The Ultimate Camping Griddle Showdown
Griddles are one of the most versatile pieces of cooking equipment out there. They can transform your everyday camp stove into a multi-tasking machine, allowing you to prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner all on the same setup. Once properly seasoned, their non-stick properties are second to none and, if treated well, will last multiple generations of outdoor adventurers.
With so many options on the market for camping griddles, which one is the right one for you? We took four of the most popular camping griddles on the market today (Camp Chef Professional Flat-Top Griddle, Mojoe Outfitters Mojoe Griddle, Partner Steel Large Griddle, and the Lodge Reversible Pro Grid Iron Griddle) and put them in a head-to-head competition to see which one would come out on top. We tested the griddles in a slew of cooking challenges, ranging from bacon and eggs to Korean beef and fried rice.
Scoring proved to be difficult, and we soon learned why these four camping griddles are so popular. Each of the griddles excelled at the cooking challenges, showing even heat distribution and great non-stick properties. It was really a pleasure to cook on each of these griddles and they each handled the rigors of backcountry travel with flying colors. Faced with a dilemma of which griddle to choose, and such a wide range of griddle sizes/shapes, we decided to rank the griddles in a comparison of weight as a factor of the cooking area, price as a factor of the cooking area, and the griddle’s overall versatility. By factoring the weight and price as a function of cooking area, we could even the playing field between large and small griddles. Each griddle received a score from one to four and the scores of the three categories were totaled up to produce the winner.
Now enough about how we came to choose our winner, let’s take a look at each of these great griddles.
Want to check the numbers? Here is a look at our rating table, and how each griddle scored in the comparison. As I mentioned earlier, all of the griddles we tested worked phenomenally well in the camp kitchen but only one really excelled in our testing. The Large Griddle, from Partner Steel, was a great mix of cooking area, weight, price, and versatility. This griddle will now be our go-to griddle for cooking classes and feeding family and friends on future adventures.
This article was originally published in the Winter 2015 Issue of Toyota Cruisers a & Trucks Magazine
With so many options on the market for camping griddles, which one is the right one for you? We took four of the most popular camping griddles on the market today (Camp Chef Professional Flat-Top Griddle, Mojoe Outfitters Mojoe Griddle, Partner Steel Large Griddle, and the Lodge Reversible Pro Grid Iron Griddle) and put them in a head-to-head competition to see which one would come out on top. We tested the griddles in a slew of cooking challenges, ranging from bacon and eggs to Korean beef and fried rice.
Scoring proved to be difficult, and we soon learned why these four camping griddles are so popular. Each of the griddles excelled at the cooking challenges, showing even heat distribution and great non-stick properties. It was really a pleasure to cook on each of these griddles and they each handled the rigors of backcountry travel with flying colors. Faced with a dilemma of which griddle to choose, and such a wide range of griddle sizes/shapes, we decided to rank the griddles in a comparison of weight as a factor of the cooking area, price as a factor of the cooking area, and the griddle’s overall versatility. By factoring the weight and price as a function of cooking area, we could even the playing field between large and small griddles. Each griddle received a score from one to four and the scores of the three categories were totaled up to produce the winner.
Now enough about how we came to choose our winner, let’s take a look at each of these great griddles.
Coming in at number Four: Lodge Reversible Pro Grid Iron Griddle
- Material: Lodge Seasoned Cast Iron
- Overall Dimensions: 20"x10-7/16"
- Cooking Area (sqin): 153
- Weight (lb): 13.84
- Manufactured in: USA
- Price: $75
- Available Nationwide
- Features: One side is a griddle; flip side a grill pan
- Pros: Great for small two-burner camp stoves; Loved being able to reverse the griddle for a grill pan; the small footprint is great for limited storage space
- Cons: The cooking area is small when compared to the overall size
- Conclusion: While we like the versatility of the Reversible Pro Grid Iron Griddle, the usable cooking area really limited what we could prepare, even for two people
Coming in at number Three: Camp Chef’s Professional Flat Top Griddle
- Material: Carbon Steel
- Overall Dimensions: 18"x24"
- Cooking Area (sqin): 384
- Weight (lb): 28
- Manufactured in: China
- Price: $121
- Available Nationwide
- Features: Drip Channel, Integrated Lip, Integrated handle
- Pros: The griddle has great heat distribution and we really liked having the integrated drip channel, especially when cooking bacon for large groups
- Cons: The griddle is best suited for use on Camp Chef’s large, multi-burner stoves and does not sit well on other stoves; we wish the griddle had two handles to move it around while still warm
- Conclusion: While the griddle worked beautifully on our Camp Chef stove, the lack of versatility with other camping stove designs was a setback in our opinion.
Coming in at number Two: Mojoe Outfitters’ Mojoe Griddle
- Material: Carbon Steel
- Overall Dimensions: 24" diameter
- Cooking Area (sqin): 452
- Weight (lb): 40
- Manufactured in: USA
- Price: $195
- Available at: www.MojoeGriddle.com
- Features: Campfire Feet, Removable Handles, Easily rests on standard kettle-style BBQ grills
- Pros: Huge cooking surface; Easy to clean; Even heat; Ability to cook on kettle-style grills, camp stove, or over the fire; Great for large groups
- Cons: The round shape does not accommodate being packed well with other items;
- Conclusion: We really like the versatility and heat distribution of the Mojoe Griddle but found the shape to be a drawback.
Coming in at number One: Partner Steel Large Griddle
- Material: Hard-Anodized Aluminum
- Overall Dimensions: 15.5"x28.75"
- Cooking Area (sqin): 317
- Weight (lb): 11
- Manufactured in: USA
- Price: $98
- Available Nationwide
- Features: Integrated handles, full wrap-around lip
- Pros: We liked how little the griddle weighed and that we didn’t have to worry about accidentally leaving it in the rain
- Cons: While we enjoyed having two handles, we wish they were removable
- Conclusion: This was, hands down, our favorite griddle to cook on. The inherent non-stick properties of the anodized aluminum worked really well, and we loved how even the heat distribution was.
Want to check the numbers? Here is a look at our rating table, and how each griddle scored in the comparison. As I mentioned earlier, all of the griddles we tested worked phenomenally well in the camp kitchen but only one really excelled in our testing. The Large Griddle, from Partner Steel, was a great mix of cooking area, weight, price, and versatility. This griddle will now be our go-to griddle for cooking classes and feeding family and friends on future adventures.
This article was originally published in the Winter 2015 Issue of Toyota Cruisers a & Trucks Magazine