One of the best family activities that can bring all the members together is outdoor cooking, or grilling, to be precise. Food is something that is interesting to most people and when time is spent perfectly grilling that steak, it sure is a picture-perfect moment for the loved ones. Add a little bit of physical activity and you are all set to have the perfect weekend.
But what if you do not have a barbeque? Not everyone can afford one or even have the requisite space and infrastructure required for the same. Fret not, all you need is a good quality grill pan. Choosing the best grill pan is not an easy task either. In this post, we will tell you about the various parts of a grill pan and how you can choose the one that is perfect for you. Let’s get cooking.
- Consider the length of the handle – When it comes to the handle of the grill pan, ideally, it should be long enough that it doesn’t get hot. The advantage of a long handle is that it helps you work with the food that you are grilling while protecting your hand from getting burnt. The only disadvantage is that a long handle adds to the weight of the grill pan.
Another small thing that you need to pay attention to while considering the handle of the grill pan is that it is preferable to buy one with a small handle or loop on the opposite end of the long handle too so that it is easier to lift the grill pan when it is hot and heavy. This is also known as the “helper” handle.
- Go for a cast iron body – As regards the body of the grill pan, you have three main materials to choose from – cast iron, stainless steel, or anodized aluminum. Let us tell you the difference between the three and why cast iron is the best choice for a grill pan. Cast iron is the only material among the three which can handle very high temperatures without letting the food get burnt.
While stainless steel and aluminum grill pans are certainly lightweight as compared to cast iron, they do not handle high temperatures as well as cast iron. Be it non-vegetarian items like meat or simple veggies, there is very little chance of it sticking to a cast iron pan and hence it is preferred over the other materials. - Be aware of the cooking surface – Once you have settled the handle and the body of the grill pan, you need to pay attention to the cooking surface. By cooking surface, we mean the interior of the pan where the food will actually be cooked. A cast-iron pan may be pre-seasoned or coated with enamel. While the seasoned one lasts a lifetime as it can be seasoned again, the enamel-coated one is easier to clean and is most preferred these days.
If you have opted for a stainless steel or aluminum body, make sure that you buy a pan with non-stick coating on it so that it is easier to clean. Also, be prepared that the grill marks in such a pan will not be as pronounced as those on a cast-iron one. The choice is yours. - The shape of the pan – Most cooking pans are round in shape. However, grill pans are generally square in shape. A few larger ones are rectangular too so as to ensure that it is long enough to fit over two burners. If you are worried about the cost, rest assured that the best factory in china mass produces these grill pans and makes them affordable and efficient to use.
The reason that they are square in shape is that food in a grill pan needs to be cooked in a single layer and a square shape provides a larger surface area. The cast iron grill pans also have an upper hand here because the corners of the pan also double up as a heat source ensuring that the food gets heated uniformly.
- Opt for an enamel exterior – This is one of the last things that people look for when shopping for a grill pan but it is equally important. There are two aspects here. The exterior must obviously look good and add value to your kitchen. At the same time, it must not be high maintenance when it comes to cleaning.
Opting for an enamel exterior ensures that both these aspects are taken care of. A grill pan with an enamel coating on the outside is super easy to clean and since the outside can be of any color, you can use it to pop up the jazz of your kitchen.
With small houses becoming a reality due to increasing urbanization, more and more people are spending on a good quality grill pan rather than making the effort to set up an elaborate arrangement in their backyard.
If you are one of these people, do consider the points that we stressed above. At the end of the day, a grill pan is a way to cook good food and eat it with friends and family. Any pan that does that, is the one you should buy.