Burger preference is a minefield of opinion. There are thick patties, thin patties, American cheese purists, and burger innovators. Personally, if offered a burger, I am going to eat it regardless of the genre. However, deep down, I am a smash burger lover. To me, the quintessential Smashburger is the Mooyah burger. Mooyah was always my favorite place to eat after school, and although I know that that food preference is often times tied to nostalgia, I still posit that this style of burger is supreme. I had always tried to make smash burgers at home and failed due to technical mistakes as well as issues tied to using the wrong gear. I spent about a month smashing balls of meat in my apartment, and after much research I think that I have refined the Smashburger process to be repeatable for most home cooks.

Although people like to think that cooking is a meritocracy and that you should be able to skill your way into cooking delicious food, I have found that with smash burgers, the gear really makes a difference. Most home cooks fear their food sticking, which is why they tend to favor nonstick cookware, but using nonstick cookware to create a smash burger is a fatal flaw. Smash burgers require a sticky pan for two important reasons. The first is that the burger needs to stick to the pan to retain its shape; a smash burger on a nonstick pan will shrink up and cook strangely. It is also essential to use a pan that sticks because it helps in the Maillard reaction, which is the process responsible for creating the delicious caramel crust that is a staple of any good restaurant smashburger.

The stickiness that is required to create a good smash burger creates a new problem, which is how do you get this burger off of the pan once it’s stuck? The solution is to get a steel spatula, which has a pretty sharp and angled edge to scrape the burger off of the pan. I found that the scraping technique uses much more strength than is required in most cooking and is a little bit jarring at first, but once you get the technique down, it becomes quite natural quickly. Another tip with Smashburgers is that both sides do not need to be cooked the same amount. It seems that the 80/20 principle, which appears in most facets of life, also appears in the Smashburger as well. I found that I got the best burger when I cooked the burger 80% through on one side and then just a little bit on the other as the cheese melted on top of it.

So, in summary, if you want to make decent smash burgers at home, just make sure that you’re using either a cast-iron skillet or, my preference, a stainless steel skillet. Squish those burgers down; let them stick and get a good spatula to scrape them off. Pick whatever cheese and toppings that you want. Smash burgers are all about technique and texture