Running Out of Stovetop Space? Try This Easy Hack to Free Up Room for Your Turkey Day Pots and Pans!

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One of the kitchen tools I greatly miss from my time in restaurant cooking is the French top range. This piece of equipment is particularly beneficial when managing multiple cooking tasks simultaneously. A French top features a broad, flat surface made from cast iron or rolled steel, with a couple of rings situated at its center. Beneath these rings lies a powerful gas burner that heats the surface evenly, creating a gradient of heat. Since cast iron conducts heat poorly, the area closest to the rings is the hottest, and the temperature gradually decreases further away.

The graduated heat distribution a French top provides enables you to simultaneously sauté, simmer, and warm various dishes without frequently adjusting temperature knobs. You can easily slide cookware around the flat surface to achieve the optimal cooking temperature. Moreover, the expansive space of a French top permits you to utilize more cookware than conventional home ranges, which typically accommodate only four to six pots or pans at a time.

Baking Steel Hack

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

You might be wondering how to secure such an extravagant appliance without a hefty investment. Rather than suggesting renovations, I’m excited to share an innovative method to simulate a French top using everyday kitchen items. Similar to my previous DIY setups, I’m leveraging a Baking Steel (or a cast iron griddle) to create a makeshift version of a French top.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

I’m pleased to report that this method works remarkably well—ideal for keeping several pots and pans at a simmer while achieving high heat for sautéing and searing. If you often face the challenge of fitting multiple lids on your stovetop, especially during festive meals, using a cast iron griddle or Baking Steel can greatly enhance your cooking experience. (Keep in mind that while some stovetop griddles have raised edges that reduce space, the flat surface of the Baking Steel maximizes your available area.)

Maintaining an even simmer and reheating food on your stovetop can be tricky—one reason sous vide cooking is so popular. You frequently find yourself adjusting burner flames, and space can quickly become limited. My compact four-burner gas stove tends to produce weak flames, often requiring me to play a game of Tetris with my cooking vessels. Fitting multiple large pots or skillets becomes a logistical challenge.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Introducing the Baking Steel griddle over two burners reshapes the cooking landscape, allowing for more efficient use of space. I can regulate the heat settings across different burners based on what I’m cooking, which is particularly useful when preparing large meals for occasions like Thanksgiving.

Adjusting Heat With a Baking Steel

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

When preparing multiple items at a gentle simmer—such as braised greens, cranberry sauce, and gravy—I simply set the burners under the Baking Steel to medium. This approach allows all the saucepans to share the same heat source, minimizing the risk of food scorching, thanks to the more uniform heat distribution across the Baking Steel compared to direct burner contact. This method reduces the need to constantly monitor the stove, providing me with the freedom to tackle other kitchen tasks.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

If I need varying temperatures across the setup, that’s also feasible. For instance, if a dish requires sweating shallots at a higher temperature, I can place the pan over a direct burner and increase the heat accordingly. Meanwhile, I can keep another area at a lower temperature for simmering, allowing the heat from the hot section to gently radiate and imitate the graduated heat characteristic of a French top.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

The flat surface created by the griddle simplifies even cooking and is advantageous for tasks like tossing pasta or preparing emulsified sauces, offering a quieter experience compared to cookware sliding over standard gas burners.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Additionally, the Baking Steel serves as an excellent warming station for preparing extensive holiday meals. Coordinating the heating of multiple dishes can be quite a chore; the oven is often occupied, and using the microwave repeatedly disrupts the cooking flow. The Baking Steel setup allows for convenient warming across various pans while keeping everything visible, minimizing the likelihood of forgetting about a dish being reheated.

Although a standard Baking Steel may not cover all burners at once on a compact stove, it still leaves options open for further cooking tasks. This DIY approach not only enhances your stovetop efficiency but also expands your cooking capacity without requiring a complete kitchen overhaul. While an ideal kitchen is desirable, resourcefulness with existing equipment can yield significant advantages.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

October 2019

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