Nick does an in-depth study of the "smash technique," a method of cooking burgers that is seemingly antithetical to the received wisdom that tells you never to press down on a patty.
I have to admit, Nick's post was a bit of a nailbiter—for a couple reasons.
First, he quotes me in it as I rave about smashed burgers. As I scrolled down the page reading his words, it turns out the technique doesn't work. Had Nick made me look a fool in front of the internets? More important—was the smash technique fundamentally flawed?
Not to worry. Nick solves the problem, and it's a solution that's pretty simple. Simple, unremarkable, yet absolutely essential, it turns out.
Not one of Nick's burgers, but an example of the crisp-crunchy patty sear as seen on a Bobo's Drive-In burger in Topeka, Kansas. Bobo's, needless to say, uses the smash technique.
You see, Nick starts out by simply scooping some freshly ground chuck into an ultrahot skillet. (Scooping, mind you—not pre-forming a patty—is also essential to the process, as Hamburger America alludes to here.) Once in the skillet, he immediately presses down, but that leads only to ground beef, and not a patty.
And that's where I figured my beloved technique—and I—had been exposed as a sham.
Some of NYC's smarter burger cooks have adopted the classic smash technique, which seems to be prevalent in the Midwest.
But wait! Nick figures out that you have to at least pre-form a little meat ball, place that on the griddle, let it cook for a bit, flip it and then smash. If you squint, you can see that's what's happening in the photo above.
The cooked bit of the patty holds the rest of the meat together. And the bonus—nay, the major reason why this technique rocks the casbah—is that you get a crunchy seared crust on the meat, as can be seen above.
If Nick had asked me why I thought his initial run of smashburgers were falling apart, I would have been at a loss. But in retrospect, it is something I've watched numerous Midwestern burger cooks do, from Town Topic to Bobo's Drive-In to The Cozy Inn. Even some smart New York burgerslingers have adopted the technique—the Shake Shack and Harry's at Water Taxi Beach, among them. (Not coincidentally, both those places serve a couple of my personal top-rated burgers.)
It just took someone dogged enough in his attempt at re-creating the burgers he loved to deduce and articulate how and why the smash technique worked.
Stake and Shake (horrors, a chain) have been employing this method forever and they are very good. You have the crisp edges and the juice is retained. The pics above look ggreat, BTW.
I like to mash meat flat before putting it a cast iron skillet. I put the meatball between wax paper then push down with a cutting board.
Once in the skillet, I cover it White Manna style with onions. I let it cook a while then flip. The onions go to the bottom and steam the burger. You get carmelized onions and a juicy burger from it.
One of the key elements you missed and is extremely essential is the surface temperature of the griddle. It needs to be smoking hot to be able to sear the beef and cook it as it is smashed quickly enough so that the patty doesn't turn into a dry disk. This method locks in the moisture as the fat is not lost due to longer cooking time. This is why a superior griddle such as the Keating cooks the best smashed burgers. A proper aged cast iron griddle would even be better.
My first job was cooking at the Jersey Shore. Burgers and dogs. We ground our own meat, formed into balls with an ice cream scoop for storage, and pulled out a ball and smashed it on the flat top right away. As noted above, grill (cast iron works at home) needs to be very hot.
I made thousands of these over my 4 year burger career, no waiting for the ball to sear...
Was that plain, cheese, or the big gun, a Cali cheese on a hard (kaiser) roll?!?
hmm, I don't really see the need to sear it first but I will have to conduct my own experiment to see if they really fall apart. Like the_next_meal found, I doubt they will fall apart if squashed immediately.
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7 Comments:
Stake and Shake (horrors, a chain) have been employing this method forever and they are very good. You have the crisp edges and the juice is retained. The pics above look ggreat, BTW.
Oneiron at 3:17PM on 12/11/08
I like to mash meat flat before putting it a cast iron skillet. I put the meatball between wax paper then push down with a cutting board.
Once in the skillet, I cover it White Manna style with onions. I let it cook a while then flip. The onions go to the bottom and steam the burger. You get carmelized onions and a juicy burger from it.
eatorama at 5:33PM on 12/11/08
Great post, i've been toying around with this technique myself lately.
ChiefHDB at 6:07PM on 12/11/08
the QBQ BBQ smash... i dream of it many times...
BurgerSeeker at 10:19AM on 12/12/08
One of the key elements you missed and is extremely essential is the surface temperature of the griddle. It needs to be smoking hot to be able to sear the beef and cook it as it is smashed quickly enough so that the patty doesn't turn into a dry disk. This method locks in the moisture as the fat is not lost due to longer cooking time. This is why a superior griddle such as the Keating cooks the best smashed burgers. A proper aged cast iron griddle would even be better.
Q80 BurgerBelly at 6:22PM on 12/12/08
My first job was cooking at the Jersey Shore. Burgers and dogs. We ground our own meat, formed into balls with an ice cream scoop for storage, and pulled out a ball and smashed it on the flat top right away. As noted above, grill (cast iron works at home) needs to be very hot.
I made thousands of these over my 4 year burger career, no waiting for the ball to sear...
Was that plain, cheese, or the big gun, a Cali cheese on a hard (kaiser) roll?!?
the_next_meal at 9:27AM on 12/29/08
hmm, I don't really see the need to sear it first but I will have to conduct my own experiment to see if they really fall apart. Like the_next_meal found, I doubt they will fall apart if squashed immediately.
stewmeat at 1:21PM on 12/29/08