Tell me about Burgers

mstang1988

I've never had great success cooking burgers at home.  I can cook a stellar steak, pretty awesome brisket etc, but my burgers have been just "meh".  I know I over work them, that's a huge part of the problem.  This time I won't make that mistake.

What else do I need to do to make the perfect burger?  I can't grind my own meat but I might be able to get the butcher to grind up a specific cut for me (probably no mixing).  

hapster

Try these... My family loved them

http://thegreeneggandi.com/?s=A+real+burger+on+the+grill&submit=Search

NPHuskerFL

hapster said:

Try these... My family loved them

http://thegreeneggandi.com/?s=A+real+burger+on+the+grill&submit=Search

Bookmarked. Thanks @hapster for the share.

Wolfpack

@griffin just did one with fish sauce- it was quite good

TexanOfTheNorth

I find that an 80/20 lean/fat ratio works well for a burger. If you don't have enough fat in your meat it's hard to get a good burger.

gdenby

The quality of the beef seems the bottom line to me. I rarely use ground beef any more that doesn't come from a butcher shop, or a family farm. No old dairy cow for me, thanks.  Tho' note, not all grass fed is the tastiest.  That just means the beef will only taste as good as the grass it grazed, and that differs widely.

Don't know which cut is best overall, but I'd rate ground short rib very high.

80/20 is my favorite mix, also. If you want leaner, here's a trick. Reduce a couple of onions to juice w. a blender. Dissolve a packet of gelatin in that, and add it to the meat, and let chill for an hour.

I've had good luck w. putting some rub in a few hours in advance, and letting that suffuse the meat. Most recently, I used some DP Cowlick and a dash of wooster.

I grill raised, direct, dome 400 - 450. Let cook long enough to sear the bottom, and flip. Wait a minute, add cheese of your choice, close dome, and wait till cheese melts. Serve.

Cheese and other toppings is a whole other book. And the bun would be volume 3.

Griffin

Fish sauce definitely adds some great umami flavor. Still working on perfecting my own blend of meat cuts and ratios.

When I'm in charge of making patties, I get about 4 to 6 oz of meat, lightly roll into a meatball, handling as little as possible. Put down some seran wrap or parchment paper on a cutting board, lay down meatball, place another piece of seran wrap or parchment paper on top, take another small cutting board and smash it down to desired thickness. Viola! Perfectly round patty. Well...close enough. You can play around with the edges if you want a perfect circle.

dweebs0r

Made burgers on the mini last night.  They were better than 'meh' but not awe inspiring or anything.

All I did was throw 2 lbs of ground chuck in a bowl, poured in a little Dales seasoning (not too much it can overpower the burgers), threw in an egg, some bread crumbs (my mom always did this to make more burgers because we always had more people than food in the house), a little garlic powder, a little ground black pepper.  Made 9-10 balls the size of the palm of my hand.  Had the mini at 400 direct.  Cooked about 3-4 minutes a side.  Done.

BRush00

My last burgers actually turned out by FAR my best.

I used 3 # of fresh ground chuck, mixed in 2 tbsp. of fish sauce, 1 tbsp. paprika and formed into 6 patties.

Liberally salt and peppered both sides

I think I had them on the grill 6ish minutes/side at about 500 or so.  all burgers were nice and pink inside and abso-freaking-lutely delishious.

Served them up with Bacon, grilled Avocado & onion, Chipotle Mayo (Mayo, Dijon mustard, chipotle in adobo, s+p), tomato and lettuce.  Served up on a Chiabatta

Outta this world burger actually

BRush00

Oh - and Jalapeño Monterey Jack Cheese ^^

mstang1988

The cook went ok but they were way over done.  I temped them at 160 but I guess I should have given them something closer to 140-145 and let them rest up.  I did some on the gasser and some on the egg to compare flavor.  The egg was a far better burger.  Thank you guys for all the tips!  

Botch

On ATK today they added melted butter and salt to the beef before forming into balls/patties, I'll be trying the butter next time (I've always added the salt before forming).

And I try not to take the temp beyond 130.  

EggNorth

I make these which are pretty good.   I just cook them as regular burgers direct on the grill.   Interesting he says not to salt while mixing, but the recipe calls for Worcestershire sauce which is high in salt.  Good stuff!

Adam Perry Burgers with Griddled Onions