Cold weather is just around the corner, and I'll miss being able to cook outside. My favorite way to cook most foods is open-air grilling over wood or charcoal. Elizabeth Karmel agrees: "Grilling is the best way to cook, bar none. There is no other cooking technique that gives you this much flavor for your effort." Karmel is a nationally respected authority on grilling, barbecue and Southern food and the author of Taming the Flame. I don't presume to match her experience and expertise, but when it comes to burgers, I beg to differ. The best burger is a burger cooked on a cast iron pan or griddle, smashed thin and cooked crisp on its edges.
It's often said that "fat is flavor" and when you cook a burger on a grill grate, the fat that drips down onto the coals is lost flavor. Cooking in a cast-iron skillet traps the fat and prevents it from falling into the heat source. When you smash ground beef onto a hot cast-iron surface with a heavy object, it gives the beef greater contact with the heat source and creates a crispy crust with intensified flavor. This savory crust is a result of the Maillard reaction (pronounced my-YAR), a chemical reaction between amino acids and sugars, which creates compounds that give browned foods their distinctive flavor.
I converted to cooking burgers in a cast-iron skillet during my year working for Sean Brock. Brock is arguably the South's most prominent chef. He's won the James Beard Award for Best Chef, Southeast, and authored two best-selling cookbooks. He's been featured in the Emmy Award-winning television show Mind of a Chef and the popular Netflix show, Chef's Table. Brock operates three high-end fine-dining restaurants in Nashville. But when asked about his favorite thing to eat, he'll reply: "If I had to pick one thing that made me the happiest when I ate it, it would certainly be a cheeseburger.
"Everyone has their own idea of the perfect burger; mine was inspired by the drive-in that my family used to take me to when I was young. Robo's was the only real "restaurant" in my hometown, and my family just loved it. We would go there after my Little League baseball games. As the game wound down, I would be daydreaming about that burger, shake and crinkle-cut fries. It's probably the reason for some missed fly balls."
When Brock tastes something he likes, he laughs with joy. His lifelong obsession and passion for cheeseburgers led to his opening Joyland, a fast-casual addition to his restaurant roster. Brock's goal with Joyland is to make other people laugh with joy when they take their first bite.
The signature item on Joyland's menu is the Crustburger, which he describes as "crispy crust, onions and Kraft American cheese, on flattened, buttered and inverted Martin's Potato Roll" with "fancy sauce on the side for dipping."
A Crustburger is basically a Smashburger set between two buns that have also been smashed paper-thin and griddled until crispy. The idea behind the Crustburger is that the entire burger is made up of crunchy bits of meat that are normally only found around the edges of a burger. Joyland's Crustburger is made from a custom-blended, dry-aged beef blend from Bear Creek Farm, a sustainable cattle and heritage hog farm. Brock is dogmatic about the choice of cheese. "I choose American cheese because it isn't really a cheese – it's more of a sauce when it melts, so you end up with a burger covered in delicious cheese sauce." The buttered potato bun is griddled under a burger press on both sides and the cheeseburger is assembled with the cut side of the bun facing outward to create a crusty exterior, much like a good grilled cheese sandwich.
Last fall Nashville was featured in an episode of the Netflix travel documentary, Somebody Feed Phil, and Joyland was one of the eateries visited by Phil Rosenthal and his guest, country singer Brad Paisley. Paisley threw both hands in the air in approval after taking a bite of the Crustburger and exclaimed: "Oh my gosh! So inappropriate, the thoughts I'm having as I eat this... I'm not hearing anything you're saying right now!"
After the episode aired, Joyland became swamped and I was asked to work a few shifts there on my days off from my job in Brock's Fermentation Lab. I hadn't worked in a fast food restaurant since college and the experience was totally exhausting. But I learned the secrets of making a proper Crustburger.
Joyland's Crustburger
Serves 4
Equipment needed:
Cast-iron skillet or griddle
Thick metal spatula
Ingredients:
For the burger:
½ pound ground beef, preferably 70/30 grind
1 red onion, sliced into rings 1/8-inch thick.
4 slices Kraft American cheese
4 hamburger buns – preferably a potato bun
4 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper, as needed
For the "fancy" sauce:
1 cup mayonnaise
½ cup ketchup
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
Salt, as needed
Preparation:
Preheat a large cast-iron skillet in a 400°F oven.
Make the "fancy" sauce: Whisk all the sauce ingredients together and season to taste.
Gently measure out 4-ounce portions of the ground beef with an ice cream scoop or spoon, and form in loose balls about 2 inches high. Try not to handle too much.
Generously butter the tops and bottoms of the buns. Transfer the skillet to the stovetop with the burner set to medium-high. Place the buns in the skillet and flatten with a heavy spatula. Toast for about 30 seconds and flip. Press again and toast for another 15 seconds. Set the buns aside.
Increase the heat to high. Position the balls of beef in the skillet, leaving plenty of room between. Using the heavy spatula, press the meat very thin, moving the spatula in a circular motion while pressing to smear the meat even further, then season with salt and pepper.
Place a few rings of red onion on each patty and top with a piece of American cheese. Cook until the edges of the burgers have achieved a deep, burnished crust and the cheese is melty. This should take less than 2 minutes. Using the spatula, scrape the burger off the griddle. Place between the two flattened buns with the inside of the buns facing out and return the whole Crustburger to the skillet, toasting one more time, roughly 30 seconds per side.
Serve with fancy sauce on the side for dipping.
