Making the Best Hamburger

[tommy]

i just got a grinder attachment for that pretty white thing that has been sitting on my counter since i got it as a wedding gift (i think it's called a "mixer" or something clever). i'm very much looking forward to grinding some meat for hamburgers.

any suggestions on cuts, ratios, handling, seasoning, etc?

[mamster]

Don't bother with anything but chuck (do I have to specify boneless?). Keep the machine on its slowest setting, and see whether you like a single grind or two grinds. You could throw a little onion in, but in general, if you want seasonings, mix them with the meat after it's ground.

That grinder will work great for hamburger meat, but what you've really got there, of course, is a homemade sausage maker. If there are any types of fresh sausage you like but can't find near your house, try making some. You don't have to stuff it into casings if you're lazy like me.

[mamster]

Whatever shoulder cut is on sale. Sometimes that's a "pork shoulder steak" (which would make a lousy steak, IMO), often boneless country-style ribs, sometimes a shoulder roast. Generally you also need some pork fat, which your butcher should give you for free or at least really cheap, since no one wants it. My favorite sausage at the moment is a Thai one with lime juice, fish sauce, garlic, cooked sticky rice, and cayenne. Great for breakfast if you're not self-conscious about garlic breath.

Whenever you grind, start with everything really cold. Aside from complying with the health code, it keeps things from gooshing around in there. (Did I really just use the word "gooshing"? Yuck.)

[Jim Dixon]

I didn't grind it myself, but mixed n about 25% ground brisket with some regular (20% fat) ground beef. Made a great burger, maybe because of the collagen...but it takes slow cooking to break down, so maybe not...

Jim

[LaNiña]

I have one of those old fashioned meat grinders that mounts onto a table/counter like a vice. I love it. The worst is when I have overground the meat - by doing it too much, or too fine. I always go coarser than I think, and I'm always glad.

[Holly Moore]

The original McDonald's blend - don't scoff it's an excellent blend even when the patties are 3 - 4 to a pound as oppposed to 10 to a pound - is about 20 percent flank steak and 80 percent chuck.

[ngatti]

The original McDonald's blend - don't scoff it's an excellent blend even when the patties are 3 - 4 to a pound as oppposed to 10 to a pound - is about 20 percent flank steak and 80 percent chuck.

You're quite right Holly. When we used to make patties in one of the hotels i worked in, we used 1 chuck to 40 pounds of porterhouse tails. Essentialy flank steak. They were very nice flavorful burgers.

Nick

[Fat Guy]

There are so many factors that go into determining what is the best blend of meat for a hamburger: How rare you plan to serve it, what cooking method you plan to use, how juicy you like the final product to be. Some would argue that a little veal in the mix is a good move. Others would argue for aged meat. Your best bet is to try a whole bunch of different combinations and find the one that works for you.

However, one thing I'll stand behind is that once you grind your meat in a grinder you are inherently limiting the excellence of your burger. What you want is chopped meat, not ground meat. Of course most people have never had real chopped meat. But try it sometime: Take a really sharp knife (or two) and chop some beef to pretty much the consistency of hamburger. Gently mold the patty and cook it. Oh, my. What have you been missing?

[bigbear]

Gently mold the patty.....

Yes. This is a common mistake that people make when forming burgers. They mush the meat around like meatloaf. Handle and work as little as possible.

[=Mark]

The original McDonald's blend - don't scoff it's an excellent blend even when the patties are 3 - 4 to a pound as oppposed to 10 to a pound - is about 20 percent flank steak and 80 percent chuck.

Using flank steak in the mixture sounds comparable to the suggestion for using brisket. As far as the brisket goes, do they trim the fat from it? From a ground beef perspective you would think it would be best to leave the fat cap on.

[Holly Moore]

In McTheory the fat is supposed to come from the chuck.

[mamster]

However, one thing I'll stand behind is that once you grind your meat in a grinder you are inherently limiting the excellence of your burger. What you want is chopped meat, not ground meat. Of course most people have never had real chopped meat. But try it sometime: Take a really sharp knife (or two) and chop some beef to pretty much the consistency of hamburger. Gently mold the patty and cook it. Oh, my. What have you been missing?

What cut of meat would you use for this? I've heard this claim before and always stalled on my possibly mistaken belief that if I used my preferred chuck, I'd end up with gristly bits.

[Fat Guy]

I've tried it with chuck and with sirloin. The sirloin is a bit more foolproof in terms of the gristle problem but if you chop the chuck fine enough and pluck out the most noticeable offending bits you'll find that most of the remaining fat melts into the patty during cooking. Not that this is something I do very often, but I happened to do it a few days ago with tenderloin. I had purchased a whole tenderloin maybe four months ago at Stew Leonard's in Yonkers and there were a couple of pieces that were unsuitable for use as steaks. I think I may have posted about the luxurious beef fried rice I made from one of those pieces. The other one sat in my freezer for all the time we were out of town and I had forgotten about it. But faced with a relatively barren icebox I went fishing and there it was. I let it defrost partially (not that I advocate using semi-frozen meat if you have access to fresh, but it sure is easy to work with). There was quite a bit of fat running down the middle of the piece, if you can envision what I mean, so I made sure to incorporate that thoroughly into the patty. I thought it made an excellent burger. I had feared it would be dry, but there was enough of that fat to keep it moist and I guess there was a decent amount of marbled fat as well. The taste was superb; better than filet mignon tastes straight, actually, though of course it didn't have the texture of real steak. Very beefy, it seemed to me, despite filet mignon not being a particularly beefy tasting cut. Go figure.

[tommy]

Again, to emphasize, keep everything COLD!  Put the attachment itself in the fridge, and put the meat in the freezer till ice crystals start to form! 

is this simply a safety dance measure? or does it have a positive impact on the texture of the final product. 'cause i ain't so worried about going crazy with safety.

[mynamejoe]

It is both safety and textural. If the friction of the grinder raises the temp of the meat above a cerain degree (I forget the exact temp, will have to look it up), the meat will not bind together well. It'll be kinda mealy and fall apart easily.

Regarding wheher or not you should trim meat you are going to grind, only if you want to exactly control the lean to fat ratio. Silverskin, gristle and veins/arteries should always be trimmed out and discarded.

[Fat Guy]

Acceptable article touching on this subject:

http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Archives...75,3666,00.html

[tommy]

i had reasonable success with making my own hamburger meat tonite.

i used a pound each of sirlion and chuck, and ground them on the lowest speed, per some of the folks here, even though the manual suggested a speed setting of "4". i trimmed any excess fat off of the meat before grinding.

i subscribe to the "less is more" approach when it comes to hamburger handling, as opposed to my approach to dog handling. i think this backfired a bit, as they wanted to fall apart on the grill. this led to me overcooking the burgers slightly. but, the flavor and texture were right on. i'm looking forward to trying this again with different cuts of meat.

the bun was this big fluffy over-sized white castle looking thing that i had previous success with from Kings supermarket. i really enjoy this bun. it doesn't get in the way, but serves its purpose. yes, i would say that this bun, if anything, servers the burger. that should be its tag line. "this bun serves the burger." tag line writing shall no doubt be my next career.

also served:

baked french fries with rosemary and doctored ketchup (i see no reason to not doctor ketchup when you've got chili sauces and sriracha laying about).

salad of arugala and red onion.

a 1999 cabernet franc from firestone vinyards (CA)

[tommy]

so far i've only tried a combination of chuck and sirloin.

does anyone have thoughts on mixing ribeye into the deal? ribeye has great flavor, and lots o fat. it seems like a logical choice, but no one has ever suggested this, nor i have ever read this.

thoughts?

[mynamejoe]

You should be getting a stronger flavor out of the chuck and sirloin. I think some reasons that rib-eye isn't commonly used as meat for grinding is that it grills just fine without being ground and it's costlier. There's nothing wrong with experimenting, though. Ask the butcher for chuck-end rib roast; it's got more fat.

[mamster]

Hey, tonight I made Shaw's hand-chopped burger. I used chuck. As promised, it was easy to pick out the gristly bits. I didn't have any hamburger buns, so I used French bread. I cooked the burger between medium rare and medium in a cast-iron pan and topped it with sauteed onions and HP sauce.

This was a promising trial but not quite a success: I didn't chop the meat fine enough. As a result, there were some chewy bits, and overall the patty had a unpleasantly springy texture.

On the upside, there was plenty of beefy flavor, and it was easy to do. It still would have been easy if I'd taken the time to chop it fine enough (it seemed okay, but now I know to keep chopping after I think it's done). Also, I have enough chuck left to try again and to make a couple of servings of Thai curry.

[stefanyb]

Coincidentally, I also made a hand-chopped burger tonight and was debating about posting it here. I bought boneless short ribs and was a little nervous that it wouldn't be tender enough but it was excellent. I partially froze the meat and then diced it. Then I rough chopped the already diced meat, seasoned it with kosher salt and lightly made patties out of it. Then I pan-fried them. The beefiness was extraordinary and the meat was very tender and juicy.

Ground beef that you buy either at the butcher or supermarket has blood added to the mix to increase the weight. I think that when you salt ground beef and mix it the salt is absorbed by the liquid and somehow changes the final product. When I salted this meat it stayed crystaline on all the small pieces.

I can't state too emphatically how great this burger tasted to me.

[mamster]

Short ribs--great idea!

Adding blood to ground beef is illegal. Grocery stores may well do it, but I'll bet the vast majority of reputable butchers don't. Then again, when it's so easy to grind your own at home (by hand, grinder, or food processor) what's the point?

[Fat Guy]

Shaw's hand-chopped burger.

Thank you for using the official designation.

[jaybee]

I've combined second cut brisket in with the chuck. Makes a spectacular burger. Ordered up a batch for kosher friends from Fisher Bros. It grilled up super good. First kosher beef I really enjoyed.

Edited December 11, 2002 by jaybee (log)

[Ron Johnson]

Ground beef that you buy either at the butcher or supermarket has blood added to the mix to increase the weight.

Do you have a source for this? If true, I find this practice very troublesome.