Your best hamburger recipe / technique?

CPARKTX

This may sound strange, but I've never mastered cooking a good hamburger. Looking for recipes and techniques. Nothing too fancy, just a good old fashioned burger. 

henapple

Blackstone... 165 degrees. I don't smash. 

DoubleEgger

Here's my basic burger. 

Use Round 85/15. (That's the key part) 
Grab a handful and form it into a ball. Work the meat as little as possible. Press the burger slowly with the palm of your hand while working the edges with the other hand to keep the edges from splitting. My patties end up about an inch thick or so. Make them slightly bigger than the bun but you don't have to go crazy with it as there's a lot less shrinkage with the 85/15 round. Season with whatever you like and cook raised direct at 500F until your desired temp is reached. 

Reltserw

80/20. Salt & Pepper. Blackstone. Smash. Yellow kraft American Chee. Buttered Sesame bun. 

Easiest and best burgers ive had. 

RRP

Mathematically speaking:
80/20
350
4/4/2

adding some words:
just salt and pepper
direct
that last 2 is to melt the cheese of YOUR liking.
my cheese preference is actually a stack of 3 slices - 1 of each yellow American, pepper jack and Swiss! 

1voyager

Make your own ground beef. I do 50/50 sirloin/chuck. You will taste a HUGE difference. 

Shape the patty softly and put a small dimple on both sides. This will keep your burger from coming out looking like a meatball.

Reverse sear to 120 degrees then cook high heat direct to your taste. 130-135 degrees results in medium rare.

Put cheese on at the last minute.

GrillSgt

If you're not grinding your own I find the sirloin/chuck to be the tastiest. Salt and pepper is enough but there are a few things that I use to enhance the flavor but being careful to use sparingly. Worcestershire, Dijon mustard, finely grated onion. I used finely chopped country ham a few days ago as I had some leftover from another dish. It was good enough that I will do it again. I use my Weber kettle because the method is easier. Cook indirect covered until 110ish.  Finish over coals to 5* shy of desired temp. 

SaltySam

Ground chuck, thin patties on the Blackstone.  Fry bacon first.  Cook onions in bacon grease, set aside.  Then patties, double stacked with Velveeta cheese slices.  Butter a brioche bun and put that on the flat top as well.  Assemble and chow down.

Then take a Lipitor. 

Hub

Reltserw said:

80/20. Salt & Pepper. Blackstone. Smash. Yellow kraft American Chee. Buttered Sesame bun. 

Easiest and best burgers ive had. 

This ^^

nolaegghead

If you grind your own, make sure it's mostly frozen when you feed it in the grinder or you'll macerate the muscle and fat and have a dry burger.  I think some of the commercial grinders will do thawed meat without this problem but my LEM is not one of them.

Eggcelsior

Grind your own beef for the best, as you control the beef. My local grocer grinds up strip steak(I'm guess the first cut as I never see them in the case) that is my typical go-to. Otherwise, I ask them to grind up a chuck.

Depending on the burger I want, I smash on the griddle or grill off a thick patty. If I smash(diner-style), I make 1/4 lb balls and season with S&P only or with some garlic too. Smash into the griddle for up to the first 30 seconds, then leave alone for 2. Flip and finish it off, adding cheese and covering with a griddle cover to help melt the cheese.

For thick, pub-style burgers, I make 1/3-1/2 lb patties and add some rub, usually a steak blend like Montreal-style, into the meat with 1 tbsp of Lea and Perrins. Sometimes I'll add chopped onions, jalapeños, and shredded cheese too. Grill raised direct at 400ish with some wood chips, if desired. Make sure you dimple the burger. Grill a few minutes per side until the internal is 135-140 if store bought, 125-130 if home-ground. They are plenty juicy up to 155-160(running down your chin) so no hockey pucks here. I do the extra add-ins for my tailgate burgers and they're a huge hit, plus zero complaints about "raw burgers" from the more conservative palates.

nolaegghead

Another reason I like to grind my own, I prefer my burgers cooked medium rare.  I would not recommend cooking factory burger meat made from a batch of 1000 cow scraps medium rare unless you like sitting on the toilet.  That said, I like to live stupidly, I mean, dangerously and will cook store-ground to medium rare. 

Danielson

My go to burger method is to grind my own chuck, mix in half a chopped onion to pound and a half of burger. Make third pound patties with small holes in the center of each to cook evenly. 

henapple

@Eggcelsior.... Grind your own beef for the best, as you control the beef. I've had that motto since I was 13.

Eggcelsior

Almost forgot, you can add dehydrated onion to the blend and it will absorb juices that would normally be lost.

jtcBoynton

1voyager said:

Make your own ground beef. I do 50/50 sirloin/chuck. You will taste a HUGE difference. 
...

Agree on grinding your own mix.  Sirloin/chuck is a good blend.  

Also try one part sirloin, one part chuck, and 1/2 part short rib. Another blend to add 1.5 parts neck meat to the previous.  End product should be 20-25% fat - add fat when grinding to get leaner meats to that amount.