A smashed burger is not a thick pub puck and it is not a meatball. It is mince, salt, a fierce surface, and a thin crust. 1kg Dry Aged Smashed Burger Beef Mince in dry aged mince is the pack we make for that: a kilo you divide into balls, smash on the heat, and eat with a bun that can handle juice. If you wanted a ready-formed burger, beef burgers are already shaped. This cook is for people who want the crust you only get by smashing.
The smash
Divide the kilo into 80–100g balls. Hot cast-iron or a plancha, a film of oil, ball down, smash hard with a spatula or a press, salt the top. 60 to 90 seconds, scrape up the crust, flip, cheese if you want it, 30 to 45 seconds more. Do not press again after the flip or you squeeze out the point. Do not mix onion and egg into the mince like a 1970s patty. Smashed burgers are meat and heat.
Cook in batches. A crowded pan is steam. Keep finished burgers on a rack, not in a stack that wets the crust. Buns toasted in the same pan pick up the fat, which is correct. If you are feeding a crowd, formed Prime Beef Burgers 8x 4oz are faster and still honest. Smash is a small-batch ritual. It is not how you feed 24 people unless you like living at the stove.
What not to do
Do not use extra-lean mince and then wonder why it sticks and eats dry; smash wants some fat. Do not smash from fridge-cold giant clumps; ball them first. Do not hide a timid crust under three sauces. One sauce, pickle, onion if you like. Leftover raw mince becomes a bolognese the next night, which is why a kilo is a sensible pack even if you only smash for two on Friday.
BBQ smash
A flat-top on the BBQ is the garden version. Same times, more smoke, more wind. If you only have grill bars, use a tray or a disc, or you will lose mince to the coals and swear off smash forever. The method is older than social media. The pack is just mince that can take a proper pan.
Toast the buns. It is not optional if the burger is thin and juicy. A cold bun turns a good smash into a wet paper. That small step is the difference between a butcher’s burger and a sad one, and it costs nothing but thirty seconds on the same pan.