Understanding Flat-Top vs Traditional Grill Methods

Cast iron drops in temperature after each hamburger. Steel doesn't. That's why I developed it I come from a steel household and I knew the material could surpass cast iron for high-heat cooking.

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 response, which gives smashburgers their signature crispy, lacy edges and deep taste. Get it ripping hot. You want to hear that sizzle the 2nd the beef hits the steel.

Flip, include cheese, and cook for another to melt the cheese and finish cooking. That's what makes it so excellent. The 20% fat content is essential for producing a juicy hamburger and crispy edges.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

Leaner beef will result in a drier, less flavorful hamburger. Crispy edges come from three things: (500-550F) Get your griddle ripping hot. Take full advantage of contact with the frying pan.

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

The Ultimate Guide to Flat-Top Grilling Success

Season on the frying pan. Don't 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

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

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

What began as a Kickstarter project (increased by an early recommendation from Kenji Lpez-Alt on Serious Eats) has grown into the go-to tool for hundreds of countless home cooks. His fixation with high-heat cooking goes method beyond pizza. After years of testing smashburgers on cast iron, stainless-steel, and every griddle 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 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 dishes.

Savory Dinner Inspiration for Summer 2026

It's an easy meal, and it takes simply a couple of minutes to prepare and a few minutes to cook your scrumptious frying pan hamburgers. Select your hamburger patty, choose your cheese, and choose your buns and filling.! Cooking up your hamburgers on a flat griddle is a fantastic method 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 provide your hamburger the ideal sear, and a well rounded, even prepare. We like frying pans since they are so versatile, and while generally they are used on stovetops, we frequently cook hamburgers on a frying pan in the oven, and 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 few universal guidelines to follow when you're cooking hamburgers: If you have actually cast iron griddles, they are going to need a layer of seasoning to protect the surface. This makes it non-stick, and likewise protects it from rust.