The Made In Carbon Steel Griddle Trio Can Cook it All—and Fast

By Steven John

All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Contributor Steven John's Made In Carbon Steel Griddle review includes everything you should know before buying—including background on carbon steel cookware, how it handles a few basic recipes, and his final verdict.

I’m no stranger to most kinds of cooking. I can grill, roast, smoke, simmer, stir-fry, bake, and broil more meals than I could feed my family in a week and still have a few recipes on my roster. And I’m not afraid of a culinary challenge, either—in fact, I always take pride in preparing rather involved, multi-part meals even when we’re camping or holed up in an Airbnb.

Like anyone who enjoys cooking, I also enjoy all the accouterment that goes with it. We have an air fryer, a food processor, an ice cream maker, a pizza oven, a pellet smoker, and on it goes. So when I got the chance to test the carbon steel griddles from Made In, you can imagine my enthusiasm, to say the least.

Made In griddles can be used for everything from frying eggs and bacon to making smash burgers, searing steaks and seafood, sautéing veggies, and much more. No matter what you cook on these griddles, it cooks fast thanks to how well the hardware transfers heat, and it cooks well and releases easily.

The secret is to choose the right Made In griddle for your meal, because you have three choices.

Made In has offered a flat carbon steel griddle for a while, but now the company has added two more options: one with holes perforating its entire cooking surface, giving a grill-like cooking experience, and another griddle that's half flat surface, half perforated—the best of both worlds. There's a little bit to unpack before we get to the actual cooking, so first let's get on the same page as to what carbon steel is anyway.

So what is carbon steel? Let's use some language straight from the brand Made In itself, which says: "Carbon Steel Cookware starts as a silver-hued alloy of 99% iron and 1% carbon." Pretty simple, right? They say it starts that way because, with proper care, carbon steel cookware only gets better with time. And a lot of time, mind you—the griddles we’re discussing today have a lifetime warranty.

The improvement that comes with age and use, known as seasoning, is a term you likely associate with cast iron cookware. And while carbon steel cookware can impart the same great flavor while holding and dispersing heat as well as cast iron, it also has a few more notable benefits. First, weight: carbon steel is a lot lighter than cast iron. Second, conduction: carbon steel heats up and cools down faster, giving you more control over your cooking. And third, it's more easily restored and reseasoned than cast iron, even if it gets scratched, pitted, built-up with grease, or even rusty.

Materials aside, let's talk about the genuine articles. Made In's carbon steel offerings have included a (wildly popular) 24" by 10.5" flat griddle for a while now. At the time of this writing, that griddle, which is made in Sweden, has more than 700 reviews and a stunning 4.9-star overall rating from customers.

Made In's three griddle offerings, including the new half grill griddle (middle) and grill griddle (right)

And what's not to love? The Carbon Steel Griddle can be used on stovetops (gas, induction, or electric all work), it can be placed atop a charcoal or gas grill, it can be placed inside a large oven (note the word large—more on that later), or it can be rested atop a firepit or placed directly over an open fire when you use a stand specifically designed to work with it.

The new half grill griddle and grill griddle also measure 24" by 10.5", and all three griddles weigh just under 10 pounds. They’re big, solid pieces of cookware that are probably overkill for some people, but for those of us who take cooking seriously, from the backyard pitmaster to the breakfast champ to the seared steak aficionado, they’re a great get.

I will say that on first seeing these griddles in person, I was a bit skeptical based on their rather high price and the fact that, from the texture of the metal, I was sure food was going to stick. When I was done cooking, my concerns were very much allayed.

I wanted to get the best feel for what a Made In griddle can do, and in my mind that meant cooking over fire. So I built a three-log fire in my trusty Solo Stove fire pit and, after applying a light coat of vegetable oil (the griddles come preseasoned but you should still add a bit of oil before each use), I set it down over the flames.

Within all of 20 or 30 seconds I could feel heat radiating off the surface of the griddle when I held a hand nearby, and within a minute, I knew it was time to cook. It was morning at the time, so I went with pancakes and a fried egg, but wanting a fuller test, I also popped on a veggie kebab.

By Rachel Davies

By Erika Owen

By Eva Morell

The vegetables, placed over the holes, started hissing and popping right away, while the pancake batter immediately set and began to cook. And when I cracked the egg onto the griddle, it started to cook so fast I feared it would surely burn and stick.

It did not. In fact, the egg released and flipped so easily I almost pushed it off the griddle into the fire as I worked my spatula under it. The veggies were ready to be flipped in less than a minute thanks to the heat of the griddle and the licking flames from below it. And the pancake, well, that I actually burned a bit, if I’m being honest—the heat was too much for it.

The cooking experience was a great one, all told, and that means I now have a trio of cookware that will let me take my campsite gourmet chops up another notch, not to mention all the stuff I’ll be making in my kitchen and backyard here at home.

Made In's half and half griddle put to the test with a trio of taste tests

The next time I go camping with the fam, entertain friends in the backyard, or just want to cook up a large, tasty meal quickly, I’m using a Made In griddle. The huge cooking surface, the fast heating, the easy food release? It's all good. And cooking on one of these griddles looks cool, too, and let's not pretend that's not a thing (a little one, but still).

There's one thing none of these Carbon Steel Griddles from Made In can do, and that's fit in my oven. Which is a shame, because a broiled, seared steak, salmon, filet or pork chop would be great on one of these things. Granted, Made In offers a lid that rather lets their griddles work like ovens, but it's not the same thing.

By Rachel Davies

By Erika Owen

By Eva Morell

I guess I’ll just have to settle for cooking on the grill, the fire pit, the stove, or the campfire, leading to tastier and tastier foods as my griddles slowly season toward perfection.