A grilled burger and a smoked-then-seared burger are different animals. A pan-only burger gives you crust and not much else; a smoke-only burger gives you flavour and a sad grey exterior. The reverse sear method (low and slow until just before medium-rare, then a hard fast sear) gives both. The blend matters: chuck on its own is too tight, brisket on its own is too loose. Half and half lands at roughly 22% fat, which is the sweet spot for a beef burger that’s juicy without leaking its life into the pan.
Yield and time
- Makes: 6 patties, 170g each
- Hands-on: 1 hour
- Total: Saturday grind to Sunday plate, about 2 hours of active work plus the smoke
Ingredients
- 500g beef brisket (point cut)
- 500g beef chuck
- Flaky sea salt
- Coarse black pepper
- 6 slices high-melt cheese
You’ll need a meat grinder with a 4.5mm plate, a sharp boning knife, an offset smoker, oak chunks, a probe thermometer, and a heavy cast-iron pan.
The day before: grind
Trim any silver skin off the 500g brisket and 500g chuck but keep all the fat. Cube the meat into 2.5cm pieces. Spread the cubes on a tray and into the freezer for 30 minutes.
Run everything through the 4.5mm plate. Spread the ground meat on a tray, back in the freezer for ten minutes, then run it through the plate a second time.
Form into six 170g balls. Press each ball flat between two sheets of parchment to a disc about 12cm across and 2cm thick. Push your thumb into the centre of each to leave a shallow dimple. Stack with parchment between, wrap, fridge.
Do not salt the patties yet.
Sunday morning: light the smoker
Build the fire in the offset firebox. Let the wood burn down to clean coals with thin blue smoke before anything goes on. Bring the cook chamber to a steady 110-120°C. Add a fresh oak chunk every 20 minutes to keep the smoke clean.
Patty prep
Pull the patties out of the fridge twenty minutes before they go on. Salt the top surface generously with flaky salt and crack black pepper coarsely over each. Salt just before they go on the smoker.
Smoke
Onto the smoker, salt-side up, with at least 5cm between patties. Probe one of them in the centre. Close the lid.
You want the centre to hit 47°C. Time on the smoker is 25 to 40 minutes. Watch the probe, not the clock.
Pull the patties off, transfer to a clean plate, rest five minutes uncovered.
Sear
Cast iron on the highest heat the hob will give. No oil. The pan is ready when a flick of water beads, jumps, and evaporates in under a second.
Patty in, salt-and-pepper side down first. Do not move it. 90 seconds. Flip with a metal spatula. Lay a slice of cheese on the seared top. Immediately invert a heatproof bowl or pot lid over the patty; the trapped steam melts the cheese in 30 seconds. Pull the patty as soon as the cheese has gone glossy and started to run at the edges. Internal should read 64-66°C.
If you’re cooking in batches, wipe the pan between patties with a wadded paper towel.
Build
Toasted milk roll bottom. A generous spoon of burger sauce on both faces of the roll. Lettuce on the bottom. The patty with its cheese. Dill pickles, sliced thin, four or five rounds. The roll lid. Eat immediately.
Part of the burger from scratch weekend.