Frozen Smashburgers?

[jfmorris]

Got a question for my brothers and sisters of the Pitmaster Club.

I have no specific plans for a Memorial Day cookout, but JUST IN CASE, I would like to take advantage of the fact that my local Fresh Market has ground chuck (80/20) on sale for $3.99 a pound every Tuesday. As in today. I know I cannot buy ground beef and let it sit for almost a week though, and usually buy several 1 pound packs and freeze them in the butcher paper they come in, and we use it for stir fry meat, chili, spaghetti, etc. For smash burgers I always use it within a day or two of purchase.

The question is this: can I buy that meat TODAY, while it is on sale, and make up a bunch of smash burger meat balls, freeze them, and then pull out what I need on Sunday night or even Monday morning, defrost, and drop them on the griddle for smashburgers?

Any time I've made burgers from frozen in the past, I just opted to freeze the meat as normal flat burgers, freezing it in a zip lock with wax paper to separate the layers of burgers (usually 4 per layer in the gallon freezer bag). But I don't think I've made "normal" burgers in several years, as all we want now are smash burgers.

I would normally rather use fresh bought ground chuck to make my smash burgers, but I also would like to take advantage of sale pricing that won't be here come this weekend. I also like the idea of a bag of burger balls in the freezer that I can pull out a few before dinner, defrost, then griddle up some burgers... could work nicely when just the 2 of us want a burger for dinner on short notice.

If I do this, I'll do my mixins of ground black pepper, onion powder and garlic powder before freezing, then just salt on the grill. I like to follow Meathead 's diner burger (aka Wimpy burger) recipe. Just never thought to freeze those pre-made burger balls.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

Jim

[CandySueQ]

Why not pre-smash before you freeze? Last steak I cooked from frozen and it was great.

[Murdy]

The only downside of pre-smashing I could see is more air exposure to the meat, but it's such a short freeze time that it probably wouldn't matter.

[Mosca]

Came here to say this. I smash them first, then freeze them, vacuum sealed.

[Meathead]

Meat is 75% water. Freezing water expands (if you ever accidentally froze a bottle of pop or wine you know what I mean). It forms sharp edged ice crystals that puncture muscle fibers and can cause water loss (purge). So it is probable that you will experience more drip loss and shrinkage during cooking. This is why many burger joints brag "never frozen." That said, juiciness in a burger is heavily dependent on fat. So you might be able to compensate for water loss bu making burgers 30% fat rather tan 15-20% which is the norm. Of course you can answer the question yourself. Buy some fresh ground meat and divide it into 2 parts. Freeze half and let it stay frozen over night. Then defrost and make burgers from each half and do a blind taste test. Let us know what you learn!

[MBMorgan]

I don't see that freezing smash-burger balls would be an issue ... as long as you thaw them thoroughly so that they "behave" properly when it's time to smash them.

I don't know this for a fact (it's merely a SWAG at this point) but I think you'd get better results by freezing the balls rather than pre-smashing and then freezing. I suspect that at least part of the smash-burger "magic" happens when you smash them against a hot griddle ... especially if you're going to smash them into mustard or some other sauce.

In this case, you might try a few each way and see what works best (then report back ... with pics ... of course).

[Meathead]

One of the reasons smash burgers have become popular is because smashing them gets them into intimate contact with the hot metal. Pre-smashed will work if you press them hard against the metal.

[DTro]

Recently, I picked up two pounds of 80/20 while it was on sale. One pound we grilled as pub burgers. The other pound went into the freezer. The second pound was cooked the other night, again as pub burgers.
I did notice a slight texture difference between the two. There was less bite/chew to the meat that went in the freezer. It wasn't mushy by any means, but it was slightly softer. Both times the ground was portioned by lightly rolling it into a log in tinfoil and cutting 1/4 pound burgers, not smashing and squishing the patties together by hand.
With smash burgers, as long as you get all those delicious craggy and crispy ends, you probably won't notice much difference with the frozen ground.

[Dadof3Illinois]

We keep pre pattied burgers in the freezer at all times. Even keep turkey and pork burgers ready to go. My only advice is not to add any seasonings.....for some reason that seems to be a problem.....at least for me/us it does. I end up getting a tough burger if I preseason the meat. Just add that right before you grill them and your ready to go.

[Meathead]

We have documented the problem with salting ground meat before use. It compacts the meat. Salt it just before cooking.

[learning pellets]

Freeze the burger balls all the time when buying ground beef from Costco. Wrap up each ball in plastic wrap then put those in gallon freezer bag.

We thaw however many we need in the fridge and make great smash burgers. If you like red medium rare, do not thaw completely and smash on griddle while core is still 25-30 degrees.

[tbob4]

My experience with frozen v fresh ground beef is that frozen beef tends to be looser. As Meathead noted above, it likely has to do with a moisture loss. Therefore, I would make slightly larger meatballs and I would pack them tighter than I would for a regular smash burger. Based on the same, I would likely not pre-smash because the burger might fall apart.

If I pre-smashed, I would go straight to the griddle from the freeze. I am giving this advice based on a thin griddle press smash not the Blackstone press tool. With the press tool, I think the burger would be fat enough to pre-smash without much difficulty. I would put parchment paper between each patty, though.

[Attjack]

Yes, I do it all the time. Buy, ball and freeze, defrost and cook with ease.

[jfmorris]

Ok - I think I'll grab 5 or 10 pounds at Fresh Market today, and ball it up, freeze, and report back on my findings next week. Thanks for all the varied advice!

[tbob4]

I’m interested in the results

[coupster]

If your Fresh Market meat section is like mine.... They fresh grind 80/20 chuck all day on Tuesdays. Buy it from the butcher behind the glass case. Don't buy the pre-wrapped packages stacked in the smaller floor coolers. It has noticeably better texture and taste. Burgers cooked on Tuesday nights are always better than after freezing but I certainly wouldn't turn up my nose at one. And I cook to 128-130 so meat flavor is a noticeable factor.

[jfmorris]

Yes - I usually go to the butcher and ask for 5 or 10 pounds, versus buying the 1 pound packs they have out.

[mnavarre]

Instead of balling it up and freezing, portion it out and freeze it as flat as possible. That way it freezes and defrosts rapidly, and rapid freezing minimizes the formation of ice crystals. This is what I do when I grind beef and I notice very little loss of quality.

[Attjack]

But then it's not a smash burger.

[mnavarre]

Ah, sorry, I wasn't clear. I'm talking about portioning in usable portions, usually 1 lb, and freezing. That way I can just grab whatever I need for whatever I'm making.

[holehogg]

I make a couple hundred smash burgers a month and only use fresh ground beef.
Buy enough on Wednesday morning to last me up to and including Friday. If I do have any over I usually make something on Saturday with what's left.
My butcher is required to supply me 70/30 mix, but on some occasions I can see by the look and the way it cooks, it's more than 70/30.
I mention all of this because I have experimented with the idea of making and freezing patties to help make my life easier on the days of service (Wednesday thru Friday).

​​​​​Hereunder is my personal assessment of fresh vs frozen.

The 80/20 cooked after frozen was noticeably drier than fresh but wasn't inedible dry, just not nearly as juicy. I don't do 80/20 anymore at all for burgers unless I have extra ground beef over from another cook.

The frozen defrosted 70/30 results were much more moist and very close to those that had not been frozen. There was a slight difference. Not anything significant that made it very noticeable. I still don't freeze though.

Fresh will always be better than frozen and as MH pointed out above some of the reasons why.

I keep fozen patties for own consumption for convenience and there's never anything wrong with the end product and sometimes it's an 80/20.

Other observations.
All my fresh patties go from the fridge into the freezer for around 15 minutes just before smashing on the flat top. Definitely makes for a superior crust.
Another overlooked great tip of MH is pressing the rim of the patty down to give the edges a nice char. Something I do with every patty I smash.
​​​​Instead of shaping into balls I find the puck shape smashes better than a ball. I can also stack one on top of another (I do however form a minimum of 60 patties on service days).

[Uncle Bob]

So, I held off a day to comment here because I'd planned an experiment for tonight's dinner. I've got some frozen, pre-formed patties that are made from advertised 80/20 sirloin...........reality may differ, but that's what I'm goin' with.

I trim and package a fair number of beef cuts in a year and rather than waste the decent fat that gets trimmed I turn it into tallow, smoked most often. My plan this evening was to lay down some tallow on the griddle and then cook the patties as normal. I'm going with the notion offered in some circles that the addition of tallow gives a better mouth feel and makes your brain believe the meat product is "juicier". I'm not going to claim that it made an earth shattering difference, but the flavor was a decent level of rich, and the burgers were not dry to the mouth even though they were cooked to somewhere 150-60. Of course those perceptions fall into the Goldilocks triangle, my just right might be your too much, or too little. It is conceivable that the smash burger style jfmorris is planning could benefit better (if there is any) by having the melted tallow forced into the patty during the smashing process. Might be worth further experimentation some day.