!$%#@*&!! Pancakes Sticking to the Griddle!

[lowracer]

Argh! Just when I thought I got the hang of it, I end up ruining a batch of pancakes on the griddle. Stuck stuck stuck.

Cooked a pound of bacon, drained off the grease, let it cool down a bit, poured on the pancake batter, and it became one with the griddle. Fused to the metal on a quantum-molecular level. A new chemical alloy, denoted by the symbol "AlPk" or Aluminum Pancakide. No known industrial use, except as dogfood. Had to shut off the broiler and scrape scrape scrape.

After scraping, re-lit the broiler, put on some Crisco, poured on some more batter, and stuck stuck stuck.

My wife had to forcibly take over the kitchen with two skillets to make the rest of the batch.

The dog got a great treat this morning. Half cooked pancakes. His favorite. Oh and in case anyone's concerned about him getting Alzheimer's disease from eating aluminum, he's already got it. We call it "Dogzheimer's" disease. He's 18 years old, three paws in the grave, and he doesn't care if the pancakes have aluminum in them or if they're not fully cooked all the way through, or if they are on the ground.

What the heck am I doing wrong? Why do the pancakes suddenly start sticking?

[Ms V]

Hummm...

Have you done pancakes AFTER the bacon before?

There seems to be a real 'thing' about the RIGHT temp, bubbles/dancing bubbles/exploding bubbles.

When I re-season, I crisco, and then low heat griddle in about 200-250 degree oven, for some time..

It could have been a doggie planned event...v

[stoveman]

Don't have much experience on the Chambers griddle, but I have found that most sticking on a non-castiron griddle is too much heat. All the cookbooks suggest using the "dancing water droplet" method of testing griddle heat. I do know that the aluminium and chrome plated griddles are very sensitive to heat as compaired to cast iron. In fact, many ranges of the 40' and 50's had a heat indicater built into the the griddle to assist in getting the heat right. I have used this indicater on a Chambers model OKM and found that the cooking temperature is a lot cooler than I expected.
Some cooks add a little extra oil to their recipes to cure the sticking problem.

[Todd W. White]

I remember the Tappan from the early 1950's we had when we first got married (hadn't discovered CHAMBERS yet) had one of those little temperature gauges on the griddle.

CHAMBERS recommended adding a little oil to pancake batter - just in case.

Their "dancing drop of water" test works for me, for, as Sam said, the non-cat iron griddles really don't like too much heat...

I've seen some folks put non-stick stuff on the aluminum griddles (Read: TEFLON or it's equivalent), but I am REALLY unsure about that - I've seen too many skillets with pieces of that stuff missing...wonder where it all went? Hmmmm...

The GRISWOLD #8 griddle is said top be a perfect fit to use on the CHAMBERS when you need a griddle (still trying to get my hands on one). You just can't leave it there when using the broiler, as the mechanism can't handle the extra weight. Some folks use the cast iron one to cook on for griddle use, then put their perfectly clean aluminum one on when broiling.

Other than that, you have to season the original aluminum griddle with Crisco (cooking oil breaks down in high heat, I'm told - at least that's what Lodge says when they tell you how to season cast iron), and make sure it's not too hot by watching a drop of water dance on the surface.

Just my thoughts...

[maryopal]

In my experience, foods with high salt content (like bacon & sausage) can cause sticking. I also think that it is real important to use solid Crisco & not oil. Hope that helps.

[Gasseous]

Mark,

I spray my aluminum griddle with non-stick spray... pancakes turn out great... I even use this on the cast iron griddle... works great...

Gasseous

[lkeriegrl]

Wait, crisco=lard. Bacon grease=lard. Meaning they're fats that are solids not liquids at room temperature. I do recall going around looking for 'lard' to season my cast iron when i was young and too dumb (last summer) to realize you get plenty of lard free with every purchase of bacon.

We broiled those big fat kosher hot dogs they have at costco one especially hot evening recently. I tried to toast the buns on the griddle, which had appeared clean and perfectly dry. But then it was all "holy smokes!" and the pile of as-yet uninstalled smoke detectors on the pantry shelf went crazy. I tentatively tried a little cameo and the fork method, but boy does my griddle look bad now. After 3 years of neglect in some other person's house, it was perfectly acceptable, and I use it twice and here we are.

I second the theorem: too hot griddle+pancakes=AlPk Definitely if the water droplet instantly vaporizes, the griddles too hot.

But. . . how do we get the griddle clean now, short of the Harbor Freight blasting cabinet?

Erin

PS I just last week spotted a HF opening nearby. (I'd never heard of that except from you all.) The next time I saw it, it was in the background of TV coverage of the flooding here. It's in a plaza with a wal-mart and a Tops grocery that's about 1/2 mile from my sister's house in willowick, 10 minutes east of the city limits. I just add that b/c my MIL called from California at 9 am insisting that we were flooded here in Cleveland after she saw the same feed on CNN.

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ July 31, 2006 11:34 PM: Message edited by: lkeriegrl ]</font>

[Todd W. White]

Dawn makes a new foaming cleaner that says it absorbs 10 times the amount of grease the old Dawn does, and I believe it!

It was MUCH easier to clean my griddle this time using it!

Still looking for an affordable Griswold #8 griddle, though...

[fatfutures]

Mark,

I have the same problem when I cook bacon or sausage in a cast iron skillet. I've got all my skillet seasoned to perfection but, if I try to cook ANYTHING in a pan that was used to cook bacon (without cleaning it first) it's gonna stick! Period! Now, if I take a clean skillet and add bacon grease, I can cook anything, ZERO stick.

I don't know if it's the sugar or the salt or, some other mystery ingredient but, something in bacon sticks to whatever cooking surface you use.

Next time, cook the bacon in another pan or clean the griddle between the bacon and pancakes. I use the oven to cook bacon. Works like a charm with amazingly little mess.

[tux_sf]

Well, I just use oil, but very sparingly applied with a paper towel after I heat the griddle up. I also try to avoid parts of the griddle that will be batter free (like the ridge in the middle & around the edges). I don't like to use Crisco because of the transfats in hydrogenated shortening. They thought making these shortenings out of all vegetable oil was a good thing, but it looks like that wasn't such a good idea. I'd rather use processed lard than that stuff. If you've ever seen what the gunk it leaves in your arteries looks like you'd know why! Sticky, ugly & way hard to get out of there. Seriously, much nastier than the plain old yellow fatty cholesterol animal fats can give you--at least those come from tasty stuff :-) & can more easily be dislodged from those arteries. Sorry, didn't mean to lecture.

Anyway, griddle needs to be hot, but not scorching. I turn the gas on my B about 1/3 up to use the griddle--definitely less than 1/2 up. I usually also do the water drop test like others have noted. They should dance, but not immediately vaporize.

As long as I let the pancakes get a bit browned on the bottom--in other words DONE--they don't stick.

Afterwards I always have a bit of burned on oil (brownish, sticky film). But this comes off fairly easily with a scrubby sponge or steel wook with some ZUD powder (cameo & bar keepers friend would most likely work as well). Easiest to clean when it is still warm, but not blistering hot, I usually try to remember to put some water & ZUD on it when it is still warm.

Only other thing to remember is that if you use a scrubby sponge make absolutely, positively SURE your griddle is pretty cool. I had the horrible experience of using one of those scrubby sponge goodies too soon (they are plastic, after all). It took a lot of elbow grease, steel wool, ZUD, RED BEAR POLISH & MAAS Metal Polish to get that residue off. I did get a nice polish on my griddle, but I'd rather avoid that reason for it in future.

--Danny