Published January 1, 2006. From Cook's Illustrated.
Grilling outside means bold flavors and attractive char marks—and waiting for decent weather. Can a grill pan transport the hot grate from the backyard to the stovetop?
When inclement weather (or lack of equipment) prohibits use of a grill, many recipe writers recommend the stovetop grill pan as the next best option. Basically a skillet (or sauté pan) with raised ridges splayed across the cooking surface, a grill pan is designed to deliver grill marks similar to those made on an outdoor grill. But we couldn't help but wonder: Was there more to cooking in grill pans than mere looks (those beguiling stripes)? Could they really replicate some of the flavor produced on a real grill?
Grill pans come in a dizzying array of materials, shapes, and sizes—small and large, square and round, cast iron and aluminum, with stainless steel, enameled, and nonstick surfaces. Shape and size turned out to matter much less than material, and it soon became apparent that aluminum was the only way to go. Why? The aluminum pans were lighter and so easier to handle, and they produced more distinct grill marks than their cast-iron counterparts. (Which makes sense, given that aluminum conducts heat more efficiently than cast iron.) What's more, it took just one ultra-sticky round of glazed salmon to make us decide that nonstick aluminum is a better choice than a traditional surface. Scrubbing the sticky, burnt glaze and salmon fat from between each and every ridge was, to put it politely, a major chore with both cast iron and stainless steel.
Full testing with hamburgers, flank steak, salmon fillets, swordfish steaks, chicken breast cutlets, panini (Italian-style grilled sandwiches), and sliced zucchini taught us a few things about cooking with grill pans. First, to develop appetizing grill marks, the pan must be preheated. Second, it's best to use a modicum of fat. In out tests, a light coating of oil resulted in nicer stripes than dry food in a dry pan. (Besides, for safety's sake you should not overheat an empty nonstick pan.) Third, cooking foods with wide, flat surfaces will help any grill pan do its best.
All of our winners shared one trait. It wasn't price and it wasn't material, since all the pans were aluminum. It was the design of the ridges. Our favorite pans had wide ridges (5/16 inch or more), which begat wide, substantial grill marks on the food—resulting in larger areas of caramelization and, thus, flavor.
Finally, we noticed a fairly consistent correlation between performance and the method used to construct the ridges. There are two basic approaches: Either the ridges are punched into the metal from the bottom, leaving indentations open to the heat source, or the pan is cast from molten metal, meaning that the ridges are formed by the mold. Cast pans have a solid bottom surface, without exposed indentations. In general, the pans with open indentations delivered better grill marks. Why? The interior of each ridge was directly exposed to the heat source, which facilitated heat transfer.
Are grill pans worth buying? Certainly, they can't replace a real grill. But for wintertime in the Snow Belt (or any time in the "Apartment Belt"), our tests proved that a grill pan can make a practical substitute, especially when you want to "grill" panini and fairly delicate foods such as fish or vegetables.
