Blackstone Smash Burgers

[Brian_M]

My post yesterday caused a couple people to comment about how they were thinking about buying a griddle.

We planned all week to cook burgers tonight. The boys voted for smash burgers on the Blackstone, and I took a couple pictures.

Let's see if we can help out with someone's MCS...






Three lbs. of ground beef turned into twenty burgers...Wife uses a dedicated ice cream scoop for mostly consistent sizing.




First flight on. Didn't try to cram on all twenty. Seasoned with a store bought mix (If anybody as a Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers restaurant nearby, their sauces and seasoning are pretty good, and the burgers are probably the best chain-store burgers I've had).




And the flip...at this point youngest boy is across the yard, playing with the dogs and yelling that the burgers smell really good.



Small second batch on, first batch staying warm. There's a Lodge press sneaking around nearby that never made it into a picture. It is what puts the "smash" into (or onto, I guess) the smash burgers.



The hot dogs and sausages were in the gas grill while the burgers were cooking. Hot dogs were for tonight also, sausages are for lunches next week.

We didn't time this cook, but it was pretty quick again. I can't emphasize enough how simple it can be to throw together a pretty good meal on the griddle. Not very fancy, but good enough that the boys prefer this over most restaurant burgers.

Anyway, smash burgers on the griddle are a good thing.

[grantgallagher]

Ya know...i thought i liked you. 😜just kidding, way to add to the MCS.

looking like good burgers. Although supposedly proper smash burgers should be done on a non oilded dry griddle. Apparently you need them to stick to get that exterior crunch.

never done them since im still blackstone jonesing (that should be a song) but i think kenji lopez was preaching this on twitter recently

[Brian_M]

Hmm. Don’t know about that. I started doing it this way and it works for us so I just stayed with it.

Now I have homework to do. Great. That’s probably a fair payback for the MCS taunting.

In all seriousness though, these griddles really are a joy to use.

[grantgallagher]

Brian_M and by the way you have locked in my blackstone mcs. And in a pleasant turn of events for a change, im pretty sure i only need the 28” judging by how many burgers you have on that thing

[jgreen]

Love smash burgers. I usually put a bit of oil on the griddle as well. A good smash makes pretty good contact with the metal and allows a good crust.

[grantgallagher]

Brian_M the kenji tweets





Again, still never made em but i am curious

[grantgallagher]

Brian_M example of paths crossing, lol. If i hadnt just recently seen those tweets and your thread i never would have posted on it. Really looking forward to if you try it out and i really hope it doesnt end up in "f this, scraping this off my griddle sucked", lol

[Brian_M]

You may try it before I do. I’ve spent a lot of years living by the philosophy of not fixing something that isn’t broken.

However, I’m pretty curious about this now.

[grantgallagher]

Brian_M need to get a griddle first, lol

[Spacecase]

That looks amazing. What is the cleanup process for those griddles? Is it a pain?

[Brian_M]

Clean up is pretty simple. A good scrape while it is screaming hot to get everything unstuck and into the grease collector. If anything is too stuck use a quick squirt of water from a spray bottle to steam it off (although this will screw up the seasoning). Then I wipe it down with extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) and a rag. Then another coat of EVOO with a clean rag. That’s usually enough to have it slick and ready for next time.

At the start of the next cook get it hot, wipe it down with another coat or two of oil, and start cooking.

This works for me. There’s some really knowledgeable people on here that may point out something I’m missing. I’m nowhere near an expert on seasoning a griddle.

[Spinaker]

Nice!

When I am making these I use a trowel to press them down onto the cooking surface. Then you can really get a good, solid smash out of them. Then I use a stainless paint scraper to take them off the cooking surface. I used to use spatulas and other tools, then I was at HD one day and I thought, "What the heck, I am going to try the trowel." I had seen other cooks using them, so why not give it a try? So, I picked one up and I have not looked back since. Boy, am I happy I did!

Generally, I will throw the meat ball on the cooking surface, smash it and let it go for about 1 min. Then I scrape, flip and let it go for about 30 seconds. Then comes the cheese on one patty, I add a cooked patty on top, dollop of my brothers special sauce with fried and raw onions. Mmmmmmmm, smash burger heaven!

[CaptainMike]

Oh yeah, I like that trowel hack! I got a whole bucket full of them, but I think I'll grab a nice new one next time I'm at the lumber store.

[Attjack]

As an aside I like using cheap plastic paint scrapers for cleaning/scraping cast iron under hot water.

[DavidNorcross]

Did traditional burgers on my stone last night. Either way burgers off a griddle are fantastic. A griddle (either Blackstone or Camp Chef) is a tool in my arsenal that is essential for sure. Brian_M is spot on with the clean up. I usually buy the blue shop towels because they have less lint, but just a handful of paper towels and some oil and you are clean. To me the clean up is one of the best parts of owning a griddle.

[Brian_M]

Blue shop towels are exactly what I use also!

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

I have a bunch of blue lintless towels I got from the surgery department. I originally stole them to do car detailing. Very handy items, they get used a lot now in my BBQ/smoking adventures as well as firearms cleaning, etc.

[allsid]

Sweet setup with the half hotel pan on top of the warming rack Brian_M

[Brian_M]

Learned that here allsid but I don't remember specifically from who. There's so many people here with great ideas that I can't keep track of who suggested what.

Wouldn't surprise me if using a warming rack was mentioned in a flipping awesome cookbook I read every now and then about backyard griddles...

[allsid]

Ha- thanks!

[CaptainMike]

Heck, I have even heard that some guy named Paul wrote a whole book on griddle cooking. I have one in my collection as well! Maybe you've heard of it allsid