Commercial Griddles – Your Chief Cook And Bottle Washer In Your Kitchen

Commercial griddles are one of the cheapest but most versatile cooking equipment. You can grill almost everything from steaks, poultry, and fish to vegetables, eggs, and pancakes. The flat cooking surface over the burners provides a spacious grilling area, perfect for preparing diverse recipes using the same cooktop. You may find griddles used interchangeably with commercial grills. They both do the same task of grilling ingredients by applying the dry-cook method, so griddles are often considered a type of commercial grills. The only difference is that grills cook items on parallel grates but griddles on a flat top.

Types of Commercial Griddles

You can choose your commercial griddle first by fuel type. Commercial gas griddles are more common and known for their faster heat-up times, and they also respond faster to temperature adjustments through thermostatic controls. If natural gas isn't available, you can still benefit from the cost-effectiveness of gas griddles. These units can often be converted to LP gas, making your griddle mobile. Commercial electric griddles are also an option for facilities without gas hookups. Induction griddles are becoming a wiser alternative, too. They offer more precise temperature control and cook more efficiently at lower temperatures.

Most commercial griddles are for kitchen countertops. Commercial countertop griddles usually have legs or a stand, creating a sufficient clearance from your counter. Drop-in griddles are recessed into the counter, looking almost level with it. However, please remember that you can't move them once installed. Do you mostly grill delicate items like thinner meat slices, seafood, vegetables, eggs, noodles, or pancakes? Then, you can get a teppanyaki griddle and please Japanese cuisine lovers.

Commercial outdoor griddles enable you to carry your cooking capacity to outdoor venues with heavy-duty casters. They're perfect for on-site caterers. Plus, most commercial griddles in this category can be converted into a charbroiler to give your recipes the mostly loved outside BBQ taste and texture. You can have the same dual function with a griddle broiler combo. One side of the unit is a charbroiler with grates, while the other side is a griddle with a flat surface. There are also griddle burner combos.  

Factors To Consider When Buying Commercial Griddles

The side-to-side width of the cooking surface is an essential measure to specify the size of your commercial griddle. This often ranges from 11 to 84 inches. The size of the grilling area directly affects how much food you can cook in each batch. Also, a larger plate means using more energy to keep it hot at the desired temperatures. Therefore, a restaurant griddle with a large cooking surface would mean energy waste for a low-production facility.

The plate thickness of a commercial griddle also matters. It can be up to 1 inch. Your cooking volumes and the type of food are the key factors. Thinner plates heat faster but can't retain heat for long. They are ideal for tender products and low-volume cooking. Thicker plates would be more efficient, producing quicker results for more frequent use with frozen foods, steaks, or burgers. They take longer to reach the ideal cooking temperatures but can remain hot for longer, cooking more batches when heated.

A commercial griddle can be an invaluable addition to your foodservice establishment. Chef's Deal offers a wide selection of styles and sizes from industry leaders, Accutemp, American Range, Comstock-Castle, Connerton, Imperial, Lang Manufacturing, Vulcan, and more.