Expert Flat-Top Methods for 2026 Summer Grilling

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

I do this all summer. Prepare smashburgers at on a preheated griddle or steel. This high heat is important for producing the Maillard reaction, which offers smashburgers their signature crispy, lacy edges and deep taste. Get it ripping hot. You want 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 have to work quick. This is high-heat, high-speed cooking. That's what makes it so good. is the very best ratio for smashburgers. The 20% fat content is vital for producing a juicy burger and crispy edges.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

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

You can bake burgers in the oven, but they won't be smashburgers. They'll just be ... baked burgers.

Creating Elevated Menus with Signature Burgers

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

When you understand how steel holds and transfers heat, you begin utilizing it for whatever. I invented the Baking Steel in 2012 after reading that steel conducts heat better than stone.

Every Baking Steel is still made at our household shop. Cast iron is great. But if you're major about smashburgers, steel is much better. It shops more heat, recuperates faster, and provides you a consistent crust from the first hamburger to the last. Get it ripping hot, work fast, and make some bad ass burgers.

What began as a Kickstarter job (enhanced by an early endorsement from Kenji Lpez-Alt on Serious Eats) has actually become the go-to tool for hundreds of thousands of home cooks. His fixation with high-heat cooking goes method beyond pizza. After years of screening smashburgers on cast iron, stainless steel, and every frying pan on the marketplace, he created the Skinny Griddle and Mini Frying pan specifically for stovetop cooking crafted to hold heat the way just steel can.

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

How to Cook a Premium Flat-Top Burger

It's an easy meal, and it takes just a couple of minutes to prepare and a couple of minutes to cook your delicious griddle burgers. Select your burger patty, choose your cheese, and pick your buns and filling.! Cooking up your hamburgers on a flat griddle is a terrific method to get all the flavor you can out of both your hamburger 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 cook. We love frying pans because they are so versatile, and while generally they are used on stovetops, we frequently prepare hamburgers on a griddle in the oven, or even over an open campfire.

If you're utilizing 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 griddles, they are going to need a layer of spices to protect the surface area. This makes it non-stick, and likewise secures it from rust.