Monday night. I need to use up the last of my bread, and I've got more ground beef to play with. No bacon tonight, but I'm using a different approach to burger-making: we're going for smash burgers.
A smash burger is thin and flimsy, with a crisp outer layer that's been charred thanks to high heat on the grill (and in my case, a lot of help from some leftover bacon grease). My typical burger—like the ones I'd made on Sunday—incorporates salt, pepper, Italian herbs, and some red-chili flakes. Sunday's bacon double cheeseburgers were okay, but disappointingly well-done. Monday night, I wanted something better-cooked and better-tasting, hence smash burgers.
Instead of prepping these burgers the usual way, I glopped in two tablespoons of my homemade barbecue sauce plus a bit of salt, then fried those babies in the pan. Result: amazing. I may have found a new approach to burger-making. It's a bit frustrating that I've made several meals in a row in which I've gotten things right on the second try, but in this case, the trial and error were worth it.
A shot of the burgers, open-face-style, with my homemade sauce on this time:
And a more food-porny angle:
Trust me—these were amazing. Not a bad way to finish off a batch of homemade bread. The buns died with honor. Any Klingon would have been proud. And arguably thanks to the bacon grease, I didn't miss the absent bacon.
Patties look pretty impressive!
ReplyDeleteThanks. They're crumbly, but that's par for the course with smash burgers, which are loosely packed and are crushed in such a way as to maximize the surface area that gets browned up (Maillard reaction). See here.
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