First, a few tips:
- Use 80/20 beef for grilling. The fat’s going to drip away as it cooks, and fat lends both flavor and moisture to your burger. Starting out with a higher fat content will help save you from dry, bland burgers. If there’s some health nut who doesn’t actually know how to cook in your family who insists you get 93/7 beef, cook it in a pan on the stovetop. They won’t get that nice fire flavor, but your burgers will have a better chance of retaining moisture and flavor if they can cook in what little fat they have.
- ALWAYS COOK STOREBOUGHT GROUND MEAT TO AT LEAST MEDIUM-WELL! That meat was probably ground several days before you bought it, and may have been in your fridge a few days since. Every bit of it has made contact with the grinding surfaces and has been mixed with air. Bacteria was basically just stirred into your meat, all the way through, and it’s just been sitting there in your fridge, multiplying. Unless you buy steaks and grind them yourself right before preparing your burgers, or go to a butcher and have them grind steaks for you, you cannot trust your ground meat to be safe at anything less than medium.
- For those of you about to say, “I like my meat still mooing!”, I say yes, I agree, rare steak is great. Rare burgers? Gross. Steak still has fibrous tissue that even rare, provides adequate mouth-feel and resistance. Ground beef? Well it basically gets turned into a pâté where all the muscles from the animal are broken down and aerated. When cooked rare, ground beef has no mouth-feel other than soft and squishy, which is hardly befitting of beef. Beef sausage has snap, steak has a crusty sear and buttery chew, barbecued beef briskets have smoke rings and fat caps and bark. Soft and squishy with no resistance or texture is an offense to the cow that died to give you that beef, and you should be ashamed if you like your burgers rare.
- Use a fresh vessel to remove burgers from the grill, not the same one that had the raw burgers. Because raw burgers are full of bacteria. Seriously, don’t cross-contaminate cooked and raw foods. Bad things happen. Restaurants get shut down for that every day across the country. People sue restaurants for poor hygiene practices. Your neighbors will never speak to you again if you poison them at your cookout, and will report every minor infraction to the HOA until your landlord evicts you because they’re tired of getting complaints about you. DON’T CROSS-CONTAMINATE! That stuff’s serious.
Ingredients:
2 lbs. ground beef, 80% lean, 20% fat
3 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
Salt
Pepper
Cheese and toppings
Buns or bread
Directions:
- Combine ground beef, Worcestershire, and salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl. A pastry cutter will help to thoroughly blend meat and seasonings, but hands may be required at the end.
- Place meat in refrigerator to marinate. Light grill for direct heat on one side, indirect on the other, and prepare any burger accoutrements (bacon, sautéed onions, sliced tomatoes, etc.) while meat is marinating.
- When grill is ready, remove meat from refrigerator and shape into 6-8 patties (1/3-1/4lb. burgers). Make round patties for buns, rectangular for bread. Work from center outward to make an indentation in the middle. Indentation will prevent rounding of flat surfaces as muscle tissue contracts during cooking.
- Arrange burgers on grill over direct heat to build a sear. Cook covered 1 ½-2 minutes. Move to indirect heat with the flip. Finish cooking covered another 7 or so minutes. Burgers are done when juices run clear. Time may need to be adjusted depending on size and shape of burgers, type of grill, etc. Add cheese at last moment to start melting. Cheese will finish melting during rest period.
- Pull burgers and place on a fresh plate or pan. Allow to rest 4-5 minutes. Toast bread or buns while burgers rest.
- Build burger to perfection and enjoy. Serve with lots of napkins.
That’s it. The perfect American burger. I like mine with American cheese, two strips of bacon, sautéed onions, fresh lettuce and tomato, and some mayo and mustard. Sometimes I’ll throw on some A1 or bbq sauce for a little extra sweetness, but it’s not necessary. What? Ketchup? Ew, no. The only thing ketchup is good for is onion rings.
What about lean burgers indoors? Well, it’s the same concept as with any meat. Cook at medium-high heat (6.5/10) on both sides about 4 minutes on each side. Don’t move the burgers around the pan, just let them sit there and build a sear. And don’t smash them down with a spatula, that just squeezes out all the juices. Flip a second time after the main cooking period, remove from heat, top with cheese, and cover with a lid. Build your burger when the cheese has melted.
Anyway, I’m going to devour this burger as it so rightfully deserves. Leave your thoughts in a comment below, or get in touch with me directly by filling out the form on the contact page.
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