Dinner & Electric Blackstone

We were in Walmart several weeks ago and they had so much of the summer type merchandise marked down – some items were marked down more than others. We have a Blackstone propane griddle and I do love it though I didn’t use it much during the summer when it was so hot outside. There are a lot of things I like to cook outside – things that splatter, things that smell up the kitchen but also, things that need a lot of room. The stove has a griddle but it isn’t huge so say I want to cook shrimp, veggies and make fried rice. I can’t do all that at the same time on the stove griddle. Sure, I could use a big skillet or Dutch oven AND the griddle or I could use several Dutch Ovens but on the Blackstone, I can do it all on the larger griddle and when I’m finished cooking, I just scrape all the debris to the back, push it down the debris hole (into a container), heat up the griddle and burn off whatever residue is left. Then I walk away, come back in a while, oil the top while the griddle is still warm, let it cool and place the cover back on it. Simple! No mess in the house.

One of the things on sale at Walmart was an electric Blackstone. It was marked way down so we got it. We set this up on the deck right off the kitchen so I have been using it for breakfast because I think breakfast foods are perfect for this type griddle, though breakfast foods aren’t particularly splattery or smelly. The electric griddle does work great for eggs and pancakes where the propane Blackstone gets hot and stays hot and sometimes it’s a challenge to cook eggs over easy without having a completely cooked yolk.

The electric griddle . . not so great for things other than eggs. I read the reviews and it’s been well discussed that it struggles to get up to the highest setting (500 degrees) and the minute you put food on it, it drops down by about 50% and never makes it back up to higher temps.

This afternoon I was going to cook scallops, shrimp and pan fried type potatoes. I put the potatoes on first and after 30 or more minutes, I scooped them all up into a skillet and finished them on the stove. The shrimp and scallops should have taken about 5 minutes to cook on a hot grill and it took at least 30 minutes.

I doubt a thick hamburger patty could be cooked on the electric griddle. I think that’s ridiculous because I have an Aldi hot plate that I paid about $15 for and it’s electric and gets MUCH hotter and stays MUCH hotter than this rather expensive Blackstone.

I’m not terribly disappointed but had I known that it really doesn’t work as it’s intended to work, I would not have bought it. I’d rather cook eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches on it than inside but as Vince said — it wasn’t worth the investment, even on sale, and the place to keep it just for those few things.

Others may have different ideas about it . . this is just my opinion.