Choosing a Commercial Flat-top Griddle
Burgers, pancakes, eggs, and grilled cheese sandwiches are just a few customer favorites prepared best on a commercial griddle. Commercial flat-top griddles are available with numerous features that determine how they can be used and the volume of food they can prepare. If you're in the market for a new one, consider these important griddle features as you shop to ensure you pick the right one for your kitchen.
What is a Griddle?
Griddles are cooking equipment that utilize a flat top over burners to provide a large, versatile cooking surface. Commercial flat-top griddles are workhorses favored for making burgers, eggs, and grilled sandwiches. Griddles enable chefs to cook large quantities of food at a time because of their maximized surface area, but they don't work well with foods that must cook in or with liquid, as there are no sides to contain liquids.
Griddle Plate Thickness
The thickness of a commercial flat-top griddle's plate determines several of the equipment's important qualities. First, a thicker plate is more durable, which means it can withstand the stress of repeatedly heating up and cooling down without warping or showing signs of wear and tear. Second, a thicker griddle plate heats more evenly and stays hotter after batches of cold food are added. This creates a surface that can cook more food over a given time period than a thinner plate. However, thinner griddle plates heat up faster and are generally less expensive.
Griddle Plate Finish
Most commercial griddle plates are made of a steel alloy or stainless steel, with some given top layers of chrome to give the plate some special properties. Chrome is nonporous, so it's less likely to transfer flavor between different types of food. It also helps keep food from sticking and eliminates the need to season the cooking surface with oil. Finally, chrome is a nonreactive metal, so it doesn't impart a metallic taste to acidic foods or turn light-colored foods dark.
Griddle Depth & Width
Measured from the front of the griddle plate to the back, griddle plate depths range from 20 to 30 inches. Griddle width is the side-to-side measurement of the equipment. Flat-top griddles are commonly sized in width increments of 12 inches and range from 24 to 72 inches wide. Both measurements determine how much product you can cook in a single batch and how much space the equipment will take up in the kitchen. Before you decide on a griddle, make sure it'll fit in your available space. Be sure to account for the clearance requirements, which is the space needed between the griddle and surrounding walls and equipment.
Griddle Controls
Economy griddles are made with manual controls, a type that enables users to control the intensity of each burner from low to high. Novice cooks likely have learned what setting to use for each menu item they prepare, but more exacting, experienced chefs prefer to control the precise temperature of their griddle's cooking surfaces. For that, choose a commercial griddle with thermostatic controls. This type of control lets users dial in the temperatures they want to cook with, usually between 150 and 450 degrees Fahrenheit. There are three main types of thermostatic griddle controls.
Types of Thermostatic Controls
- Economy griddles are most often built with modulating thermostatic controls. These controls keep temperatures accurate to within 30 or 40 degrees Fahrenheit of the set temperature, making them the least accurate of all thermostat options.
- Medium-duty griddles most often are built with snap-action thermostats. These can keep griddle surfaces within 15 degrees Fahrenheit of their set temperatures, providing a good balance between accuracy and affordability.
- Heavy-duty griddles often are built with solid-state thermostats. These provide the greatest accuracy and come with the highest price tags. Solid-state controls can keep griddle temperatures within 5 degrees Fahrenheit of the set temperature.
Griddle Burner BTUs
The amount of heat that a flat-top griddle generates is measured in BTUs. A burner that generates a higher number of BTUs can keep a griddle hotter and provide better recovery rates from batch to batch, so higher BTUs translate to quicker cooking. Economy griddles may include burners that produce as little as 20,000 BTUs an hour, while more powerful medium- and heavy-duty gas griddles produce 30,000 BTUs per burner or more.
Electric Griddles
So far, our discussion has covered mainly gas griddles, but there are several reasons that operators ultimately choose electric griddles.
Benefits of Electric Griddles
- Electricity often is cheaper than gas.
- Electricity often is available where gas isn't.
- Electricity sometimes is perceived as safer than gas.
- Electricity generally provides lower long-term operating costs due to its energy efficiency.
Commercial electric griddles are available with three voltage options. Low-volume griddles operate on 120 volts, which provides enough power for cooking small volumes of food. Because these less-powerful griddles are powered by standard 120-volt outlets found in commercial and residential venues, 120-volt griddles often are built to be portable, making them a good solution for caterers and travelling chefs.
If your electric griddle will be one of your primary pieces of equipment, you'll likely want to invest in a more powerful 240-volt unit. If your kitchen is serviced by 3-phase power, a 208-volt griddle may be an option. These more powerful commercial griddles often can produce enough heat to keep up with gas-powered equipment.
Whereas the heat output of a gas griddle is measured in BTUs, commercial electric griddle power is measured in watts. Higher wattage means the equipment can keep a hotter plate. The standard is 4,000 to 6,000 watts per heating element. The amount of heat generated by elements in that range is roughly equivalent to 13,648 to 20,473 BTUs.
