I’ve never made a smash burger. I had never even HAD a smash burger until my neighborhood market, Staff of Life, started doing them on Tuesday nights. From the first bite, I was hooked! Crispy edges, juicy, and flavorful. Obviously, the quality of ground beef you use matters, but I always pride myself on buying high end beef. The only problem…I didn’t have a griddle, but I do now! I bought the Made In Carbon Steel Griddle. I watched the video on how to season it on their website and I was ready to rock and roll.

Now for the recipe, I got Gaby Dalkin’s new Grilling Cookbook and there happened to be a Butter Smash Burger recipe. She’s my go to for things that I never knew I needed and THESE are a perfect example of just that. Ready for a butter trick? Put a stick of butter in the freezer for 5-10 minutes, then grate it on a cheese grater to incorporate evenly into a mixture. Works great for pie dough, biscuits, and cobbler, too!

While the BBQ and griddle were coming up to temp, I taught the kids how to harvest some green and red leaf lettuce from our garden for the burgers. I also cut the pickles, sliced the tomatoes, while Charlie husked the corn. We were ready to rock and roll!

Given that this was my first time using a griddle on the BBQ, I have some tweaks to make next time, for example, I’d add some oil to the griddle first, then put the meat on to avoid sticking. It’s a new griddle, so with use, more seasoning will get on the griddle and will help with this, too.