Smashed burgers on the Genesis using the Baking Steel


 
R

Robert D Wise

TVWBB Member
My go to burgers now a days, love the crusty patties and melted cheese! Of course, being in New Mexico, green chile is a must! This is the 1/4" Baking Steel that I use for pizza but it doubles really well on the Genesis as a griddle. I grind my own chuck roast and the patties are 2.66 ounces or 75 grams. Smash the patties down with a circular meat weight that is flat on the bottom and use a patty paper to keep it from sticking.



 
No loss of juiciness, griddle is hot and the meat thin, you smash and hold for 10 seconds to get good contact and good crust. You scrape and flip but don't smash again, this locks in the juices. Hit it with a good dose of S&P, green chile and a slice of cheese and you are ready to go. The patties are thin and we prefer two patties per hamburger.
 
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I have the quarter inch Baking Steel, it is all they offered when I bought mine, it is quite heavy at almost 15lbs. They do now have a half inch steel that I probably would have gotten if it was available. And I understand they do now offer a Baking Griddle with a groove in it but they are asking like $250 for it, I don't think it is worth that much. As you see in the pictures, no grease running all over the place, so I don't think that extra $150 for the groove is worth it. There site is www.bakingsteel.com. I love it for pizza and now for smash burgers. I could never get the bottom of my pizza to brown with a regular pizza stone, if I waited till the bottom was browned, the crust was over cooked on top. At 550 degrees, it takes about 3-5 minutes to cook.



 
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Robert,
Let me start by saying those are awesome looking burgers! Now let me pick your brain...I love the griddle idea, and can see one (being made this week )for my q-200 for tailgating! You keep the burger under the weight for 10 seconds per side to get that wonderful crust? My father in law recently told me he loves this type of burger, so I would love to surprise him with a great smashed burger the next time they are over for dinner!
Thanks,
Tim
 
Robert - First off maybe its my Jersey roots but I too love smash burgers. If you want to try them east coast style, use white american cheese next time. They're awesome that way IMO.

Secondly, thanks for the link and info on the baking sheet. I too love a heavy crust and am looking for some type of heavy griddle for my genesis not only for this but for reverse sears on steaks too. Couple of questions though... Why would you get the 1/2 over the 1/4 plate? How long does it take to get it up to proper temp? I don't know enough about metal to know but maybe you do... what's the difference between this and your typical Cast Iron? What's the maintenance on this item and do you store it indoors? I'm guessing if you live in NM then rust probably isn't much of a concern?
 
Ok, so now I'm ALL IN on these burgers! 2 questions... Does a press have to be hollowed out so as to form the burger, or is a simple flat press adequate? Also, the parchment paper, is it's main purpose to keep the burger from sticking to the press? And finally, (ok shoot me, I've got a 4th question) at what temp are you shooting for on the griddle?
Thanks for the help,
Tim
 
I bought the quarter inch because that what they had at the time. The half inch stores more energy and recovers temps quicker than the quarter inch, thus you can cook more pizzas (though the half inch weighs 28 pounds) and patties too. You only smash the beef ball down one time. Just scrape it off the griddle and flip it over to finish cooking. If you smashed it on the other side, then you would squish all the fine juices out. I am looking for 350 on the griddle, with the Genesis it is possible to overheat it, about 5-10 minutes on the Weber at half heat usually does the trick, YMMV. I just have a flat cooking weight that I got off eBay, some people even use a trowel to smash the burgers. I also got the patty papers off eBay, they are Weston and they come with 500 sheets per box and they are used to keep the beef from sticking. There is not much difference between the Baking Steel and cast iron. I have actually cooked smashed burgers on the side burner in my trusty cast iron skillet before trying the BS. I just tried out the BS because I had it on hand and the size, I like that I can cook 4 patties at a time (my cast iron skillet only cooks one), so I can make two double patty burgers at once. They cook quickly and you need to have everything ready before smashing the patties. These partties are pretty thin, so two patties are better than one! If you like a single patty, just weigh out a 4 to 6 ounce patty and smash it down to desired thickness. Maintenance is like cast iron. I have a stone that I use to clean it and I season it with grape seed oil and cook it into the oven for a while. It is not stainless steel, so you do have to clean it and dry it off (I just usually put it into a hot oven) or it may rust. If it does rust, just clean it, wipe it with oil and season it again in the oven. They do make a case for it, but I just put it back into the shipping box and put it under the counter with the cookie sheets.
 
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My oldest son and his family were visiting for a week. We did LOTS of grilling:cool:. He made very thin burgers, in his hands, like the Robert Wise's thin burgers. Two patties to a bun and you get twice the surface crust with all of that good taste.

After looking at this post, my wife and I made some thin burgers, too. Marilyn used a measuring cup (1/3 will give you 6 burgers a pound, so I will use 1/4 the next time and use our burger press to "smash" them). The measuring cup allows you to get "same size" burgers quickly when forming them up. We then use the burger press to smash them...

However, I flipped my grill grates to put the flat surface up and put two of the sections on my Jumbo Joe. The Joe is shallow (compared to my Performers) so one full chimney of lit gets REALLY hot! I cleaned and oiled the surface and slapped the burgers on. About two minutes a side and I had GREAT crust! The burgers were delicious!

Marilyn cut burger "pattie papers" from wax paper and they worked perfectly to separate the burgers and also used to apply them to the griddle. The commercial pattie papers will work perfectly (that's why they make them:rolleyes:).
The next time you go to a diner watch the short order cook as he uses the paper to slap the burgers on the griddle.

Now, my burgers will be DOUBLE BURGERS as per my son and Robert Wise! (Actually, they will be "double cheese burgers":rolleyes:)...

Note; The original caution to "never smash your burgers" was about smashing on the griddle while cooking - that WILL squeeze all of the goodness from a burger. However, "smashing" them while forming (even if done the first ten seconds on the grill) will NOT harm them.

Grill Grates work really well for this. You get great all over crust (and that's where the taste is) will little effort. You just have to watch these thin burgers carefully to keep from over cooking them. Not a problem...

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
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Old thread, but I do this often. My baking steel? I went to a local steel yard had had them cut me a 15x15x1/4" plate of A36 steel (food safe), $25 - $10 to have it sandblasted. In fact I have 2, they double as pizza steels and for smashbugers. Have them custom cut to whatever size you want. When you get them home season as you would cast iron.
 
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