Birthdays, Backgammon, Dominoes and the like...are Smash Burgers better than Regular Burgers
Story by Joshua Carlucci - TastingTable - 4 Mar 24
Smash burgers have risen to the forefront of the burger scene in recent years.
For the uninitiated, a smash burger is a basic cheeseburger with a patty that has been literally smashed and flattened on the grill or flat top as it's cooked.
These juicy, crusty, and super thin patties are usually served simple — layered two or three patties-high and stacked with cheese and minimal accouterments.
Smash burgers have amassed an exponentially growing following as of late, with purveyors and innumerable variants of the sandwich popping up all over the world.
But are smash burgers really deserving of all that hype, and what about these burgers has contributed to their surging popularity?
We're here to answer all your burning, caramelizing questions to the best of our burger-loving ability. While we can't decide for everyone, we believe the age-old question, "To smash or not to smash?" leans stronger in one direction than another, and we're here to make the case for why smash burgers are far superior.
The concept of the smash burger is relatively simple. To make one, a ball of ground beef is placed on a hot griddle and immediately smashed flat with a spatula or weight to create a thin patty.
This technique results in a burger with a crispy, caramelized exterior and a juicy, flavorful interior.
The thin size allows for more surface area to come into contact with the hot cooking surface, which promotes a crispy crust.
Smashed patties also don't curl upward and away from the heat source, giving them a more uniform texture than an unsmashed burger.
Because of their thinness, smash burgers take only a few minutes to cook on each side. The quick and intense sear minimizes moisture loss in the meat and seals the juices in the middle of the patty.
In comparison, thicker burgers have to be cooked longer to meet proper serving temperature.
Though this is certainly not the case with every patty, a longer cooking time can cause critical moisture loss if the patty is cooked past medium, resulting in a dry burger.
As with any good foodstuff, there are countless variants to regular burgers and smash burgers across the board. Toppings are added and subtracted depending on where you go. Typically, though, a good burger and smash burger see eye-to-eye on lettuce, tomato, onion, and cheeses.
History of the smash burger
We have to ask what came first — the burger or the smash burger?
It's not a chicken or egg mystery here — the burger was first.
But, the humble origins of the first smash burger as a viral food are rooted in the Appalachian region of Ashland, Kentucky, where an ordinary burger-flipping cook decided to smash one of his unfinished patties with a large, No. 10 tin can.
The restaurant where he worked was known as Dairy Cheer, an off-shoot of the Dairy Queen location it used to be. Owner Bill Culvertson saw an unfilled niche in this strange burger-smashing technique and created the first smash burger, cementing a moment of food history.
Culvertson later franchised Dairy Cheer and opened several other locations in the region, a few of which are still open today and continue to tout its history as the "Home of the Smashburger."
While Culvertson gets credit as the first to market and sell a smash burger, historical accounts suggest that the smashing thin of burger patties was around well before Dairy Cheer was pumping out food.
During the Great Depression, for instance, Oklahoma's onion burger was created as a way to ration expensive burger meat by making thinner patties and mixing in cheap onions to create a cost-effective and crispy burger.
[...] Why smash burgers are better
Thin-pattied smash burgers cooked over a flat-top griddle or pan — particularly those that are smashed into a high-heat surface — are simply better than grilled burgers. There are several reasons for this, and it all comes down to the science of making a burger.
The cooking process is critical in setting the smash burger apart. When a hamburger patty is pressed and held against a superheated surface, the Maillard reaction takes maximum effect.
This effect describes the process of browning food when cooking, attributed to heat changing the structure of proteins on the surface of food.
This browning is what brings out the flavor of umami in certain foods. The smashed patty is closer to the heat source, which compounds the effect of the Maillard reaction.
In contrast, a regular-sized burger has limited contact with the heat source, so it doesn't get the same effect.
As a result, the ground beef in a thick patty is often less flavorful than a crispy smash burger".
Read More: Smash Burgers vs. Regular Burgers
"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today". Wimpy
