People argue about it like cats and dogs on the Blackstone Griddle Owners group on Facebook. It has been going on for years, almost daily. You have the crowd who are flax oil die-hards — not for cooking with it, but merely for seasoning the griddle with it — and then you have those who are set in their niche ways, believing in the almighty powers of lard or Crisco to get the job done.

Thankfully, my grizzly self is here to tell you the best oil in the world that you can possibly use for taking care of your Blackstone griddle and preparing it for the next cooking session.

Are you ready?

Here’s the answer: It absolutely doesn’t matter. You can use any kind of oil that you want and acquire the same result as everyone else who takes care of their griddles in the end.

I butchered the seasoning on my 36″ Blackstone Griddle due to a lack of patience, back in August 2017, although everything turned out fine. When I bought the 17″ tabletop Blackstone Griddle, you know what I used? It certainly wasn’t $8-$10 bucks on a bottle of flax oil (since it is worthless for actual cooking where the smoke point is so low); I bought a small 98 cent bottle of vegetable oil, and it worked just as fine as any other oil. Vegetable oil certainly isn’t the healthiest thing to cook with, but for seasoning the griddle? Not only is it economically superior versus flax oil given the extreme price difference, it will yield the same result (a slick, black, non-stick surface for your griddle).

Speaking of the low smoke point of flax oil, I think that’s why many of the flax oil die-hards choose it for seasoning their griddles, because you want to add multiple thin coatings of oil and allow it to burn and smoke off. However, I’ve read horror stories about people using flax oil to season their griddles, as some people have said a crust will form and cause it to flake. Devil’s advocates of those comments have stated that the reason this happens is because people add too much oil onto the flat top surface instead of a thin coating.

Regardless, you don’t have to spend steak money just to season your griddle.

At the end of the day, no matter what cooking oil you use, you will achieve a dark, slick, non-stick surface, not to mention that every time you use your griddle to cook with, it will further season the griddle and aid in your efforts to take care of it over time.

The more you cook on your Blackstone Griddle, the more you are taking care of it and the overwhelming likelihood that it will never rust.