I’ve been beaten over the head with Smash Burger madness for the last three years. Kenji-Lopez Alt, George Motz, my trip to Oklahoma, the pure existence of Shake-Shack.. Not to mention the scene in the 2022 movie the Menu (which will forever give me existential dread that I’m a terrible person). Anyway, deep breath. Let's make some burgs.
Why it works:
Yield: 10 burgers
Time: Prep 1 hour, Fire 1 hour
Equipment
Chef knives
Cutting board
Sheet tray
Meat Grinder
Mandolin, or Chef’s knife if you are good.
Griddle (Cast Iron or electric)
Heavy wide burger spat
Ingredients: Chuck roast (roughly around 2-2.5 #)
1 Yellow onion
15 Slices American Cheese
15 Potato Buns
Garlic
Eggs
Rapeseed oil
Salt and Pepper
1 heirloom tomato Instructions: 1. Making the Patty:
Cut up semi frozen chuck roast into .5” cubes, freeze on sheet tray, store in freezer bag until ready to grind.
Have the meat grinder clean, dry, and all removable parts (auger, blade, dye, feeder) super cold. *
Confit Garlic: Peel garlic gloves, and trim off root end with chef knife, put in a small sauce pan, and cover with neutral oil. Turn on low, and let simmer for 1 hour. The garlic will be extremely soft and fragrant.
Strain Garlic from oil (when oil has cooled, it’s useful to add oil to a squeeze bottle). Put garlic and 1 tablespoon of vinegar into food processor. Process until garlic is a paste. Separate eggs, and add egg yolks to food processor. Turn processor on, and slowly drizzle in oil from the top until it makes cup of Aioli, load that into a jar or wide mouthed squirt bottle. Remove and retain for burg build.
Wash and dice tomato. Add to small sauce pan with 1 table of sugar, and reduce until jammy consistency. Smash with back of spoon if necessary. Remove and retain for burg build.
Using a 3 ounce portioning scoop, scoop ground beef and level. Grease flat top griddle, placing meat flat side down. Season Top with S&P .Top with generous pinch or onion, enough to make a skirt around the ball. Using an angle masonry pushing swipe, smash one side of the burger to the grill. Repeat to the other side. Let burger cook until onion on the side are almost charred. Flip. Top with Cheese slice, and cover with dome for meltage.
Toast buns, Apply aioli on both sides with Tomato jam on bottom. When burg is cooked to desired temp, stack on bun.
Wrap with foil for a authenticity.
Note: important to have your equipment super clean and cold. Best to wear gloves to protect spreading germs and warming the product with your touch.
Tasting Journal:
Date: 2/2/23
I cut the meat into 1” cubes, which were a little too big for the grinder. Also, I needed to let the meat sit out of the freezer for about an hour before it was ready to grind. It came out powder when used directly out of the freezer. The chuck roast was a a little lean after cooking. Maybe cutting it with a little short rib would help up the fat content. The flavor was excellent, as well as the airiness of the fresh grind which left each bite feeling like a crispy flaky steak instead of the usual rubber puck.
I used the chef on the onion, which is never going to work, you have to use a mandolin on the finest setting, and make way more onion than you think you will need. I’d say two for this recipe. You need it fine so they teepee up on the rounded patty and fully caramelize.
Also, as seen in the picture, I first used a standard high sided cast iron 12” pan. This did not work, the sides helped the grease splatter, but the side made the smash and flip of the spatula impossible. I switched to a shallow cast iron pancake pan, which was better, but I could only make one burger at a time, don’t do this. Use a full size griddle. You’ll cut your time into a third.
I had to re-oil the grill every 5 burgs? Have a paper towel with oil. On a gas stove top, the oil had a tendency to catch fire, and any arosals would have been a flamethrower.
I didn’t make the tomato jam, and just used miracle whip for aioli (gross I know, all I had), and used chopped iceberg and sliced hot house toms for garnish. The iceberg crunch was appreciated, but the toms added nothing. Cheese flavor got lost in the burg, Put two slices on each patty for sure.
This sold super well, like crack super well. Highly recommend throwing a griddle on a grill and doing burgs 2-ways for the summer time fun times.
Date:2/9/23
Tasting and Technique notes Notes: Made these from 80/20 store bought hamburger meat that was defrosted. Meat was noticeably denser than hand ground. This lead to the burgers being less done than the same time as the hand ground beef. The beef was also more chewy then crumbly. The cast iron gets really smokey when doing these, so I’d recommend a griddle one more time. I just a cast iron again. It’s important to clean your cast iron / griddle between burgs, burnt cheese and burger fond will begin to build up.
Still use your burger buns for the cheese steaming process, but toast them first with the initial smash. Also, its a must to use two slices of american cheese per patty. It gets lost without it.
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