THE SMASH BURGER Recipe You’ve Been Waiting For | By Thomas Straker

The only smash burger you're ever going to need. So this is a cheese and onion smash burger. This is the important part. Well it's one of the important parts. Every part's important. This is one of the most important parts. Along with the bun and the grilled onions and the sauce. But not forgetting the pickles. Brisket and chuck. Classically used in the burger. Straight up. That would normally yield like 20 plus ish percent fat ratio. We're chucking in the sirloin because it's extra fat. I like a fatty burger. But you make it into a round ball. Smash it on there. I've got this hot plate here. So we're going to mince our beef. We're going to mince it twice. Nice potato bun. So light. But you can make stuff yourself. But I just, you know, let the bakers do their. Bakers doesn't. Okay so first up. I suppose we'll get the meat prep out the way. We're just going to put it through the mincer. I'm going to mince it twice. We've got a coarse grind first. And then we're going to put it through a slightly finer grind. I think it's about four and a half mil. That's going to evenly distribute the fat throughout the meat. So we're not going to have these juicy pockets. You know I've made a few burgers. Recently did a burger pop-up down the road from my restaurant. And we did 500 burgers. Yeah we got to know the burgers pretty well. Throughout the years I've made lots for myself. This is my ultimate. We're on the onion. Classically used to sort of bulk out burgers because meat was expensive. So we're going to go for a nice thick onion ring which we're going to grill. Still with a nice bit of texture. Just grill it so it's in the bun. Nice texture. Okay first up the beef. This here is chuck steak. Okay so all we need to do is just make sure that that fits in there. Okay I've lost my smurf here so I've got an ice cream scoop. That'll do the job. I think it's all pretty simple. So I'm just going to take this into long strips. This will be the most efficient way to mince. It's all going through. As I've said before more fat more flavor. And Peggy agrees as well. She's suddenly my best friend again. She's told me she's going vegan. It's always too hard when there's temptation around like this isn't it babe? Tray underneath to catch the meat. It's all coming out. You wouldn't want to put your hand in that. Here's a nice coarse grind. Looky looky mincy mincy. Burgers be taking shape. Here we go. Here's the fatty bit of fat. This fat cap going through look. Put that in your burger mate. Okay so what we're going to do now. I'm going to go back through with the second grind. See how it's like much more evenly distributed the fat. I mean some people like a coarser grind on their meat. I think this allows for the perfect texture in one of this. Once you get the good color on the burger. This is way more fun than making fucking butter isn't it? You could one mince it. You could twice mince it. You could thrice mince it. Turn it off and I'm going to go for a piss. I'll leave the mic on. A good fistful of meat. 100 gram patties. Scales run out of battery and I'm just gonna have to fucking eyeball it. Quite the enjoyable process. Oh I'm starving. This smash a beer. Quick nap. They are looking handsome. I suppose what you can deduce is this is simplicity. You know really good meat. We're gonna salt and pepper. Simple. No fucking around. No garlic powder. No fucking paprika or some bullshit that you put in there. We want to taste the beef. You know we want to taste the meat. Few humble ingredients coming together to deliver such joy. Also just before we go into the onions. I just want to talk to you about like being organized in the kitchen when you're working. Do you know you've got your board. It's got some paper and wet towel underneath it to keep it steady. I've got a bin. Salt, pepper, sugar. Salt, salt, salt, pepper, sugar. I've got a cloth wiping down. So always stay clean. And then you've got a bowl for putting your prep stuff in or a tray. Okay so that's the that's the way to stay neat and tidy in the kitchen. So look I chop the top off put it straight in the bin. Chop the bottom off. She goes straight in the bin as well. You want to avoid having too much going on on the board at one time. You often see people with onion peel and f***ing diced onion here and half an onion prep over there. You know just f***ing organize your s**t. You wouldn't s**t in the sink would you? You wouldn't. There's not another one there actually. Okay so we're going for these onions. I want something nice and thick. Something that's going to stand up to the meaty cheesy goodness. Okay the one centimeter is the right size. Right one centimeter. That is one centimeter on the f***ing money there. Did anyone say carpenter? No. No one said carpenter. Twat. All that's left is the sauce. Okay mayonnaise. There we go. Nice mayonnaise here. Then mustard. So yellow mustard which is American mustard. Some cayenne pepper. Okay a little bit of pickle juice. And gin. Sugar. Some black pepper. Also get some fine salt. Then the last part is I'm going to blend up a few pickles to put through. Okay you can chop these pickles by hand. I'm just going to blend them with some garlic. Two cloves of garlic. Kind of sweet. Sour. Just adding that. It kind of looks kind of rank. But it is nice. Always at this stage taste. You know taste what you've made. Taste the finished element. Okay so you can take a little bit more pickle. And if you like stuff a bit hotter. More heat. Then you can add more cayenne pepper. If you want some more sugar. More sweet. You can add some sugar. If you want some more pickle. You add some more pickle. You know it really is. Like this is one of those bits which is kind of. Up to your own personal preference I suppose. Like a reasonable thick pickle. Fuck we're there. We've got everything ready. It's cooking time. 100% going to get a fire alarm situation going on. Right that's just a cast iron plate. This is essentially a plancha. Plancha. Oil. Some salt on both sides. Flip that lid. Oil. Onion. So what we're looking for. It's more of a charred top. We're not looking for soft softy softy onion okay. We're looking for good colour. Good caramelisation. Good texture okay. Both sides. Oh we need the cheese on plus. This is red Leicester. So burger buns. We're ripping hot now. Burger buns we're just going to toast. I'm looking to get a nice little sear on the top of that bun. Okay at this stage you need to have your beef ready. You need to have your seasoning ready. You need to have the cheese ready. Bit of oil. I use olive oil for cooking everything. Peggy knows when it's time for food. Seasoning. Salt. And pepper okay. I'm making sure this is oiled nicely. I don't like it when it's like too fucking thin you know. You see how a cast iron plate is just so elite for this type of cookery. If you put that in a frying pan you'll get nowhere near the flatness, the crushness, the searing power of cast iron is just elite. And then I'm just going to get a little bit of water there and then steam the cheese. Then I'm going to stack it up. I'm going to put the onion and the lid on. Steam that as well. I'm sending it off so the cheese is melting nicely. Okay stack it up yeah. Lid on top. Steam the lid slightly yeah. It's another deflect move. It's going to make it soft. It's going to make that bun really warm. Cheese is melted. Onions on top. Okay so now sauce on the bottom of the bun okay. I like a good amount of sauce. Look at that. Look at how good that looks. Pepper, the pickles, everything. I like good and pickly. Four pickles in there. Look at that. That is just, that is the smash burger. The one you want. Spicy. I'm fucking excited for this. Not a smash burger. The. Mate. Really good sear on the beef. Cheese is melted and it's hot and the pickles are cold. Mayo is spicy. Sweet and salty and acidic. It's got everything. The bun's amazing. The even distribution of the meat. The meat's perfectly ground. Simple. Effective. Find a good baker. Get the perfect buns. Light, airy. A good vehicle for your situation. You want it soft. The sauce wants to be impactful enough. Drive flavour through the bottom of the bun. Onions ruling the roost at the top. Three more please.