Ever headed out to your griddle to cook up that sweet meal you have been planning, just to find a rusty griddle…..Bummer! After your griddle has sat outside for a bit or been stored with moisture, your griddle can get rusty.
You may be wondering if it’s safe to cook with rust on your griddle cooking surface.
Your once beautiful, slick, well-seasoned griddle is now a dusty Mars-like surface, and your lightyears away from griddling. BUT! We can explain why you have a rusty griddle and give you the steps needed to bring it back from a rusty death-trap to a like-new griddle again! STOP: If you just got a new griddle, check out The 5 Steps To Take With A New Griddle
Why Does My Griddle Keep Rusting?
Here’s the deal, rust is just a thing and we can’t completely avoid it. I’m no scientist, but I’ll dumb you guys down to my level with this explanation.
When you have elements like Iron, water, and oxygen it’s like a chemical party. At the party, Mr. Iron (your griddle surface), Ms.Rain (rain/humidity) really hit it off and got a little intoxicated (Oxygen), and well, as you guessed it, a short time later they made a baby, and that baby is red, dusty and corrosive (Rust).
That’s the best I can do at explaining how rust develops aside from saying when you leave your griddle outside, it gets rusty. For a more complete understanding of rust, see here from some rust pros. Whether it’s a car, bridge, or your backyard flat top grill, rust just happens.
A word of caution here, if you neglect your griddle and wait for extended periods of time to remove a light layer of rust from your griddle, the rust will move from being surface level, to deeper into the surface and then you start to degrade the integrity of the griddle surface, so clean it when you see it. The good news? It’s completely treatable!
How To Clean A Rusty Griddle
Here is the best part about a rusty griddle, you can fix it! Yep, that’s right, don’t go tossing your Blackstone griddle into the dump just yet because of a little rust, we have the tools you need to treat a rusty griddle.
Here is what you will need to remove rust from your griddle:
- Griddle Scraper
- Gloves
- Your Go-To Griddle Oil
- Kitchen Towels or Shop Towels (or paper towels)
- Abrasive Pumice Stone or Grill/Griddle Stone
How To Remove Rust From A Griddle
Step 1. Heat Your Griddle:
This is a basic step to all work with a griddle, we always heat it first, this allows the pours in the iron to open up and release their death grip on the rust. Turn the Griddle to Med-High and allow about 15-20 minutes for the griddle surface to heat up. Once that’s done, turn the heat off and head to step 2.
Step 2. Scrape The Rust Off
Grab your griddle scraper and start scraping as the griddle is still hot and cooling down. We don’t want to wait until the griddle is cool again as it will limit the ability to remove rust. Continue to scrape until the rust is removed and you’re left with the clean metal surface, then head to step 3.
Step 3. Use a Pumice Stone
Drizzle a small amount of oil onto the griddle surface. Gab your pumice stone or abrasive griddle stone and start rubbing the griddle surface until you get a shiny griddle surface.
Step 4. Drizzle, Scrub, and Wipe:
Continue to scrub and wipe away the residual oil/rust as you go and add oil as needed. You will know when its time to stop as all of the rust will be gone and your griddle surface will be looking new again.
Step 5. Re-Season:
Once satisfied with the rust scrubbed away, it’s time to re-season your griddle. If you are unsure about how to do this, see our Easy Griddle Seasoning Guide. Just like that, your rusty old griddle is shining new again with a fresh layer of seasoning!
How To Prevent A Griddle From Rusting
There are a couple of ways to prevent your griddle from any further rusting. The first and easiest thing you can do is to use your griddle often! The more often your griddle gets used, the less opportunity for that griddle rust party to take place again. The next thing to do is ALWAYS make sure you keep your griddle oiled after every use…EVERY USE. For more info about keeping your griddle outdoors, read up here.
The next step is how you store it. Not many people have the ability to keep their griddle in a climate-controlled environment, so a griddle cover is the best bet as it does a great job of stopping moisture and rain from pooling on the griddle surface. More on this from the Pros at Blackstone can be found here.
Best Covers For Your Blackstone Griddle
Blackstone 17- See on Amazon
Blackstone 22- See on Amazon
Blackstone 28- See on Amazon
Blackstone 36- See on Amazon
Can You Cook On A Rusty Griddle?
The short answer is NO, you cant cook. (and eat) from a rusty griddle. The rust particles will be in your food when you cook on a rusty griddle and thats not the type of iron you want to feed your family.
However, fortunately if you follow the above steps in this article, you wont have to worry about eating food with rust in it.
Final Word On Your Rusty Griddle
A rusty griddle is never fun, but like all things, you learn as you go. Following the steps above you won’t have to worry any longer about a rusty griddle and instead you only have to worry about your actual cooking ability.
