Interactive Tool
Griddle Cook Planner
The hardest part of flat-top cooking isn't any single dish — it's landing a whole meal at once. This planner does the thinking: pick your dishes and your burner count, and it lays out the heat zones and tells you when to start each item so everything finishes together.
Interactive Tool
Plan Your Cook: Zones + Timing
Pick what you're cooking and how many burners you have. Get a heat-zone layout and a start-time schedule so everything finishes together.
1. How many burners does your griddle have?
2. Pick your dishes (up to 6)
Breakfast
Burgers & Dogs
Dinner Mains
Sides & Extras
How zone planning works
Every dish has a surface temperature it wants — eggs at 300–325°F, bacon at 375–400°F, smash burgers at 425–475°F (the full list is in the griddle temperature guide). A multi-burner griddle lets you run those temperatures simultaneously: each burner becomes a zone, dishes are grouped onto the zone that matches their heat, and start times are staggered so the longest cook starts first and the fastest starts last.
Here's the classic example — a full breakfast on a 4-burner 36": caramelized-low eggs zone on the right (300–325°F), pancakes at 350–375°F beside them, bacon and hash browns on a hot zone (375–425°F), and the last burner on low as a warm zone holding finished food. Bacon starts first; eggs crack on six minutes before you want plates on the table. That's the pattern the planner applies to any menu — dinner, tailgate, or camp breakfast.
Planning a specific occasion? The tailgating recipes and camping recipes round-ups pair with this tool — and if you're still choosing hardware, the griddle finder will match a model to how you cook. For the deeper theory, see the heat zones guide.
Frequently asked questions
How do you cook multiple things on a Blackstone at once?
Set each burner to a different temperature (heat zones), group dishes by the temp they need, and stagger start times so everything finishes together. Start the longest-cooking dish first and add faster dishes as the clock runs down — eggs and shrimp go on last.
What order should I cook food on a griddle?
Work backward from when you want to eat. Longest cook times start first (caramelized onions, brats, breakfast potatoes), mid-length dishes join in the middle (bacon, chicken, hash browns), and the fastest, most delicate items go on last (eggs, shrimp, smash burgers).
What is a warm zone on a griddle?
A burner set to its lowest setting (200–250°F) used for holding finished food without overcooking it, and for toasting buns. If you have a spare burner, setting it as a warm zone is the single most useful thing you can do when cooking for a group.
Do all burners on a Blackstone need to be on?
No — run only the burners you need. For two dishes, two zones is plenty; leaving a burner off (or on low as a warm zone) saves propane and gives you a safe place to stage or hold food.