But what about cleaning? A lot of people buy a cast iron grill pan with good intentions and then come to hate it once they have to clean it. We get it – the raised ridges in a grill pan create valleys for fats and oils to accumulate that can be a pain to scrub. Two things helped us get over our fear of cleaning.
One, we realized that we didn’t need to keep our grill pan spotless. The elevated ridges in Smithey’s design feature polished ‘peaks’ that quickly wipe down with a sponge after use – these are the surfaces that actually make contact with food and they naturally clean very easily. What lies between the ridges is less important - it will add to the seasoning and patina over time.
Two, we embraced the scrape. We naturally scrape the grates of our outdoor grill to clean it before heating, but the idea of scraping a cast iron grill pan seems less obvious. What we’ve found is that a light scrape with our chain mail scrubber or even the right-sized corner of a metal spatula will quickly remove stuck-on foods while leaving the seasoning in good shape. Basically, it’s okay to be a little rougher with our grill pan – unlike enameled cast iron pans, you won’t be damaging the surface and any seasoning that you take off can easily be put back on.
A note about ridge design (yes, that’s a thing.) The promise of a grill pan is that when you’ve finished cooking you’ll have beautiful, dark char marks on your food as a reward. In reality not every grill pan delivers here. Ridge height, spacing, width of the peaks, and orientation within the pan all play a role. We designed our grill marks in a diagonal pattern, allowing a north/south or east/west alignment of food with maximum usable cook surface and a simple-to-achieve cross-hatch pattern. We won’t bore you with much more than that but suffice to say that we spent way too much time thinking about ridges and believe we came up with the best ridge design out there.
Finally, a few other tips on using our grill pan. First, oil is your friend. A quick wipe of cooking oil with a paper towel is helpful before you cook and after you clean. We like grape seed oil, but feel free to use whatever you have in your kitchen. Second, crank up the heat (and if you have a hood or vent over your stovetop, crank that as well). Cast iron absorbs and retains heat exceptionally well – high heat will give you those beautiful char marks. Once the pan is hot and your food is in the pan you can turn the heat down but start with at least a medium-high preheat for several minutes. Third, think hard about the char. There are times you want the entire surface of your food to get a great sear (it’s how we prefer to cook steak). Use a traditional skillet for that. But when you want heat and some char while elevating your food above the fat and oil, the grill pan is your friend. So keep the grill pan out on your stovetop, use it often and use it well. You’ll love it much more than that George Forman grill in the attic.