- [Babish] This episode is brought to you
by my friends at The Botanist Islay Dry Gin.
Hmm, this bottle seems a little smaller than usual.
(fingers snap) Ope. Too big.
Let's try again. (fingers snap)
There we go. That's right.
We're gonna make good use of these later in the episode
with a twist on a classic summertime backyard staple:
a gin mojito.
But for now, let's get down to the basics of smash burgers.
(cheerful theme music)
(jazzy music begins)
All right, so the BOC, or bun of choice,
for a smash burger is a dense, chewy potato roll.
These are inexpensive and widely available,
but if for some reason you wanna make it yourself,
here's how you do it.
415 grams of bread flour,
45 grams dried potato flakes,
a tablespoon each kosher salt and yeast,
and two tablespoons of sugar
head into the bowl of a stand mixer,
where they are tiny whisked until combined.
Then, we are combining 170 grams of hot water
with 110 grams of cold milk,
creating a tepid mixture perfect for yeast activation.
Dump that in, along with one large egg.
Swap out your stand mixer's bowl
so you guys can see what's going on.
Allow that to knead together until fully combined,
and then we're gonna start adding four tablespoons
of room-temperature butter one tablespoon at a time.
At this point, you might get frustrated
with your stand mixer's performance
and break out the new hotness.
Dump the dough in there and continue the process,
adding one tablespoon of butter at a time,
making sure it's fully incorporated before adding the next.
Once all the butter's been added,
we're gonna let this knead for five minutes
or until our dough passes the windowpane test,
indicating that its gluten network is strong
and that it's ready to bulk ferment.
Lube up a large bowl, retrieve our dough,
optionally stretch it into a taut ball,
plop it inside, cover it up,
and let it rise at room temperature for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
This is gonna depend on the temperature, humidity,
how recently you've saged your kitchen.
But once it's puffed up to twice its size, it's ready to go.
We're gonna turn it out onto a well-oiled countertop
for weighing, division, and shaping.
First, we're gonna weigh the entire mass of dough,
divide that number by five,
and divide the dough into five equal pieces.
Makes sense, right?
Then, by pinching the edges
and rolling against the countertop,
we're gonna stretch them into five taut balls,
which we're gonna spread out
on a parchment-lined baking sheet
and start patting down so that they rise
into more bun-like shapes.
Cover and let rise for another 45 minutes to an hour
or until the balls do not spring back
immediately when poked.
Looks like these guys could use a little bit more time.
Once they've passed poking proficiency,
it's time to gently and evenly brush them down
with a beaten egg.
Then, these guys are headed
into a preheated 350 degree Fahrenheit oven
for anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes
until they are golden brown
and register 190 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit
at their thickest point.
While these guys cool completely,
we can start to talk about meat.
I have a selection of beefs here,
all that can potentially bring their own flavors
and properties to the party.
First up, we have hanger steak:
great on the grill, not so great in a burger.
Its tough muscle fibers and relatively low fat content
end up giving the burger a dry, mealy texture.
Next up, we got some boneless short ribs.
This cut is high in fat and flavor,
making it ideal for burgers, if a little expensive.
Sirloin is a good deal cheaper,
and it's got decent flavor, but not much fat.
It's got slightly grassier, more mineral notes,
so it's good for adding roundness to your burger.
Chuck is the golden ground beef standard for a reason.
It is rich, buttery, laden with fat,
and relatively inexpensive,
but it does have some connective tissue
that you gotta get rid of.
Brisket is like sirloin, only better.
It brings all those grassy mineral notes
and a whole lot more fat,
which you're gonna have to pay extra for.
Eye round is pretty horrible.
It's low on fat, it's low on flavor,
and this one in particular
illustrates how much quality can vary
from butcher to butcher.
This one looks like pork, practically.
And last up is ribeye.
Maybe the most delicious of all the known steaks,
it's practically a crime to turn this into a burger,
but if you watched my recent steakhouse burger episode,
it's the only way to get that dry-aged flavor
between your buns.
So now, to see how all these guys perform
in a burgarian context, I'm gonna grind all of 'em up
and turn them into little patties for sampling.
First up is the hanger steak, and like I mentioned,
it's pretty dry, pretty chewy, pretty mealy.
And, given its growing popularity as a steak,
there's no reason that you'd turn this into a burger, ever.
Unless you do a cooking show
and you're trying to prove a point.
Next up is short rib, which is the polar opposite,
full of favor, buttery texture, and rich, beefy beef notes.
This is worth its weight in gold.
Sirloin definitely has flavor, but it's pretty boring.
Definitely good for cutting something more rich,
like short rib or brisket.
Chuck tastes exactly like every burger I've ever had.
There's a reason
that ground chuck is part of our culinary lexicon.
Brisket, like I mentioned earlier, is sirloin, but better.
It's got the sharper, more metallic flavors
with more intramuscular fat to carry them.
Eye round is already bad enough,
but this one is particularly bad.
I mean, look at it.
It's weird.
It's a good reason to treat beef tasting like wine tasting
and keep a spit bucket handy.
Last but not least, dry-aged ribeye,
and of course, this was the best.
If you got $35 a pound to blow on burgers,
this is the answer for you.
Otherwise, save a few bucks
and make your own beefy burger blend.
I like starting with a base of chuck
for its familiar burger acumen.
Then, I cut it with some brisket
for its complex, grassy goodness,
then finish it off with a helping of short rib
for a hefty hit of flavor and fat.
The ratio is up to you.
I go two parts chuck to one part short rib and brisket.
Now, time to actually cook the damn thing.
I've got a lightly oiled,
positively sweltering piece of cast iron over high heat,
onto which I'm going to drop two 1/4-pound balls
of our ground beef blend,
which I'm then going to smash
using my very stiffest spatula,
sort of smearing the beef as I go to prevent stickage.
You wanna try to get the patties
about half an inch wider than your intended bun,
as they will shrink.
But if they're a little bit bigger
than your bun, who cares?
Would you rather have a burger
with patties that are too big or too small?
Once the patties are smashed,
we're to leave them there
over high heat for about a minute,
until you see browning forming
around the edges of their beefy skirt.
Now you wanna scrape as hard as you can
to get underneath the patty, give it a flip,
and then same thing goes for the other side.
Now's the time to season
with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Do not let me catch you
mixing the seasonings into your beef.
And of course, the requisite yellow American cheese.
And just like that, your kitchen is full of smoke,
and you're ready to eat a burger.
But if you don't feel like setting off your fire alarms,
there is hope, and it's sitting right outside,
next to your lawn mower and disused trampoline.
Get your grill of choice up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit
with your cast iron griddle inside,
and you got yourself the perfect place
to smash some patties.
No setting off fire alarms,
no lingering beef stench in the air,
no angry spouse wondering why you're making smash burgers
at 3:00 in the morning.
No matter how you make 'em,
they need to sit atop a dense, squishy potato roll,
preferably one generously smeared with butter
and toasted on a flat top or grill
before getting stacked proudly with patties,
your choice of vegetal toppings.
I like the classic LTO.
A special sauce arranged in a Satanic star
to summon the beast, and there you have it:
a juicy, beefy, crunchy, cheesy,
entirely-from-scratch smash burger.
Now alls it needs is a light,
crisp, refreshing summer cocktail.
While a mojito is traditionally made with white rum,
The Botanist's different wild botanicals make it versatile
in many drinks and plays especially nicely
with the foraged mint I picked in my herbs garden.
Or you can just get yours at the store.
Drop it into my intended serving glass,
cover it with 3/4 of an ounce
of freshly squeezed lime juice,
and two teaspoons of extra-fine sugar
that I'm going to muddle together using a muddler.
Once the sugar is mostly dissolved
and the mint is good and smashed up,
we're gonna top that with ice.
Two ounces of The Botanist Islay Dry Gin.
Make sure you include all 22 wild foraged botanicals.
Dump that on in and top it
the rest of the way with club soda.
Give it a little mix with your very longest bar spoon.
Get all those minty bits as evenly as distributed
as possible throughout the cocktail.
Garnish with a little bit more mint.
Garnish with a wheel of lime.
And there you have it: a gin mojito,
which I actually prefer to a traditional mojito,
which can sometimes be made a tad too sweet by the rum.
Instead, the Botanist gin gives it a lovely herbal profile
that really highlights all the fresh mint.
A perfect summer cocktail
for firing up the grill this Labor Day weekend.
Kick back and relax this Labor Day
and have Drizly deliver a bottle
of The Botanist directly to you.
And if you're a new customer,
use the link in the video description
to get $5 off your first order.
Cheers. (jazzy music continues)
(jazzy music fades)