Making the Best Hamburger

[Chris Amirault]

I had quite a bit of fat trimmed from some American kobe strip steaks (that I stuck in the Sous Vide Supreme), so I ground that with about 2/3s chuck and 1/3 brisket last week. Heavenly.

[mkayahara]

I don't make hamburgers very often, I guess mostly because I'm never that satisfied with them when I do. (To my mind, nothing could ever top the incredible-in-my-memory griddled hamburger from the greasy spoon I frequented in high school.)

But I have a hankering, so I'm wondering if I can get help with two items in particular:

1) Do I season the meat before/during grinding? Or just season the finished patty? (I assume seasoning the already-ground meat is out, since distributing it then risks overworking the meat.)

2) I always find that my homemade hamburger patties tend to contract as they cook, so that what started out as a flat patty tends to end up more like a flattened meatball in shape. What am I doing wrong? Overworking the meat? Not giving them a sufficient width-to-height ratio in the first place?

Edit: I think it should go without saying that I'm not feeling up to the whole Modernist Cuisine align-the-meat-strands approach here. I want the second-best technique, please!

Edited June 21, 2012 by mkayahara (log)

[Chris Hennes]

There are three points you can season the meat, IMO: each works, but each requires different technique. First, you can season just before grinding. This has the advantage of allowing the grinding to distribute the meat, but the disadvantage of requiring extra care when forming the patties to avoid hockey-puck syndrome because the salt causes the beef to become stickier. This option is great if you are forming and cooking right away, not so great if you are grinding a couple hours ahead.

Second, you can season just before forming: fresh-ground beef is relatively loose and mixing the seasoning in without overworking the meat is not that difficult, just sort of toss the beef with your fingers. You will want to form the patties immediately after this step.

Third, you can season just before or just after cooking: this works best for thin patties. Thicker patties will be underseasoned in the middle and overseasoned at the edges.

Regarding the contraction: make a shallow depression in the center of the burger so that the raw patty is thinner in the middle than in the edges, and make sure you don't overcook it.

[mkayahara]

Ah, yeah, overcooking makes sense in terms of contraction. I've been guilty of that more than once.

Do you use a particular ratio for seasoning?

Thanks for the pointers!

[Chris Hennes]

Yes, I swear by paulraphael's blend: 0.75% salt and 0.25% black pepper.

[mkayahara]

Awesome, thank you!

[Pierogi]

Grating (yes, using a box grater) about 1/4 of a large onion into the meat before you form the patties does a couple of things. First, it helps to season it, and second, the juice from the onion, which you actually get more of than the onion flesh itself, helps to keep the meat moist. I salt and pepper pretty heavily before I mix the onion in, with a little less salt if I'm pan grilling in a cast-iron skillet. In that case, I salt the skillet liberally, so I ease back on the salt in the mix. If I'm outdoor grilling, grill panning or broiling, I salt the raw mix heavily. Use a light hand (some say fingertips only) to mix in the grated onion and S&P. I suppose you could throw in some herbs and grated garlic at this point, too, but I like my burgers without those extra flavors. Then, the dimple in the middle makes ALL the difference in the world. ALL the difference. It goes from tough, bulge-y little hockey puck, to bun-sized, juicy burger with that magic dimple.

[Chris Hennes]

If you're in the mood for an herbed burger, check out the one in Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table. It's an excellent, albeit completely unconventional, recipe.

[Mr Holloway]

We have been using nice fatty chuck roasts

Sometimes I add some bacon into the grind.

Fish sauce is my secret weapon

Shane

Edited June 22, 2012 by Mr Holloway (log)

[mkayahara]

Thanks to Chris' help, the burgers I made last night came out beautifully. I used just some great blade (= chuck) steaks with a good amount of fat, double ground, adding the 0.75% salt and 0.25% pepper for the second grind. (Conveniently, I was working with exactly a kilo of meat, which made the calculations easy.) Lightly formed into 6 patties with a dimple in the middle, and grilled to medium. They didn't contract, they were just as moist and fatty as they should be, and they just tasted all-around great. I ate two. I'm a little worried that I've set a precedent here for summer grilling.

[TylerK]

How badly will freezing the burgers post grinding/forming degrade the flavour and texture of the final product? I'm hosting a BBQ at my parents' place out of town next weekend, and I don't really want to lug my meat grinder along with me.

Assuming that I go ahead and freeze the raw burgers are there any tips when it comes to grinding and seasoning that would help minimize the damage?

Also, I'm considering making soft pretzel buns for the burgers. Good or bad idea?

Thanks,

Tyler

[Chris Hennes]

I haven't had any problems freezing them, actually: cook directly from frozen, and I think they turn out very well.

[Heartsurgeon]

I bought some new york strip steaks that turned out to be tougher than I cared for...ground the rest up as burger meat, added butter to the grinder, to up the fat content of the burger...

yeowza! that made some tasty burgers.

tried the same trick (butter in the grind) with some lean cuts of lamb...really good lamb burgers.

just another trick to keep in mind when trying to create a fabulous burger. butter makes it better!

Edited July 26, 2012 by Heartsurgeon (log)

[rotuts]

yes it does. next time 'age' in the original package those steaks for 4 - 7 days and so that experiment again!

10 times better. Yum!

[TylerK]

I haven't had any problems freezing them, actually: cook directly from frozen, and I think they turn out very well.

Thanks for your reply. This is what I was hoping to hear. Ambitious plans (for me) for the BBQ this year and I was hoping I could do things far enough in advance so as not to get rushed and panicked at the end.

[rane008]

The Last Burger:

Equal parts skirt steak and short rib. The skirt is ground once through a medium plate, short rib once through the fine plate. Into the KitchenAid with the paddle and a good amount of pressed garlic, salt, pepper, and smoked salt. Beat to form natural bind, as for sausage.

Served on ciabatta with chipotle catsup, stone ground mustard, sharp cheddar, house-cured bacon, heirloom tomato, onion confit. Next time I make it, I'll upload a pic.

[Chris Hennes]

Interesting, why did you choose to bind it? Most of us are actually trying very carefully NOT to arrive at a sausage-like texture with our burgers.

[TylerK]

Anyone know the optimum size (raw weight) of a burger such that it can get a good char on the outside while staying super juicy on the inside?

[Chris Hennes]

It's going to depend on thickness (not weight directly), whether the patty is frozen or thawed, and how you are cooking it (grill, griddle, sous vide, etc.).

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Tyler, in my experience it's not so much a weight/size issue as it is a shape issue. Rounder patties (obviously, not spherical, but patties that are fatter towards the center) will be easier to grill in the manner you're describing. I've found that if I've got a burger mix that's sufficiently bound without being sausage-y, I can put them on the grill/griddle as balls and then simply press them a bit to flatten them out somewhat. If I'm good about not flipping them more than once, I'll get a perfectly charred exterior and a med-rare, juicy center, which is how I prefer my burgers.

[Crouton]

One often overlooked step that can make or break a burger is to sear the patty WITHOUT adding any oil or fat to the cooking surface. Add your patty directly to the dry hot pan. You will get much better crust formation as the fat from the beef renders.

[rane008]

Honestly, I like doing the bind on the burger for several reasons:

It makes working with the burger easier

It evenly distributes the seasoning

It spreads some of the fat from the short rib around the grounds for better self-basting

And I just like the texture more.

Not working the beef, well you can do it that way, but if you are grilling, it's very difficult to prevent the burger from breaking up. I'm curious as to why everyone here is so into it.

[Chris Hennes]

Not working the beef, well you can do it that way, but if you are grilling, it's very difficult to prevent the burger from breaking up. I'm curious as to why everyone here is so into it.

For myself, texture. I find the texture of an over-bound burger quite unpleasant.

[judiu]

I bought some new york strip steaks that turned out to be tougher than I cared for...ground the rest up as burger meat, added butter to the grinder, to up the fat content of the burger...

yeowza! that made some tasty burgers.

tried the same trick (butter in the grind) with some lean cuts of lamb...really good lamb burgers.

just another trick to keep in mind when trying to create a fabulous burger. butter makes it better!

Heartsurgeon, I do beleive you're just tryin' to drum up new business!

[lame username]

J. Kenji López-Alt's tutorial on The World's Best Burger for a Single Man (or Woman) at seriouseats.com is very helpful. http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/05/the-burger-lab-the-worlds-best-burger-for-a-single-man-or-woman.html I made these burgers and also his homemade McD's french fries for my husband's 40 th birthday. Fabulous (i had rendered beef fat to fry the potatoes). http://www.inventingtheuniverse.blogspot.com/2010/09/mcdonalds-type-french-fries-and-fresh.html