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Guides · Burgers

Smash burger:
the crust is the point.

Fatty beef, a smoking pan and one hard press. Here's how thin patties get a lacy, deeply browned crust, and how to stack them.

  1. 01Beef
  2. 02Pan
  3. 03Smash
  4. 04Salt
  5. 05Flip & cheese
  6. 06Stack

Sources checked OCT 24, 2026

A double smash burger on a toasted bun, thin patties with lacy brown edges under melted American cheese.
Thin, lacy, deeply browned. More crust than a thick burger can ever have.

01

Buy fat. Roll it loose.

America's Test Kitchen uses 80 percent lean ground beef, rolled into rough 2-ounce balls, and is blunt about leaner beef: it "will produce a dry burger." Don't pack the balls. Plain store-bought grind holds together well when you smash it.

80% lean · 20% fat

Juicy, with fat to fry the crust

The recipe's pick.

90% lean · 10% fat

"Will produce a dry burger"

America's Test Kitchen's warning about going leaner.

Four loose balls of raw ground beef on parchment.

02

A heavy pan, smoking hot

Use a 12-inch cast-iron or carbon-steel skillet. Oil it and warm it over medium-low for 5 minutes, then turn it to high and start when it begins to smoke.

  • Cast iron

    On the recipe's list.

  • Carbon steel

    Also on the recipe's list.

  • Stainless steel

    The recipe says to avoid it for this.

  • Nonstick

    Also ruled out. The patty needs to stick to brown well.

03

Smash it flat, and let it stick

Two balls go in about 3 inches apart. Press each one firmly with the foil-wrapped bottom of a saucepan until it's 4 to 4½ inches across.

Sticking is the goal. A stuck patty has made full contact with the pan and browns deeply and evenly. One that doesn't stick shrinks and loses browned surface, and with it flavor.

A gloved hand pressing a spatula down on ground beef on a hot griddle.

2″ ball

Press to smash. Aim for 4 to 4½ inches.

04

Salt the patty, not the mix

For ground beef, salt late. America's Test Kitchen found that the longer the meat sat with salt, the firmer and springier the burger. The smashed-burger recipe sprinkles ⅛ teaspoon on each patty right after smashing.

Tender and loose

The salt seasons the surface without time to firm up the meat.

Firm and springy

The longer salt sits in the meat, the firmer and springier it gets.

05

Two minutes, then fifteen seconds

Cook until at least three-quarters of the top is no longer pink, about 2 minutes. Scrape under it with a thin metal spatula; having to scrape is a good sign. Flip, top with cheese and give it 15 seconds.

American cheese melts smoothly because of melting salts such as sodium citrate, which loosen the grip between the cheese's proteins. The recipe favors Kraft Singles for meltability.

A thin patty flipped to show a deep brown, lacy crust. American cheese melting over two thin patties.

06

Build the stack

Two thin patties mean more crust, and cheese between them that seeps in like a sauce. Toasting the buns is up to you.

The official line. Ground beef should reach 160°F, and color isn't a reliable sign of doneness. Probe at least ½ inch into the thickest part. University of Arizona Cooperative Extension

On the channel

Four patties and all that melted cheddar

Our quad-cheese smash burger short, made to be watched with the sound on. Press play to load it from YouTube.