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I have been reading so much about making good burgers and after a few attempts, I thought I achieved a good level. I have been following the Serious Eats tips.

But last night I went to a Burger restaurant and had an amazing burger. What I loved of it was the crispiness of the crust. It was not extremely crispy but just a little bit and made it such a great experience.

Anyone would give me some tips to get the crispy on the crust of my burgers?

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Crunchy (I suspect crusty is probably a better term) burgers are often made by what Kenji Alt of Serious Eats like to call the smash method, as described in The Burger Lab: Smashed Burgers vs Smashing Burgers.

The basic technique is to form the beef into what he calls a "puck", and then cook them on a ripping hot skillet or cast iron pan, smashing them down into patties onto the hot pan. This promotes the browning reactions and crisping on the first side of the burger.

The burgers mostly cook on that first side where the crust development will happen; the cooking on the second side is much more brief.

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  • The puck method allows for a longer cooking time on one side without overcooking the meat, as most of the meat is a longer distance from the heat. This gives more time for crust development without being overdone.
    – GdD
    Apr 9, 2014 at 16:58
  • Just to add, this was also tested by Cook's Illustrated/ATK, they found that this method ended up drying out burgers more than actually leaving them juicy. Obviously you can combat this using a panade.
    – Matthew
    Jun 9, 2014 at 15:56

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