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Cooking pans like Blackstone Griddles are wonderful traditional tools for the kitchen as well as the campsight.
However, unlike their modern cousins with nonstick Teflon surfaces and similar, Griddles are essentially exposed metal with a fine cooking layer.
To deal with the natural breakdown that occurs with usage exposed to air and moisture over time, seasoning or oiling of a griddle is a practical preparation.
However, if one doesn’t use a griddle for a while, even with seasoning some cooking layer flaking can start to kick in.
Blackstone Seasoning Flaking Off
Every Blackstone Griddle comes with a designed surface if not a straight ironcast pan.
However, even this layer can start to deteriorate over time with use, age, banging around in the pan drawer or closet and regular washing. This wear and tear ends up resulting in what is commonly referred to as Blackstone Griddle flaking.
Regular care and preventative maintenance will minimize this effect significantly, but griddles used on an occasional basis, such as camp cookware, will realize the problem faster.
Why Does Seasoning Flake Off of Blackstone Griddles
Flaking happens for a couple of other reasons too. If residue or burnt food can cause a chemical reaction to the surface which will also contribute to the deterioration.
The result ends up being little black bits that show up in cooked food that have nothing to do with the desired meal.
No one needs to worry about their Blackstone Griddle being an inferior product.
The cookware is rated one of the top brands to be working with, and that reputation has been earned over time through performance.
Given that these products are fabricated with a high quality seven gauge steel, the integrity of the griddle is not in question, no matter what kind of corrosion might appear over time. In fact, the mix includes alloying metals that actually stop corrosion altogether.
Unfortunately, the primary culprit for flaking has been and continues to be poor owner care of the product in storage or when not in use. And that comes from not knowing how to care for a Blackstone Griddle to begin with.
How do you Resurface a Griddle?
Generally, it’s not possible for the consumer to resurface a Blackstone Griddle. The protecting cooking layer was originally put in place during the manufacturing process. That said, a user can reseason a griddle periodically to re-prep it with a fine layer of oil. That does two things.
One, it helps capture contaminants that can then be wiped off before cooking and removed.
Second, it protects the actual cooking layer from exposure with a protective, anti-moisture barrier. The typical oiling maintenance cycle is every two or three weeks if the griddle is not used regularly (i.e. daily).
If used regularly, the cooking oil and process already protects the griddle sufficiently and there’s no need to provide the additional oiling.
Is There a Coating on Blackstone Griddle?
As mentioned earlier, brand new Blackstone Griddles comes with a manufactured cooking layer to help with non-stick cooking. However, it is not perfect and will deteriorate over time from regular use as well as wear and tear.
Burnt food and a lack of seasoning or oiling the griddle before cooking will also accelerate the damage and wear to the cooking layer, with very abused griddles looking far worse than expectations over their lifetime.
Can you Ruin a Blackstone Griddle?
The short answer is, absolutely yes, a Blackstone Griddle can be ruined from horrible use and lack of care.
The most common culprit is burnt food being repeatedly cooked and left to heat, burn and solidify on the griddle. This happens in the form of leftover residue and poor cleaning and seasoning.
The residue can get hard due to high heat and bond with the cooking surface, making it even harder to clean later when the Griddle is cooled off. One the most predictable foods this happens with is bacon, which is chock full of grease and salt.
The two combined start to eat away at a seasoning layer on the Griddle over time if not cleaned off and instead burnt in.
Final Thoughts
Blackstone Griddles are incredibly durable and wonderful products for cookware if they are regularly maintained.
Good cleaning after use and proper seasoning between uses are the key to the long life of a reliable Griddle.
Don’t be alarmed when some peeling does occur; if you’ve maintained your cookware well, it will be minimal for a long time.