When it comes to human beings and their long history of cooking, the griddle is one of the oldest items of cookware that we have ever had. In the old days, it was little more than a flat rock suspended on two other rocks over an open fire. Once it heated up sufficiently, food was cooked on it.

These days, the equivalent of the griddle isn't made of stone - they are typically fashioned from cast iron or another metal. The griddle plan is defined by most cooks and kitchen experts as a shallow pan that is used on a stove top to either bake or fry food, be it fish or potatoes or steak or kale.

What separates the griddle from the griddle pan? The latter has slightly higher side, allowing for a degree of stirring not present in straightforward griddles.

But fancy definitions aside, if you are serious about cooking and kitchens, then you can't afford not to have both a griddle and griddle pan somewhere in the pantry! Without it, you are going to find that plenty of recipes - home fries, scrambled eggs, chicken fried steak - just aren't going to come off as well as you want them to.

Griddle pans come in many different sizes and shapes. There are those that are perfectly round and others that are rectangular or square. You can even find them in the shape of an oval! There are griddle pans large enough to fit two different stove top burners, while others simply sit on one.

Griddle pan surfaces also own some slight variation. Some have smooth surfaces - ideal for frying eggs, for example. Others have grooved exteriors that can lend your chicken breast those all-important grill lines. Or the grooves can catch the grease and fat dripping from cooked meats.

You are not limited to griddles and griddle pans that have to be used on a stove - you can buy variations that are designed to be plugged into an outlet and used that way.

Why are they so important to your kitchen? Simply because of the incredible variety that they offer you. You can cook just about anything on a few griddles - pan cakes, griddle cakes, home fries, eggs of all stripes, crepes, poultry breasts, French toast and so forth.

What good cook would deny themselves that kind of range?

Perhaps the most popular benefit to the griddle is that you can cook more food in a quicker time. In other words, where a traditional pan might only yield three or four slices of French toast, you might be able to cook as many as ten on a good griddle. This is ideal if you are a family chef and have lots of hungry mouths to feed at one time.

Think about it. Getting yourself a good griddle and accompanying griddle pan will only expand your ability to turn your kitchen into a haven of delicious food - why not go for it?

You'll bring loads of flexibility to your kitchen and cooking when you add a good griddle and griddle pan. All the hungry mouths that you feed will thank you.

To prepare pancakes, you need to start by making the pancake batter. Get a good recipe that is fairly simple to follow, and start measuring out all the ingredients. Follow the instructions on how to mix it all together and you get your batter.

When the better is set, you can finally cook up your pancakes. Just pour out the batter onto the pan, cook, flip, cook some more, and enjoy. That's pretty easy, right? Nothing to it.

Cooking pancakes isn't exactly a science, but you couldn't cook them any which way you want, either. For example, you aren't supposed to bake pancakes. Why not? Because they just wouldn't turn out right. Sticking them in the oven, you wouldn't get the kind of pancakes you're looking for.

If you poured the batter into hot oil and fried it would it still be pancakes? Of course not! In that case, it would be fried dough. And even more, it wouldn't be able to be called 'pan' cakes anymore.

What type of pan should you cook your pancakes on? Technically, you could use a skillet or frying pan to make them and it would work, but it probably would be a little difficult. You could even use a wok if you really wanted to, but you'd have trouble.

A griddle will be the best pan to use. It is almost like the griddle was made just for making pancakes, that's how perfect it is. Get a big one or small one, one fore the stove or an electric griddle.

Electric or stove top griddles are perfect for making pancakes. It's so easy to use them to flip the pancakes over and out of the pan. Use whatever shape you want that will fit your needs.

Electric griddles are great space saving pans. If you cook a lot at once and need the stove, an electric griddle gives you more cooking space on the counter. It is a great use for pancakes.