Grill Pan: the good, the bad and the ugly

First of all, sorry for the late post today... I promise to all 3 of my readers that I'll try to be a little more prompt. Today was the big Crate and Barrel interview...I'll be sure to let you know how it went.

On to the topic at hand, the grill pan. I think the grill pan is a great invention. Especially for the unfortunate souls without access to an outdoor grill (c'est moi), or those who don't wish to brave the elements in the middle of winter to grill. It definitely took me awhile to really come to appreciate this cooking tool, although I'm not really sure what I was afraid of. I grill everything on my grill pan(s): bread, vegetables, meat, panini...one of my pans is one of those reversible griddle ones, in which I can do an entire breakfast with eggs, pancakes and sausage all with one pan (on the griddle side). Again, great for the NY kitchen with no dishwasher.

So, I'm sure you're beginning to wonder...so I understand the "good" but I'm not sure I understand the "bad and the ugly." So if the grill pan is one of the best inventions for the home cook, then the cast iron grill pan is one of the worst. THE WORST. We're now about to cover "the bad and the ugly." So cast iron will be a topic for another day, and when I do write that entry, you must remember the whole time you're reading it that cast iron grill pans are completely exempt from everything I write about regular cast iron. So, cast iron needs to be seasoned, you know, oiling it up so it doesn't rust, things don't stick, etc.... Fine, I still don't like the seasoning process much, but I can live with it. But let's think for a few minutes about a grill pan. The whole idea is that there are grill marks, right? So there are raised indentions on the pan. Fine again, but let's take a step back and imagine, for a minute, you are at your outdoor grill. You are grilling (mmm..smells great already) and the food's ready. What do you see on your grill? Little browned bits kind of burnt to the grill. No problem for an outdoor grill, right? Next time you heat it up, you'll burn it off and scrape it down.

Ok, back to the cast iron grill pan. Imagine now you are done cooking your food (I do have to admit the cast iron grill pan does cook the food better), and there are the same browned bits (no matter how much I have seasoned the pan, they are still there, which I don't get with a regular cast iron pan. I think because typically when you're using a regular cast iron pan you're using a lot more oil - i.e. frying bacon or chicken or corn bread where you melt a lot of butter, so you're, first of all, not essentially burning meat to the pan and you're doing a lot more seasoning of the pan because the oil gets absorbed better because you're cooking with it). --that was a huge side thought in parenthesis, now back to the browned bits on your grill pan.

So what to do about them? I could do the same as with an outdoor grill, turn up and the heat and burn it and scrape it off, but not only disrupt my neighbors and send the cat running for cover when the smoke detector inevitably goes off, but the scraping would ruin my seasoning progress. Fine. I did some research and found that kosher or rock salt was one of the best ways to clean cast iron (just like when we were in the Grand Canyon hiking and cleaned our dishes with sand, it's great abrasive to get the oil out, but it also won't scratch the seasoned surface). So, I've tried this a few times, and it works great, but here comes the ugly...imagine what happens after rubbing the pan with salt (I've used paper towel, but I'm sure there's a better thing to use), is that you have brown bits and black salt in EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE GROOVES in the pan. And, you would think that you could just "dump it out" but the inside of the pan is a little sticky, plus the way the sides of the pan curve, there isn't really a direct path out of the pan. So then I spend 20 minutes trying to get the salt out of the pan. Without fail, it's a frickin' mess. Worse than doing dishes. In fact, typically if I do end up cooking with the cast iron grill pan (which I do still from time to time because I always forget the pain), the pan sits on the stove for about a week because I won't let Jeff touch it and I have to work up the energy to attack the pan.

There is one good thing about the cast iron grill pan, if you have a fatty piece of meat that you're grilling or a very very well oiled piece of bread dough, and there are no browned bits (which I think have maybe happened only once or twice to me) then there are NO dishes to do, just re-oil the pan and put it away.

Overall, the grill pan is a great thing, or as Martha Stewart would say a "good thing." What I really like about it is that it provides a great way to cook up food rather quickly and easily, it sort of simplifies the cooking process (plus everyone says "ooooh" when they see cross-hatched grill marks), and I typically find a way to grill my entire meal so that there's only one pan. But whomever came up with the cast iron grill pan needs to go back to the drawing board, or at least the non-pre-seasoned cast iron grill pan, needs to go back to the drawing board.

So grill up dinner tonight, meat, veggies, fruit, you name it, you can grill it (last night we had buffalo chicken grilled for buffalo chicken salad). It's quick and easy and you might get a gasp of joy from your family when they see those grill marks.

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLY!