Island Grillstone guest review from Another Pint Please

My newest guest post is from Mike Lang, the host of “Another Pint Please”. I have been a fan of Mike's blog for a few years now, with complete envy of course. Mike is the kind of guy I want to live next to. He grills, brews beer and has his friends over to enjoy the fruits of his hard work. Perfect neighbor! In fact Mike is the reason I have convinced myself to start brewing beer next year, my first attempt and I hope to chronicle the process here on Cooking-Outdoors.com. But enough of me, lets focus on Mike and his first experience with his new Island Grillstone.

Although there is nothing I love more than to put meat down on to a hot grate, I have to admit, I have always had a secret love affair with a good griddle, too. Perhaps it was my brief summer stint as a short order cook before heading off to college, or, more likely, the never ending stream of post mortems I preform on asparagus spears who just can't stay “on the grate”. Whatever the reason, when Gary offered me a chance to try out the Island Grillstone, I jumped. Billed as “natural stone cooking” (it's made out of porous volcanic rock) the Grillstone is the outdoor griddle I've been looking for.

Once the stone arrived, I quickly unpacked it. Its porous look is obviously incredibly sponge like, which made me marvel it more, as the weight gave away its volcanic origin. The stone is also round, which suits it to all of my grills of various sizes, depending on what my needs of the moment are.

Before the grillstone's first dance on the grates, I followed the seasoning instructions, which although I didn't realize at the time, are quick to follow, but take a large amount of time to follow through. It was after the requisite soap and wash that I found just how unusual the stone was. While at the same time the stone bounced water off of it's hardened surface, the stone sucked the water up like a sponge, too. In fact, so much “sucking” took place, the stone took an entire day to dry out. I found this quite amazing and totally unexpected.

Following the wash and dry, I continued the seasoning process by rubbing the whole stone with olive oil. The stone was then placed on a cold grill, heated up to cooking temperature and then cooled down again. A flip of the stone and voila, seasoning complete.

For my first cook, I worked the stone with steaks and zucchini. It was quite an enjoyable experience. I was cooking on the grill, yet cooking on a volcanic griddle. I had the smells of the coals, yet an entirely new dimension with the reaction of the meat to the stone. It made things easy too. Case in point, I almost always cut my zucchini lengthwise to grill. On the stone, I went with round slices and loved the ease and variation. Now admittedly, I love my grill marks. Yes, I understand it is mostly decorative, but it makes for an awesome presentation. Cooking on the stone obviously doesn't yield the same results visually, but in the end it is the taste that matters. The Grillstone didn't disappoint me.

To ready the stone for the next cook, all I had to do was flip it over. The heat of the grill from each successful cook cleans the bottom, which, once flipped, will eventually become the “top” for the next meal. As I mentioned above, this is like a griddle, but cooler. No cleaning, no muss and no fuss.

Next up was asparagus with pepper crusted bluefin tuna. Again, another delightful meal. Using the stone really transforms the grill to the griddle option I always wanted.

Although I am firm believer of grilling anything, the stone certainly makes it easier to grill somethings and adds yet another tool to my grilling kit for everything else. My only concern is longevity. So far, so good and as along as I continue to follow the cold start up instructions, I'm not worried. As time goes by, I am anxious to see how the stone transforms and develops flavor.

Thanks again to Island Grillstone and Gary for my new toy. I'm sure everyone will be seeing more of it in the coming months.

Mike, thank you for taking the time to review the Island Grillstone! Your photos are amazing and I truely wish you lived next door. Your can find more of Mike's work by visiting:

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Island Grillstone is a sponsor of www.Cooking-Outdoors.com and provided www.AnotherPintPlease.com with a complimentarty grillstone of their review.