Bread sticking to your sandwich toaster’s supposedly non-stick surface? Grilled toasts stick to your sandwich maker and come off in pieces? This issue might be caused by a few simple factors and in most cases is really easy to fix! Let’s quickly go over the main reasons why your toasties might stick to your sandwich grill, and how to prevent that from happening.
- What causes the food to stick to a sandwich grill?
- Leftover food pieces causing the sticking
- Toaster lubrication with olive oil / cooking oil / butter
- Damaged non-stick surface of the sandwich grill
- Should you put butter on grilled sandwiches?
- How to avoid the food sticking to the surface of a sandwich grill?
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What causes the food to stick to a sandwich grill?
A few things can be the reason your food sticks to the sandwich toaster’s surface. Most popular causes for sandwich sticking are:
- Leftover food sticking to the toaster’s heating surface.
- Not properly lubricating your sandwich toaster and/or bread.
- Damaged/old non-stick surface of your sandwich toaster.
Leftover food pieces causing the sticking
If you don’t clean your sandwich grill properly every time you stop using it, the leftover food pieces such as burnt breadcrumbs and other kind of debris might cause the toaster’s surface to temporarily lose its non-stick properties.
Unplug your sandwich toaster, wait for it to cool down if it was on recently and gently clean its surface using a wet paper towel or a cloth, then wipe it down again using a dry paper towel.
Alternatively, if your sandwich toaster features removable plates, you can take the plates out of the toaster, immerse them in soap water and clean them (but remember not to scratch their surface during the process).
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If there are a lot of old food pieces stuck to the grill’s surface you might need to use a little more force, remember though – don’t scratch the metal surface of your toaster during the cleanup process.
It might be tempting to remove the food residue or clean your sandwich grill using sharp tools such as a kitchen knife. If you do that though, your risk damaging the non-stick surface of your appliance – you don’t want that to happen.
In most cases thoroughly cleaning your sandwich grill / sandwich toaster’s surface will fix the sticking food issue.
A great hack is to try and clean your sandwich grill directly after use – the leftover food debris on the grill such as molten cheese will still be easy to remove when they haven’t cooled down yet (just be careful not to burn yourself by touching the hot plates with your bare hand).
Toaster lubrication with olive oil / cooking oil / butter
- Before putting your toasties inside your sandwich grill, you can lubricate the grilling surface with a little bit of cooking oil or olive oil (you can do so by spraying the oil on top of the sandwich grill’s surface using an oil spray bottle, or by spreading it using a cooking brush).
- Another way to do that is to do what many of you do anyway: spread some butter on the bottom and top of your toasties before putting them inside your sandwich grill. By doing so you can not only achieve more crisp and yellowed texture of the toasts, but also simultaneously you prevent the bread from sticking to the sandwich grill plates.
Damaged non-stick surface of the sandwich grill
As with damaged non-stick pans, sandwich toaster surface can also be damaged by sharp tools or simply with excessive use over time.
When the non stick surface of your sandwich grill is damaged in too many places it might partially lose its non-stick functionality. It that case you can either get a new sandwich grill or a new plate if your grill features removable plates, or still try and use it with more oil lubrication so that your toasties will be less likely to stick.
Should you put butter on grilled sandwiches?
As we’ve mentioned before, putting butter both on top and on the bottom of your toasties makes it easier to remove them after they are done, and it also helps you achieve that iconic golden crispy texture of the toasts that we all love them for.
If you’re not used to putting butter on your grilled sandwiches or grilled cheese consider doing so. It’s simple, practical and yields great results!
How to avoid the food sticking to the surface of a sandwich grill?
So to quickly sum it all up. To prevent your toasties from sticking to your sandwich grill’s surface you have to either:
- Properly clean your sandwich grill from the leftover food residue before using it (and after you finish making your toasties).
- Properly lubricate your sandwich grill’s surface using a small amount of oil, or spread butter on the top and bottom of your toasties before the grilling process.
- Try not to damage your sandwich toaster’s surface using sharp tools in the cleaning process – it might lose its non-stick functionality which will cause the food to be more likely to stick.
Main article photo: Telecouse
