Professional Flat-Top Strategies for 2026 Summer Grilling

Cast iron drops in temperature level after each burger. Steel doesn't. That's why I created it I come from a steel family and I knew the product could surpass cast iron for high-heat cooking. Yes. Position your Baking Steel Original straight on your grill grates, preheat for 15-20 minutes on high, and smash your burgers right on the steel.

I do this all summer season. Cook smashburgers at on a preheated frying pan or steel. This high heat is important for producing the Maillard reaction, 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 surface cooking. You need to work quickly. This is high-heat, high-speed cooking. That's what makes it so great. is the very best ratio for smashburgers. The 20% fat material is essential for creating a juicy hamburger and crispy edges.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

Leaner beef will result in a drier, less flavorful hamburger. Stick to 80/20. Crispy edges originate from three things: (500-550F) Get your griddle ripping hot. The fat renders and french fries the edges. Take full advantage of contact with the frying pan. Heat, fat, and surface area contact. Master those 3 things and you'll get best crispy edges whenever.

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

Expert Flat-Top Strategies for 2026 Summer Grilling

This makes the most of area for browning and creates the signature crispy edges. Don't be shy. Actually smash it. That's where the magic happens. Season on the frying pan. Do not season the beef before forming the balls it can make the texture mushy. Definitely. I utilize mine for pancakes, bacon, eggs, grilled cheese, quesadillas, seared steaks, and more.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

As soon as you understand how steel holds and moves heat, you start using it for everything. I invented the Baking Steel in 2012 after reading that steel carries out heat better than stone.

Every Baking Steel is still made at our family shop. Cast iron is great. However if you're severe about smashburgers, steel is much better. It stores more heat, recovers quicker, and gives you a consistent crust from the first hamburger to the last. Get it ripping hot, work quickly, and make some bad ass burgers.

What started as a Kickstarter project (enhanced by an early endorsement from Kenji Lpez-Alt on Serious Consumes) has actually grown into the go-to tool for hundreds of thousands of home cooks. His fixation with high-heat cooking goes way beyond pizza. After years of testing smashburgers on cast iron, stainless steel, and every griddle on the marketplace, he designed the Skinny Griddle and Mini Griddle specifically for stovetop cooking engineered to hold heat the method just steel can.

The Skinny Frying pan 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 totally free online classes and recipes.

Advanced Flat-Top Methods for Upcoming Summer Grilling

It's a simple meal, and it takes simply a couple of minutes to prepare and a couple of minutes to prepare your tasty griddle burgers. Pick your hamburger patty, choose your cheese, and select your buns and filling.! Cooking up your hamburgers on a flat griddle is an excellent way to get all the flavor you can out of both your burger patty and your cooking surface.

These flat, smooth cooking surfaces can take a lot of heat, and they can give your hamburger the perfect sear, and a well rounded, even prepare. We love griddles since they are so flexible, and while typically they are utilized on stovetops, we routinely prepare burgers on a frying pan in the oven, or even over an open campfire.

If you're using your frying pan 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 cast iron frying pans, they are going to need a layer of seasoning to secure the surface area. This makes it non-stick, and also safeguards it from rust.