What is the right meat for your smashburger?
There are several considerations when it comes to which meat to use for the perfect smashed burger. Burgers have several types of protein choices, beef being the most popular. Chain restaurants have used frozen beef patties for a long time before most of the customer base started giving priority to taste over convenience. We have a breakdown below for the key factors to look out for when choosing the right smashed burger meat. Although there are popular meat alternatives like the Impossible Burger patties, we are going to focus on using ground beef for our smashed burger for this article. Stay tuned for our article on choosing the right alternative for the perfect burger!
Here are few of the biggest factors that go into deciding which meat to use for your Smashed Burger:
1. Percentage Fat:
Smashed Burgers are known for their juicy meat with crispy edges. When grilling a burger patty, the meat juices drip down into the fire, giving the meat a smoky flavour but also making it relatively dry. The reason why a smashed burger is so delicious is that those juices are preserved by cooking the meat on a grill. The main factor which gives flavour to any ground beef is the percentage of fat. We have tried a range of fat percentages and the best smashed burger was with a minimum of 15-20% fat.
2. Meat Cuts
Smashed burgers should have a higher percentage of fat in the meat as mentioned above. Accordingly, we have settled on using a fatty blend of short-rib brisket and sirloin for our burgers. Let us know if you think you have a better combination!
3. Seasoning
Seasoning should be quite simple for a smashed burger. This could be as basic as just salt or salt and pepper if you like. Overly seasoning the burger patties could do a disservice to your smashed burger by overwhelming the meat.
4. Storage / Cooking Technique
Since we want the meat to be freshly cooked and not frozen, we store the meat in the refrigerator as balls that are ready to be smashed onto the grill. Seasoning can be done just before cooking or when the meat is on the grill. Pre-seasoned meat is not favourable since the salt draws out the flavour and we are left with a bland patty.
So, in summary use a fatty blend of meat and season it just prior to cooking to Wham your smashed burgers to perfection! Check our previous article on how to get that beautiful crust we look for in all of our patties.
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