For about ten years now, "smash burger" has been on every trendy burger menu in America, usually with a price that suggests something complicated happened. Nothing complicated happened. The smash burger is the diner burger, done the way diners have always done it, given a name that finally explains why it tastes so good.
What "smash" means
A thick pub burger is formed into a patty, then cooked gently so the inside stays pink. A smash burger goes the other direction. You take a loose ball of ground beef, drop it on a screaming-hot steel griddle, and press it flat with a heavy spatula for a few seconds. The beef spreads thin, makes maximum contact with the metal, and the surface browns fast and hard.
That browning has a name, the Maillard reaction, and it is the reason a seared steak tastes different from a boiled one. Smash a burger and you get more of it: a lacy, crunchy, deeply browned crust on a patty that is still juicy inside because it was only on the heat for a couple of minutes.
Why diners got there first
Three reasons, none of them glamorous.
- The flat-top was already hot. A diner griddle runs all day for eggs, home fries, and pancakes. A burger cooked on it picks up the seasoning of everything that came before, and there is no grill grate for the fat to fall through, so the patty fries in its own drippings.
- Speed. A thin patty cooks in a couple of minutes. A lunch rush at a counter with fifteen stools does not have time for a burger that takes twelve.
- Portions. Thin patties let you do a double without building a burger nobody can bite. Two thin patties, two crusts, twice the browning. That is the math behind ours.
How ours is built
The Double Smash Burger is two patties of black angus chuck and brisket. Chuck brings the beef flavor and the fat; brisket brings a slightly deeper, almost roasty note that stands up to the sear. It goes on a toasted roll with lettuce, tomato, and onion, and that is the whole burger. It does not need a secret sauce. It needs a crust, which it has.
From there the menu has a list we call "give it a kick." Some of the better ones:
- Breakfast style: a fried egg, peameal bacon, and cheddar. Because we are a diner and it is always breakfast somewhere in the building.
- Black & Blue: blackening spice, sautéed onions, blue cheese crumbles.
- Philly style: caramelized onions, peppers, mushrooms, provolone, on garlic toast.
- Melt: sautéed onions, cheddar, thousand island, on griddled rye. Essentially a patty melt, essentially perfect.
Nothing complicated happened. The griddle was hot and somebody pressed down.
Smash burger vs. steakhouse burger
Since our sister restaurant is right across the parking lot and cooks over a wood fire, we get asked which burger is "better." Wrong question. A burger built at a steakhouse in Buffalo that dry-ages its own beef is a thick, pink-in-the-middle, knife-and-fork situation, and it is excellent for dinner. A smash burger is a thin, crusty, eat-it-with-your-hands situation, and it is excellent for lunch. Same family, two answers. You could reasonably have both on the same day, and some people plan their Buffalo trip around exactly that.
The one thing to ask for
If you like the crust, and you should, ask for it "smashed hard." We will press a little longer and you will get a burger with edges you can hear. Then sit at the counter and watch the next one get made.