Griddle - Traditional Griddles

Traditional Griddles

Traditional griddles include a stone or brick slab or tablet, and a shallow platter filled with sand. The former kind usually are heated to cooking temperature before the food is placed on them. The latter kind is heated after the food is placed. In Latin America one traditional style of griddle is a budare. Made from stone or clay, it is used to cook a variety of flatbreads, such as tortilla, arepa and casabe. Modern versions for commercial use are metal.

In the Scottish tradition, girdles have a flat wrought iron disk with an upturned rim to which a semicircular hoop handle is attached, allowing the girdle to be suspended over the fire from a central chain and hook. The girdle is used for cooking scones, bannocks, pancakes and oatcakes.

The metal usually is aluminium, stainless steel or cast iron. Metal griddles originally were a flat metal surface for frying suspended from hooks over a campfire or fireplace. Later versions were sometimes integrated into the tops of woodfired cookstoves as a removable iron plate and later as a separate plate that covered one or more burners on a gas or electric stove. These often have no handle. A traditional Welsh griddle is circular with a one-piece handle, typically cast iron, 1 cm (½ inch) in thickness. It is used to cook Welsh cakes, pikelets, and crepes.