Featuring a broad, flat surface typically made of highly conductive metals like carbon steel or cast iron, a griddle is a pretty excellent choice when it comes to searing, crisping, or pan frying a lot of foods at once.
And while you could use pretty much any high heat-compatible kitchen utensil with it, there are a few tools that can really help maximize your griddle’s potential. These are the bench scraper, fish spatula, griddle spatula, and pigtail turner. Here’s why we like these griddle tools so much—and how they can help you make better burgers, breakfast tacos, and more.
Bench Scraper
When it comes to scraping bits of pancake batter, stuck-on fish skin, or burnt hamburger grease off a griddle, nothing quite compares to the bench scraper. Sure, you could just use a regular spatula—but what makes the bench scraper so useful is the combination of a sharp, sturdy metal blade, ample surface area, and compact shape that’s easy to control.
This handy little tool lifts burnt food, grease, and other gunk from the surface of your griddle, so you won’t wind up with an oily mess when you go to wipe it down with a dishcloth or sponge.
The bench scraper also has a number of uses outside of cleaning: not only can you use your bench scraper to transport chopped vegetables and other small ingredients from the cutting board to the griddle, but you can also use the blade’s sharpened edge to portion batches of dough and chop softer ingredients, like ground beef and potatoes.
Fish Spatula
The fish spatula—aka fish turner—is one of those tools that instantly makes you feel like a better cook when you use it for the first time. With its thin, flexible, slightly offset blade, the fish spatula slides easily under proteins and vegetables without breaking them or ruining the perfect crust you’ve worked so hard to achieve.
While the fish spatula can occasionally stand in for a griddle spatula (which we’ll talk about next), the two differ quite a bit in terms of design: With its bendy, slotted blade—intended to help drain off excess oil and grease when flipping, turning, or transferring ingredients—the fish spatula isn’t quite as adept as the griddle spatula when it comes to tossing ingredients and pressing down on burger patties and sandwiches.
Griddle Spatula
As the name might imply, the griddle spatula is specially designed for flat top cooking—and is probably the utensil you picture when imagining a griddle cook manning their station. It features a long, squared-off blade with a slight offset, making it ideal for sliding under foods like hashbrowns and burgers in order to lift or flip them. A griddle spatula does an even better job of this than fish spatulas, in fact: with their sturdy, non-slotted blades, they can more easily lift heavy items like steaks or chops.
They’re also great for smashing burger patties, pressing patty melts or grilled cheese, and moving ingredients around the surface of the griddle.
Grill Press
The Grill Press is the our Platonic ideal for maximum contact between your ingredients and the cooking surface of your griddle or grill. Perfect for lacy-edged smashburgers, crispy bacon, and perfectly cooked grilled cheese, the raised handle gives you more leverage (and keeps your hand away from the flame) while the stainless steel construction is durable enough for use atop the stove, on the grill, or over an open flame.
Pigtail Turner
The coiled end on this slightly niche, pitmaster-loved griddle and grill tool is actually pretty ingenious: it makes it easy to hook into, move, and flip large pieces of meat like steaks and chicken, without tearing the meat or losing a lot of juice.
While it’s excellent for griddle use, the blade’s length also makes it super handy for BBQ work—no more reaching into smokers and fire pits when cooking outdoors with your bare hands or tools ill-suited for the task at hand.
Ready to Shop?
Whether you’re cooking smash burgers for a crowd or pancakes and eggs for a lazy weekend breakfast, the right tools can make griddle cooking way easier and less messy. They also complement each other brilliantly: we like having the option of a fish spatula for more delicate items, a griddle spatula and grill press for fry ups and burger nights, a pigtail turner for steaks and large cuts of meat, and a bench scraper for efficient prep and clean-up.
Each of these tools are optimized for use on our Carbon Steel Griddle and the grill itself. Set your alarms to be the first to add this all-star, chef-approved lineup to your summer cookware collection.
