Unique Ingredients for Premium Burgers

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

I do this all summertime. Prepare smashburgers at on a preheated griddle or steel. This high heat is crucial for developing the Maillard reaction, which gives smashburgers their signature crispy, lacy edges and deep flavor. Get it ripping hot. You want to hear that sizzle the 2nd the beef strikes 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 great. is the very best ratio for smashburgers. The 20% fat material is necessary for creating a juicy burger and crispy edges.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

Leaner beef will lead to a drier, less flavorful burger. Stick with 80/20. Crispy edges originate from 3 things: (500-550F) Get your frying pan ripping hot. The fat renders and french fries the edges. Make the most of contact with the griddle. Heat, fat, and surface contact. Master those 3 things and you'll get best crispy edges every time.

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

Savory Dinner Secrets for Summer 2026

This maximizes surface location for browning and creates the signature crispy edges. Do not be shy. Truly smash it. That's where the magic takes place. Season on the frying pan. Don't season the beef before forming the balls it can make the texture mushy. Absolutely. I utilize mine for pancakes, bacon, eggs, grilled cheese, quesadillas, seared steaks, and more.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

As soon as you comprehend how steel holds and moves heat, you start using it for whatever. I developed the Baking Steel in 2012 after reading that steel performs 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 constant crust from the very first burger to the last. Get it ripping hot, work fast, and make some bad ass hamburgers.

What started as a Kickstarter job (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 fixation with high-heat cooking goes way beyond pizza. After years of testing 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 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.

How to Craft a Gourmet Flat-Top Burger

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

These flat, smooth cooking surface areas can take a lot of heat, and they can give your hamburger the best sear, and a well rounded, even cook. We love griddles because they are so flexible, and while traditionally they are used on stovetops, we routinely cook burgers on a griddle in the oven, or perhaps over an open campfire.

If you're using your frying pan on the stovetop, in the oven, or on the campfire, there are a few universal rules to follow when you're cooking hamburgers: If you have cast iron frying pans, they are going to need a layer of flavoring to protect the surface area. This makes it non-stick, and likewise protects it from rust.