Troubleshooting - Smoked Burgers


 
Charles Howse

Charles Howse

TVWBB Wizard
Hi!, I did this today.

It was another great day to be alive and be in Tennessee!! Clr - p/c, 72, almost no wind.


I bought 3# of ground beef, and made 9 1/3 lb patties out of it.
1 full chimney of kb, all vents wide open to stay within parameters of smoked-hamburgers.htm

I took an hour and a half, rather than 40 minutes to get these patties done, and they still didn't get to 160*.
They were soppin' wet with grease, and I flipped 'em just to get rid of it.
I finally tried one, and they were delicious!!

Notes for next time..make the patties 3 times as big. 1/3 lb is THIN.

Any discussion from someone who has done this and it turned out just like the example above??
 
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My butcher makes what he calls Cowboy burgers. It's a really thick patty with chunks of high temp cheese and onion and jalapeno mixed in and then he wraps them with bacon. I cook them usually in the 300 to 350 range on my kettle with a nice chunk of wood and they turn out great. Ground beef really soaks up the smoke so I don't think you gotta smoke them low, and the high temp in my case gets that bacon nice and crispy. I'll sometimes take my chances and cook them to medium. You might be getting some kind of stall effect? All that liquid on the surface might have been cooling them or making them cook at closer to 212 degrees. That's the only thing I can think. I gotta think with those vents open you had to be cooking pretty hot.
 
Did you leave the water pan in? Any heat sink or foiled?
When I do em they usually take over an hour with an empty foiled pan.
Cherry is the one for smoked burgers..

Tim
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
My butcher makes what he calls Cowboy burgers. It's a really thick patty with chunks of high temp cheese and onion and jalapeno mixed in and then he wraps them with bacon. I cook them usually in the 300 to 350 range on my kettle with a nice chunk of wood and they turn out great. Ground beef really soaks up the smoke so I don't think you gotta smoke them low, and the high temp in my case gets that bacon nice and crispy. I'll sometimes take my chances and cook them to medium. You might be getting some kind of stall effect? All that liquid on the surface might have been cooling them or making them cook at closer to 212 degrees. That's the only thing I can think. I gotta think with those vents open you had to be cooking pretty hot.
Click to expand...

Hello Dustin,
The only thing that I forgot to do was put in the charcoal ring, but with only 2/3 of a chimney, that shouldn't matter.
I'm game to try again with some man-sized patties, and there's no reason they can't be flipped halfway.
All the liquid was probably because the meat had no label as to the fat content. Could have been 75/25.
 
timothy said:
Did you leave the water pan in? Any heat sink or foiled?
When I do em they usually take over an hour with an empty foiled pan.
Cherry is the one for smoked burgers..

Tim
Click to expand...
Hi Tim,
Empty water pan, no foil, no charcoal ring (forgot it).
I will try again.
 
Hmmm, we do 1/3 pound burgers all the time and never had them take more than 35-40 minutes running the smoker 285°-325° indirect heat, dry water pan. I usually don't do the 165° safe temp unless my in-laws are over.

Typically run a mix of cherry and pecan 50/50, or Kiawe and Cherry 50/50.

I have a feeling that your meat as you mentioned was not 80/20.
 
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