Most people don't realize this, but a Baking Steel doesn't have to live in your oven.
Put it on your grill, and it changes everything you thought you knew about searing a steak at home.
The Problem With Grill Grates
Grill grates give you marks. They don't give you sear.
When a steak sits on a grate, only about 20% of the surface is actually touching hot metal, the rest is hanging over open flame, drying out, dropping fat into the burners, and inviting flare-ups. You end up with stripes of color and a lot of nothing in between.
That's fine if grill marks are what you're after. But if you want the kind of edge-to-edge crust you'd pay $80 for at a steakhouse, grates can't do it.
Why a Baking Steel Changes the Game
A Baking Steel holds massive thermal mass. When you preheat one on a hot grill, you're loading it with enough stored heat to slam a steak from the moment it touches down, and keep doing it until the cook is done.
The result: full-surface contact, screaming hot steel, edge-to-edge crust. No flare-ups, no fat fires, no chasing your dinner around the grill.
It's the same principle a steakhouse uses with a flat-top, except you already own the tool.
The Setup
Here's how I do it:
- Put the Baking Steel on top of your grill grates. Gas or charcoal, doesn't matter.
- Close the lid. Heat for 10-15 minutes. Let it heat soak.
- Salt your steak, let it come to room temp, dry the surface.
- No oil. The steak has enough fat to render — that becomes the cooking medium.
- Lay it down. Don't touch it for 3-4 minutes per side, depending on thickness and how hot your grill is running.
- Flip once. That's it.
- I like mine a little pink in the middle, pull when it gets there, rest 5-10 minutes.
That's the whole method.
Why I Keep Coming Back to This
I've cooked a lot of steaks in 13 years. Cast iron in the oven. Reverse sear. Sous vide and torch. Direct on coals.
They're all good. But this one is the one I come back to most.
You get the outdoor cook, the smoke, the smell, and a crust that's almost impossible to get any other way at home. It's the closest I've come to a steakhouse sear in my own backyard.
If you've got an Original Baking Steel sitting in your oven, take it outside this weekend. Throw it on the grill. Sear a steak.
You won't go back.
Don't have one yet? The Original Baking Steel works on any gas or charcoal grill. Shop the Original
About the Author
Andris Lagsdin invented the Baking Steel in 2012 using steel from his family's Stoughton Steel Company in Hanover, MA. a shop his family has run since the 1970s. What started as a Kickstarter project (backed after an endorsement from Kenji López-Alt on Serious Eats) has grown into the go-to tool for hundreds of thousands of home pizza makers. Every Baking Steel is still made at the family shop.
Before launching Baking Steel, Andris trained under renowned chef Todd English and spent 15 years in the family steel business. He's the co-author of Baking with Steel with Jesse Olson Moore.
Today he teaches thousands of students how to make pizzeria-quality pizza at home through his free online classes and recipes.
In 2026, Andris launched the 72-Hour Pizza Dough Mix the same recipe he's been teaching for over a decade, now in a bag. Just add water.
