031/18: Hay Smoked Braised Short-Rib Cheeseburger
As I mentioned in the last post, those burgers were meant to be hay smoked but I was so focused on not burning the bacon I forgot to add the Hay! Wanting to have a go at hay smoking the burgers I cooked one for lunch and had the idea of adding in some of the leftover Braised Short-Rib meat from cook 029 – Hay Smoked Braised Short-Rib Cheeseburger.
The hay smoked burger technique is by Steven Raichlen from his book Project Smoke, I adapted it a bit to suit my cook today.
The burgers I cooked the night before had been my best ones yet, surely these couldn’t be better?
The Meat:
Same BSR burgers from Turner and George as per the last cook.
The Buns:
Same buns made for the last cook using the Byron burger recipe.
The Prep:
A full chimney of lumpwood, this was a local charcoal I am testing for someone. I will write more on this at a later date. Once fully lit it was spread over the base of the Weber Kettle but I kept the near side empty to run a slightly cooler zone to cook the burgers slowly whilst the hay was smoking. Grill Grates on top and inverted again to run as a griddle. I left it 10 minutes to get up to temperature. Some time back Matt from Oxford Charcoal sent me some hay pucks to test so I chucked a few onto the charcoal. Burgers were seasoned with coarse Maldon sea salt and ground pepper.
The Cook:
I put the burger onto the cooler end of the grill grate so it would get good exposure from the hay smoke. There wasn’t a lot of smoke coming off the hay pucks though, I remember I used them in the smoker before and they burn slowly like a wood chunk so I think they are better for low and slow rather than hot and fast. With the heat of the grill grate I needed some hay smoke and quickly so I chucked in the loose hay I used way back:
Smoke, loads of it! Not a cook to do in summer when your neighbour has the washing out!
Burger on and smoking.
Once the burger had been hay smoked for about 15 minutes the internal temperature was still only 20c so I moved it to the high heat zone to start searing it. After a couple of minutes I flipped it over and put the cheese on. I didn’t use a cloche this time, I just shut the lid and checked back 3 minutes later. Awesome, melted cheese!
Still smoking!
The buns got a quick toasting. Once the burger hit 55c internal temperature on the Thermapen I took it off.
Time to Eat:
Time to put everything together.
Leftover Braised Beef Short-Rib from the other day and the same burger sauce as the night before on top.
Back on the grill for a quick warm through.
Summary:
Honestly lost for words with this one. The burgers the night before were the best ones yet, this one went and trumped it! All the best bits of the last one from the burger, the bun, the cheese, the sauce were all there but the rich, rich braised beef short-rib meat was incredible. It was a true filthy burger, there was juice everywhere but goodness me what a taste! I didn’t add bacon and I don’t think it needed it, I might try it for a layer of crunch in there though.
The hay smoke? It added a really serious taste to the burger – an earthy taste, good whack of smoke to it. I like it!
| Cook Difficulty: | 2/5 |
| Cook Duration: | Short: 2/5 |
| Cook Equipment: | Weber Kettle |
| Cook Method: | Inverted Grill Grates |
| Charcoal: | Testing – Local |
| Smoking Wood: | Hay |
| Cook temperature: | 250C |
| Cook time: | 20 minutes |
| Internal temperature: | 55c |
| Notes: | No major changes |
THE BOOK:
If you like the look of this recipe you can buy the book from Amazon by clicking the picture below:
