Volume IX

Smoke & Flame

Sixty recipes for live fire, written around heat you cannot set to a number. Six chapters covering the grate, the embers and the skewer, with target temperatures, coal arrangements and rest times given for every one.

Try 48 recipes free — two from every book, including this one.

What's inside

• 1½ lb ground beef, 20% fat
• 8 slices American cheese
• 4 brioche burger buns
• 1 onion, very thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp neutral oil
• 2 tsp fine salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 4 tbsp butter, softened
• Pickles and mustard, to serve

1. Roll the beef into eight loose balls. Do not compact them.
2. Get a cast-iron plancha screaming hot over the coals and butter and toast the buns on it.
3. Oil the surface, set the balls down and scatter sliced onion on top of each.
4. Smash each one flat with a stiff spatula within ten seconds, pressing hard for three seconds, then release.
5. Cook 90 seconds until the edges are lacy and brown, then scrape underneath with the spatula edge so the crust lifts with the patty.
6. Turn, add cheese, cook 45 seconds and stack two per bun.