Got some very fine hamburger from a private butcher - 6 bucks a pound for NY Strip with Prime Rib fat tossed in. I put salt, mango/chipolte powder and pepper bourbon powder in the hamburger and let sit in the fridger for a few hours. I smoked the burgers on the Kettle at about 175-180f for an hour or so. This is after 20 minutes:
Sweet hickory smoke:
After flipping at about 40 minutes:
I elevate the chunks above the coals with a small grate balanced on firebricks:
I find I get a somewhat cleaner smoke. I did not come up with this myself....saw a post at a board...probably this one.....the fella had his wood on the cooking grate above the coals. I tried that but the coal bed had to be deep and that meant alot of coals and heat. For my purposes this is what I do:
If I want to add coals I can do so via the Kettle's hinged cooking grate. If I need to move the wood or add to it I can move the small grate the wood is on without having to remove the cooking grate.
As soon as the burgers started getting firm I removed them to the kitchen and the fridge after 10 minutes or so. I used the Akorn to grill but used the platter for the difusser to hold my charcoal. I use 2 charcoal grates from Kettles offset to hold the coals:
The burgers before hitting the grill:
After a few minutes flipped:
Fresh off the grill:
Dressed with chipolte mayonaise (1/2 cup mayo and 2 small chipolte peppers with adobo sauce) and fried oinions (olive oil, butter and a healthy dose of spice rub I made up for ribs cooked for about 45 minutes):
Took a couple burgers I made afterwards over to some friends at work. One of the guys said it was the best thing I ever made. They were pretty good. I have had these smoked steak hamburgers before and added nothing at all...they are beauty naked. I have also finished the process by grilling the burgers on an upside down cast iron frying pan put over charcoal. When doing the cast iron frying pan finsih the burgers are extremely juicy and have a even crust.
