Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/06/30/this-grill-press-speeds-up-4th.html
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Careful though - there’s a fine line between “heating your meat from both sides” and “squishing out all the yummy juices” - don’t use it to apply too much force to things like fresh burgers and steaks (frozen meats / poultry / bacon / veggies for sure, though)
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Yeah, don’t press down on the burger or steaks. Just put the hot chunk of iron on top.
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I use these:
Careful not to use wet sandstone as it will explode if too hot.
Dammit! BB is making me hungry again. Happy 4th all!
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Not really. The secret is to smash the meat before its cooked
And it really only applies to ground meats like burgers or sausages. Unless you’re straight up masticating it there’s very little chance added pressure can squeeze moisture or juices (that won’t leak out either way) from a whole muscle.
Otherwise chicken under a brick wouldn’t work. Neither would pressed sammiches.
Among other food wisdom that just doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. I was looking for one of the several different food lab articles on this, but there’s so many myths they’ve punctured the google results are more likely to cover bases.
Also smashed burgers are best burgers.
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I’m specifically talking about squishing burgers and steaks on the BBQ. if you read my comment I ruled out everything else.
If you have a formed party or steak on the BBQ, it doesn’t need squishing. Lots of other things benefit from it, as I mentioned.
For bacon, the nice thing isn’t that it makes it obsessively flat, it’s that it cooks it more evenly by keeping all of it in contact with the fat on the griddle
Is this a thing which should be speeded up?
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For those times when an antique flat iron just won’t do the job.
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I’m just not seeing how it will effect a steak. Its a whole muscle like anything else. I mean you won’t get much benefit out of it unless its a really thin steak, or the weight is hot enough to do some cooking. But it’s not really going to do much damage. And the bigger issue with using it on burgers on the grill is it’ll smash the meat through the grates.
I saw this article and yelled “NOOOOOOOOO” at my phone screen!! As @orenwolf and others have stated do NOT press the meats on a grill. It is bad bad juju.
Just let it sear on each side. Good grilling takes time. Be freaking patient!!!
Oh god this is a travesty.
It’s also like resting meat after it’s roasted or grilled. People don’t wait. Good god have patience!!! Just let it sit. Don’t cover it. Don’t cut it. Don’t poke it or stick it. Maybe. MAYBE. Put a couple pats of compound butter on it if you’re feeling cheeky. But let it rest for 6-8 minutes.
I’m gonna have nightmares now of all the pressed and dry burgers this weekend.
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I used to ask people to call me Steak Weight.
You seen to have missed an important part of your article:
So when is it not a good idea to smash? Well there’s the obvious: you can’t smash a burger on a grill.
Also this seems to work best when you aren’t forming patties but mashing a ball into a disc on your cooking surface. And no more than 30 seconds into cook time, and also one and done, not leaving it there. So, no, this product is a bad idea for burgers, especially grilling (aka a cookout or BBQ).
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The places where these are seen the most is diners. They use them on the flat-top.
They speed things up a bit but are considered an inferior cooking method.
I guess if you are going to cook whatever it is to well-done anyway that there is little to no harm.
You can’t smash a burger on a grill cause it’ll squish through the grates. They work perfectly fine to smash burgers otherwise (so long as you smash it while its mostly raw). And smashing tends to work better with a formed patty/puck of beef than the straight up scoop/meatball approach.
But yea its a bad idea to press a cooked or cooking burger with on of these after its set or through the whole cooking time. Which is why I pointed out that its fine if you do it while the meat is still uncooked. And a gentle smash/press on the grill is both possible. And helps get a even patty that won’t contract into a meat ball. A grill weight can be better for that than smashing with a spatula.
And like I said for most meats besides burgers its largely not possible to squeeze juice out of the meat this way, that’s almost entirely a factor of temperature. These sorts of grill weights are great for pressed chickens, sandwiches. Compressing veg or tofu that could use some extra contact with the heat. Those are things you can press moisture out of this way and generally want to. Keeping whole fish crammed down firmly and evenly on the grates and a million other things.
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I have an antique flat iron. I may well try that. Though I’m not sure I want my doorstop to smell like bacon.
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This is a grill or range utensil. Has nothing to do with BBQ.
If any of this will make Prospect Park look any less like a kuwaiti oil field circa 1991, I’m all for it.
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