Current Events > I made smash burgers for the first time today

(+) Yeah! (+)

Good god, these things are amazing and super easy. I ate one for lunch and dinner. My dumbass forgot to even put salt and pepper on the one I made for dinner, it was still great
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Can you make me one?
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The hell's a smash burger

ffmasterjose posted...

The hell's a smash burger

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M_Live posted...

I've been considering making a burger that way at home, was it difficult at all?

Super easy, and fast
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They're great if you're like me and terrified of undercooking ground beef
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Its literally a deformed party it does nothing for flavor
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DuranOfForcena posted...

so i googled what a "smash burger" is, cuz i hadn't heard of it before this topic

you realize it's just a gimmick, right? every burger is smashed into shape at one point or another. it doesn't make any difference if you do it during the preparation or if you do it on the grill.

in fact, if any difference, it probably makes it worse. if you are gonna BBQ it, putting it on a tray ruins the entire point of BBQing it. if it's not on the grate, it's not directly exposed to the heat.

No, it's legit. I've never had a burger with a sear like that that wasn't over cooked and dry

Not sure why you'd say something is a gimmick when you didn't even know what it was 5 mins ago and obviously have never tried it
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Wtf you talking about? Its about details.

Holy shit I made a burrito so good, wtf

Yao posted...

Its literally a deformed party it does nothing for flavor

Tasted pretty damn good to me. Best burgers I've ever made at home and super easy

You get a pretty intense maillard reaction sear, which is where the great flavor comes from when cooking proteins
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PrideOfLion posted...

I've always preferred thinner burgers so I'm happy this has been a craze for the past few years

Thick burgers suck and are bland, they just look good for pictures
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Seriously what the fuck are you talking about.

Yeah I like them.

Yao posted...

Its literally a deformed party it does nothing for flavor

muchdran posted...

Wtf you talking about? Its about details.

muchdran posted...

Holy shit I made a burrito so good, wtf

Wow, that's a dumb series of posts.
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muchdran posted...

Wtf you talking about? Its about details.

You loosely roll ground beef into a ball and get a pan ripping hot(cast iron is best). Butter the pan then put the beef in and smash it down really hard with a spatula or weight to get a really hard sear on the bottom. The sear will cause the liquid and fat in the burger to cook up instead of out of the burger. Flip add cheese, melt and serve. There are plenty of good vids on youtube
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DuranOfForcena posted...

in fact, if any difference, it probably makes it worse. if you are gonna BBQ it, putting it on a tray ruins the entire point of BBQing it. if it's not on the grate, it's not directly exposed to the heat.

You mean grilling. BBQ is low and slow. Also, to add to that, smashing it robs the burger of it's juices, making the patty dry.
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DuranOfForcena posted...

Solid Snake07 posted...

I've never had a burger with a sear like that that wasn't over cooked and dry

good for you, that doesn't mean it's not perfectly possible to make a burger that way that's fully prepped and shaped before you put it on the grill, so you can actually have it on the grate where it is exposed directly to the flame

PrideOfLion posted...

I've always preferred thinner burgers so I'm happy this has been a craze for the past few years

yeah, thinner burgers are great, i agree. the more surface area, the more flavor. but you don't have to do a "smash" burger in order to get it like that.

Solid Snake07 posted...

Not sure why you'd say something is a gimmick when you didn't even know what it was 5 mins ago and obviously have never tried it

i haven't heard of every single gimmick that exists

Lol, you clearly dont know what the fuck you're talking about as usual. Grilling is a horrible way to cook burgers. All the fat and good stuff drips down into the fire instead of searing into the burger.

This is how shack shack and in n out do their burgers. But I'm sure you think you know better than the two most praised burger chains in the country
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Thanatophobic posted...

DuranOfForcena posted...

in fact, if any difference, it probably makes it worse. if you are gonna BBQ it, putting it on a tray ruins the entire point of BBQing it. if it's not on the grate, it's not directly exposed to the heat.

You mean grilling. BBQ is low and slow. Also, to add to that, smashing it robs the burger of it's juices, making the patty dry.

The initial smash doesn't lose anything cause nothing is rendered yet

You're also cooking on a flat surface not a grate
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DuranOfForcena posted...

shockthemonkey posted...

rare

never go rare with ground beef

Store bought, yeah. Home made ground is alright.
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PrideOfLion posted...

That's a very common misconception

If Gordon Ramsay tells me not to....
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Thanatophobic posted...

If Gordon Ramsay tells me not to....

First off, Ramsey is a good chef but burgers have never really been his forte.
Second, he's a bit of a hypocrite. His 10 million youtube video has a huge burger that needs a toothpick to hold it together, but then in his shows he constantly complains when a chef makes a burger you can't eat easily.
Third, he's entitled to his opinion, just like the rest of us. But,
Finally, that has nothing to do with what people are saying.

You said that smashing a burger makes it dry. That is incorrect, just like people have told you.
If you press the meat while it's still raw for the initial contact on a skillet, what you're doing is increasing the surface area for a deeper, more flavorful crust. You don't lose extra juices by doing this because the idea is to do it before the meat has cooked.
If you smash and constantly press the patty while it's cooking, then all you're doing is squeezing the juice out of it. The juice is all the fat rendering and the proteins binding up forcing moisture out when it's cooked. You can smash a raw patty and not get a drop of juice come out.

Neither style is wrong, some people prefer the taste of the beef and others prefer the crust. But you should be called out for spreading misinformation.
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Thanatophobic posted...

PrideOfLion posted...

That's a very common misconception

If Gordon Ramsay tells me not to....

Was he cooking on a grill? Smashing a burger on a grill just pushes the liquid out of the burger onto the fire, yeah, that's a bad idea

I dont really like cooking burgers on grill grates. Yeah you get a smokey flavor but you dont get as good of the sear and you lose some fat and juices. My favorite method is on a flat top griddle pan on the grill. You can get that flat top sear and some of the smokey flavor from the radiant heat.
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I really want a hamburger right now, dammit you guys.

Also never had one of these smash burger things, first I've heard of it.

Hinakuluiau posted...

Thanatophobic posted...

If Gordon Ramsay tells me not to....

First off, Ramsey is a good chef but burgers have never really been his forte.
Second, he's a bit of a hypocrite. His 10 million youtube video has a huge burger that needs a toothpick to hold it together, but then in his shows he constantly complains when a chef makes a burger you can't eat easily.
Third, he's entitled to his opinion, just like the rest of us. But,
Finally, that has nothing to do with what people are saying.

You said that smashing a burger makes it dry. That is incorrect, just like people have told you.
If you press the meat while it's still raw for the initial contact on a skillet, what you're doing is increasing the surface area for a deeper, more flavorful crust. You don't lose extra juices by doing this because the idea is to do it before the meat has cooked.
If you smash and constantly press the patty while it's cooking, then all you're doing is squeezing the juice out of it. The juice is all the fat rendering and the proteins binding up forcing moisture out when it's cooked. You can smash a raw patty and not get a drop of juice come out.

Neither style is wrong, some people prefer the taste of the beef and others prefer the crust. But you should be called out for spreading misinformation.

Exactly
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Solid Snake07 posted...

muchdran posted...

Wtf you talking about? Its about details.

You loosely roll ground beef into a ball and get a pan ripping hot(cast iron is best). Butter the pan then put the beef in and smash it down really hard with a spatula or weight to get a really hard sear on the bottom. The sear will cause the liquid and fat in the burger to cook up instead of out of the burger. Flip add cheese, melt and serve. There are plenty of good vids on youtube

Well holy fuck, be more transparent in your next post, can't wait for that shit show

muchdran posted...

Solid Snake07 posted...

muchdran posted...

Wtf you talking about? Its about details.

You loosely roll ground beef into a ball and get a pan ripping hot(cast iron is best). Butter the pan then put the beef in and smash it down really hard with a spatula or weight to get a really hard sear on the bottom. The sear will cause the liquid and fat in the burger to cook up instead of out of the burger. Flip add cheese, melt and serve. There are plenty of good vids on youtube

Well holy fuck, be more transparent in your next post, can't wait for that shit show

Sorry, I was under the impression that we're all browsing the largest database of information in human history
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