The Father’s Day gift that just keeps on giving. Bill received his gift early, and has used it just about everyday. If you are still looking for gift ideas and you have a griller in your life I would highly suggest one of these. It is listed on the website for $349.98 the day we bought it at the store it was on sale. The sales flyer said it was $50.00 off but there had been an additional in store mark down of another $50.00. Our purchase price was $249.98! The stores offer free assembly of their grills which we did not take advantage of. They also offer free shipping for orders of $50 or more which we did take advantage of. We went to the store to purchase the griddle and a bundle package that contains a vacuum sealer, meat grinder, and meat slicer. They had the griddle in stock but not the bundle package so we had that shipped directly to our house. It arrived earlier than expected and all pieces were in great shape. (I love the vacuum sealer oh my gosh how I love that thing.)
https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/cabelas-4-burner-gas-griddle
Out of the box you will need to assembly the stand and wings, insert the wheels, put the burners on and then insert the griddle top into the holes in the burner box. It went together in less than an hour. I would suggest having someone to assist, it makes it go faster and also the griddle top is heavy and you don’t want to accidently drop anything and damage it. You can’t just spin the wheels to thread them in you have to spin the little metal nut to thread them on. This is actually a really good sign about the quality of the wheels. The directions must have been written by people who lacked the skills needed to write directions for Ikea furniture. Luckily it’s not that hard to figure things out by looking at the pictures.
The wings are not movable and anything you set on them while cooking will melt or at least get very hot. They are great to have to set your tools, paper towels, heat safe serving bowls/plates, heat safe food containers etc…. Not really enough room to keep everything you need handy. I would recommend having a table of some sort that you can set what you need on while you are working and you will want to have EVERYTHING you need already outside by you before you begin. Either that or have a person who can run between you and the kitchen because you will NOT want to leave that griddle while food is on it. (Okay part of that warning is because a stray cat has wandered onto the place and tries to get into all the food.)
The wheels are big and smooth moving which is great because we park this up next to the house under the eaves when not in use. Being able to easily move it away from the house and into the open for cooking is nice. Not having to lift up one side to roll it is also nice because if you store anything on the shelf or on the wings you don’t have to worry about it sliding around or falling off. In our case we have a cement pad that we are rolling it over so your satisfaction with ease of movement may vary depending on the surface you are rolling it over. We did build it on the cobbles and then rolled it over them to the cement pad and it rolled over that fairly uneven surface just fine. All four of the wheels lock which is also a nice feature because you don’t want a giant blazing hot, with propane bottle attached griddle of death rolling down the street.
You also have a shelf down below for storing things while you are working. You could be your serving bowls/plates here or extra tools even a small container for garbage. So far I don’t think we have used the shelf. It’s nice to have and helps to square things up but it could be a little inconvenient.
There are four burners offering up to 48,000 BTUs, you can light them all at once or individually. Some people have mentioned not liking the positioning of the marks for temp. It hasn’t been an issue for us and the men using it range from 6′ – 6’6″. You just get used to it. Even though you have four heat sources there are still hot and not as hot spots on the surface. With all four burners on use an infrared
thermometer to measure heat of individual areas of the surface. You will also be able to get an idea of hot spots after the seasoning is done because those spots will be darker than the cooler spots. The amount of heat you can get does an amazing job of doing things like searing meat, crisping hash browns, okay just about anything you can think of it just does a great job.
The griddle surface is flat, heavy duty, has little built in sides and back, comes preseasoned, a full 5
mm thick cold rolled steel (this information was based on answers to questions by Cabelaexpert but three years ago they indicated that it is a cast iron surface), and offers 712 sq. in. of cooking surface. While it states on the website that the top is preseasoned we went ahead and seasoned it. I would suggest looking up suggestions on how to do that and how to care for your griddle top. One thing I never realized is that Blackstone does not recommend using animal fat oils for seasoning. Suggestions like make bacon the first thing you cook so that you oil up the top are not good suggestions. The Blackstone video said that by using this type of fat you risk your top failing down the line with the surface flaking off. Another suggestion was to not use to much oil a little bit goes along way.
You don’t want to flood that surface you want to use thin coats and apply it to the entire surface not just the flat top. Blackstone suggested using up to 5 thin coats for the initial seasoning of their grill tops. In our case we did three thin coats using vegetable oil, a paper towel, and a long handle pair of tongs. The surface needed to be preheated for 10 – 15 minutes before applying the oil you do not want your skin coming into contact with it so long handle tongs gave enough control while providing distance. We are going to have to do some leveling because after cooking Bill noticed that grease seems to run to one side but that is because our cement pad was purposely poured to direct rain away from the house. A concern that was voiced by our middle son, who has worked in professional kitchens, was can I use metal tools on this? Every single time it’s been used metal tools were used as well as cutting with knives right on the surface. Will that bite us in the butt down the line? Maybe but no where in the directions, on the box, or on-line did it say not to use them nor does it endorse using them.
As far temps the top has reached 500+ degrees but remember time of year, where you live, how windy it is, are you in direct sunlight or shade all of these play a part in temps. You will want to measure your griddle temp and adjust as needed. It’s not a bad idea to have some of the burners adjusted to be higher than others or to even have one burner turned completely off. You can use the cooler part to park food that has finished cooking it will stay warm from the residual heat of the griddle surface.
The grease trap access is on the face to the left of the burner knobs. It simply pulls out to empty. The manufacturer offers no liners but some reviewers have stated that you might be able to find off brand products that work. So far we have not used anything just empty and clean as needed. In reading reviews and watching videos of griddle reviews there are been complaints about some grills and the grease traps. Issues with leaks were reported, none about this griddle, so far we have not had an issue. If it gets to full I could see spillage but just in general use with regular cleaning it’s been fine. Perhaps part of the reason is that the griddle top has the hole directly above the grease trap box.
They do not offer a conversion kit so the griddle will be propane only but there is a stand on the side that holds the tank which makes moving it as one unit easier. We had moved away from propane with our grill and now use natural gas. That was nice because you never had to worry about running out or the hassle of exchanging tanks. But we do already have an almost new tank monitor which gives us a reading on how much propane is still in the tank. There are also places in town which automate the tank exchange so if you run out you don’t have to worry about the store being closed. We can’t be the only people who have had middle of the night BBQ emergencies, can we?
1-800-227-7776 is the support number if needed. They do offer replacement parts you just call the support number.
There is a 1 year warranty on the griddle. This griddle is made for Cabela’s by Royal Gourmet. Three years ago in the question answers they indicated that this product is made in China.
So what else does your BBQ master need? Need could be a strong word but there are things that definitely will make it more fun and help with the care of your unit. Here are things that we have found very useful or at least very nice to have:
- Infrared thermometer – ours is a battery operated unit that is probably 10 years old. You can also get thermometers that sit on the surface to tell the temp. I would highly recommend having the hand held infrared model.
- A griddle hard shell cover – we got the HECASA Black Outdoor 36″ Griddle Hard cover from Amazon. It comes in both black and stainless the black is cheaper and we felt like it went better with the griddle itself, which is black, and we are cheap.
- A soft cover – I got the Blackstone 36″ deluxe one from Wal-Mart. Why deluxe you ask? Because after going to 2 Wal-Mart’s it was all I found and I wanted the black one but they did not have them in store and Father’s day is this Sunday.
- A good long handled Scraper – Home Depot sells a nice one for just under $25 but Bill ordered one from Amazon that has a 6″ blade.
- Meat thermometer – We just use ours a lot. It’s a simple digital one that we have had for years.
- Long handled utensils – tongs, spatulas, meat fork you probably already have these if you have a grill.
- Fire extinguisher – None of us wants to think about what can happen but it does happen grill safe. Almost 20 years ago on New Years Eve we had to use ours for the grill. It was scary.
NOTE: We got both the hard and soft covers because they serve two different purposes. The soft cover goes over the entire griddle and frame which is nice because we live in the woods and you would not believe how messy the woods can be, all the time. A downside could be that wasps can build a nest in like 20 seconds and so can certain birds, plus spiders nuf said. The hard lid is because a reviewer had mentioned that even though they have the soft cover some rain still gets in and you end up with a lake on the griddle surface. The hard cover is nice because it protects the surface when on and sits on the back lip of the griddle top when off. This can act as a wind break while cooking. Do they deserve a spot in the must have section? Maybe not but why not protect your purchase.
The nice to haves list is much longer:
- Small racks that can sit on the griddle surface – these are nice because they will elevate the food off the surface. It stays warm but reduces the heat so that it doesn’t continue to cook. Think bacon, you cook it and then mound it up on the racks sitting on the cooler part of the griddle.
- Cast Iron Grill weights – Think smash burgers. We got the rectangular ones that are not to big 5″ x 9.5″. You can use them to press down your bacon so it stays flatter, hold hash browns to the surface so their brown better, make panini’s, sear steaks, you get the idea. A spatula can do the same thing.
- Thin spatulas with long surfaces – I bought ours at GFS a long time ago the blade surface on the one is 8″ x 4″ with a squared front edge. This is really nice for making omelets, fried rice, hash browns you name it. The thin edge slips under easy and you can flip large things plus the edges work well to shop things like egg into bits for fried rice.
- Plastic squirt bottles – We keep one with water for cleaning and steaming, one with oil for greasing the surface, and then use them for sauces like soy sauce. These things are so useful and you don’t have to worry about them breaking (just melting if they get to close to the surface for to long). Plus if you ever get glass bottles of beverages that come in those cardboard holders with the handle they fit inside those dividers. This makes transporting them from house to griddle so easy and stops them from falling all over while in use.
- A metal cover with handle – This can sit right on the griddle surface. Want to melt cheese on a burger? Just put it on and place the cover over it. Want to steam veggies? Just squirt on the water and place the cover over them. Want to warm soft shells or flat bread? Just put it on add a squirt of water and cover for a second or two.
- Magnetic hooks – We got ours from Harbor Freight they stick to the front and you can hang your cooking utensils from them while in use.
This list can just keep on going because egg rings are fun, and lots of different utensils can be found, taco shell stands could be useful you get the idea.
What can you make on your griddle? Just about anything. We have done breakfast for four from eggs to toast. Hibachi night with shrimp, rice, steak and veggies. German night with brussels sprouts, wurst snitzel, spätzle and bacon gravy. Okay the spatzle and gravy were made in the house but technically they could have been made on the griddle. These were probably the best snitzel’s we have made super crunchy outside tender inside. We have had the griddle for almost a week and used it almost every night. I’m running in and out of the house with all the things we forgot to bring out and then running back in all the cooked food and empty containers. But we will get better at planning and coming up with more efficient ways to work. We also have a table that we are going to bring out to make more surface to work on the two wings are just not big enough. I hate the grease and messiness of certain meals. Frying all the sausages and snitzels leaves the kitchen coated with grease same with frying bacon. Plus if you have cooks who throw food when they turn or mix it you will appreciate not having that happen in your kitchen. I love that the mess is happening outside. The grease and frying smell happens outside and isn’t lingering around in the house for a week.
The reason for this review isn’t just Father’s Day is coming up it’s also because we had a hard time finding a lot of detail about the Cabela’s 4 burner 36″ griddle. We have only had it for a week so I can’t say what issue might come up in a year or two. I can say that so far it’s been fun and we are enjoying it. For Father’s day there will be smash burgers for lunch and maybe some Hibachi chicken later in the day. Although we are also smoking a homemade Corned Beef so maybe we will get wild and make corned beef hash or griddle sandwiches. The only thing I know for sure is there will be meat cooked with fire.
Happy Father’s Day to everyone out there.
