Professional Flat-Top Methods for 2026 Summer Grilling

Cast iron drops in temperature level after each burger. Steel does not. That's why I created it I come from a steel family and I understood the product might surpass cast iron for high-heat cooking.

I do this all summertime. Cook smashburgers at on a preheated frying pan or steel. This high heat is important for creating the Maillard response, which gives smashburgers their signature crispy, lacy edges and deep flavor. Get it ripping hot. You wish to hear that sizzle the second the beef strikes the steel.

Flip, include cheese, and cook for another to melt the cheese and finish cooking. You need to work fast. This is high-heat, high-speed cooking. That's what makes it so excellent. is the best ratio for smashburgers. The 20% fat material is essential for creating a juicy burger and crispy edges.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

Leaner beef will result in a drier, less flavorful burger. Crispy edges come from 3 things: (500-550F) Get your griddle ripping hot. Maximize contact with the frying pan.

You can bake hamburgers in the oven, but they will not be smashburgers. They'll simply be ... baked hamburgers.

The Ultimate Guide to Flat-Top Grilling Excellence

Season on the frying pan. Do not season the beef before forming the balls it can make the texture mushy. I utilize mine for pancakes, bacon, eggs, grilled cheese, quesadillas, seared steaks, and more.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

Once you understand how steel holds and moves heat, you start utilizing it for whatever. I did Andris Lagsdin. I invented the Baking Steel in 2012 after checking out that steel performs heat better than stone. My household has run Stoughton Steel Business in Hanover, MA because the 1960s, so I got a piece from my daddy's shop, checked it, and the rest is history.

It stores more heat, recuperates much faster, and offers you a constant crust from the first burger to the last. Get it ripping hot, work quickly, and make some bad ass burgers.

What started as a Kickstarter project (boosted by an early endorsement from Kenji Lpez-Alt on Serious Consumes) has become the go-to tool for hundreds of countless home cooks. His fascination with high-heat cooking goes method beyond pizza. After years of testing smashburgers on cast iron, stainless steel, and every frying pan on the marketplace, he developed the Skinny Griddle and Mini Frying pan specifically for stovetop cooking engineered to hold heat the method only steel can.

The Skinny Griddle is his go-to tool for smashburgers at home. He's the co-author of Baking with Steel with Jesse Olson Moore and teaches high-heat cooking through his complimentary online classes and recipes.

Special Ingredients for Award-Winning Burgers

It's a basic meal, and it takes just a few minutes to prepare and a few minutes to cook your tasty frying pan burgers. Pick your hamburger patty, choose your cheese, and pick your buns and filling.! Cooking up your hamburgers on a flat frying pan is a great way to get all the flavor you can out of both your hamburger patty and your cooking surface.

These flat, smooth cooking surface areas can take a lot of heat, and they can offer your hamburger the ideal sear, and a well rounded, even prepare. We like frying pans because they are so flexible, and while traditionally they are used on stovetops, we routinely cook burgers on a frying pan in the oven, or perhaps over an open campfire.

If you're utilizing your griddle on the stovetop, in the oven, or on the campfire, there are a couple of universal rules to follow when you're cooking burgers: If you have actually cast iron griddles, they are going to require a layer of seasoning to secure the surface area. This makes it non-stick, and also protects it from rust.