At this point, everyone’s heard of wood-fired ovens. That’s how they make those perfectly-cooked pizzas, after all. What we’ve never heard about are wood-fired griddles. Apparently, that’s because they don’t exist. At least, not until the Recteq Smokestone 600 came along.
Touted as “the world’s first wood-fired griddle,” it’s a pellet grill with a griddle cooktop instead of traditional grates, allowing you to give your eggs, pancakes, and whatever else you normally cook on a griddle with that delicious wood-fired flavor. Do you really want a dedicated griddle for the backyard, though? We don’t know, but if you don’t mind a full-sized backyard griddle right next to your backyard grill, this is definitely the way to go.
The Recteq Smokestone 600 looks like any backyard grill, with legs that raise it at a comfortable height and a domed lid that you can use to keep the heat locked inside. Except, of course, it has a large griddle under the domed lid instead of the usual iron or steel grates. Because it’s a dedicated appliance, the cooking surface is pretty large at 600 square inches, which gives you enough room to fit 30 burgers, 20 cheesesteaks, and 70 bacon strips in one go. Simply put, this is a perfect griddle if you’re cooking for a party or a big family dinner.
It has an integrated ignition system that you activate with the turn of the knob on the right, which you can also use to easily adjust the cooking temperature anywhere between 300 degrees and 600 degrees Fahrenheit. The hopper, by the way, can hold up to 17 pounds of wood pellets at a time, which gives you enough fuel to keep it cooking for over 12 hours. Of course, we don’t know what you would cook in a griddle that will take 12 hours, but we’ll leave those mysterious questions up to you to answer.
The Recteq Smokestone 600 has an integrated temperature control system that manages temperature automatically, allowing the grill to maintain the exact temperature you set consistently, so you get the right amount of heat to cook your food the right way. There’s also Wi-Fi connectivity, so you can control the grill directly from your phone, allowing you to begin cooking, leave to watch the game, and adjust the temperature without having to peel yourself off the TV. Aside from the griddle, there’s also a raised warming rack a couple of inches above it for any food you want to cook without direct contact with the griddle surface.
There’s no direct flame option here, by the way, so you can’t just lift out the griddle and replace it with a grate accessory like you can with so many backyard grills. Yep, it’s a griddle and that’s all it will be. Other features include full stainless steel construction, rolled steel cooking surface, cast iron heat deflector, a steel drip pan, and four caster wheels. The whole thing weighs 183 pounds and require around an hour of assembly out of the box.
The Recteq Smokestone 600 comes out mid-November. Price is $999.