Tips Requested for Cheeseburgers

Corv

I know how to cook things like Tri-Tip, chicken, brats and so on pretty well on an Egg, but cheeseburgers not so much. Right now I generally make them as smashburgers on a CI skillet on my stove, which since it's a Bluestar, puts out enough heat to do it well, even at Colorado elevations. I had thought that doing that on an Egg would be a waste of charcoal since it wouldn't be on there long enough to pick up any flavor change. 

I've got the regular wire grid and a CI grid available for the large, but only the wire grid for the Mini.

I'm open to suggestions, friends! Help!

DoubleEgger

What don’t you like about the cheeseburgers you have previously made using the egg? 

buzd504

Heh, I just move the skillet to the egg (I have a cast iron pie plate) and do them the same way.

Foghorn

If you're looking for a good, reasonably thick, juicy burger, try this.  I've learned this from folks here.

Mix a little worcestershire sauce into the meat.

Do not add any salt or rub to the meat.

Make 1/3 pound patties, relatively flat and use your thumb to indent the center of the disc so that the burger is slightly thinner in the middle.  While mixing the worcestershire and making the burgers, try not to compact the meat too much.  You want the meat "loosely approximated", just enough that it will hold the shape of a burger.

Just before you put it on the grill, add your favorite burger rub to one side of the each burger.

Put the rub side down on the grill and then sprinkle rub on the other side.

Cook to 140 internal (as rare as you can cook and still be foodsafe)

Serve

Legume

Spot on with my experience @Foghorn, salt the outside when cooking instead of the inside, keep it loose.

Legume

@Corv have you had a burger from the little stand inside upslope? (The one off of 55th, not the north one)

caliking

If you don’t have a Blackstone type griddle, this Lodge piece of kit is well worth the money IMO:

https://a.co/d/b0QkRyI

You can use it in the egg, and get the benefits of a griddled burger + smoke, etc. flavor. 

The tips above, re: seasoning the meat are worth following. 

I’ll also add that homemade buns will elevate your burger experience. The small amount of extra effort will pay off in spades.

Lastly, I used to love a  Jucy Lucy kind of burger, but changed my mind after recently trying OK style onion burgers. 

Corv

Legume said:

@Corv have you had a burger from the little stand inside upslope? (The one off of 55th, not the north one)

Nope. But I go to Dark Horse often enough.

Corv

In general, I've go the seasoning and doneness to my taste. It's the cooking where I lack.

And since I've generally not done well at it, I haven't cooked a cheeseburger on an Egg for a number of years, so I can't say what in particular I didn't care for. I just remember that my burgers on the Egg were not good, and done on the Bluestar, they are.

But I like cooking on an Egg!

shtgunal3

I’ll add, buy a chuck roast and grind it yourself. I cut it up in cubes and par freeze before grinding. Much better that regular ground beef.

GrateEggspectations

shtgunal3 said:

I’ll add, buy a chuck roast and grind it yourself. I cut it up in cubes and par freeze before grinding. Much better that regular ground beef.

When I grind my own beef (often scraps from a tenderloin breakdown), I love being able to cook ‘em medium rare. 😋 

Ike

Any of the above methods, but my key is, get the egg anywhere between 360 and 390 before putting the burger on, once the burger is on close the lid.  When the greese starts dripping there will be smoke coming out of the top vent.  That's when you have to make a decision, raise the lid, red juice is rare, clear juice is med rare/med well, flip at your choice of doneness, after flipping put you cheese on.  It should be done after 3 or 4 mins.

Buckwoody Egger

lots of ideas here to do it all on the egg, smashburgers on CI or otherwise

https://www.google.com/search?q=site:nibblemethis.com+burger

Stormbringer

You could give the Ju(i)cy Lucy burger a try ... a different take on a cheeseburger  https://thecooksdigest.co.uk/2018/08/24/jucy-lucy-burgers/

fishlessman

loosely packed, then slightly frozen (this helps the burger setup when charring on a hot grill instead of falling apart with a loosely packed burger. only salt when its on the grill. make sure the egg is clean, burning chicken fat from a previous cook sucks right into a burger and its not good. too many burgers cooking on an egg gives the same bad taste so im usually cooking burgers on the blackstone smash style and even sometimes go the gasser route. i use the drippings floating to the top and puddling on the burger, then the flip til it puddles again. gave up on reading the internal temp, seems to ruin burgers for me

dbCooper

Not for everytime, smoked burgers cooked indirect around 250 are a good change of pace.

*edit to add, on occasion a local butcher has prime rib burgers at $8-9/lb.  That is what I use when going smoked.