Master the Art of Smash Burgers

This is the “standard” double cheese smash burger recipe; feel free to change the trimmings as you like!

Ingredients (makes a two-patty burger)

• 2 x 60g beef mince balls (see tip)
• 2 x cheese slices
• 1 x bun, buttered
• White onion, small dice
• Iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced
• Ketchup
• American Mustard (the really yellow stuff)
• Bread and butter pickles
• Cooking oil
• Salt & pepper

Equipment

• A Burger Smasher!
• Flat cooking surface – use a heavy pan or hot plate that you can get really hot
• Spatula – ideally one you can scrape with
• Pot lid (for melting the cheese quickly)

Method

1. Prepare all the ingredients
2. If you’re cooking for a group it helps to form a production line with one person grilling and one assembling
3. Get your pan/plate smoking hot
4. Put a little cooking oil down for the first patty – after that there will be enough fat left over to not really need extra oil
5. Add a little salt to the pan/plate to season the underside of the beef
6. Place a ball of mince on the cooking surface
7. Smash the patty down with your Burger Smasher hard!
   • Wiggling and rotating the Smasher helps get pan even patty
8. Slide the Smasher off rather than lifting straight up (helps it not stick)
9. Repeat with another ball of mince for the second patty
10. Salt and pepper the tops of both patties
11. Put your buttered buns on a medium grill to get them a bit toasted
12. Flip the patties with your spatula when you see juices coming through
    • Scrape them off the surface if you can to get that good brown meat
13. Place cheese on top of the patties
14. Put one patty on top of the other and then place the pot lid over the patties to speed up the cheese melting – it should take about 20 seconds to melt
15. Take the buns off the grill
16. Once the cheese is melted, stack on patty on top of the other and place on the bottom bun
17. Assembly:
    • Place onions on the patty stack
    • Spread ketchup and mustard on the top bun
    • Place pickles in the sauce on the top bun – this sticks them in place
    • Place lettuce on top of the onions
    • Close the burger
18. Devour and receive high fives!

Tips

• Mise en place
  • Get everything ready and to hand before cooking – the patties cook in under a minute so you need to be prepared to move quickly
• Beef
  • You want mince with about an 80% meat to 20% fat ratio. Cheaper mince is preferable as the fat quantity is higher and fat makes for flavour and moisture.
  • About 60g makes one patty and a smash burger usually has two patties but feel free to stack as many as you like! 
  • An easy way to measure the portions is to buy a 1kg pack of mince and then cut it into 16ths. This will make 8 two-patty burgers. 
• Cheese slices
  • Cheese choice is up to you really but get something that melts nicely like mild or edam.
  • Slice thinly; about 2mm thick
  • The standard burger cheese you see in fast food restaurants are called “Kraft Singles”.
• Buns
  • Use potato buns ideally, otherwise just a normal burger bun is good. I find brioche buns to be too sweet personally.