The Plancha – Grilling like in the South
A Spanish restaurant near the coast. You sit outside, the smell of olive oil and grilled seafood wafts over. The food is prepared on a plate that is a little reminiscent of the frying plate from your local chip shop. And in fact, this type of grill is simply called a plancha, which translates as plate or sheet. Until a few years ago, however, when we talked about a plancha, we often meant a complete grill. So a unit made up of burners and a plate; something that never really caught on in Germany, although it could be found in almost every hardware store at times. – By Markus Mizgalski
From the fire plate to the plancha
Even though there have always been grillers who have cooked food on a cast iron plate, cooking on a plate outside of the catering trade only became really popular with the advent of fire plates. However, since not everyone has the opportunity to put such a relatively bulky device at home, people often retrofit their existing grill with a plate. But what makes sense - cast iron? Enamel? Stainless steel?
Heating
Today, fire plates and plancha are often equated. However, this is not entirely permissible because there is a clear difference between the two plates. Fire plates are heated from the middle, which leads to a desired temperature gradient towards the edge. With the plancha, however, you want an evenly heated surface, although of course areas can also be created here for further cooking or keeping warm. This is especially true if a plancha is heated with several burners. However, the accessory plates for the grills are often designed in such a way that they replace a grate element and are located centrally above a burner. In this case, a high material thickness is a prerequisite for even heat. It does not initially matter whether a plancha is made of cast iron or steel. The thermal conductivity is almost the same. It is more difficult with high-alloy stainless steels or enamelled plates. Here the thermal conductivity is significantly reduced compared to the first materials mentioned. The plates sometimes take more than twice as long to heat up.
Temperature output
Once the plate has heated up, you can start frying. If you now cover the plate with salmon from the fridge, the fish will draw energy from the material. It will do this even if it is not fridge cold, but then you will not need to apply heat for as long until the salmon is translucent or cooked through. Nevertheless, it is not a good idea to preheat fish to room temperature; but that is just a side note. Back to energy transfer: the salmon ultimately cools the plancha down. The extent to which this happens depends on two factors: the heat capacity - i.e. the ability to store heat, and the ability to transport energy quickly. In other words, the thermal conductivity mentioned above. Cast iron is the best material here.
Cast iron heats up quickly, so be careful
The food to be grilled must be suitably “robust”.
Many planchas are made of stainless steel. They are easy to clean, but the heat conduction is not ideal. However, they are still a very useful solution for more delicate foods.
The surface
However, the thermodynamic properties alone do not say anything about how well you can grill or fry on a particular material. If you don't want to spend a lot of time on seasoning and maintenance, you should go for an enamelled plancha or one made of stainless steel. You unpack it, wipe it down with a damp cloth and you're ready to go. After use, you can easily clean it with washing-up liquid; the likelihood of something burning onto the enamel is comparatively low, provided you use enough oil or fat. With stainless steel, the likelihood is somewhat higher and there is also a risk of permanent discolouration. Nevertheless, this material is easy to care for overall. In return, you have to accept moderate thermal conductivity for both materials. The heat capacity of enamel depends on the core of the plancha. Cast iron is often used here. Stainless steel, on the other hand, stores heat almost as well as untreated steel. In principle, however, with both steel and stainless steel, more material thickness also makes sense for other reasons. Thin planchas can warp, for example.
Steel and cast iron, on the other hand, require careful seasoning to form a suitable patina. With steel, this is relatively easy to do, for example with potato peels and oil. This also works with cast iron, although the length of the seasoning process should depend on how rough the material is. In any case, you should make sure that the surface of a plancha is as smooth as possible; you can certainly give a steak a roasted aroma on coarse cast iron, but a small pike-perch fillet is more difficult. When it comes to cleaning, cast iron and steel are no different: hot water and a brush or sponge, not washing-up liquid. Coarse residue can be scraped off beforehand or boiled off by pouring water onto the plate after use. With cast iron, however, this should neither be too much nor too cold, as otherwise there is a risk that the brittle material will burst.
If the burners don't have enough power, a stainless steel plancha isn't really fun; roasting aromas are only produced to a limited extent.
Rough cast iron surfaces should be treated with caution when cooking classic plancha dishes. Vegetables in particular can sometimes get really sticky.
The plancha can be a standalone grill.
The steel plate on this machine has similar properties to cast iron, but is much smoother.
What else is important
In addition to the material and surface finish, the design of a plancha is also important. The classic plancha has edges, which are often raised quite high at least at the back. This makes it much easier to turn diced vegetables or small seafood. Alternatively, you can work with two turners, but this is more cumbersome. The edge also prevents oil or fat from running uncontrollably off the plate. Unlike some cast iron plates, which are designed to drain liquids immediately, the use of oil on the plancha is quite methodical. Many planchas therefore have no drain at all, and some have a closable drain.
Conclusion
Choosing the right plancha depends not least on your willingness to look after it properly. In any case, it is important that the material thickness is right so that the heat storage works well. And so that the plate does not warp. Because that - more than any rust, for example - will render the good piece unusable in the worst case scenario.
