Hamburger Recipes

Sometimes you want that traditional fast food or diner-style burger, but you want to make it with really high-quality ingredients and really great beef. Well I’m going to show you how to make that burger better. So, if you’re like me, you’re a burger person. And a thick, juicy pub burger has its place, but there’s something about a crispy and luscious smash burger that really makes me nostalgic for that fast food style burger.

Don’t miss these important steps to make this the ultimate fast food style burger. Let’s dive in. The first thing you’re going to want to do is portion out the ground beef. I’m going to make double patties, so I’ll need eight portions for four burgers. The easiest way to evenly portion eight balls of beef is to first divide the total amount of grind in half, then continue to divide the portions in half.

By doing it this way, it’s easy to keep the portioning fairly consistent just by estimating the size. If you have a scale, you can weigh each portion to three ounces each. And since we have a pound and a half of beef, you will yield eight portions. Loosely form them into balls and refrigerate while preparing the rest of the ingredients for the burgers.

Now for a change, rather than slicing or dicing an onion, we’re going to grate half of an onion finely on a box grater. This results in a nice smooth onion puree which is important to this sauce. Mix the grated onion with mayonnaise, yellow mustard, hot sauce, and Worcester sauce. I’m not using ketchup in this special sauce because ketchup tends to have a lot of sugar.

 And by using this combination, it’s more savory in nature. Start with removing any wilted leaves from your iceberg lettuce because you’re just going for crunch. I like using iceberg lettuce, especially when it’s finely shredded. It adds that great crunch and a classic texture to that fast food style hamburger.

When you’re cutting tomatoes, make sure your knife is crazy sharp or you can use a serrated blade. You want slice your tomatoes relatively thin. You don’t want to end up with tomato slices that are thicker than your hamburger patties. Finally, butter and toast the hamburger buns over medium heat. You’ll want do this step before cooking your patties since the griddle is clean and free of any hamburger debris.

Also, when your hamburger patties are done, you’ll want to construct the burger immediately. This is a great time to preheat your griddle. Because if the griddle is super-hot when you try and toast those buns, they’ll go from golden to burn real quick. Now crank that griddle to high and time to get smashing those patties.

When you’re placing your balls of beef on that griddle, make sure to give them plenty of room, because they’ll spread out a lot when they’re smashed. Using a piece of parchment paper helps so they don’t stick to the spatula when you’re giving them that smash. I like to use a meat mallet to put pressure on the spatula so that I can get the patties as thin as possible.

These will retain so much juiciness that you crave. Since these patties are so thin, I’ll only season one side because that should be enough to give them plenty of flavor. The secret to this patty is a little bit of special sauce on the side that hasn’t cooked yet before flipping. The mayo will help to caramelize the onion and the other ingredients while adding flavor to the patty.

Make sure to use the spatula and scrape up all that crust you worked so hard for. That’s really what will give it so much texture and flavor. And hopefully your griddle doesn’t move around like mine does. Now top half your patties with cheese and add a plain burger to each of the cheesy patties. The hot patty will help to melt the cheese.

And the cheese will act as a glue in between the two burger patties. These are looking so good. I can’t wait to dig into one of these cheeseburgers. Using Certified Angus Beef, 80% lean grind, is so important because you’ll get the best flavor and juiciness out of a thin patty like this. I like to construct by placing the special sauce on the heel of the bun.

This keeps the bottom of the bun from getting too soggy. Next, I top it with that crunchy shred duce and then a couple of tomato slices. This really gives it that fresh California burger flair. I like to put the toppings on the bottom instead because it tends to keep the burger more intact when you’re eating it.

Add the double patties to the bottoming’s and top with the crown of the bun. For a fast food like experience, I like to wrap them in parchment paper squares. Just fold the paper in half to make a triangle, press down, and tuck the two opposing corners under the burger, then tuck in the third corner. This helps to contain the mess a little bit when digging into these juicy burgers.