Celebrate Father's Day with a culinary favorite: the smashburger
The grilling season is upon us, and there’s a technique for Dad to try: the smashburger.
Smashburgers entered the cultural zeitgeist as early as the mid-20th century. While they may seem like a modern culinary trend, initially the smashburger was a practical solution for making a small piece of unrefrigerated meat more appealing for factory workers and large groups.
The earliest known origins of the smashburger style are credited to Dairy Cheer, a restaurant in Ashland, Ky. Around 1963, employees began experimenting by smashing beef patties with a can of beans, inadvertently creating the beloved culinary method.
Chemistry and culinary skills combine with the Maillard effect — a chemical reaction between fat and sugar to give foods a browned color and flavor — giving the smashburger its signature crunch that enhances the savory goodness beyond the bun’s edges.
Fast-food chains like White Castle, Shake Shack, In-N-Out Burger and Smashburger have popularized thin patties, showcasing the widespread appeal of this cooking style.
The basics
Wayne Saward, general manager at Moonlit Burgers in Uptown, said a smashburger is all about the pressing.
“The guys in the back … one forearm is twice the size of the other forearm because of all the pressing it takes,” he said.
Moonlit also has a location in Dormont, one coming soon in Sewickley and a food truck dubbed the Patty Wagon.
Their method of creating a smashburger starts with a blend of beef sourced from Weiss Provision Co. in the Strip District.
“We just roll meatballs — we don’t add anything to it. That meatball then goes onto a 550-degree flat-top griddle and is smashed down with a burger press. We like to do ours thinner than usual,” Saward said. “That creates caramelization of protein and this really good umami flavor. Because it is so hot and such a quick process, it still remains juicy and flavorful — it’s not dried out.”
Moonlit’s flagship classic Moonlit double features onions, meat, American cheese, dill pickle and a special moon sauce. This mayonnaise-based sauce includes chili paste, dill pickle relish and Dijon mustard. The burger offers a zesty appeal, with the sweet notes of the onion and sour notes from the pickle providing a perfect counterbalance.
To prepare it, shaved sweet onions are placed on top of the meat after it is pressed. That cooks for about another 20 seconds, then it gets scraped off the grill because it is very hot and gets a bit stuck. The burger is flipped, and the onions are between the grill, yellow American cheese and the patty. After about 20 to 30 more seconds, it goes onto the bun with all the toppings.
“We could have a smashburger from ticket to table in two minutes,” Saward said.
Plant-based options are available as well.
A lot of places do smashburgers differently, Saward said. “We smash them a little bit more than other places. We want that crispy lace along the edges — that is what we shoot for,” he said.
Moonlit Burgers Uptown is open until 9 p.m. With PPG Paints Arena around the corner, when there is a Saturday night concert, the restaurant might have a full house inside and a line out the door. The line keeps moving, though, because smashburgers cook quickly.
For those looking to make a smashburger at home, Saward’s first suggestion is to not use a frying pan because its size can make pressing tricky.
“If you have a flat-top griddle like a Blackstone or in-house griddle, you want to get that temperature really hot — to like 550 (degrees),” Saward said. “If you don’t have a burger press, you can use a spatula and some kind of parchment paper and a heavy item to put on top of the parchment paper. Go as hard as you can.”
An Italian flare
Café A Mano, an Italian deli in Coraopolis that opened in November, serves a smashburger that is different and includes a nod to owner Brian Torchia’s family heritage (he owns the restaurant with wife Lindsay).
The smashburger has become a staple in the restaurant, and it’s served on his great-grandmother’s homemade bread: “We used to just eat it with butter and jelly in the morning, and now I am putting smashburgers on it,” Torchia said.
He started cooking smashburgers more experimentally on his Blackstone grill.
“I think we all like smashburgers, and when the craze came about, I was practicing at home. I think anyone can make a smashburger, but the combination of what we do takes it to another level,” he said. “We make the bread, we make a house-made bacon jam, and we put two different types of cheese on it, and that is it.”
They use two rolled pieces of meat that are pressed, and white American and yellow American cheese are layered on top, Torchia said. The bacon jam takes a little longer to make — they cook bacon down with caramelized onions, brown sugar and balsamic vinegar.
“I thought (a smashburger) would be an accoutrement to the rest of the menu, and it became the No. 1 seller,” Torchia said. “Go figure, I’m making porchetta, all these Italian sandwiches, and that’s the best seller. We can’t take it off the menu.”
That sandwich has all the things that are loved, according to Torchia: fat, salt, acid and sweetness.
“I think why people took to it is because it’s not the potato roll you typically see, and we don’t do that thing with the onions — which I love, but that’s just not what we do,” he said.
Torchia is thinking about changing it up down the line, with the possible addition of an egg or maybe giving it a more Italian flair with cheeses like Pomodoro, burrata or buffalo mozzarella.
Personal tastes
Kevin Price, head chef at Simply Burgers & Fries on Butler Street in Lawrenceville, connected with owner Brian Mendelssohn the day he graduated from Community Kitchen Pittsburgh in Hazelwood.
On his first day on the job, Price learned about the smashburger but wasn’t convinced of its popularity.
“I’m not going to say what a single patty weighs, but they don’t weigh much at all,” he said. “By the time you are done smashing it, it looks like it is almost burnt, crisp like bacon. I was initially like, ‘There is no way this burger isn’t burnt.’”
Double patties are the standard at most restaurants that serve smashburgers.
The process is quick — Price said that by the time you are done smashing the burger and seasoning that side, it is almost cooked through.
“You flip it, put some cheese on it, and that’s it,” Price said.
Simply’s most popular smashburger is topped with American cheese, pickles and a sauce that’s a combination of mayo, ketchup and mustard and served on a potato roll.
Each month, an employee has the opportunity to design a smashburger. Whoever does the best gets a bonus. Price is vying for that success. His burger is the ranch bacon smash, a double patty with ranch dressing and bacon.
Cook Ronell Williams and Price laugh about the donut smashburger, a double burger with American cheese, bacon and an Oliver’s glazed donut as the bun.
“The donut burger is different. It brings sweetness and savory flavors. For people that are really into that, they’ll definitely love it,” Williams said.
They also have a plant-based smashburger.
Saward said regular burgers and smashburgers are two different things and likened it to different types of steak.
“Someone might like New York strip, and someone else may like filet mignon, and someone else may like ribeye,” he said. “They are all steak, but they are all very different.”
Shaylah Brown is a TribLive reporter covering art, culture and communities of color. A New Jersey native, she joined the Trib in 2023. When she's not working, Shaylah dives into the worlds of art, wellness and the latest romance novels. She can be reached at sbrown@triblive.com.
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