Care handbook · Los Angeles
Seasoning and Cleaning a Viking Griddle
In one sentence
Griddle care is the difference between a plate that cooks evenly and one that only looks as though it should: residue pushed off while the metal is still warm, the rest lifted with water rather than grit, and only the surface treatment your particular plate was built to carry put back afterwards.
Viking Pro Appliance Repair Los Angeles · (213) 516-4020
Most griddles accused of heating unevenly are simply dirty in a pattern. Carbon and cooked-on oil build up thickest wherever the plate runs coolest, because that is the one place residue never quite burns off, and the layer then keeps more heat out of that patch than it did the week before. A small difference becomes a visible one over a season. Cleaning it back is not cosmetic work: it is the first half of the diagnosis, and it settles a good many complaints before anyone has to look under the plate at all.
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Scrape it warm, never hot and never cold
A plate left to go stone cold holds on to everything; one that is still properly hot spits at a wet cloth and will burn you through a mitt. Turn the burner off and wait until a splash of water boils away quietly instead of skating across the metal, then push the debris off with a flat scraper.
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Lift the rest with water, not with grit
Warm water on a warm plate loosens most of what the scraper left behind, and the steam does the work for you. A soft pad helps. Anything that cuts does not: wire wool, scouring powder and a blade held flat all leave scratches, and every scratch is somewhere the next batch of residue can key into.
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Dry it before it cools right down
Standing water on a warm plate dries to a dull bloom, and on bare metal it can start rust overnight. Wipe the surface out with a cloth, then let the last of the damp go off over the lowest flame for a minute or two and turn the burner off again.
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Oil it only if yours is a plate that wants oil
Some plates are bare metal and are meant to keep a thin film of cooking oil on them. Others carry a factory surface that oil only gums up, and a wipe of it makes the sticking worse rather than better. If you are not sure which you own, look it up in the paperwork that came with the range instead of guessing.
Seasoning and Cleaning a Viking Griddle: how often, and when to stop
| How often | What you need | Stop and call if |
|---|---|---|
| After every use | A flat scraper and a cloth | Food catches in the same patch however clean the surface gets. |
| Weekly | Warm water and a pad that will not scratch | The plate has been scoured back to bare bright metal in places. |
| Whenever the browning goes lopsided | Ten minutes and decent light | One end never comes up to heat, no matter how long it is left. |
Follow-ups
Should I season the griddle the way I would a cast-iron pan?
Only if yours is a bare plate. Seasoning belongs on metal that would otherwise rust; on a plate that already has a factory surface the same routine builds a tacky film you then have to scrape away again. Viking Pro Appliance Repair Los Angeles will tell you which you have on (213) 516-4020.
Can I use an oven cleaner on the plate?
Leave it in the cupboard. Caustic cleaners attack a plate's surface and work their way into the seams around it, where no amount of rinsing gets them out again. Warm water, a scraper and a little patience achieve more. Ask Viking Pro Appliance Repair Los Angeles on (213) 516-4020 first.
It still browns unevenly after a proper clean. Now what?
Then it has stopped being housekeeping and the heat underneath is what to look at. Note which stretch stays cool, and whether it stays cool at every setting rather than only at low, because that pattern is most of the answer. Viking Pro Appliance Repair Los Angeles works from it on (213) 516-4020.
Signed by
Keiko Mabuchi
- Works on
- Service technician — cooktops and ventilation
- Years on the tools
- 11
- Certified
- EPA Section 608 certified
What heats the plate, and what fails when one end stays cool, is on the griddle burner page.
The grates either side of it want the opposite treatment — see looking after cast iron.
A plate that has never heated evenly is a fault, not a technique problem, and belongs on a range repair visit.