Waterfowl Smash Burgers
I don’t regularly grind up duck or goose to make burgers- there’s just not enough meat on a bird for me to want to grind any- but this season, we had a few ducks that were shot “too close” and a few geese that got a little beat up on the way back to the blind. And we both were craving a smash burger, so here we are.
When prepping waterfowl for grind, remove all the skin, off colored fat, and try to get all the steel out of it before it goes into the grinder. You’ll also want to add some fat- beef or pork will both work, and 10-15% by weight should be plenty.
The key to any grinding is working cold: the meat, the grinder head-knife-plate, and the fat should all be ice cold. Chill it all down, mix it up and run it through the fine plate.
Smash burgers are my favorite version of a burger. Lots of texture, fast cook time, and dead simple. The onions steam and season the meat, the patty is crispy on the edges and just pink on the inside. American cheese ties it all together. You don’t really need any condiments on this one- maybe a little mustard, or a pickle, but try to avoid adding all kinds of dumb shit to it.
Waterfowl Smash Burgers
Method:
Form the ground meat into 2-3 ounce balls. Slice a pile of onions so they are paper thin. Preheat a griddle or large pan to medium high heat.
Season the meat with salt and pepper.
Add a little oil to the pan, and a clump of onion. Top with a ball of ground meat, and use a wide metal spatula to smash the meat into the onions, flat against the pan. Cook for 1 minute, flip, top with american cheese, and cook for another minute max.
Stack them and serve.
This recipe for gung bao turkey is the original ancestor of the American-Chinese takeout classic, Kung Pao Chicken. But the resemblance between the two is about as close as a Butterball is to a wild turkey- one can barely stand up on its own, and the other might stab you.
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