Improving burger flavor on the Egg

As alluded to by @bgebrent,  eggsperiment with your cooking style (change only one variable at a time) and see where you land.  Lump or briquettes-much better than a gasser right out of the gate.  FWIW-

I do burgers on my Weber kettle. The BGE is a great choice for many things. It's  tough to beat a kettle for a burger cook. 

Hamburgers for me on Blackstone..... SWMBO only likes them that way now... I agree...

So, she likes the "gasoline" taste?  Make sure you put seasoning IN the meat, not just on it. If done properly, you should only need S&P.  Fat content should be 80:20 (most fast food places use ~72-74)  k

I've got a set of grill grates. I think they do a good job doing burgers on the egg.
I do think the grates reduces some of the fat dripping and burning on the coals.
You can, and I sometimes do, flip the grill grates over where I'm cooking the burgers on a flat surface. This does promote more of a Blackstone style crust formation on the burger.

Powak said:

... she's straight up told me my burgers on the grill don't taste as good as they used to ... could it be the fat dripping onto the coals is causing that semi nasty flavor swmbo's tasting? I hate to consider getting Grill Grates but could it be worth it?

GregW said:

I've got a set of grill grates. I think they do a good job doing burgers on the egg.
I do think the grates reduces some of the fat dripping and burning on the coals....

I like burgers cooked on a metal surface, notably including smash burgers, but I don't like them as well as burgers grilled over charcoal.  Two kinda opposite things about that:

1. I, also, have felt like burgers on the Egg get more of a burnt-fat flavor and fragrance than they used to on other grills, and it's made me less happy about burgers on the Egg than anything else.  I LOVE everything I cook on my BGEs except burgers.  So I tried grill grates, hoping they'd cut back on the dripping fat burning back up into the meat, and I think they do help, and I'm using them for burgers, now.
2. But... when I've cooked steaks on them, they made really cool looking grill marks, but I wound up deciding that the meat between the grill marks was LESS seared than on a plain grid, so overall, I really think I'm getting a better edge-to-edge sear on a plain grid, even though the grill marks aren't very noticeable or pretty.  So I can't help wondering whether burgers might be similar.  I get less of that burnt-fat taste with grill grates, and really nice looking grill marks, but I wonder whether, like the steaks, I'm getting less overall sear edge to edge with the grill grates.  I won't use them for steaks, for example, because I think I get a better sear without them.

So I have mixed feelings.  For me, the grill grates were kind of expensive, but I definitely like burgers better cooked on them than a regular grid.  There's still some fat dripping down on the fire, but I think it must cut back on that enough that I don't really get that burnt-fat taste.

big but thin burgers partially frozen on the egg 450 plus direct, limit the flipping to one as it dumps less grease. if youre feeding burgers to a crowd the blackstone hands down

SWMBO buys the groceries- really have no idea what the level of meat she buys they are usually pre-made patties either sliders or patties.  Sometimes if she buys the patties from costco we pull about 1/4 off reform and remake.

Seasoning- varies but usually we use Jane’s Mixed-Up Salt sprinkled on top both sides ~10 min before grilling.

Cook- 400 degrees raised direct- PS Woo, Original Grate.  I dont care about grill marks and I generally dont put cheese on until I pull them off.

Results- my 11 yo spent the night w a friend over the weekend.  When picking her up and asking about breakfast she noted the night before she had burgers and they were terrible compared to the ones you make.  "I mean I forced myself to eat it because I was hungry but I like yours way better"