Recipes
Smash Burger: Thin Patties With a Lacy Crust in 2 Minutes
Why the mince should be 80/20 and cold, how to smash the patty in the first 10 seconds, why you need baking paper and how to make the Oklahoma onion version. Plus a burger-joint sauce.
MYASYA team4 min readupdated
Ingredients
Serves 4 30 min
Burgers
- 800 g beef mince, 80/20
- 4 soft buns — brioche or potato
- 8 slices of cheddar-style burger cheese
- sliced pickles
- 1 white onion — for the Oklahoma version
- salt, freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp butter for the buns
Sauce
- 3 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tsp yellow mustard
- 1 tbsp finely chopped pickles
- a pinch of smoked paprika
The mince decides everything
A smash burger lives on the Maillard reaction: the thin patty touches hot metal across its whole surface, and the rendering fat fries the meat into a crispy lace at the edges. That's why you need 80/20 mince — 80 % meat, 20 % fat. With 90/10 the patty is dry and grey; with 70/30 it shrinks a lot and swims in fat.
If you grind your own, take equal parts of 70/30 trimmings and 90/10 lean trim — together that's exactly 80/20. Grind through a coarse plate while the meat is still very cold, and don't knead it: the less handling, the more tender the patty.
Prep
Step 1. 100 g balls
Roll 8 balls with a light touch and put them straight into the fridge. Cold mince smashes better and doesn't fall apart.
Step 2. Sauce
Mix everything for the sauce and chill it: in 15 minutes the flavours come together.
Step 3. Buns
Split them, butter the cut sides and toast in a pan for 30–60 seconds. A toasted surface won't go soggy from the juices.
Step 4. Onion for the Oklahoma version
Slice it as thin as you can, almost transparent rings. A mandoline helps a lot.
Cooking
You need a heavy cast-iron pan or a griddle and a wide metal spatula with a straight edge. A plastic one won't do: you can't press with it or scrape the crust.
Step 1. Heat the pan dry
On maximum heat for 4–5 minutes, until it smokes lightly. No oil needed — the mince brings its own fat.
Step 2. Ball, paper, pressure
Put down a ball, lay a square of baking paper on top and press hard with the spatula, pushing on it with your other hand. The goal is 5 mm and ragged edges. Do it in the first 10–15 seconds: later, pressing only squeezes out the juice.
Step 3. Or with onion
For the Oklahoma version, put a handful of onion on the ball before smashing: it presses into the meat and caramelises in its fat.
Step 4. Season and leave it
Peel off the paper, salt and pepper. 1.5–2 minutes without moving — the edges turn dark brown and lacy.
Step 5. Scrape the crust, flip
Slide the sharp edge of the spatula right under the patty so the crust stays on the meat, not on the pan. Flip, cheese on at once — 30 seconds.
Don't cook more than two or three patties at once in a 26 cm pan: the metal cools and there's no crust. A thin patty cooks through in those 2.5 minutes — no thermometer needed here.
Assembly
- Bottom bun, sauce.
- A few pickle slices.
- Two cheesy patties stacked.
- Another spoon of sauce on the top bun — and close.
Eat immediately, while the crust crunches. Tomato and lettuce don't belong here: they cool the patty and add water.
70/30 trimmings and 90/10 lean trim for mince — made to order, in the catalogue.Raw material for mince →
