The Loaded Cheese Waterfall Burger Stack

Ingredients

Enough for one towering double-bun stack, serves 2 to share.

• 1½ lb (680 g) ground beef, divided into 6 thin smash patties
• 6 slices cheddar or American cheese
• 6 to 8 strips bacon, cooked crisp
• 2 burger buns, toasted
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• For the cheese pour: 1 cup shredded cheddar, ½ cup milk, 1 tsp cornstarch

Method

Follow these steps in order for the full tower, finished with the signature cheese pour.

• Divide the beef into 6 thin, wide portions. Press each one hard onto a screaming-hot griddle so the edges crisp and brown deeply.
• Season with salt and pepper right on the griddle. A patty this thin cooks in about 90 seconds per side.
• Melt a slice of cheese onto each patty in the final moments of cooking. Cook the bacon separately until crisp.
• Build the stack: bun base, patty and bacon, patty and bacon, patty and bacon, top bun. A skewer through the center helps it hold together.
• For the cheese pour, warm the shredded cheddar with the milk and cornstarch over low heat, stirring until smooth and pourable.
• Pour the warm cheese sauce slowly over the top of the stack right before serving, letting it run down between the layers.

Getting the smash right

The whole stack depends on the smash, and the smash depends on heat and confidence. The griddle or cast-iron pan must be screaming hot before the first ball of beef touches it. If the surface is only moderately hot, the patty steams instead of crusting, and you get a gray, soft burger instead of the deeply browned, crisp-edged patty this stack needs. Use ground beef with enough fat to crisp, form it into loose balls rather than firm patties, and press each one down hard, once, with a heavy press or the bottom of a sturdy pan lined with parchment paper. Press firmly and evenly, hold for a few seconds, and then leave it alone. The one mistake to avoid is pressing the patty again after flipping it. The second press squeezes out the juices you just sealed in, and the patty dries out. Season with salt and pepper right on the griddle, as this guide says, so the seasoning lands on the crust as it forms. A patty this thin cooks in about ninety seconds per side, so have the cheese slices, the cooked bacon and the toasted buns ready before you start. There is no time to fetch things mid-smash. Work in small batches if your pan is crowded, because patties pressed too close together steam each other, and wipe the surface between batches if browned bits start to burn.

Building a tower that holds together

A triple stack is a structural project as much as a recipe. Toasting the buns is not optional: a buttered, toasted cut side resists the cheese pour and keeps the bottom bun from collapsing into mush under three patties and a sauce pour. Build in the order this guide gives, bun base, patty and bacon, repeated three times, then the top bun, and push a long skewer straight through the center before the cheese pour. The skewer is what keeps the tower standing while the sauce runs down the sides. Pour slowly, in a thin stream, starting at the very top and letting the sauce find its own path between the layers. A fast, heavy pour slides the whole stack sideways. Serve immediately, while the cheese is still flowing and glossy, and put the stack in the middle of the table so everyone can see it before it is cut. The practical way to eat it is to pull the skewer, cut the tower in half with a long serrated knife, and serve halves rather than trying to bite through three patties at once. For a crowd, cook all the patties ahead and hold them warm in a low oven for a few minutes while you toast the buns and make the sauce, then build each stack to order and pour the cheese at the table for the full effect. Keep extra napkins on the table and skip fussy side dishes, because this is a hands-on stack and part of the fun is that nobody eats it neatly; the best version of this meal is a loud table, a leaning tower, and cheese on everyone's fingers.

Frequently asked questions