The Griddle-Smashed Classic Cheeseburger

I’m not going to mince words here: This is my favorite way to make a burger. And there’s a reason for it. In cooking, in most cases, the simplest path leads to the greatest rewards. With this astonishingly straightforward recipe, you will be transported to a time long ago, before the highway system, frozen patties—hell, even before the invention of the patty press and the conventional hamburger bun. That’s because this is the way burgers were made in America at the very beginning. The progenitor of every burger we have ever seen, made, or tasted. This is the burger to which all other burgers can trace their DNA, and arguably it’s the most significant burger style in American culinary history.