How to Season a Flat Top Griddle: Jeff's First-Use Protocol

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A well-seasoned flat top griddle is one of the most versatile surfaces in outdoor cooking. Smash burgers, eggs, bacon, sauteed vegetables, fried rice, pancakes, steak. The surface works like professional restaurant equipment when it is properly maintained. Nothing sticks, everything sears, and the residual carbon built up from dozens of cooks adds flavor in a way no non-stick coating can match.

The first seasoning is the most critical step. Get it right and the griddle rewards you for years. Skip it or do it wrong and you will spend your first several cooks fighting stuck food, gummy patches, and uneven heat.

I seasoned my first Blackstone wrong. Too much oil, first layer not fully polymerized before I added the next. I had a soft, gummy surface that stuck to everything for the first three cooks. It eventually came right after enough high-heat cooking, but it was an avoidable problem.

Here is how to do it correctly the first time.

Why Seasoning Matters

Flat top griddles are made of cold-rolled steel. Steel is porous at a microscopic level and will rust if left exposed to moisture and oxygen. Seasoning fills those pores with polymerized oil, oil that has been bonded to the metal surface through heat. Once polymerized, that oil layer is inert, non-stick, rust-resistant, and gets more effective with every cook.

The science: when oil is heated above its smoke point, the fatty acids in the oil break down and the oxygen-reactive portions bond with the metal surface. This is polymerization. The result is a hard, slick layer that is chemically different from liquid oil. That is why seasoning is done in thin coats with full heat between each coat. You are creating distinct polymerized layers, not just coating the surface with oil.

This is why cast iron skillets used weekly for twenty years have a nearly perfect non-stick surface. They have been seasoned by accumulated cooking, one layer at a time.

What Oil to Use

The ideal seasoning oil has a high smoke point, polymerizes at a manageable temperature, and is neutral in flavor.

Flaxseed oil is the most commonly recommended for first seasoning. It has a high polyunsaturated fat content, which creates an extremely hard, durable polymer layer. The downside: it costs more and can flake if applied too thickly.

Avocado oil is my current first choice for ongoing maintenance. High smoke point around 520F, neutral flavor, widely available. It applies easily, polymerizes well, and does not flake. Blackstone now sells their own conditioner but it is essentially a proprietary oil blend in the same category.

Crisco shortening is the traditional choice and still works well. It is what Blackstone originally recommended. Inexpensive and easy to apply.

Vegetable oil or canola oil are acceptable for first seasoning but create softer, less durable layers than flaxseed or avocado oil. Fine for ongoing maintenance.

Do not use olive oil. The smoke point is too low and the strong flavor compounds leave an off taste. Do not use butter for seasoning. Use it for cooking.

The First Seasoning Protocol

Set aside 30-45 minutes. Do not start this before a dinner party.

Step one: the burn-off. Turn all burners to high. Let the griddle heat for 10-15 minutes until it discolors from silver to dark gray-black. This burns off any manufacturing residue, oils, or coatings from the factory. You will see smoke. This is expected. When the discoloration has spread across the full surface and the smoke has died down, turn off the burners and let the griddle cool to warm. Hot enough that oil dropped on the surface sizzles slightly, but not hot enough to immediately vaporize.

Step two: first oil application. Squirt a small amount of oil on the griddle surface. Less than you think. About a tablespoon for a 36-inch griddle. Using a paper towel in heat-resistant tongs or a seasoning pad, spread the oil across the entire cooking surface in a thin, even coat. Include the sides and the drip channel. You should barely see the oil. If it is pooling or thick, use a second paper towel to wipe off the excess. The layer should be as thin as possible while still coating the surface.

Step three: heat until the smoke stops. Turn all burners back to high. The oil will begin to smoke immediately. Watch the smoke. It will billow at first and then diminish as the oil polymerizes. When the smoke has mostly stopped and the surface has darkened slightly, this coat is done. Takes 8-12 minutes.

Step four: repeat 3-4 times. Let the griddle cool slightly, apply another thin coat, heat until smoke stops. Repeat until the surface is uniformly dark, almost black. Three to four coats is the standard recommendation. More is fine if you are seeing uneven spots.

By the end of the fourth coat, the griddle should be dark, uniform, and slightly glossy. This is a properly seasoned griddle.

The First Few Cooks

The initial seasoning is the foundation. The first several actual cooks add additional seasoning layers and strengthen the surface.

For the first real cook, do not try to make eggs or fish. These reveal every weakness in an under-seasoned surface. Cook something that benefits from high heat and adds flavor to the surface. Bacon is the classic first cook recommendation. The bacon fat renders into the surface and adds a layer of flavor and non-stick coating that builds on the initial seasoning. Smash burgers are another good first cook.

After each cook, clean the griddle while it is still warm. Use a griddle scraper to push food debris toward the grease trap. Pour a small amount of water on the hot surface. It will steam and loosen any stuck food. Scrape again. Dry the surface with paper towels while still warm.

After drying, apply a thin wipe of oil and let the griddle cool. This closing layer protects the surface from rust until the next cook.

What Not to Do

Never use soap on a seasoned griddle. Dish soap is designed to cut through polymerized oils, which is exactly what seasoning is made of. Even a small amount of soap can strip months of seasoning from the surface. The only exception is a deliberate re-seasoning.

Never let a wet surface sit. If water sits on the steel surface between cooks, it creates rust. Even in a garage. Always apply a closing coat of oil after cleaning.

Never use metal scouring pads or steel wool for routine cleaning. They strip the seasoning. A flat griddle scraper and a non-abrasive scrubbing pad are sufficient.

Do not use the griddle as a prep surface. Raw meat juices and acidic foods like citrus and vinegar can break down the seasoning.

Maintenance Seasoning

After every cook, the closing oil coat is your routine maintenance. Over time, this builds the surface into something genuinely impressive. Black, smooth, almost glassy, with a flavor depth that comes from accumulated cooking.

If the surface shows rust spots, use a fine-grit griddle screen or non-abrasive scrub pad to remove the rust, then re-season those areas with 2-3 coats.

If the surface gets sticky or gummy, usually from too much oil applied in one session, heat the griddle on high until the gummy layer polymerizes and sets. Cook bacon or something fatty to add a layer of clean non-stick seasoning on top. This usually resolves it.

A full re-seasoning is rarely necessary if you maintain properly after each cook. The only reason to strip back to bare metal and start over is if the seasoning has been badly damaged by rust, soap contamination, or extremely uneven patches causing cooking problems.

What a Properly Seasoned Surface Actually Looks Like

After the initial four coats, the surface should be uniformly dark with a slight sheen. Not shiny like a mirror, but not flat matte either. There is a waxy quality to a well-seasoned surface. When you drag a clean paper towel across it, the towel should move smoothly with no friction or drag.

The color after initial seasoning is typically a dark bronze or brown-black. It looks uneven compared to a cast iron pan that has been seasoning for years. That is normal. The unevenness fills in over the first dozen cooks. By the time you have cooked on the griddle twenty or thirty times, the surface should be a deep, uniform black.

If you have light gray or silver patches after seasoning, those areas did not get enough heat or oil. Do an extra coat specifically on those spots before the next cook.

If the surface has a sticky or soft quality, the oil layer was applied too thick. Heat the griddle on high for fifteen minutes to fully polymerize the excess oil. It will smoke more than usual. That is the unpolymerized oil burning off. Once it stops smoking, the surface should have hardened.

Eggs are the ultimate seasoning test. A properly seasoned griddle on medium heat with a small amount of butter should slide a fried egg without any effort. No lifting required, no tearing, no stuck edges. If your eggs stick, the surface needs more seasoning. If your eggs stick but your smash burgers do not, you are running the temperature too low for eggs. Most eggs need medium heat, not high.

A Blackstone that has been cooked on weekly for a year is a genuinely impressive piece of equipment. I have had mine for four years and it has never been re-seasoned from scratch. The surface now is a deep, almost metallic black that releases food better than any non-stick pan I have ever used. The key is consistency, not perfection. Cook on it regularly, clean it while warm, wipe it with oil when you are done.

The Same Protocol for Camp Chef and Traeger

The same approach applies to other flat top griddles. The Camp Chef Flat Top 600 has a similar cold-rolled steel surface to the Blackstone and seasons identically.

The Traeger Flatrock uses a similar steel surface. Traeger recommends their own seasoning oil but standard flaxseed or avocado oil works equally well.

The biggest variables between griddles are heat distribution and the number of burners controlling it. More burners means more precise temperature zone control. A four-burner griddle lets you run a high-heat searing zone and a lower-heat warming zone simultaneously.

Temperature Zones and Heat Management

One thing that catches first-time flat top owners off guard: the surface temperature varies more than you expect across the cooking area. On a gas griddle, the burner locations create hot zones directly above the burners and slightly cooler zones between them. On a 36-inch griddle with four burners, you can run very different temperatures across the surface simultaneously.

Understanding this is part of cooking well on a flat top, not a defect to fix.

Once your griddle is seasoned, use this to your advantage. Run the right side on high for searing burgers and getting that crust. Run the left side on medium-low for toasting buns, warming already-cooked food, or finishing eggs gently. Flat top griddles do not cook everything at the same temperature any more than an oven is one flat number throughout.

For seasoning purposes, this means you may need to apply slightly more oil to the cooler zones between burners on the first few coats. These areas get less direct heat and may need an extra coat to match the uniform dark finish across the hotter zones.

After the first season, cooking high-fat foods like bacon, pork belly, or smash burgers in those cooler zones builds them up naturally over time.

Storage and Rust Prevention

Flat top griddles left outside are exposed to rain, dew, humidity, and UV. Even with perfect seasoning, a griddle left wet overnight will develop surface rust. The seasoning layer is not waterproof, it is water-resistant.

If you leave your griddle outside, a dedicated cover is not optional. Blackstone and Camp Chef both make fitted covers for their griddles. A good cover with ventilation keeps moisture out while allowing any residual heat or steam to escape. Without ventilation, moisture trapped under a cover creates exactly the conditions you are trying to prevent.

After every cook, do the closing oil wipe before the griddle fully cools. A thin coat of avocado oil or canola oil over the entire cooking surface creates a barrier against moisture. This is the single most effective thing you can do to prevent rust.

In humid climates, consider a monthly maintenance seasoning even if you cook regularly. Heat the griddle empty on high for 10 minutes to drive out any moisture, apply a thin oil coat, let it polymerize, wipe clean. Ten minutes of maintenance prevents hours of rust removal.

If you store the griddle for the off-season, apply a heavier oil coat before covering. Not so thick it goes rancid, but a noticeably more substantial layer than the post-cook wipe. This coat will protect through months of non-use.

Surface rust from storage is not a disaster. Remove it with a griddle screen or fine-grit sandpaper while the griddle is warm, not hot. Once the rust is gone, re-season those areas with two or three coats before cooking. The surface will look slightly different until accumulated cooking evens it out, usually within a few sessions.

Related Guides

Once you have got your griddle seasoned and you are comfortable with maintenance, the accessories make a real difference in how the griddle performs day to day.

Season it right, cook bacon first, wipe it with oil every time you are done. That is the entire maintenance protocol. The griddle will outlast every other piece of outdoor cooking equipment you own, and it will cook better every year you use it.