Jason E
New member
Purpose: to get as much smoke on the burgers as possible on my WSM and finish them with a quick sear on the grill without drying them out. I think the sear is important for the char marks, so the outside is the proper texture and to get the bbq sauce/cheese melted on it. Here is the process I used with pictures. It should be a good starting point for anybody looking to go low and slow on a burger
- Fire up the WSM: I pushed the coals/wood from the last cook to the outside to make a donut. Fire up 2/3 chimney of coals and add them to the middle. Throw on 2-3 chunks of your favorite wood. Sure you don't need all that charcoal but it gets up to temp, gets smoking and stays consistent. I will just smother it and keep burning it again next cook.
- Fill the water bowl 2/3 full with very hot water. I want the temp low and consistent, so water bowl.
- Like clockwork, my WSM quickly went to 250 and stabilized at that temp
- Meanwhile, prepare your burgers: use your favorite recipe and form balls slightly smaller than a tennis ball and flatten them.
- Your WSM should be smoking decently and at a stable temperature now. Put the burgers on the rack. I changed the bottom vents to 3/4 closed and the top vent 1/2 closed at this point. This brought the stable temperature down to 200
Here we are at this point
After 1 hour of smoking, I removed the burgers from the WSM. I could tell they were a bit beyond medium rare at this point and I need to adjust for next time (45-50 minute smoke and, nobody would complain if their burger was a tiny bit bigger would they?)
- I fired up the gas grill here, got it very hot and put the burgers on for a very quick sear. My grill reached 500, I turned the temps down to minimum as I put the burgers on. They spent about 45 seconds on the first side.
- After 45 seconds, I flipped them and got a quick brush of bbq sauce on them while they sat on the 2nd side for about 45 seconds
- After the 2nd side was seared for 45 seconds, the burgers were flipped sauce side down onto the top rack. Quickly brush sauce on the second side and add your cheese. Close the lid for 30ish seconds to let the cheese melt
- After the 30ish seconds melting the cheese, get them off. My grill had dropped down to about 350 in the couple minutes the whole grilling process took.
- Here is the finished product
- Notes: this turned out well. The burger was juicy (even though it does look dry in the pic) and had a good amount of smoke. My only complaint is that it turned out medium and I would prefer it a bit more rare, but that is really the challenge in trying to 'low and slow' a burger. Next run I will smoke it for 45 minutes. This is my 2nd time doing this but the first time noting the process. The 1st time I had the burgers a lot rarer coming off the WSM... so I think a few adjustments and this will work out fine.
- Fire up the WSM: I pushed the coals/wood from the last cook to the outside to make a donut. Fire up 2/3 chimney of coals and add them to the middle. Throw on 2-3 chunks of your favorite wood. Sure you don't need all that charcoal but it gets up to temp, gets smoking and stays consistent. I will just smother it and keep burning it again next cook.
- Fill the water bowl 2/3 full with very hot water. I want the temp low and consistent, so water bowl.
- Like clockwork, my WSM quickly went to 250 and stabilized at that temp
- Meanwhile, prepare your burgers: use your favorite recipe and form balls slightly smaller than a tennis ball and flatten them.
- Your WSM should be smoking decently and at a stable temperature now. Put the burgers on the rack. I changed the bottom vents to 3/4 closed and the top vent 1/2 closed at this point. This brought the stable temperature down to 200
Here we are at this point
After 1 hour of smoking, I removed the burgers from the WSM. I could tell they were a bit beyond medium rare at this point and I need to adjust for next time (45-50 minute smoke and, nobody would complain if their burger was a tiny bit bigger would they?)
- I fired up the gas grill here, got it very hot and put the burgers on for a very quick sear. My grill reached 500, I turned the temps down to minimum as I put the burgers on. They spent about 45 seconds on the first side.
- After 45 seconds, I flipped them and got a quick brush of bbq sauce on them while they sat on the 2nd side for about 45 seconds
- After the 2nd side was seared for 45 seconds, the burgers were flipped sauce side down onto the top rack. Quickly brush sauce on the second side and add your cheese. Close the lid for 30ish seconds to let the cheese melt
- After the 30ish seconds melting the cheese, get them off. My grill had dropped down to about 350 in the couple minutes the whole grilling process took.
- Here is the finished product
- Notes: this turned out well. The burger was juicy (even though it does look dry in the pic) and had a good amount of smoke. My only complaint is that it turned out medium and I would prefer it a bit more rare, but that is really the challenge in trying to 'low and slow' a burger. Next run I will smoke it for 45 minutes. This is my 2nd time doing this but the first time noting the process. The 1st time I had the burgers a lot rarer coming off the WSM... so I think a few adjustments and this will work out fine.
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