Smashburgers on Upside-down GrillGrates


 
Damn, I forgot the photos. But they turned out very well. The spatula I used to start with had round holes about the size of a pencil....reminded me of the holes in the grill grates. Anyway, that didn't work out so well when I went to smash them. A lot of the raw burger came up with the spatula. When I wrapped some aluminum foil around the spatual it worked perfectly. It was the only larger size spatula that I had.

One thing I did notice was that after the first round of patties, the griddle had cooled quite a bit from having the lid open and the second and third round of patties didn't crisp up as well. I guess You have to do one round then close the lid and let the griddle heat back up before throwing another set of patties on. I am thinking that the Genesis 1000 with the deeper box might be a detriment in this case.

All said, this will be a cook that I will definitely repeat in the future many times.
 
I have an IR gun as well. But I didn't use it. I just heated my grill up to 550 and let the griddle sit on the grates during the heatup and beyond. I figured it was about up to the grill temp then. The problem is on the second and third uses that a gun would be nice to see when it gets back up to smashburger temps. Inside temps don't mean much at that point. I will have to start using it from now on to take the guess work out of it.
 
Jon Tofte said:
Wish I was there, Bruce! Will look forward to seeing how they turn out:)!
Click to expand...

Yeah you notice our invitations got lost in the mail?! Must be from the Trump cutbacks LOLOL :D All kidding aside yeah they're good stuff. I have 2 Lodge CI griddles I use when I am doing them. The large 2 burner and a smaller one burner. It's the only way I can do burgers for my wife and her not complain they're not done well enough
 
Yah, I don't see how anyone could complain that a Smash burger, if done right, isn't fully cooked.

Larry, I sent the invitations out. I expected and RSVP but never got one from you. Everyone else showed up. ;)
 
2nd Attempt

Well, I tried again tonight on the upside down grillgrates. Got the surface temperature to 500 degrees before I put them on.

Much better Browning than my 1st attempt. Were juicy too. I was comparing pictures of the second batch to a batch I made on my kamado using a Lodge cast iron pan, I could easily tell that the cast iron is superior for Browning compared to aluminum.

Also, just for Giggles, I tried smashing the burger down on the grill grate. But it did not work too well because of the holes in their grates. It was a mess. Hence the reason why I pre smash them :)

So lesson learned for Browning. Cast Iron is King :)

But the advantage to the grillgrates, like I stated before, was I can make all of my burgers at one time. Without doing them in 4 Burger batches.

On a side note, I did flip them right side up early today and cooked 2 pounds of thick-cut bacon. And the recipe called for sprinkling with brown sugar directly on the bacon after the sides brown. It's a Steve Raichlen Recipe from his Project Smoke book and TV show. I doubt I will ever eat bacon the regular way again :)
 
Larry, do you smash them and then hold them down for a while, or do you just smash them and then let them cook for a minute or so?
 
I use the cast iron griddle and I use a small amount of meat (about .2 lb) rolled into a little meat ball, put them on the griddle and smash away one at a time. They cook so darn fast I hold it down for a second or 2 and go to the next, repeat. When doing it correctly by the time you get to the 3rd burger the first one can come off. I find them a little "trying" to make as you have to be so fast. Which is why I don't do them all that often LOL. This old guy ain't "that fast" any more :D
 
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