Perfect Burgers!

MikeP624 · April 2012

For my Father-in-Laws birthday he asked that we just prepare an awesome meal. He stated he wanted a burger. I am going to try and duplicated a burger from a bar in Chicago called Kuma's. (http://www.kumascorner.com/food) It has pancetta, brie, carmalized onions and bourbon poached pear slices. I have had it and it was awesome. I was going to do some ABT's for an appitizer and maybe some duck fat fries as a side. I am going for a low fat and healty menu. )

I have selected a ground beef mixture of equal parts short ribs, brisket and chuck. I might mix in some bone marrow for additional flavor/fat.

I have not done burgers yet, and am going to do a test run the day before, but i was looking for a good starting point. I was wondering how you more experienced BGE cooks do your burgers. Raised/Lower grill, time and temp?

Thanks for the help.

Mickey · April 2012

If real thick I do at reg level. If not real thick I pull the fire ring and grill from there and at 450. And for me brisket.

Eggbertsdad · April 2012

Mike,

I made some burgers this past weekend. I used beef ribs, chuck steak, and skirt steak. The flavor was good but they didn't have enough fat in them. They were on the verge of being crumbly. Your natural instinct may be to trim pieces more than you should....at least mine was. Just be cautious not to trim too much and your mix will be great! Good luck.

SamFerrise · April 2012

My Polish father-in-law liked to add beef suet (the perfect smooth white fat around the beef kidney) to his burger mix. It is incredibly tasty, but don't tell your doctor. I also add suet to my venison when making venison sausage. It kicks it up a few notches. Freeze the suet until it is firm then chop it up and add.

gdenby · April 2012

I hope to get to Kuma's sometime. The burgers are legendary.

I do burgers raised, direct, and fairly hot, 375 - 400. Time depends some on thickness, and meat temp at start. Never timed myself, but I'd suppose a total of 20 minutes. I've never made a burger that had less than 15% fat that I thought was any good.

Personally, I'd save any marrow to eat by itself.

2 side notes. I read that 1 of the burgers at Kuma's uses a pretzel bun that is dipped in a egg mix, making the bun a sort of 1 sided savory French toast.

I haven't tried that yet, but i have fried the inner faces of my buns in tallow, and it was wonderful.

Ragtop99 · April 2012

I do mine at regular grid level and hot, glowing coals and egg temp of 425 minimum when I put them on. Toss in a chunk or two of wood. I'll let the temp climb a bit as they cook as I'm fine with the temp getting as high as 500*. DW is on, but most of the way open to regulate the temp; bottom vent is at least 1/2 open if not all the way to goose the temp on the flip. Regular ground beef patties typically about 7 ounces are done in 7 -10 minutes depending upon the internal temp desired and the temp of meat when it hit the grill.

Hillbilly-Hightech · April 2012

I use default grid level. Direct. About 350-ish dome temp. 4 minutes / side, flip, another 4 minutes - add cheese, wait about 30-40 seconds - remove.

Also, some (more detailed) tips for success are:

gently toss the meat back & forth from hand to hand till it starts to form a ball. Then gently start "slapping" the ball to flatten it out - the key word here is GENTLY - for burgers, you don't want densely compacted meat. Think "light & airy".
Once the meat starts flattening out, I usually flip it up in my hand so that it looks like a "wheel" and start rolling it like a wheel around my palm, to make it more uniform & round.
Once you get the patty looking like you want it to - set it down then gently press your thumb into the middle to form an indentation or "divot" - this will help keep the burger from becoming "bulbous" and swelling as it cooks.
Once you place it onto the cooking grid - shut the dome & leave it alone for about 4 minutes - do NOT start "smushing" it w/ your spatula - you just spent all that time making nice "light & airy" patties, so why would you then want to compact & condense them now (let alone you'd be squishing the juices out of the burger).
After about 4 minutes, open dome, and quickly (but gently) flip, and close dome quickly.
After the 2nd set of 4 minutes (maybe 3 minutes, 30 seconds), if you enjoy cheese on your burgers, now would be the time to add cheese - add the cheese, shut dome, wait about 30-40 seconds for cheese to melt.
Gently remove burgers, place on bun, add desired condiments, enjoy!!! (no need to "rest" a burger - eat it immediately).

P.S. These burgers will be so juicy that as you bite into them, the juice will run out of the burger!!!

Ragtop99 · April 2012

Once you place it onto the cooking grid - shut the dome & leave it
alone for about 4 minutes - do NOT start "smushing" it w/ your spatula -
you just spent all that time making nice "light & airy" patties, so
why would you then want to compact & condense them now (let alone
you'd be squishing the juices out of the burger).

I cringe when I go to BBQs and the guy cooking the burgers does that. At that point I grab another beer because there is a good chance I'm going to be eating an overcooked highly compacted burger.

Village Idiot · April 2012

Hey Mickey,

How did you get the smiley face on your onion? Your cooks always seem so happy. I bet they taste better too.

supervisor404 · April 2012

LOOKS DELISH!!!

Eggbertsdad · April 2012

Hey Mickey,

How did you get the smiley face on your onion? Your cooks always seem so happy. I bet they taste better too.

)

Perfect Burgers!

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