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IN & OUT BURGERS

If you've followed me for a while, you will know from various blog posts that I've written that I have a massive soft spot for an In and Out burger, taking regular trips to the ridiculously popular chain restaurant each time I visit California.

For those of you not in the know, In and Out has limited restaurants in California and the South West of America which serves a limited menu of burgers, fries and drinks, but serving them up extremely well and only using quality ingredients. you could well be waiting in the drive through for over an hour for your lunch but you will queue patiently... for one of these beauties quite frankly is worth the wait.

As I just can't wait for my next In and Out fix, I set about an experimentation, making a video to re-create my own version to have a taste of sweet California sunshine from our little East London back garden. The key to this burger's success is to not, under ANY circumstances scrimp on the fat content of the minced beef. For this to taste so extra special it has to be a good 80/20 fat combo as well as a good dollop of the special sauce. I PROMISE you will not be disappointed.

Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Keyword burger, grilling, in and out, ketchup, pickle, smash burger, special sauce
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Author jacksmeatshack

Ingredients

For the Burgers

  • Good quality beef mince 20/80 fat ratio works best.
  • Sliced tomato
  • Iceberg lettuce
  • Cheese slices
  • Burger buns

For the Special Sauce

  • 100 g mayo
  • 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
  • One gherkin finely diced
  • ¼ white onion finely diced

Instructions

  1. Mix all the ingredients for the special sauce and set aside.

  2. Start the grill aiming for a cooking temperature of 200c-230c, for Kamado Joe users: put your cast iron grate into the divide and conquer rack

  3. Roll the mince into 40g balls, similar size to a golf balls.

  4. When the grill has reached the correct cooking temperature, place a ball onto the grate surface and as the name suggest “SMASH” the patty flat. You want aim for an even 1cm thickness. Watch the video to see the Jack Smash technique.

  5. Allow to cook for around 60 seconds before flipping the patties.
  6. Once flipped season the patty with sea salt and top with burger cheese.
  7. Lightly toast the buns on the grill.
  8. Allow to cook for another 60 seconds aiming for an internal cooking temp of 55c.
  9. To build your burger, start with a tablespoon of burger sauce, then top with slices of tomato and lettuce. Stack the burgers and top with the bun.

Recipe Notes

A 40g burger is the traditional In and Out recipe, for something a bit more epic increase to 100g burger patties, increase your cooking times until you reach an internal cooking temp of 55c following the same method as above.