Sometimes, a grill pan is just what you need to make your life easier. For instance, it can be used to cook up a batch of pasta or a meal for someone who doesn’t have a grill, or on rainy days when you just want barbeque at home, just eating a grilled sandwich and watching the rain pour.
Have you ever wondered that what if you could have just like an outdoor seasoned barbeque at home, with same sear marks and proper black crush? Yes? Well grill pan has made it possible. You can make delicious food recipes that needs grill.
Many reading this article right here might not be well aware about all the stuff of grill pans, but that is what we are here for. We are going to go through every bit of information about grill pans.
So let us get started with the very basic question.
What Is A Grill Pan?
A grill pan is just like a frying pan but just with a little unique design. So, basically grill pan is a frying pan with raised edges with grill lines.
Wondering about why only with the raised edges? Let’s check below the reason!Raised edgesmakes cooking easier. These grill lines are 1 to 2 centimetres away from each other, and the grill lines have a height of around 0.5 centimetres so that the juice from the food can drip down.
Features Of Grill Pan
- Size
Most of the grill pans are about 10-11 inches in the size, but it can differ according to what kind of crowd you are feeding.
If you have like two person coming over, you can get it in 10-11 inch size, which will make around 4-5 hamburgers in one go. But if you are like feeding whole bunch of people you’ll have to consider the rectangular big grill pans which cover two stoves.
- Shape
There are two shapes in which grill pans can be seen. In circle shape and the square shape. Now,most people prefer the square-shaped ones because it has a larger surface area, which of course serve the best meal in the end.
But don’t forget that circle shaped grill pans also have their advantages, circle-shaped grill pans conduct the heat to the food more evenly because of its circle shape, whereas square-shaped grill pans can not do it because their sides do not get so much heat.
- Handles
There are two types of grill pans. One with just a single handle and one with two handles. Now you see which is preferred more? So, the double handle grill pan is preferred more because it gets easier for the cook to move the pan on the stove or in the oven.
Handles are usually made of metals like cast iron and they can be really hot to touch so be careful when you touch them. But you can always find grill pans with a handle that is not made of metal and is not hot to touch, but then you will have to check if that pan is oven friendly or not. Because grill pans with plastic handles can not be put in an oven.
- Seasoning
Seasoning is not necessary for every pan. You can however season it with oil, but only the grill with cast iron material requires seasoning. And if you don’t do it, you will end up with a lot of cleaning to do, with risks of rusting the iron.
Types Of Grill Pan
Looking into the type of grill pan is really important when it comes to buying the perfect grill pan. The grill pan that you want for your kitchen. There are different grills made of different materials but these five materials that will be mentioned below are most common ones. Let’s check the variation of grill pan.
- Cast Iron
If you want exact same taste and sear as the outdoor girl, go for the cast iron material. Because it’s almost same. It can take the highest of temperatures and give your food the perfect sear. However it is oven friendly, so after you get the sear you can book the hard parts in the oven easily.
But as we count on the disadvantages of the cast iron material, it needs seasoning to become non-stick, and not just seasoning now and then, it requires regular seasoning. Also, cast iron grill pan, cleaning takes time, and the tip here would be that do notput in the dishwasher to wash, it has to be hand washed and dried immediately to maintain its durability.
- Enamelled Cast Iron
This one is actually similar to the cast iron material in heat retention but not in all aspects. Enameled cast iron comes with a layer around it’s base that actually prevents food from sticking on pan and from rusting. Also the price of this material is higher than the simple cast iron.
- Hard-Anodized Aluminum
We all know how much good conductor of heat the metal aluminum is and that is the reason why it is used in grill pan material and also in other cookware materials.
Here, this aluminum metal is hardened by oxidizing it with some chemicals so that rust won’t affect the pan, and it will become non-stick too, which will make cleaning easier.
- Cast Aluminum
Cast aluminium is made from molten aluminium metal. So to know more, it’s the molten aluminium which is then cooled and given a shape. Cast aluminium material is light in weight than cast iron material. Furthermore, as it has aluminium in it, it’s is indeed a good conductor of heat and also non-stick.
- Ceramic Non stick
This material is often used in many of the cookware. It is usually made of aluminium, stainless steel, with an extra silicon base none stick coating. Cars in none stick material as the name says is non-stick. And the heat conduction is also satisfactory.
Uses Of Grill Pan
Grill on is very easy to use just like the frying pan there is no rocket science.If you have a non-stick grill own you should consider keeping your drive flame a little lower than the maximum because if not it will damage the pan surface.
- Heating the pan
The very first step would be heating your grill pan. For that, you will have to turn on the stove and keep it at a medium-high temperature. After that keep the grill on the stove. Next you will have to check if the pan is getting heat by just keeping your hand above the pan. Now once you know the pan is getting hot, you keep it there for 5 to 10 minutes for preheating.
- Oiling
Now you don’t have to put oil onto the pan. Because that will just make the pan smoke at higher temperature instead what you can do is apply oil on your veggies. Sometimes like when you are cooking food like fish, pork, meat or chickenyou don’t even need to do the oiling step because the natural oils present in these foods are enough for grilling.
- Grilling the food
Now that you have oiled them put them on the pan and keep them at 45degrees and then half of the time at 90 degrees to get amazing sear marks. Repeat this after flipping your food.
Benefits Of Grill Pan
Here are some of the benefits and reasons why you should own a grill pan
- The Best Grilled Marks
Can you eat the steak or meat without sear marks or black crusty part? I mean,of course, you can eat it. But would you like to? No right. Because the sear grilled marks these pans give are incredible. And they also hype the taste of the food.
- Grill Pan Saves You A Lot Of Time
Now you might be wondering that how could it save time?
So, as you all know grill pans come in two shapes circle and square and both these shapes can grill a good amount of food in one go. Like in circle-shaped you can make 4-5 hamburgers at once, and the square-shaped will make around 12-13 hamburgers at one go. (Square once are pretty big and they take space of two stoves). So, you have got more food in less time.
- Raised Edges Will Drip Down Excessive Fat And Oils.
This is like a clear cut advantage of these grilled pans. Their ridges are up high so that the excess of juicy or oily part in the fold you are about to cook will drip down and not continue to stay in the food.
This means the food you cook on a grill pan will be low in calories.
- You Get The Outdoor Grill Feels At Home
Yep. Same taste as outdoor grill barbeque, steak. As grill pan works on any kind of environment such as on stove, in the oven, you can make anything you want all indoors. You want to eat, just get the veggies, meat or whatever you want to eat and get on with the cooking.
- Healthy Option
After reading that the fold made on grill pan removes excess of fat, you know that it is a healthy choice. If you can just cook indoors, no form fear you would have. No infections or bad fold materials were used. Not just this, most of the grill and are Teflon and PTFE, so no toxins are going in your body when you use grill pans.
- Easier To Deal With
Grill pans are non-stick 90℅ of the time, so you will not have to worry about the food getting stuck on the pan. Easy cleaning! The handles being such lightweight won’t make your hand fill numb when you move the pan.These pans also last for a longer time and if used properly their non-stick properties will remain as new as it was the first day you bought them. Hence, can be used both ways that is in the oven and on the stove.
Conclusion
The grill pans are worth your money, but you will have to choose the right pan, according to your kitchen needs.
Check About Other Pans:
Hi, my name is Ashley Robinson. I’m a food blogger and a part time chef in Food & Drink Junction, Denver. With my blog I’m sharing information & tutorials about different kinds of cooking pans.
