The glory days of the quarter-pounder are long gone, with British people’s love for the smash burger continuing to surge.A big chunky burger has appealed to hungry Brits for decades but now a distinctly flatter bite to eat is cementing itself as one of the UK’s favourites. While they’re not particularly new, our love for them is showcased courtesy of social media, where you’ll find literally hundreds of thousands of posts dedicated to these simple-but-perfect creations.  Burgers are everywhere, with big hitters not just in the capital but across the country, attracting regular queues of aficionados at restaurants and shops as well as street food vendors. There’s something about the crispy crust, thin patties and general oozy goodness that is unrivalled.  Ellen Manning made  smash burgers at home – starting with beef mince She then ‘smashed it down’. It creates a crunchy thinner patty – using the ‘maillard’ effect The key is in the Maillard reaction – named after French chemist Louis Camille Maillard, who discovered that when amino acids and reducing sugars react, they create a distinctive flavour in the browned result that gets our taste buds tingling in a way that’s strangely addictive. Achieving this reaction in a burger takes plenty of heat, good meat, and the trademark ‘smashing’ technique that sees balls of minced beef squished and squashed until the patty itself is thin as thin can be, with the crust we have all come to love. We might not have big rigs in our own homes, designed to smash hundreds of patties on a production line to feed hungry burger-lovers. But we can recreate a few of our own with the right tactics.The starting point is the meat itself. The consensus is it has to be decent quality meat. The general school of thought is 30:70 fat to lean meat ratio. Tom Warwick, the man behind cult burger brand MeatCastles, who regularly has queues of hungry fans travel across the country to his burger truck dubbed the Bastion of Burgers, goes one step further. His signature mix is 20:80 – or at least no more than 25:75 – ground through a 4mm blade, adding: ‘Aged fat is the taste.”You need a double-ground high-fat beef mince, so chuck is good, some brisket, some flank, rib,’ advises Tom Robinson, group head chef at Libertine Burger – another award-winning brand.  Smash burgers create a crispy tasty bun Experts added that cheese and a good quality bread are important’But given I’m no big burger chef and just an average home cook, I haven’t quite got the time and resources to have my own bespoke beef blend mixed up by a butcher. Luckily, I don’t live too far from famed butchers Aubrey Allen, who produce their own burgers and burger blend, so I hotfoot it there and ask for the best mince I can get to create my own smash patties. They sell me a generous helping of their dry-aged grass-fed steak mince, assuring me that while connoisseurs might have their own recipe, the fat content in this is high enough to do the job and it will do the job. Home I go, picking up some brioche buns along the way and some good old American ‘plastic’ cheese slices. Because while some people like 4,798 toppings on their burgers, this is all about the smash patties so we’re keeping things simple.I’ve prevailed on the burger experts for some tips. We work the mince into balls. None of this addition of egg is needed, so I’m told.  Ellen’s final delicious creationAnd Robinson tells me that seasoning is for cooking, not needed in the initial mix. I’ve prevailed on him and Warwick for some cooking tips – mainly so I can pass them on to my burger-fan husband who is far braver with squishing meat down onto a hot surface than I. ‘The key is the correct heat – not too hot and not too cool,’ says Warwick. With years of experience under his belt, and literally hundreds of thousands of burgers in his portfolio, I’m sure he can tell exactly how hot that is, but we’re guessing. ‘So we crank the hob up to full, pop a pan on top and wait until it seems like it might be hot enough.’Put one ball on to the grill, then press it out as flat as you can go,’ says Robinson. ‘Because what you’re looking for is that crust, that Maillard reaction.’ We go for it. The sizzle starts as soon as the meat hits the pan, getting louder and more aggressive as we press down the patty. Luckily we’ve got one of those burger press thingies which helps, and soon the meat is flattened into a pancake-style patty. Some say the key is to ‘smash’ the patty for 90 seconds, but Robinson had also told me to resist the urge to fiddle, leaving the meat alone until the crust is well and truly crusty. How to make a smash burger Serves Four  500g beef mince (with 30/70 fat to lean)Oil of your choiceSalt to taste   American cheeseBurger bunsAdditional toppings of your choice  Method1. Cut burger buns in half, toast or grill and set aside2. Divide the mince into four, and roll into four balls, with a generous helping of salt and seasonings of your choice3. Once your pan is hot, put one pile in a pan4. Quickly cover with baking parchment and then use a smaller pan to ‘smash’ the mince down, allow to cook for two minutes5. Remove baking parchment and turn the patty over,  press down with a spatula6. Assemble the burger in the buns with the toppings of your choice  I understand why as it cooks, noticing a difference in the smell as that Maillard reaction starts. I’m not sure how long in total we smashed it for, as my mouth had also noticed that change, and I was combating the involuntary salivation that comes with a great smell of cooking meat and the promise of smash burger success in my own kitchen.I’d happily eat it there and then – just the meat. But my husband’s watched many a burger pro doing their thing, so after liberally seasoning with salt and pepper, he copies their tactics by putting a cheese slice on top of the meat while it’s still in the pan, then the brioche bun top (Warwick has told me that a good burger bun is key, so I’ve invested in Tesco finest), then covering them with a cloche so the bun can gently steam. No, I don’t know why we have a cloche either, but turns out it’s a handy addition to the kitchen paraphernalia if you want to make a smash burger without queuing up in the cold. By this point the pan is possibly verging on too hot and the smoke alarm is about to go off, but we don’t care. We’re so close to patty perfection.Me as a child would have piled the finished product high with gherkins, more cheese, fried onions, lettuce, tomato and whatever else I could find, but while Robinson had told me earlier that the joy of smash burgers is you can ‘do what you want really’, he also pointed out that: ‘a good smash burger really can just be beef, bun and cheese. It doesn’t necessarily need anything else really.’ I only slightly deviate from his advice, unable to resist the addition of ketchup and burger mustard, before tucking in.It’s great. I wonder if we haven’t quite gone as this as the experts, but there’s no fat patties here. There’s a crispy, crusty loveliness to the patty – well, patties, as we take the liberty of filling each bun with two of them. The meat is full of flavour, accentuated by that same age-old reaction that makes a seared steak taste wonderful and smash burgers the hit that they are. It’s over too quickly, as the best burgers always are. It’s a reminder that the best food around is often the simplest. Which is undoubtedly why smash burgers are here to stay.