The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 671
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• Question the first: One of my favorite burgers in New
York—theonethatfolks’llstandinlineforanhourtoget
—is smashed. How does the Shake Shack burger still
retainsuchabundantjuiciness?
• Question the second:The SmashBurger chain of burger
joints has built its reputation on its smashing technique.
Have all of its fans (which are legion) been deluded into
enjoyingtheflavorofhockeypucks?
• Questionthethird:Ijusthadwhatwasthefinestburger
I’vetastedinrecentmemoryatOff-SiteKitcheninDallas,
where—guess what?—the burgers are smashed. What
gives?
Now, these questions are largely rhetorical. Anybody
who’s been making burgers for a while knows the answer:
not smashing your burgers is always—sometimes—only
sort-of occasionally good advice. So, when is it OK to
smashyourburgersandwhenisitnot?First,let’sconsider
theadvantagesofsmashingaburger.
InCrustWeTrust
There’sreallyonlyonereasontosmashaburgerandit’sthe
reasonthatallthreeoftheburgersImentionabove(aswell
ascountlessothers)tastesogood:theMaillardreaction.It’s
what creates the crust on your steak or burger, the golden
brown color on your toast, and the complex, pleasing
aromas and flavors that accompany that browning. It’s the
smellofasteakhouseandfreshbreadfromtheoven.And
it’s the smell of a good burger joint. It doesn’t just make
meattastegood,itactuallymakesittastemoremeaty.
Most of these browning reactions don’t take place until
foodsareheatedtoatleast300°Forso,andtheyaregreatly
accelerated at temperatures higher than that, so if
maximizing browning is your goal when cooking a burger
(and it should be!), then it’s plain to see why smashing a
burger can improve its flavor: It increases the surface area
directly in contact with the hot metal, resulting in more
