. Once the pan is there to catch droplets of oil, place your Griddle in the oven with the Griddle top facing down. Allow the Griddle to season for one hour.

Once an hour has passed, turn off the oven. Leave the Griddle in the oven while it cools. When the Griddle is completely cool, it's ready to be used. To kick-start the development of a non stick patina, we recommend cooking fatty proteins like bacon, steak, or burgers—you’re welcome.

While the seasoning process may sound complicated, you can quickly season a Carbon Steel Griddle. Follow the steps above, and soon you’ll be turning out diner-style breakfasts, grilled cheese, and other griddled entrees with ease.

Ready to Cook?

Try making these Spanish-Style Grilled Shrimp with Garlic Butter from our very own Rhoda Boone. The best part is you can cook them over the grill on your griddle or on the stovetop. Either way, they are excellent.