Smash burgers are THE only way to cook a burger. As soon as the balls of fallow mince are smashed into a searing hot cast iron skillet they create the ultimate crust.
The inside of the burger will remain nice and moist due to a little extra aged beef fat which we have added. Fallow carries a little fat of its own but generally is a very lean meat.
Smash burgers give us the best of both worlds, once the exterior of the patty is seared we add our cheese and top buns. For extra flavour we give the burgers a little steam bath in some Crumbs Amber lager, which will help to melt the cheese and get the bun pillowy soft!
Don’t forget that we only use a little of the beer in the steaming process. So make sure to wash down your burger with what’s left in the bottle.
If a double patty burger is a little daunting for you to then just serve single burgers and halve the recipe accordingly.
In our recent blog post, we delve into the delights of eating Wild Venison, where you can source it from and our favourite recipes, where we hope to inspire you to eat more of this plentiful meat.
720g venison mince (we used fallow)
80g beef aged beef fat, minced
Salt
2 tsp of The Salt Box Pastrami Seasoning
1 white onion thinly sliced, optional
Rapeseed oil
4 brioche buns, split
1 jar of The Salt Box Chilli Jam
8 slices of thinly sliced cheese of your choice (we like a mature cheddar or sparkenhoe red leicester)
One bottle of lager
Pickles of your choice
Set up a nice bed of coals and place a heavy skillet over a high heat allow this to get super hot… like really, really hot!
Gently mix the venison mince and aged beef fat together until well combined.
Divide this mix into 8x 100g balls.
Place a ball of mince onto the skillet and squash with the back of sturdy spatula or another pan. It’s unlikely you will have a skillet big enough so this can be done in batches. You can always keep the burgers warm by the fire loosely covered in foil.
Don’t worry about the shape of the final burger; it’s all about the gnarly crust that forms on the exterior of the patty.
Season the top of each patty well with the pastrami seasoning and a touch of salt, if you’re using the onion add a little to the top of each patty now making sure to gently press it in with the back of the spatula. Cook for about two minutes before flipping the burgers.
Once you have flipped the burgers place a teaspoon of chilli jam on top of each burger followed by a slice of cheese.
Place the cut side of your top buns on top of 4 of the burgers, pour in a little of the crumbs beer and cover the pan with a cloche or lid to steam everything for a minute.
Once the cheese has melted, check that the burgers are just cooked through. Use a thermapen to check core temperature which should be 71.c for a burger.
With burgers cooked and buns nice and warm remove the pan from the fire and set aside somewhere warm.
Toast the bottom buns lightly and place on a plate.
If you want you can add salad to the bottom buns but I feel like this just goes soggy, so save the salad for another day. Place the burger without the top bun down first, layer in your pickle of choice before topping off with the final burger and top bun.
If you enjoyed this recipe, love what we do and would like to support us, we’d appreciate it ever so much if you could ‘buy us a coffee’ through Kofi!
Don’t forget that we only use a little of the beer in the steaming process. So make sure to wash down your burger with what’s left in the bottle.
If a double patty burger is a little daunting for you to then just serve single burgers and halve the recipe accordingly.
Make sure your skillet is screaming hot and keep the heat consistent through out the cooking process.
In our recent blog post, we delve into the delights of eating Wild Venison, where you can source it from and our favourite recipes, where we hope to inspire you to eat more of this plentiful meat.
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