Posted by Adam Kuban, October 23, 2008 at 11:15 AM
Here's a neat video made by Josh "Mister Cutlets" Ozersky showing the Shake Shack cooking process. I like the little inset "burger cam" that appears as the patty is slapped on the griddle.
The video illuminates a process that is somewhat behind-the-scenes and reveals that the Shake Shack uses the "smash" technique. I've talked about the smashed-burger technique here, but if you missed that, it may surprise you to know that I'm in favor of this method.
While it runs counter to everything you hear—that you should handle the meat as little as possible and never, ever press down on it—the smash technique (especially when employed on a hot, hot griddle) creates all sorts of great crunchy-chewy bits on the patty surface.
Not the Shake Shack burger, but an example of the crisp-crunchy patty sear as seen on a Bobo's Drive-In burger in Topeka, Kansas.
My favorite Kansas City burger joints from my youth do this, but it's something that's sorely lacking in New York, the city I now call home. Why is this? I have two theories:
1. This is actually Ozersky's theory paraphrased. At old-school diners or pubs here, they just have a different notion of what a should be—and that's usually a big ol' hunka meat on a bun. Ozersky himself has theorized that this happens because places in New York have to pay high rents, thus charge more, and then justify the price by forming more meat into the patty (a marginal materials cost for them that can be marked up on the consumer end). Cooking a larger patty brings prompts places like these to use griddle domes, thus steam-griddling. And many pubs use broilers or grills, which are nonstarters as far as developing a great crust—though grills can put the nice char on a patty that many people like.
2. At places with "trained" cooks or fancy-pants chefs, the people cooking know that pressing on the patty squeezes out juices, and it's just runs counter to everything they believe in to do it. Hence, no smash.
What's great about the Shake Shack (and, yes, I guess this is turning into another rah! rah! SS post) is that the people running the show A.) know good food and good ingredients, and B.) take the time to meticulously study how things are done at the places they love. So I'm guessing that Shake Shack owner Danny Meyer (himself a St. Louis native), along with his crew, figured out how the great burgers of the Midwest were made. This is just pure conjecture on my part—imagining Shacksters at some mom-and-pop drive-in, crouched at griddle side, eyes level with the cooking surface, stopwatches in hand, timing cooking length and weighing out patties. But it's pure conjecture I like to believe.
I think the difference stems from when to smash. If you smash at the raw state most of the juice/fat doesn't run out since they are still in solid phase, and all that happens is great contact with the grilled. on the other hand, if you wait to flip the burger before pressing, the juices have liquified and most vulnerable, then you just squeeze and dry the life out of the burger (i've watch a lot of good eats). I think a good example is when you smoosh a raw ball of dough, the griddle doesn't smoke up like crazy but when you do that to a partially cooked burger, the fat runs out and smokes, spits and whatever like nuts.
ESNY1077: How right you are! Most of the places I love, I've watched them as they cook. They throw on the ball of meat, let it cook a little to get a sear on the little bit touching the griddle, then smash quickly and don't press down after that. That is the key. Thank you for helping me understand it!
This is great insight, Adam. My eyes were glued to that burger cam. Some friends and I have tried to recreate the Shake Shack burger at home. It was good, but not the same. I will be more felicitous about my smashing and will definitely head to Home Depot for a burger (re)tool.
"The patty is placed on the griddle and pressed down, firmly, once. It is never again pressed upon. The Shake Shack is not that burger place where they lean into the burgers every ten seconds squeezing all the flavor out of them and into the grease trap. The single press at the beginning is the final shaping of the patty and serves to create a broad flat surface that has good contact with the griddle."
@BirdDoggie: As Kathryn pointed out to me, I answered this question at one point and had forgotten—50:25:25 ratio of sirloin:chuck:brisket. All 80:20 meat-to-fat.
This same Midwest-press methodology is utilized at Steak n Shakes across the country and (much to my delight) with the Motz burger at Harry's Water Taxi Beach to name just a few. This is my preferred method of burger preparation and can be done easily at home using a very hot cast iron griddle. I usually keep the beef refrigerated prior to placement on the griddle as it a) cuts down on the splatter effect as the cold fat takes longer to render and b) makes it easier to achieve medium rare with a 4-5 oz patty while still getting a nice crust.
@steelecity beat me to it - this is exactly how it's done at Steak n Shake and I've used the same technique with my cast iron griddle as long as I can remember.
re: the Kansas City comment. This is how Winstead's (http://aht.seriouseats.com/tags/Missouri look at the bottom of the page) has made their burgers since 1940. Worth the trip.
looking at the way the patties are refrigerated...
i wonder if the ball form is meant to reduce surface area-to-air contact to prevent any kind of drying out in the fridge. because when you flatten it, there's much greater surface area for contact for air molecules.
@foodinmouth: Good theory. I wonder if they view the smashing as integral to the burger prep, in which case they'd have to start with a ball rather than a patty.
The Shake Shack burger is my favorite in the city, but I still can't forgive them for not having fried onions, an essential part of my all time favorite burger.
The Shake Shack burger comes pretty damn close in every other respect though.
@cpalms: You're right. I should have captioned that photo (and just did) -- it's just to illustrate the patty sear and is not a SS burger. It's from Bobo's Drive-In in Topkea, Kansas.
Yeah. Don't know how SSUWS does it, but you *can* get pickles and (raw, chopped) onions with yr burger, but, at least at MSP, they give them to you in little take-out condiment containers and you have to put them on yourself. I swear there was a point when they actually did it for you when ordered. To me, this tells me that the burgers aren't cooked to order and are just sitting there at "standard level" -- like if you bought an economy car and then had to put in a stereo yourself.
Propaganda!
I was at the shack tonight and the scrapper thing is BS, they use it like all the rest of the burger joints, as a grill cleaner.
They did the press, then they used the spatulas to release and turn the burgers. I saw them do it without the scrapper thing for at least a hundred patties.
Still a damn good burger!
Oh, try the cheese fries they are something SPECIAL!
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23 Comments:
I think the difference stems from when to smash. If you smash at the raw state most of the juice/fat doesn't run out since they are still in solid phase, and all that happens is great contact with the grilled. on the other hand, if you wait to flip the burger before pressing, the juices have liquified and most vulnerable, then you just squeeze and dry the life out of the burger (i've watch a lot of good eats). I think a good example is when you smoosh a raw ball of dough, the griddle doesn't smoke up like crazy but when you do that to a partially cooked burger, the fat runs out and smokes, spits and whatever like nuts.
ESNY1077 at 12:10PM on 10/23/08
ESNY1077: How right you are! Most of the places I love, I've watched them as they cook. They throw on the ball of meat, let it cook a little to get a sear on the little bit touching the griddle, then smash quickly and don't press down after that. That is the key. Thank you for helping me understand it!
Adam Kuban at 12:41PM on 10/23/08
This is great insight, Adam. My eyes were glued to that burger cam. Some friends and I have tried to recreate the Shake Shack burger at home. It was good, but not the same. I will be more felicitous about my smashing and will definitely head to Home Depot for a burger (re)tool.
Damon Gambuto at 12:48PM on 10/23/08
Maybe this is asking too much. What kind of meat do they use, 80/20 fat, etc.?
BirdDoggie at 2:13PM on 10/23/08
Forgot to send out some love... Great video. The new UWS location is a godsend.
BirdDoggie at 2:16PM on 10/23/08
Paint scraper! Genius!
Also a big fan of burger smashing (but of course, as ESNY1077 says, only at the very beginning, lest you lose juices).
kenjialtci at 3:17PM on 10/23/08
I just went to the UWS shake shack for lunch. OMG so good. Double shackburger. Pancake custard today. The fries are out of control.
simon at 3:40PM on 10/23/08
Are they using the Pat LaFreida Meat mix there also? I assume so??
burgerboy at 4:45PM on 10/23/08
Looks like they have been doing this since the beginning:
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=48202&view=findpost&p=647018
"The patty is placed on the griddle and pressed down, firmly, once. It is never again pressed upon. The Shake Shack is not that burger place where they lean into the burgers every ten seconds squeezing all the flavor out of them and into the grease trap. The single press at the beginning is the final shaping of the patty and serves to create a broad flat surface that has good contact with the griddle."
kathryn at 5:34PM on 10/23/08
@BirdDoggie: As Kathryn pointed out to me, I answered this question at one point and had forgotten—50:25:25 ratio of sirloin:chuck:brisket. All 80:20 meat-to-fat.
Adam Kuban at 6:05PM on 10/23/08
This same Midwest-press methodology is utilized at Steak n Shakes across the country and (much to my delight) with the Motz burger at Harry's Water Taxi Beach to name just a few. This is my preferred method of burger preparation and can be done easily at home using a very hot cast iron griddle. I usually keep the beef refrigerated prior to placement on the griddle as it a) cuts down on the splatter effect as the cold fat takes longer to render and b) makes it easier to achieve medium rare with a 4-5 oz patty while still getting a nice crust.
steelecity at 6:02AM on 10/24/08
@steelecity beat me to it - this is exactly how it's done at Steak n Shake and I've used the same technique with my cast iron griddle as long as I can remember.
deeoh1 at 8:35AM on 10/24/08
re: the Kansas City comment. This is how Winstead's (http://aht.seriouseats.com/tags/Missouri look at the bottom of the page) has made their burgers since 1940. Worth the trip.
kcflatlander at 10:24AM on 10/24/08
looking at the way the patties are refrigerated...
i wonder if the ball form is meant to reduce surface area-to-air contact to prevent any kind of drying out in the fridge. because when you flatten it, there's much greater surface area for contact for air molecules.
foodinmouth at 4:34PM on 10/24/08
@foodinmouth: Good theory. I wonder if they view the smashing as integral to the burger prep, in which case they'd have to start with a ball rather than a patty.
Adam Kuban at 4:40PM on 10/24/08
how come that picture above shows a picture of a burger with pickles on it???....there are NO pickles on shake shack burgers...I smell a rat
Cpalms at 7:16PM on 10/24/08
The Shake Shack burger is my favorite in the city, but I still can't forgive them for not having fried onions, an essential part of my all time favorite burger.
The Shake Shack burger comes pretty damn close in every other respect though.
Thanks for posting this!
Joseph Bayot at 3:57AM on 10/27/08
@ cpalms: You can most definitely order pickles on a shake shack burger. My mom did yesterday at the UWS location
pbisNOTmyname at 10:44AM on 10/27/08
@cpalms: You're right. I should have captioned that photo (and just did) -- it's just to illustrate the patty sear and is not a SS burger. It's from Bobo's Drive-In in Topkea, Kansas.
Adam Kuban at 11:05AM on 10/27/08
no worries Adam, I was just bustin' chops.....Damn, Bobo's looks good...next time im in Topeka, it's Bobo's for me!
I'll try to order pickles them the next time i'm at SSUWS as another poster mentioned...
Cpalms at 2:23PM on 10/27/08
Yeah. Don't know how SSUWS does it, but you *can* get pickles and (raw, chopped) onions with yr burger, but, at least at MSP, they give them to you in little take-out condiment containers and you have to put them on yourself. I swear there was a point when they actually did it for you when ordered. To me, this tells me that the burgers aren't cooked to order and are just sitting there at "standard level" -- like if you bought an economy car and then had to put in a stereo yourself.
Adam Kuban at 2:29PM on 10/27/08
Wow, why can't I get them here in Wales??? Shall have to make my own - is there anything in the meat mixture apart from meat?
snowmoonelk at 3:07PM on 10/27/08
Propaganda!
I was at the shack tonight and the scrapper thing is BS, they use it like all the rest of the burger joints, as a grill cleaner.
They did the press, then they used the spatulas to release and turn the burgers. I saw them do it without the scrapper thing for at least a hundred patties.
Still a damn good burger!
Oh, try the cheese fries they are something SPECIAL!
phauxtoe at 9:42PM on 10/27/08