Rib-Eye burgers ?

TigerTony

A specialty meat market just opened up in my neighborhood. Fresh stuffed chickens, sausages, boudin and a awesome meat selection. I bought lots of meats to cook on my BGE.

Tonight I'm having rib-eye steak burgers for my daughters and son-in-laws, I'll be cooking for eight people.
I had the butcher ground some Rib-Eyes for me to make burger patties.

Any suggestions about what seasonings if any to add to the meat.
I'm thinking, because it's rib-eye and I don't want to mask the taste of steak, maybe just a little worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper. Keeping it simple.

I do need suggestions on how to set up the BGE and at what temp to cook at.

Raised grill direct?
What dome temp? 350* or higher.
What temp do you all recommend?

Thanks in advance!

mad max beyond eggdome

personnaly, i think that you will find the flavor of burger made from a rib eye to be less tasty than burger made from basic chuck or brisket...there is a lot more beefy flavor in those cuts than in the rib-eye, that with the exception of tenderloin, is probably the least flavorful parts of the cow (don't ever confuse price with flavor! - best tasting parts of the cow are the cheaper, tougher cuts, like brisket, hanger steak, skirt steak, chuck, etc). .. .

i would season those burgers with something like salt and pepper, or if you have it, dizzy cow lick, raising the steaks, or regular montreal steak seasoning...you may want to also add a spash of worchestishire sauce as well ....

good luck with them....let us know how they turn out....but for chuckles, you may want to compare them to your basic 80/20 ground chuck mixture treated the same way and tell us which one tasted better ...

SLOandSteady

I think sticking with salt and pepper is a good way to go. As for the dome temp, I'd probably go for around 450 or so on a raised grid.

TigerTony

aaaghh!!... Now you have me all worried, I thought I'd be cooking something extra special. It's my oldest daughters birthday and she requested hamburgers. I figured instead of the regular 80-20 ground beef that I'd make them out of the rib-eye so they would be extra special for her.

I have all the Dizzy Pig stuff, I use it all the time.
I guess I'll now that I'll add some DP Cow Lick or Dizzy Dust.
I'm very disappointed.
I'll take pics tonight and report back as to how they came out.

TigerTony

I was hoping this to be the case. Have you ever cooked rib-eye burgers?
Mad Max seems to think it's not so great.

mad max beyond eggdome

tony, didn't mean to worry you...they will still be good, and different...but since its ribeye ground up, don't over-cook them....keep em juicy....and add the stuff i mentioned. . ..

you will be ok. ..and remember, only turn them once and never press down on them!!!

BGE Convert

Its special because you are making it for your daughter and everyone else. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

When it comes to grilled cuts of beef, the ribeye is one of my favorites. Your burgers are going to be good because of how well marbalized the ribeye section is.
Be sure to season them well.

Mad Max is on the point though about price and flavor for the most part. While I agree you get great flavors out Skirt, Hanger and Flank cuts. I don't consider these to be necessarily cheap cuts.

If you wanted to do something really elegant on the burger side. You should use ground Skirt Steak and Beef Short Ribs. Season them generously with salt and pepper and a bit of garlic. Awesome on flavor, texture and an ever expanding wasteline.

gdenby

I can think of 2 things that might make them more special.

1 is easy. Add some sort of bleu cheese, or a mix of fresh parmesan and cheddar.

2 is kind of elaborate, but can work really well. Take some ordinary beef, and brown it like crazy. Remove. Add butter, and a bit of wine to de-glaze. Cook down a bit. Then freeze the flavored butter. Put a pat in the center of the rib-eye burger, and it will be popping with juicy beef goodness.

mad max beyond eggdome

bge, you are right about what is "cheap"....its all relative....i'm sure ground up skirt is cheaper than ground up ribeye though....the real key to a good burger though is having a good fat content (at least 20% fat) to keep them juicy and flavorful. ...

tony bourdain, in his latest book, "medium rare", devotes an entire chapter to the 'burger'...he goes nuts about people spending big bucks on waygu burgers because the key to waygu is lots of fat, and you can pretty much achieve that with the cheapest of beef so long as you add additional fat. ..i.e., you can make a great tasting burger from a "select" brisket, so long as you make sure there is enough fat in the grind to insure moisture....

i love short ribs, but havent' tried them as ground burger yet ....will have to do that!!

BGE Convert

Compound Butters in the middle are awesome. You could also swap the burger with your compound butter while cooking to temp as well.

BGE Convert

I've been meaning to get the book medium raw for some time. Bourdain was on Top Chef a few weeks back and made mention of devoting an entire chapter to a fish butcher that worked in this world renowned seafood restaurant in NY (I think that is the location). Sounds like you endorse it so I might have to pick that up.

I do a lot of my meat shopping at Wegmans in Northern VA. They have Skirts, Flanks and Beef Short Ribs at pretty good prices but these aren't as desirable to the masses (because they just don't know). Wegmans will give pretty good bulk discounts at 5.99 LB for choice Ribeyes and NY Strips of buy 4 or more steaks and 6.99 LB for Poterhouse cuts. Those prices are cheaper then the prices I pay for skirts or flanks but that is more related to a pricig strategy based upon volume.

that being said, In a restaraunt you would always pay more for a prime ribeye than a prime skirt.

Cooks Illustrated did a show on elegant burgers once. The episode started off with the line for the Shake Shack in NYC and then they went to making the burgers. They used Skirt and Short Ribs. Shoot me an e-mail at umby23294@yahoo.com and I can give you the recipe that you can tweek to your own liking.

mad max beyond eggdome

yep, its a good read...and there is a chapter devoted to the fish butcher at eric ripert's restaurant in NY...the way he describes it is fantastic, and i thought it was great when tony showed up with him on top-chef...that was a GREAT scene!!...

and i hear you about the pricing at the grocers...i get the same thing at my safeway ...when they run specials on porthouses and ribeyes and sirloin strips, the prices can be very very good (in the 5 buck a pound range)...granted its not "prime" beef....but with the right seasonings and t-rexing them on the egg, they come out really really good!!

my whole point to tony was that, if you really want exceptional flavor in a burger, get the right cuts and have them ground to the right meat/fat ratio....then you will have one really good burger....i'm sure his will be just fine so long as he cooks the correctly...

btw, i've actually taken to grilling my burgers (usually in the 1/3 to 1/2 pound range) high direct at around 350 degrees....they are actually roasting more than they are grilling, but i love the way they turn out nice and juicy, even when cooked to medium/medium well, which is the way i like them...

TigerTony

Okay,
I just finished making the Rib-Eye patties. I formed 8 out of the 5 Lbs.
Here's what I did:
I mixed in some worcestershire sauce, actually quite a bit. Then some DP Raising The Steaks and a little garlic powder. I cut some pats of butter and placed one small tab inside the center of each one. I sprinkled them with more Raising The Steaks and I have them in the fridge waiting to be cooked at 7:00 tonight.
I cleaned my eggs Lg and Med. and filled them with Ozark Oak lump and added some pecan chips.
I'm going to cook them slowly around 350* on a raised grid.
I'll cook the burgers on my Larg egg and some crawfish boudin for an appetizer on my Med egg. After the boudin is finished I'll grill some onions in a black iron skillet (no handle)on the medium egg, to top the burgers. I'll toast teh buns and finish with some grated cheddar cheese.
I'll report back tomorrow with the results.
Thanks everybody for your input.

Florida Grillin Girl

Don't you worry, those are going to be good. Take some pics!