I recently had a really great burger at a place called Brasserie Jo in Boston. Served rare, nicely seared on the outside, the hint of charcoal permeating the entire experience. This got me thinking…the sear is very important for locking in juices. How could I get this to work on my gas grill, with its anemic BTU output?

Maybe if I got a cast iron skillet for it, and got it really hot. I got this Lodge pre-seasoned skillet and plopped it on my cheap-o grill. The theory was I could get it much hotter, without fear of smoking up my house, outside. So I’m thinking of the grill more as an outside cooking area. It’s gas, so I’m not expecting much in the way of charcoal flavor in the first place.

So, I figured I would get some hamburger patties and try cooking them for various lengths of time to see if I could get them to at least look good. Since the skillet can sustain the high searing temperature longer than the thin wires on the grill surface, I’m thinking that burger will end up with a nice crust courtesy of the maillard reaction. The juices, also trapped by the skillet instead of falling onto the bottom of the grill, would help contribute to forming the crust. What I wasn’t sure of, though, was whether the juices should be allowed to form the crust, or whether those were better allowed to drip away. I figured they might help seal the other juices in, so heck why not try it?

Here’s one side of the burger after 3 minutes. The sear really hasn’t formed, and there’s only a few bits of goodness. The result: edible, but not amazing. The photo was taken, unfortunately, on an overcast day, so there is a lot of blue in the coloring.

Here’s one side of another burger after 4 minutes. The sear has formed, but also some burning has occured.

Upon showing these pictures to cousin Ben, he suggests that a time between 3 and 4 minutes would be ideal. He observed that I’m basically frying / boiling the burger in its own juices, which isn’t that cool. I’m not convinced it’s a BAD thing, especially given the nature of gas grills to begin with. It comes down to whether the juices, trapped between skillet and burger, aid in the forming of a tasty crust.

He also pointed out that yucky goo that oozes out of the side of the burger when you pan-fry…the gray bubbling stuff. We’re thinking this stuff gets vaporized on a truly immersive high-heat environment.

Next round of tests: I’m going to lightly salt the outside of the burger to help draw more liquid to the surface to aid in the searing process. Also, will try high-heat under a closed grill. Suggestions welcome!