Friday night is burger night at our house — bison’s my favorite. That’s where this started.

I could never get the centers right. The patties would shrink and puff up in the middle, so the edges were done while the center was still too pink for me. Pressing them down with the spatula only squeezed the juice out.

One night I grabbed a flat pan lid and set it on top as a weight. It helped — barely, but enough that I kept at it. It just wasn’t much of a tool: too light, awkward to clean, and it didn’t sit right in the pan.

So I made one that did. I’ve spent thirty years designing machinery, most of it farm equipment, and this was the first time I’d put that to work in my own kitchen.

I’m still using that first one. It’s been in the dishwasher after every use for years. A few scratches, that’s it.

Then I bought an outdoor griddle. Burgers first, then smashburgers. After that my cousin said we should try it on the bacon. That’s when it stopped being just a burger weight and started being the thing I reach for.

When my uncle asked me to make him one, I figured other people might want one too.