How to Prepare a High-Quality Flat-Top Burger

Cast iron drops in temperature after each hamburger. Steel does not. That's why I developed it I come from a steel household and I understood the material could outshine 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 vital 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, add cheese, and cook for another to melt the cheese and finish cooking. That's what makes it so great. The 20% fat content is important for developing a juicy hamburger 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 frying pan.

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

Savory Dinner Ideas for Grilling in 2026

Season on the griddle. Don't 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 & Steakburgers

When you understand how steel holds and moves heat, you begin using it for whatever. I did Andris Lagsdin. I created the Baking Steel in 2012 after checking out that steel carries out heat better than stone. My household has actually run Stoughton Steel Business in Hanover, MA given that the 1960s, so I got a piece from my father's store, tested it, and the rest is history.

It stores more heat, recovers much faster, and gives you a consistent crust from the very first burger to the last. Get it ripping hot, work quick, and make some bad ass burgers.

What began as a Kickstarter project (improved by an early endorsement from Kenji Lpez-Alt on Serious Eats) has turned into the go-to tool for numerous thousands of home cooks. His fascination with high-heat cooking goes way beyond pizza. After years of screening smashburgers on cast iron, stainless-steel, and every frying pan on the market, he created the Skinny Griddle and Mini Frying pan specifically for stovetop cooking crafted 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 complimentary online classes and dishes.

Building Gourmet Recipes with Signature Burgers

It's a basic meal, and it takes just a few minutes to prepare and a few minutes to prepare your scrumptious griddle burgers. Pick your burger patty, choose your cheese, and pick your buns and filling.! Cooking up your hamburgers on a flat griddle is a great method to get all the taste you can out of both your hamburger patty and your cooking surface area.

These flat, smooth cooking surfaces can take a great deal of heat, and they can offer your hamburger the perfect sear, and a well rounded, even prepare. We love frying pans because they are so flexible, and while typically they are used on stovetops, we regularly cook hamburgers on a frying pan in the oven, or perhaps over an open campfire.

If you're using your griddle 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 flavoring to safeguard the surface. This makes it non-stick, and also secures it from rust.