Few dishes are as satisfying as a smash burger.
With its crispy, caramelised crust and juicy centre, it’s a simple idea taken off around the world.
Crawley’s Tanju Afacan, founder of The Burger Truck, shares the story behind the burger and his recipe for making the perfect version for a Friday night family feast.
The story starts in the 1950s, at a burger shop in Kentucky.
One of owner Bill Culvertson’s cooks was flat out on a busy shift and needed burgers cooked fast. So, he grabbed a big catering tin of beans and slammed it down on a ball of beef on the hot griddle.
Pressing the beef flat against the hot metal gave it a deep brown, crispy, lacy crust. That’s the Maillard reaction: high heat browns the proteins and sugars in the meat and creates loads of new flavour. Customers started asking for ‘the smashed one’ again, and the smash burger was born.
INGREDIENTS
For the burgers
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500g beef mince (80/20 mix of chuck and beef fat)
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4 milk buns or brioche buns
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4 slices burger cheese
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Lettuce leaves
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1 onion, thinly sliced
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Pickles/gherkins, sliced
For the sauce
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4 tbsp mayonnaise
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2 tbsp ketchup
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1 tsp American mustard
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2 tbsp finely chopped gherkins, and a splash of brine
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1 tsp fast-action yeast
METHOD
How to smash it at home
Day 1. Everyone loves building their own burger, and it’s one of the few dinners that’ll get teenagers off their phones and into the kitchen. If you’re doing it on Friday, shop on Thursday.
Make friends with your local butcher. Tell them what you’re making and ask for an 80/20 mix of chuck and beef fat. You’ll need about 500g for four burgers. For bigger appetites, double up on the patties and get 1kg. Pick up some milk buns or a good brioche, burger cheese slices, pickles, lettuce and an onion to slice.
Day 2. Wash your hands, then weigh out four 120g balls. Don’t play with the meat too much or you’ll melt the fat, and that fat is what keeps the burger juicy. Roll the 20g left over into a small test ball. Wash hands again after handling the raw meat.
Turn your extractor fan on. It’ll get a bit smoky, and that’s fine. Butter your buns and toast them in a medium-hot pan until golden. The butter gives a lovely colour and makes a barrier that stops the juices soaking in. Build the bottom bun: sauce first, then lettuce, onion and pickles.
Wipe the pan and turn the heat right up. Put the small test ball in. It should smoke a little. Lay a sheet of greaseproof paper over it and press down hard with a smasher or heavy spatula until it’s about 5-6mm thick. Peel the paper off, season with salt and leave it alone so it sears. After about a minute, flip it and have a look. If the meat’s grey instead of dark brown, the pan isn’t hot enough. Let it heat up more before you start on the next.
Cook the burgers one at a time (the more you cram in, the more the heat drops). Smash, salt, sear, flip. If you have a probe, you’re looking for 75°C in the middle. If not, cut into one and make sure there’s no pink left. Pop the cheese on, add the top bun, and splash a little water around the edges of the pan. The steam melts the cheese and loosens everything, ready to lift onto the bottom bun.
That’s it. You’ve made your own smash burger.
Tanju Afacan was born in Crawley and grew up in East Grinstead, in his parents’ restaurant. He founded The Burger Truck in 2020. You’ll find it on Newton Road, Manor Royal, Crawley, and out on the road across West Sussex: the-burger-truck.com
