The best beef smash burger recipe - how to make a smash burger

How To Make A Smash Burger

Sometimes only a smash burger will satiate the hunger pangs, and this is the only recipe you need if it's one of those days.

Done in 30 minutes

Serves 2

Dish by Twisted

Ingredients

For the burger sauce:

200mlmayonnaise

1 heaped tbspketchup

1 tsphot sauce

1 tbspAmerican mustard

1/2 tspgarlic powder

1/2 tspsmoked paprika

1 tbspfinely chopped pickles

to tastesea salt

For the patties:

roughly 300g, or 60 - 80g per patty20% fat beef mince (good quality)

Other bits:

2brioche (or potato) burger buns

1 tbspunsalted butter

1finely chopped white onion

a tub (pickles are nice)dill pickles

Wondering how to make a smash burger? Well, this is the best smash burger recipe known to man. It's meaty. It's juicy. The burger sauce is pickle packed and copious. We'll take you through all the questions you may have, from how long to fry a smash burger to how to make a smash burger with mince. Read on and we'll reveal all.

Method

Take the burger buns and cut them in half if needs be. Heat the butter in a large frying pan and toast the bun halves on their cut side until they are golden and nice. Set aside.

Whisk the ingredients for the burger sauce together. Set these aside as well.

Dice the white onion and (you guessed it) set aside.

Now, for the all important patties. The beauty of smash burgers is that they are so simple, but there is a knack to getting them right. The first thing to remember is not to knead the beef - simply take a handful of the beef mince (around the size of the palm of your hand) and loosely compact it into a ball. It'll seem like a lot, but the patties shrink a lot when they are cooked.

Before starting, it's wise to get your various utensils to hand. You'll need a large skillet with a lid, or another pan you can use as a lid. You'll also need a warm plate to rest the cooked patties, a burger press, or a medium saucepan and a sheet of baking paper to stop it sticking, and a good metal spatula. Make sure the toasted buns are to hand, the pickles are ready to go and the burger sauce is on standby. You'll also need four slices of cheap nasty burger cheese, a small jug full of water and some salt.

Heat the skillet and a drizzle of oil over a medium to high flame. Place one of the balls of mince in the middle and squash it with the burger press/saucepan and baking paper. Really go for it and put some weight behind it to ensure maximum juiciness and crispiness. Remove the squashing implement and the baking paper (if using) and season with salt, then cook without moving it around for 45 seconds. This whole process should take less than a minute. Use the metal spatula to flip the burger, then season the other side and pop the cheese on top.

Quickly pour a dash of water into the pan and cover with the lid. This will steam the cheese. Now, remove the patty after around 20 seconds and place on the warm plate and repeat with the second patty.

You'll now have two cheesy patties. time to build the burger: toasted bottom bun, burger sauce, patty one, patty two, pickles and chopped white onion, toasted top bun.