this is the best how-to-make-a-perfect-burger guide that i have yet to find. these are some great tips, courtesy of the globe’s Chris Nuttall-Smith, and i didn’t know about many of them before reading this. i’m now seriously considering going out to buy a meat grinder. happy bbq season!
Great burgers are simple. Anybody can make them. All you need is five basic rules and a piece of equipment that costs about the same as a decent toaster. So read on. And we’re willing to bet it’s the greatest hamburger of your life.
1. Great hamburgers don’t start with ground beef. They start with beef.
Nothing will make your burgers better, faster, than buying whole cuts of meat and grinding them at home. When you have your own grinder (a good standalone version costs less than $100; the $60 Kitchen Aid mixer attachment is also excellent) you can use tough, inexpensive and hugely flavoured cuts like flatiron or flank or even heart, and blend them with chuck or brisket. When you grind your own, you know what you’re getting: meat from just a couple of animals, as opposed to the scraps from thousands that can go into a single batch of industrially processed stuff. (And no pink slime, thanks.) Your chances of contracting e-coli are much, much lower with home-ground stuff than supermarket ground, in other words, so you can cook your burgers to medium with a little more confidence. (But be advised: Public-health types still insist that ground beef isn’t 100-per-cent safe until cooked to over 160 degrees.)
2. Embrace the fat
A fatty burger is a tasty, juicy burger. The ideal blend contains between 20- and 25-per-cent fat. Chuck typically has about that much, while leaner cuts like the flat end of a brisket or a well-trimmed heart can have a lot less. The best way to get it right is to tell your butcher what you’re looking for, or failing that, just eyeball it. And if you’re using only lean cuts, ask for a little extra fat that you can chop up and add to your mix.
3. Use more salt
It’s a truism that bears repeating: One of the greatest differences between home cooks and professional cooks is that professionals use a lot more salt. Use kosher salt or sea salt and apply it aggressively: Rain a fat-fingered pinch over either side of thinner patties, or if you’re mixing it into a bowlful of beef and you’re typically reticent with the stuff, put twice as much as usual and fry up a marble-sized ball to test. (Perfect salting doesn’t make beef taste salty; it makes it in-your-face beefy.) And if you’re the sort of person who gets all bothered by the instruction “use more salt,” relax, already. No one’s suggesting you should eat these every day.
4. Pack it gently
To form a patty, pick up a loose ball of beef and gently slap it on either side and around the edges until it’s slightly wider than your hamburger bun. Don’t over-compress it. And if you like a big burger, consider stacking two thinner patties rather than building one monstrous one. Thinner patties are easier to cook, and two patties means double the surface area, so you get twice as much of the crusty, caramelized sear. Pro tip: Weigh out your patties with a kitchen scale so they’re all equal; they’ll cook at the same speed that way.
5. Get it hot
If you’re cooking straight on a grill, start directly over medium-hot coals or gas (any hotter gets you flare-ups), sear on both sides, then move the patties off the heat and close the lid until they’re done. Even better, put a cast-iron pan directly on the barbecue over high heat, close the lid, let it heat to nearly smoking, then drop in your patties and close the lid again, opening only to flip your burgers. Barbecue + pan = crust-forming, high-heat sear and smoky barbecue taste.
