Good Griddling with Steven Raichlen
Steven Raichlen: [00:00:00] The first griddle that I had and what I did was I bought one of these, I call ’em portable griddles.
They’re a flat, cast iron slab about that big. I put it on my Weber kettle grill. So the heat source was charcoal. I added some wood chunks to the fire. And then I cooked shrimp and padron peppers and the style of Spanish, top of spar shrimp. They were absolutely amazing. They were crusty, they were smoky, they were sizzling full of flavor.
But for the outdoor griddler, yeah, I’m gonna assume you’ll buy a griddle. Okay. I suppose somebody who has blacksmith skills could forge one, but basically you need a thick slab of heavy metal, like cast iron. But you position that over a campfire, you get little wisps of smoke curling over the edges of the griddle.
You don’t necessarily need a propane fired four-burner, 48-inch commercial griddle. However, if you have one, just makes life that much [00:01:00] easier.
Josh Wilder: Welcome to the Mother Earth News and Friends podcast. At Mother Earth News, for 50 years and counting, we’ve been dedicated to conserving the planet’s natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources in this podcast we host conversations with experts in the fields of sustainability, homesteading, natural health, and more to share all about how you can live well wherever you are in a way that values both people and our Mother Earth. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends. I’m Josh Wilder, the Content Director for Mother Earth News.
And with me today I have Steven Raichlen, a multi award-winning writer and television host and past Mother Earth News Fair speaker. His books include the international blockbusters the Barbecue Bible, How to Grill, Project Smoke, the New York Times Bestselling Planet Barbecue, and his newest book Project Griddle.
So Steven, how are you doing today?
Steven Raichlen: Couldn’t be better. Thank you.
Multiple Griddle Applications
Josh Wilder: So this will be coming out around Memorial [00:02:00] Day. Now, folks might have a few different appliances in their backyard to entertain and you mentioned in the book that you could hear the murmurs of discontent from diehard grill fans.
I understand you have to be diplomatic, but since I think it’s fair to say, the grill is arguably the default backyard cooker, what is your elevator pitch for the griddle?
Steven Raichlen: Two of the world’s biggest griddle companies, Weber and Traeger, came out with standup outdoor griddles last year. It’s really say no more.
These are not competing tools for outdoor cooking. These are complimentary. Certain things you do on your griddle, certain things you do on your grill the griddle will never replace the grill. But at the same time, there’s a lot you can do on a griddle that you can’t do on a grill.
Correct.
How to DIY an Outdoor Griddle
Josh Wilder: Now a lot of our audience are do it yourself types. Now if someone asked you how to DIY a griddle into their outdoor homestead kitchen, what might be a setup you would recommend?
Steven Raichlen: Okay, [00:03:00] super easy because it was the first griddle that I had and what I did was I bought one of these, I call ’em portable griddles.
They’re a flat, cast iron slab about that big. I put it on my Weber kettle grill. So the heat source was charcoal. I added some wood chunks to the fire. And then I cooked shrimp and padron peppers and the style of Spanish, top of spar shrimp. They were absolutely amazing. They were crusty, they were smoky, they were sizzling full of flavor.
But for the outdoor griddler, yeah, I’m gonna assume you’ll buy a griddle. Okay. I suppose somebody who has blacksmith skills could forge one, but basically you need a thick slab of heavy metal, like cast iron. But you position that over a campfire, you get little wisps of smoke curling over the edges of the griddle.
You don’t necessarily need a propane fired four-burner, 48-inch commercial griddle. However, if you have one, just makes life that [00:04:00] much easier.
How to Maintain and Your Griddle and Keep it Clean
Josh Wilder: Sure. Now speaking of the specific kinds and I think for all of them, you mentioned how important it’s to be clean. Now what sort of materials and designs are most durable for long-term use.
Steven Raichlen: Yeah. I would say the sort of the two materials that griddles come in are cast iron or carbon steel, and stainless steel and stainless steel griddles tend to be more in a restaurant application. I don’t like ’em as much ’cause they’re hard to season.
They have to be really well seasoned or food will stick. Cast iron on the other hand because it’s slightly porous, very easy to season. And the more you use it, the the more non-stick it comes. Now in terms of tools, you want one of these, this is a scraper and this is for scraping off.
Your griddle to clean it before you get started. You want one of these this is an offset spatula. I like the ones with the holes in the spatula, so they let release the steam, so your [00:05:00] food truly s seers rather than steams on the griddle. You want one of these, this is a griddle dome and you can just use an inverted metal bowl.
But when you’re cooking something thick by, let’s say chicken thighs or a big thick pork chop, you place this on top. This captures the heat. So you get to cook from the top down as well as from the bottom up. And you’ll notice you wanna buy one of these that has holes, some little vent holes in the in the griddle to let the steam out.
We’re really about searing, not about steaming,
From Wagyu to the Griddle
Josh Wilder: I’m curious, how did you, and you talk a little bit about this in the book, but can you talk a little bit about the Wagyu steak story and how that kind of got you down this path?
Steven Raichlen: You bet. So how did I get into griddling? Blame it on a steak and not only a steak, blame it on one of those A5 Wagyu steaks.
Super well marbled. So well marbled in fact that they look like white lace laid over a red tablecloth. We’re talking about. Probably 50% meat, [00:06:00] 50% fat. They’re actually absolutely exquisite. But if you tried to grill one of those on a conventional grill, the melting fat, the whole thing would set on fire.
So I took my cue from a Japanese steak master that uses a teon, which is the Japanese word for a griddle to cook the A5 Wagyu. The results were spectacular. The outside was crusty, seared brown inside Meltingly tender. I. Luscious. I got no flare ups. I had all that wonderful melted Wagyu fat to cook my potatoes in afterwards.
And it was a revelation that was the light bulb that went off and said, Hey, wait a minute, maybe there’s something to this whole griddling thing. Let’s see what else we can do with it.
Menus for Griddle Meals
Josh Wilder: Yeah. And it seems like, you have some unbelievable recipes in this book.
And some of the amazing food, and you think about it compared to a grill and you can fit so much more onto a griddle than you can in a grill. Can you describe some of the larger meals that you have in the book?
Steven Raichlen: Yeah. In fact in the book [00:07:00] I have these menus, right? A tapas bar menu, an American Diner menu.
And the idea is to take advantage, the griddles large size to cook a whole meal on the griddle. And what I do is I tell you how to sequence it, what to make first, what to make second, if you’re making breakfast on the griddle. And for a lot of people that’s the entry meal into a griddle.
So I would start probably by cooking the bacon and the sausage, because you want to use the melting fat to lubricate your griddle for the next. Of course then I’d probably cook the hash browns because, they move ’em over to the side. You can keep ’em warm. Ditto for the potatoes.
Last thing you want to cook are your dirty eggs, which is the Steven Reland version of a fried egg. And what I do is I. Chopped real fine. I chopped fresh herbs, sage basil, rosemary tarragon, garlic, scallions, and I melt a little circle of butter on the griddle where each egg is gonna go. And I put those ingredients first, the chopped herbs, then I crack an egg on top.
But what [00:08:00] happens is as the egg is frying on the griddle. It cooks and crusts all those herbs. You flip the egg over to do the sunny side up thing and you wind up with a beautiful fragrant herb crust on top and looks a little dirty. So that’s why I call it a dirty egg.
Josh Wilder: That’s great. And that style of cooking, it’s not something you can do on a grill.
Griddles Reduce Food Waste
Josh Wilder: And also talk about producing food waste and what you can do because sometimes food falls between the grates of the grill.
Steven Raichlen: Oh, yeah. There’s absolutely no food waste. And not only no food waste because the griddle is a solid cook surface, but also.
Think about it, many foods, let’s say a hamburger, if you’re cooking a hamburger on a grill, you’re gonna have a certain, you’re gonna lose a certain amount of the juices, right? Because they’re gonna just sizzle and fall into the coals. And there’s some advantage of that because they get volatilized and they.
Come up and they do flavor your meat, with the, in a way, but on a griddle, there’s no loss of those cooking juices. Your food actually cooks in those cooking cook food [00:09:00] juices. So be it. If you’re cooking fish, if you’re cooking smash burgers or chicken, you’re actually keeping flavor in by keeping those meat juices on the griddle.
Battery-powered Griddles
Josh Wilder: If you were in an off-grid situation, we already talked about, having a griddle over a fire, but if you were, say you wanted some sort of griddle that could run off of a battery power, what sort of electric griddles have you worked with in the past?
Steven Raichlen: Weber makes an electric griddle.
Many companies do. I think cuisine art makes an electric griddle. I’ll be honest with you, I’ve not had a lot of experience with electric griddles ’cause I’m more an outdoor guy. And I either use the propane or griddle positioned directly over campfire or wood fire.
But the principle’s the same. You’re cooking on a slab of hot metal and there’s a, food scientists talk about a phenomenon called the Maillard Effect, named for a a French chemist who lived in the early in the last century. And what the Maillard effect is, it basically has to do with the [00:10:00] caramelization of meat, proteins in meat and a plant sugars in vegetables and fruits, and all of those luscious, toasty caramel.
Meaty flavors that we associate with griddle cooked foods they develop on the griddles. So that’s what makes griddle food so flavorful. By the way, and I have to be a little mysterious about this, but I even devised a way to smoke on a griddle and I’ve got a couple recipes, like there’s a barbecue chicken with Alabama white sauce that is quite literally.
Smoked with hickory chips or hickory pellets, and I can’t tell you exactly how you have to do it. You have to buy the book. But and that was my way of saying to all my barbecue followers, Hey guys, come on. I have not gone over to the dark side. Look, I’m even smoking on a griddle.
Josh Wilder: I can tell you our neighbors over in Kansas City would certainly be interested in trying some of that.
Steven Raichlen: You bet. You bet.
Global Griddle Traditions
[00:11:00]
Josh Wilder: So you’ve explored global barbecue traditions in the past. Can you talk about how this book delves into regional griddle cooking styles from different cultures?
Steven Raichlen: Oh yeah, absolutely. And whenever I write a new book, first thing I do is a pack a suitcase. I pack a suitcase. So this book involved research in Spain, in Italy, in Japan.
Taiwan the Caribbean because griddling is virtually universal. Okay. It’s done everywhere on the planet. And it, think about the evolution of live fire cooking. So step number one, homoerectus throws a hunk of meat directly on the coals. Still survives today in caveman grilling evolutionary.
Step number two, you stick that meat on a stick and you hold it over the fire. So then we’ve got shish kebab and rotisserie cooking. Step number three, you you heat a rock. With fire, and then you cook the food directly on the rock. So that’s really the precursor of the griddle. But griddling, [00:12:00] it’s universal.
And I’ve tried to, I, I’m probably the 12 or 15 different countries that are whose griddle specialties are featured in Project Griddle.
Josh Wilder: So what were some of the most interesting historical facts or cultural insights you uncovered during these travels?
Steven Raichlen: First of all, etymologically, our word griddle comes from the Latin reticulum, and that is also the same etymological root as our word grid iron.
Or grill. So the two are related. So that was another reason why my barbecue fans shouldn’t be too mad at me because there’s historical president. Another thing that was really interesting to find was the second earliest griddle reference that I found in the English language. The Oxford English dictionary is a recipe for griddled fish, and it’s actually the recipe is written in rhyming couplets.
So that was pretty cool.
Vegetarians and Griddles
Josh Wilder: That’s great. As far as a growing interest in plant-based diets are there any recipes in the book that talk about [00:13:00] vegetarian diets?
Steven Raichlen: Absolutely. One of my favorite dishes and my wife and I make it once a week is barbecue tofu and we season it with homemade barbecue spice and cook it on the griddle.
And we griddle the buns and griddle the onions. And the tomatoes and lettuce obviously have to stay fresh. But that is a great meatless dish that, honestly, I eat once a week. By the way. Don’t tell my barbecue fans that I eat tofu, ’cause that could play poorly. There are many grilled cheese recipes in the book.
There’s a quesadilla, there’s a piadina from from, from Italy tapas bar mushrooms there’s these little cheese disks, which are really cool. You take grated manchego cheese and you put it directly on the griddle and you cook it just long enough to melt the cheese, turn it over, cook the other side the same way, put it on a wire rack, and as it hardens, it gets crisp like a potato chip.
And by the way, speaking of potato chips, last night, we made griddled potato chips and a lot [00:14:00] less fat than a, commercial deep fried potato chip. Absolutely delicious.
Josh Wilder: Sounds delicious. Tofu is notorious for sticking when it’s, sauteed or baked.
Does the Maillard technique on the griddle alleviate that?
Steven Raichlen: Absolutely. For me, the challenge of cooking tofu lies in grilling it. And what I do is I press the tofu, I get, extra firm tofu, but on a griddle there’s no stick whatsoever. It’s, that’s the beauty.
Hot griddle oiled well, get the tofu dry. It’s fantastic. I had some in the fridge yesterday, but I ate it for lunch but that’s a really good dish.
Josh Wilder: I’ll have to give that one a try. I appreciate your time and I’ll let you, I’ll let you go, but any last words for anyone who’s interested in griddle but needs that final push over the ledge?
Steven Raichlen: Absolutely. First of all, if Steven Raichlen did it, you can do it. Second of all if you want more information on it or go to my website, which is barbecuebible.com, and sign up for [00:15:00] my Up in Smoke newsletter. Because, we send you, free recipes, free techniques, restaurant reviews, et cetera, every week.
And if you wanna follow me on social media, it’s Steven Raichlen on Facebook and Instagram. And, we try and answer every question and comment, so griddle on.
Josh Wilder: All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Steven Raichlen: Sure. Bye-bye. Bye.
Josh Wilder: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends. To listen to more podcasts and get connected on our social media, visit www.MotherEarthNews.com/Podcast. You can also email us at Podcast@OgdenPubs.com with any questions or suggestions. Our podcast production team includes Kenny Coogan, Alyssa Warner, and myself, Josh Wilder.
Music for this episode is the song Hustle by Kevin MacLeod. The Mother Earth News and Friends podcast is a production of Ogden Publications. [00:16:00]
Jessica Anderson: Until next time, don’t forget to love your Mother.
