Understanding Flat-Top versus Outdoor Grilling Methods thumbnail

Understanding Flat-Top versus Outdoor Grilling Methods

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4 min read


Cast iron drops in temperature level after each hamburger. Steel doesn't. That's why I produced it I come from a steel family and I understood the product might outshine 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 summertime. Cook smashburgers at on a preheated frying pan or steel. This high heat is crucial for developing the Maillard reaction, which provides smashburgers their signature crispy, lacy edges and deep taste. Get it ripping hot. You wish to hear that sizzle the 2nd the beef hits the steel.

Flip, include cheese, and cook for another to melt the cheese and surface cooking. You have to work quickly. This is high-heat, high-speed cooking. That's what makes it so excellent. is the finest ratio for smashburgers. The 20% fat content is essential for developing a juicy burger and crispy edges.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & SteakburgersFreddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers


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

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

Exploring Flat-Top versus Outdoor Grill Techniques

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

Freddy's Frozen Custard & SteakburgersFreddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers


As soon as 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 carries out heat much better than stone. My household has run Stoughton Steel Company in Hanover, MA because the 1960s, so I got a slab from my daddy's store, tested it, and the rest is history.

Every Baking Steel is still made at our family store. Cast iron is great. If you're serious about smashburgers, steel is much better. 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 began as a Kickstarter project (boosted by an early endorsement from Kenji Lpez-Alt on Serious Consumes) has grown into the go-to tool for hundreds of thousands of home cooks. His fascination with high-heat cooking goes method beyond pizza. After years of screening smashburgers on cast iron, stainless steel, and every frying pan on the market, he designed the Skinny Griddle and Mini Frying pan particularly for stovetop cooking crafted to hold heat the way just steel can.

The Skinny Frying pan is his go-to tool for smashburgers in the house. 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.

Exploring Flat-Top versus Traditional Grilling Techniques

It's an easy meal, and it takes just a few minutes to prepare and a couple of minutes to cook your delicious frying pan hamburgers. Pick your burger patty, pick your cheese, and choose your buns and filling.! Cooking up your hamburgers on a flat frying pan is a fantastic method to get all the taste you can out of both your hamburger patty and your cooking surface area.

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These flat, smooth cooking surfaces can take a lot of heat, and they can give your hamburger the best sear, and a well rounded, even prepare. We enjoy griddles since they are so flexible, and while traditionally they are used on stovetops, we frequently cook burgers on a griddle in the oven, and even over an open campfire.

If you're using your griddle on the stovetop, in the oven, or on the campfire, there are a couple of universal guidelines to follow when you're cooking burgers: If you have cast iron frying pans, they are going to need a layer of flavoring to protect the surface. This makes it non-stick, and also secures it from rust.

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