Main · 25 minutes · Serves 4
The indoor burger with an outdoor flavour
A burger cooked in a pan is a good burger with one thing missing, and the missing thing is smoke. No amount of technique on a hob will produce it, because it does not come from the meat — it comes from fat hitting coals.
Smoke & Flame puts it back. It goes into the mince rather than onto the surface, so it is there in every bite instead of only the crust, and it goes on the tomato as well, which is the slice people forget to season at all.
There is no grated onion in this patty, which is the usual way moisture gets into a burger mix. Handle the meat as little as possible and it will not need it.
- Serves
- 4
- Time
- 25 minutes
Ingredients
- 600 g beef mince, 20 percent fat
- 3 tsp Smoke & Flame, divided
- 4 sesame buns, split
- 2 large tomatoes, thickly sliced
- 1 yellow pepper, cut into batons
- 4 tbsp mustard, or mayonnaise if you prefer
- Flake salt
Method
- Tip the mince into a bowl, scatter over 2 tsp of the Smoke & Flame, and bring it together with your fingertips. Stop the moment it holds — worked mince goes springy and dense.
- Shape into four patties wider than your buns, since they will shrink, and press a dent into the centre of each so they cook flat instead of doming.
- Get a heavy pan properly hot. Cook the patties for three to four minutes a side without pressing them, salting each side as it comes up.
- While they rest, toast the cut faces of the buns in the same pan, in the fat left behind.
- Spread the base with mustard. Lay on the patty, then the tomato slices, and dust the tomato with the last 1 tsp of the blend.
- Line the pepper batons across the top half, dust those too, and close the burger.