Delicious Dinner Ideas for Summer 2026

Cast iron drops in temperature level after each hamburger. Steel doesn't. That's why I created it I come from a steel family and I knew the product might outperform cast iron for high-heat cooking.

I do this all summertime. Cook smashburgers at on a preheated griddle or steel. This high heat is essential for developing the Maillard response, which gives smashburgers their signature crispy, lacy edges and deep taste. Get it ripping hot. You wish 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 fast. This is high-heat, high-speed cooking. That's what makes it so good. is the best ratio for smashburgers. The 20% fat content is necessary for producing a juicy hamburger and crispy edges.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

Leaner beef will lead to a drier, less flavorful hamburger. Stick to 80/20. Crispy edges come from 3 things: (500-550F) Get your frying pan ripping hot. The fat renders and fries the edges. Optimize contact with the frying pan. Heat, fat, and surface contact. Master those 3 things and you'll get best crispy edges whenever.

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

Achieving Restaurant-Quality Sides in Your Kitchen

This makes the most of surface area for browning and creates the signature crispy edges. Do not be shy. Actually smash it. That's where the magic occurs. Season on the griddle. Don't season the beef before forming the balls it can make the texture mushy. Definitely. I use 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 using it for whatever. I did Andris Lagsdin. I created the Baking Steel in 2012 after reading that steel carries out heat better than stone. My family has run Stoughton Steel Company in Hanover, MA given that the 1960s, so I got a piece from my father's store, tested it, and the rest is history.

Every Baking Steel is still made at our household store. Cast iron is fine. However if you're serious about smashburgers, steel is 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 hamburgers.

What started as a Kickstarter project (enhanced by an early recommendation from Kenji Lpez-Alt on Serious Eats) has actually turned into the go-to tool for numerous thousands of 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 created the Skinny Frying pan and Mini Griddle specifically for stovetop cooking engineered 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 complimentary online classes and dishes.

Professional Flat-Top Methods for 2026 Summer Grilling

It's a simple meal, and it takes just a few minutes to prepare and a couple of minutes to cook your delicious frying pan hamburgers. Select your burger patty, select your cheese, and select your buns and filling.! Cooking up your hamburgers on a flat griddle is an excellent method to get all the flavor you can out of both your burger patty and your cooking surface area.

These flat, smooth cooking surfaces can take a lot of heat, and they can provide your hamburger the perfect sear, and a well rounded, even cook. We enjoy frying pans because they are so flexible, and while generally they are utilized on stovetops, we regularly prepare hamburgers on a griddle in the oven, or 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 actually cast iron griddles, they are going to require a layer of seasoning to protect the surface area. This makes it non-stick, and also secures it from rust.