Big juicy, hard to open your mouth wide enough versus thin, grilled on a hot griddle, crispy burgers.

Those are one's basic options.

I thought this guy's explanation on why he chooses the thin, SMASHED burgers was interesting.
Basically, sear one side to create a bowl to hold the juice/grease in... alter the chemical composition of some things in the beef, and so on...

[www.sporkful.com]

Also available via iTunes.

But after you sear the first side of the burger to "create a bowl" you still have to flip the burger. So won't that be like turning the bowl upside down?

Handle your meat carefully.

Most chains (and all fast-food) places still insist on cooking well-done.

I can eat a thin well-done patty, not a thick one (for me the latter must be medium-rare)

I don't know where people got the idea to smash down your burger while cooking-it squeezes out the juice and subsequently you have a drier burger. Some people like it I guess but when I would ask them why they smash down the burger they would say, "I don't know but my Dad always did it this way".

again, listen to the podcast. Very good discussion.
better than McGriddles.

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Mini 9
again, listen to the podcast. Very good discussion.

I would if i could. Can you just summarize?

The art is in the delivery and I suck at communication
But they go into alot of food science-y stuff.
And touch on critics saying this guy has crafted a lot of JUNK that makes people FAT.. and his retort.
Dan Pashman, the host, always has a quirky take on EATING, of course.
The article summarizes a bit

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In the beginning, stuffed crust pizza was not beautiful.

“I did the first prototype in the lab and it looked like a Schwinn bike tire,” says Tom Ryan, the flavor chemist who invented it. “It was ugly as hell.”

But he was on to something. Years of research had shown him two things: People always like more cheese on their pizza, and most people don’t eat the crust. (He calls the leftover crust “pizza bones,” because it usually goes to the dog.)
Filling the crust with a ribbon of cheese was exactly what people wanted, even if they didn’t know it.

When Ryan finally presented a stuffed crust pizza to a focus group, one man looked at him and said, “My dog is going to hate you.” He knew he had a winner.

He would go on to create the McDonald’s McGriddle, another one of the most popular new fast foods of recent decades. Gourmet Magazine named him one of the top 25 food entrepreneurs of the last quarter century. Now he’s the founder and chief concept officer at Smashburger.

In this week’s episode of The Sporkful, Tom Ryan talks about how he came up with these innovations and how he eats them, and he explains the science of burger smashing. (Hint: It involves something called the Maillard Reaction.)

As to the health concerns over some of his most iconic creations, Ryan says, “I think consumers are sophisticated, I think they’re informed, I think everything should be done in moderation.” But a billion and a half dollars in sales shows that “there was an unmet consumer demand for whatever itch that scratched.”

So knowing what he knows now about obesity, does he have any regrets?

“It would be like regretting my role as a winemaker because of alcoholism. I didn’t design it for people to abuse, I designed it because people really enjoy it.

He seems like an interesting character.
My nearest smashburger is 100 miles away, though. I was near one last Sunday... DARN!

It helps squeeze all the goodness out of the Pink Slime recently re-introduced by the meat industry:

Sales recovering for makers of 'pink slime'
Posted: June 16, 2014 - 12:38pm
Cargill and Beef Products Inc. says sales have risen for their lean, finely-textured beef, but they remain low compared to their peak before a 2012 controversy that dubbed the product "pink slime";
By The Associated Press
LINCOLN, Neb. — Two makers say sales have been rebounding for a ground beef product that critics have dubbed “pink slime.” The Lincoln Journal Star reports the (http://bit.ly/1ju6LS1) spokesmen for Cargill and Beef Products Inc. say sales have risen, but Cargill says they fall short of the volume before the controversy erupted in 2012.

BPI has sued ABC, saying the network’s March 2012 coverage damaged BPI by misleading consumers into believing the lean finely textured beef product is unhealthy and unsafe. BPI says the sales drop forced it to close plants in Iowa, Kansas and Texas, leaving open only a Nebraska plant.

Cargill spokesman Mike Martin says his company sells the product to about 400 customers, which is more than before March 2012, but the sales volume remains down about 40 percent.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2014 08:34AM by Steve G..

As to the health concerns over some of his most iconic creations, Ryan says, “I think consumers are sophisticated, I think they’re informed...

He's fooling himself if he thinks consumers are sophisticated and informed about this kind of food. If they were, it wouldn't be a billion dollar industry and obesity wouldn't be an epidemic. The science and marketing are much more sophisticated and effective than any consumer education can be.

That being said, there are Smashburgers here so maybe I'll try it out.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2014 10:26AM by Uncle Wig.

I thought same thing. He has been ready for that Q/answer.
And yes, I will be eating me some smashed burgers.

The founder of Smashburger, Tom Ryan, has spent his entire 20 year career in Marketing and Branding (aka career BS artist). Ok maybe I'm a bit harsh. But I've worked with Marketing folks my entire career and my previous statement is not too far from the truth.

In the mid-scale burger restaurant market. You gotta have a hook to get people in the door.
Five Guys, Red Robin, and In-N-Out is stiff competition.

The name SMASHBURGER is Marketing genius. SMASHING stuff gets the parents with kids in the door. It just immediately sounds fun.

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Uncle Wig
As to the health concerns over some of his most iconic creations, Ryan says, “I think consumers are sophisticated, I think they’re informed...

He's fooling himself if he thinks consumers are sophisticated and informed about this kind of food. If they were, it wouldn't be a billion dollar industry and obesity wouldn't be an epidemic. The science and marketing are much more sophisticated and effective than any consumer education can be.

That being said, there are Smashburgers here so maybe I'll try it out.

I think consumers "are" informed. We do it "despite" the knowledge. Cuz it tastes so good.

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3d
The founder of Smashburger, Tom Ryan, has spent his entire 20 year career in Marketing and Branding (aka career BS artist). Ok maybe I'm a bit harsh. But I've worked with Marketing folks my entire career and my previous statement is not too far from the truth.

I'm glad to see someone who shares my contempt for these people!



Knowing now about Tom Ryan's background, I think I will not be visiting Smashburger. Seems to me all he's done is marketed & branded the traditional way of cooking a burger in a diner or greasy spoon. Besides, there's no need as I know some local places where I can get a great, griddle-cooked burger.

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Great Baja burgers. The Smash fries are fantastic. Fried in olive oil with garlic and rosemary.

you're really going to make me drive 100 miles TODAY... aren't you?

The Smash fries are fantastic. Fried in olive oil with garlic and rosemary.

Really? Maybe I'll change my mind again about visiting Smashburger. Those sound good.

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Uncle Wig
The Smash fries are fantastic. Fried in olive oil with garlic and rosemary.

Really? Maybe I'll change my mind again about visiting Smashburger. Those sound good.

Fried in olive oil?? Uhh, no thanks.
Peanut oil or bust!

Back to Tom Ryan and his marketing background...
"Fried in olive oil with garlic and rosemary." sounds delicious right?

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freeradical
Handle your meat carefully.

Words to live by.

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It is what it is.

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3d

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Uncle Wig
The Smash fries are fantastic. Fried in olive oil with garlic and rosemary.

Really? Maybe I'll change my mind again about visiting Smashburger. Those sound good.

Fried in olive oil?? Uhh, no thanks.
Peanut oil or bust!

Back to Tom Ryan and his marketing background...
"Fried in olive oil with garlic and rosemary." sounds delicious right?

Could be. Trader Joe's sells some potato chips fried in olive oil, which I like. What works for chip could work for fries, right?

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Uncle Wig

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3d

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Uncle Wig
The Smash fries are fantastic. Fried in olive oil with garlic and rosemary.

Really? Maybe I'll change my mind again about visiting Smashburger. Those sound good.

Fried in olive oil?? Uhh, no thanks.
Peanut oil or bust!

Back to Tom Ryan and his marketing background...
"Fried in olive oil with garlic and rosemary." sounds delicious right?

Could be. Trader Joe's sells some potato chips fried in olive oil, which I like. What works for chip could work for fries, right?

Just do it! Then work out.

SMASH the burgers, smash em! Kuh Kuh Kuh!

Most chains (and all fast-food) places still insist on cooking well-done.

I can eat a thin well-done patty, not a thick one (for me the latter must be medium-rare)

Absolutely.

Decades and decades ago, when I worked at McDonald's, the fry cooks (nee grill team) used to slap the burgers on the grill for personal consumption (not allowed for the unwashed masses). I tried them and really couldn't taste the difference.

Then they cooked them a little longer to make them crispy. There was the charred meat taste, and I was not a fan.

Once, at a unit BBQ, somebody took it upon themselves to cook the burgers. Squeezed every drop of juice out of them with a spatula. Dry, crunchy, not a one was eaten. He was quickly demoted.

I'm downloading some of those podcasts now.

And I'm hungry.

---

I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

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The Grim Ninja
SMASH the burgers, smash em! Kuh Kuh Kuh!

Best post ever!

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Central VA

While you're at smash burgers you should try the vegetarian fries. It is carrots and string beans fried with the Rosemary that's quite good.

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All I ever really needed to know, I learned from watching Star Trek.

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wowzer
While you're at smash burgers you should try the vegetarian fries. It is carrots and string beans fried with the Rosemary that's quite good.

I'm having trouble getting my head around the claim that a Potato isn't a vegetable.

Eustace

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eustacetilley

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wowzer
While you're at smash burgers you should try the vegetarian fries. It is carrots and string beans fried with the Rosemary that's quite good.

I'm having trouble getting my head around the claim that a Potato isn't a vegetable.

Eustace

Not when Republicans claim they are (as in this case used as french fry ingredients)

........so this is burgers.....only the HULK would eat.......????

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_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!