Choose the right kinds of foods to cook. With a cook surface made of carbon steel, the Flatrock combines the heat retention of your favorite cast-iron pan with the quick heating and ease of stainless steel. It excels at cooking foods you would normally cook in a sauté pan, wok or skillet, or on an electric griddle (steaks, stir-fry, pancakes), all with the beauty and fun of doing it outside. Though you can cook over low heat, flat tops are not the place to cook big hunks of meat like pork shoulder or whole chickens—save those for your Traeger Pellet Grill.

Have the food you plan to cook prepped and any tools you need handy. The Flatrock is a joy to cook on, but because it cooks “hot and fast” it’s best enjoyed if you show up prepared with everything ready to go. (The fancy French way of saying this is “mise en place,” which means everything in place.) Pro tip: Use one Flatrock shelf for raw ingredients and the utensils that touch them and the other for cooked. This helps prevent any cross contamination as you cook up your feast. Our Flatrock tool kits are super handy.

Preheat the cooktop. Always preheat the cooktop and cook with the lid open. Prehheat the zones on which you plan to cook for at least 5 minutes or as your recipe directs. Pro tip: Heat the zones to different temperatures for greater versatility.

Oil the area you’ll be cooking on OR oil your food. Since unlike a skillet, you can’t swirl the Flatrock’s huge griddle, you’ll need a tool to spread it evenly. We suggest using a spatula or a long silicone brush. Another option is to coat the food itself in oil in which case you do not have to oil the cooktop.

To brown foods, leave room between them and cook undisturbed to start. If you want to give your food a nicely browned crust, be sure to leave space between pieces to encourage a good sear. (If packed too close, foods can steam in their own juice.) Then wait until one side is nicely browned before flipping.

Invest in a sturdy, metal spatula—or two. A spatula is the workhorse tool of the griddle. You’ll use it for spreading foods out, flipping, portioning, removing, and more. Two spatulas is especially handy when removing food from the griddle.

Adjust the heat as necessary. Many variables, including the weather and the temperature of the food, can affect the heat. Also, keep in mind that once the cooktop is hot, it holds its heat, which means even if you turn a high burner down to low, the surface will stay very hot for a while. (This is why the multiple cooking zones are such a lifesaver.)

Keep sauces warm right on the cooking surface. You can melt butter or gently heat a sauce right on your flat top. Set the pot right on the griddle, ideally in a corner where it’s out of the way.

Clean the griddle as you go. As you remove foods from the cooktop or move them to another zone, use your scraper to send any excess grease and debris down the grease chute.

Always have a full LP tank waiting in the wings. Though the Flatrock features a gas gauge, it’s never fun to run out in the middle of a cook. For that reason, it’s always good to have a second filled tank at the ready.

Check out our fantastic flat-top recipes! Last but certainly not least, keep checking back on this page regularly as we add more recpe to our ever growing library of flat top recipes.