How to Build the Perfect Smashed Burger
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Time to read 7 min
It starts with an obsession. That singular hunger for a burger so transcendent it borders on the spiritual. The kind of burger that lures chefs into midnight experiments. We’re talking griddle pressed greatness, perfect ratio beef, juices mingling with cheesy fats and a depth of flavor that tells a story with every bite.
Crafting the perfect smashed burger isn’t a recipe, it’s a ritual, a formula and a few damn good ingredients.
Let Botanique Sacree help you reimagine the burger and provide practical notes for cooks who want more than just a backyard burger.
Products mentioned in this article
Table of Content
Impression of the smashed burger
Gridles are warmed up. Beef tallow creates oily textures. Beef sizzles. Evening light fades against concrete walls washed in neon violet. The grill becomes an altar, the patty a humble pilgrim. A burger may sound ordinary, yet a properly built one resonates like a low sub-bass in a deep-house set. Felt in the ribcage before the mind registers flavor.
This practice welcomes two house compositions: MEATBALL15 for internal structure and OLEA432 for final benediction.
Hot steel, soft beef.
A quick press, a sharp sizzle.
Edges turn crisp and browned like caramel.
Inside stays juicy, tasting of real beef.
A slice of cheese melts,
A light sprinkle of spice,
A warm bun.
Done.
One bite brings crackle, then rich flavor, then a little drip down the hand.
Fast, honest, unforgettable.
Selecting The Meat
Selecting the meat
Every great burger begins with great beef. There’s no faking this foundation.
Coarse-ground beef with enough fat to keep things indulgent and juicy.
Old-school grillers will preach the 80/20 gospel (roughly 20% fat). They’re right. A burger needs fat for flavor and moisture; if you’re counting calories, maybe burgers just aren’t your arena. In fact, the golden rule is somewhere between 70/30 and 80/20 meat-to-fat
Visible flecks of creamy white fat in the grind are a welcome sight. That fat melts as the patty cooks, basting the meat from within and giving you that crave-worthy succulence. Too lean and you’re chewing cardboard ; too fatty and you risk flare-ups on the grill, but anywhere in that sweet 15-20% zone hits the mark
Now, choose your cuts with care. Chuck is the reliable workhorse: beefy, balanced, while brisket or short rib can add a minerally depth. Some hardcore burger buffs even blend cuts to engineer the ultimate flavor profile.
But let’s not overcomplicate it: freshly ground chuck with ample fat will do just fine . Grind it coarse if you can (¼ inch plate is beautiful), which gives a pleasantly loose texture. The goal is a patty that’s tender, not a tightly packed meat puck.
Handle that beef gently. I recall a chef in Copenhagen who treated his ground beef like a snowball: a light toss between palms, just enough to shape it. No heavy pressing or over-mixing. Overworking turns your patty into sausage, dense and rubbery.
Instead, form loose patties and let the meat’s natural grain show. Whether you go for a hefty pub-style patty or a couple of thinner smash-style patties is a matter of preference. Anthony Bourdain himself once praised the thin double-patty approach for maximizing the browned surface area – a “perfectly designed protein delivery system,” he called it.
"A perfectly designed protein delivery system"
Seasoning with Soul (and Science)
Seasoning is where art meets science. Traditionalists insist a perfect patty needs nothing more than salt and pepper, added right before cooking. No onions, no eggs, no breadcrumbs – “It’s not a rissole, mate,” as one burger champion put it.
And they have a point: a top-notch burger doesn’t need fillers. But what if we could deepen the flavor without turning our patty into meatloaf? This is where La Botanique Sacree's MEATBALL15 enters the picture like a secret weapon.
MEATBALL15 is labeled a meatball mix, but calling it that is selling it short. It’s a Nordic-inspired burger seasoning built from ground herbs and umami boosters: think wild thyme and savory, porcini mushroom, fermented black garlic, even a dash of birchwood-smoked salt.
Crucially, it’s finely milled and flaxseed-based, so it blends in seamlessly (no chunky bits, no grainy texture.) You won’t bite down on a hard peppercorn or anise seed here; it’s all one with the meat.
We take a generous tablespoon of this mix for roughly a pound of beef (the blend is potent but not overwhelming) and sprinkle it over the ground meat. Then we gently fold, almost like mixing in a delicate mousse.
The flax and hemp seeds in the blend behave as a natural binder and moisture-lock, keeping the patty juicy without any egg or bread crumbs. The aroma as it hits the beef is immediate: herbal, earthy, with a whisper of smoke and garlic.
The beauty of seasoning inside the patty is that the flavors infuse every molecule of meat. MEATBALL15 brings depth without overpowering . Moringa leaf and flaxseed add a subtle nutty note; porcini and black garlic lend that coveted umami bass line. There’s even a hint of smoked paprika and mustard seed in there, layering in warmth. Yet none of it reads as “spice mix” on the palate
MEATBALL15
Smashin' and cookin' that burger
A smash burger lives or dies by how much meat meets metal, and no surface delivers more reliable contact than a thick sheet of steel, whether it’s a cast-iron skillet, a carbon-steel plancha, or the low-emissivity flat-top favored in professional kitchens.
Steel’s high thermal mass keeps heat steady and even, so when a ball of beef hits the griddle it encounters temperatures well above the 300 °C mark that fast-tracks the Maillard reaction, the cascade of browning reactions that make meat taste deeply savory and almost sweet at the edges. Because a griddle is flat, every millimeter of the patty’s underside touches that hot metal; grill grates, by contrast, leave gaps that rob you of crust and flavor.
Burger scholars and chefs back this up. J. Kenji López insists on “a good stainless-, carbon- or cast-iron skillet” precisely because it guarantees even heat and lets you scrape up every shard of crust. George Motz (whose New York diner sells nothing but smashed patties) calls the flat-top “primary-source” burger territory that reaches back to the earliest short-order counters
Practical Notes for Smashing:
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Portioning: Roll the meat into golf-ball–size rounds (about 35 g each for doubles, 65–75 g for singles) without compressing them; over-working encourages toughness seriouseats.comgrillight.com. Chill the balls for 10–15 minutes so the fat stays solid until the moment of contact
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Heating the steel: Pre-heat your skillet or griddle on high until a droplet of water skitters and vanishes; this usually means surface temperatures in the 205–260 °C range, hot enough to brown instantly yet below the smoking point of most neutral oils. Drop beef tallow or high temperature oil to help spatula release.
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The smash: Place the cold meat ball on the ripping-hot steel and, within the first 30 seconds, press down hard with a flat, heavy metal spatula (parchment between spatula and meat keeps things tidy). Smashing later than that squeezes rendered fat and moisture out of the patty, drying it by up to 50 %
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Let the crust set: Resist moving the patty for about 90 seconds; the edges will brown and the center will puff slightly when it’s ready. Use a sharp-edged spatula to scrape under and flip, making sure every browned fragment comes along
"Smash once, and early: If you leave it until the fat starts to render, you’re pressing all the fat out – all the fun."
The Finishing, The Cheese
A steel-seared smashed burger patty deserves a bun that can keep pace. Milk-rich potato rolls top the list for two simple reasons: potato starch soaks up moisture, keeping the crumb soft, and the extra sugars help the crust toast to a deep bronze without drying out. Toast only the cut sides on a ripping-hot griddle (about two minutes is enough) to give the bread a light crunch while the center stays pillowy.
Before any beef arrives, paint the bottom bun with a thin swipe of mayo . Professional cooks lean on this trick because the fat repels juices and guards against a soggy bite. Sunny Anderson even flips the idea by planting cheese under the patty for an extra moisture shield, but mayo works just as well and melts into the toasted surface without fuss.
Now the star: two ultra-thin smashed patties , stacked so molten cheese welds them together. Doubling up creates more browned surface (and more flavor) without adding bulk. Slide the rested stack onto the dressed bun; the patties should glisten and the edge should look frilled.
Notes on cheese:
The best smashed-burger cheese should melt in a tight 30- to 60-second window, blanket the lacy edges without leaking grease, and lend flavor that flatters.
Patty flip, cheese down : Add cheese within five seconds of flipping so residual surface moisture steams the slice.
George Motz smashes his Oklahoma-style patties, drops a single slice of American, and presses again so cheese fuses to the crust—he calls it “primary-source diner flavor” .
J. Kenji López-Alt lists American as his first choice because it “melts in an even sheet and never clumps” on thin patties; he only switches to cheddar or Swiss when tomatoes or stronger toppings need extra punch.
Shake Shack blends Wisconsin American and mild cheddar for its sauce, proving that processed and natural cheeses can tag-team for melt and flavor
Conclusion
Smash-burger success rests on a few unwavering truths: blazing-hot steel, well-marbled beef, and swift, confident technique. A heavy griddle’s even heat gives each patty maximum contact, so sugars and proteins brown in seconds, locking in juice while building a lacy crust that grill grates simply can’t match. Smashed thin, the meat cooks almost entirely on one side, then needs just a quick flip and you're done.
The Author: La Botanique Sacree
La Botanique Sacrée positions itself as a “modern apothecary of flavor,” marrying precise botanical science with Paris-leaning style. The brand curates premium, fully organic herbs, spices and super-food powders, blending them into compact compositions that promise both gourmet taste and gentle functional pay-offs.