How do you do your burgers

robfosters

robfosters

robfosters

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After watching endless Man V Food and seeing that 5 guys burger that Krooton had, i'm gonna try and make my own jucy lucy.

Every time I have made burgers, they have just fallen apart as I have used only mincemeat. What else should I add to make a really good burger that doesn't break apart?
 
Mixing in salt with the burger is one of the key things to cause it to fall apart - just salt it during cooking. You should also try to compress the meat as much as possible. Lastly, try to make a dip in the middle of both sides of the burger so when it expands during cooking you end up with a regular disc shape. This will help you resist the temptation to press the burger down during cooking, avoiding the usual loss of delicious meat juices and breaking up of the burger.
 
Someone once mentioned to me to use egg white to help keep it together?

I disregard this and just make sure I squish it all together really hard. Works fine to me.


Also I chop up onions finely add some black pepper and salt, and possibly some chilli powder. Bit of cheese goes on top towards the end.
 
Pate said:
Someone once mentioned to me to use egg white to help keep it together?

I disregard this and just make sure I squish it all together really hard. Works fine to me.


Also I chop up onions finely add some black pepper and salt, and possibly some chilli powder. Bit of cheese goes on top towards the end.
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Using egg can help keep it together but burger purists will complain at you a lot for doing this. I personally don't have a problem with it but as you say, you don't actually need the egg so why bother using it.
 
FrenchTart said:
Mixing in salt with the burger is one of the key things to cause it to fall apart - just salt it during cooking. You should also try to compress the meat as much as possible. Lastly, try to make a dip in the middle of both sides of the burger so when it expands during cooking you end up with a regular disc shape. This will help you resist the temptation to press the burger down during cooking, avoiding the usual loss of delicious meat juices and breaking up of the burger.
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i feel sure Heston uses salt to keep his burgers together, salt the mince then make pattys and leave them in the fridge for a while before cooking, saw it on his recent ch4 series
going to watch that part again to see..

EDIT wants me to register as the programs over 30 days old and i cba atm
 
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cainer said:
i feel sure Heston uses salt to keep his burgers together, salt the mince then make pattys and leave them in the fridge for a while before cooking
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Perhaps you're right. All the places/burger enthusiast recipes/etc I've read have suggested that salting the meat before you make it into a patty is a "bad thing".

Personally I've made lovely burgers whilst completely ignoring this rule... so YMMV.
 
I make mine to Hugh's recipe. Buy the good mince, make sure you compress it into a burger shape or disc shape. Then season both sides and fry in lard or dripping you don't need a lot of the stuff. Turn a few times and season each side. Eat when done.
 
I make mine with minced beef, salt (oh no!), pepper, ground cumin & coriander, and finely chopped peppers. Form them into burger discs wrapped in cling film and put in the fridge for half an hour then into the oven and cover with tin foil or a smaller pan flipped over to stop them drying out. These have never fallen apart, neither have the thousands that I cooked in a pub that had salt in them...
 
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Good mince but with some fat. Season well with plenty of salt. Usually mix in some pre-cooked onions (very important they are pre-cooked or the water will come out of them), possibly a little spice (Turkish mix) and then press into patties. Cook on a very hot heat and turn every 30 seconds maximum to stop the fat coming out.

Bit of good cheese and gherkins on the top sometimes with some chopped up chilli / chilli jam for a little sweetness.
 
What I find works really well when making my own burgers is to blitz some chopped onions and crackers in a food processor and mix blend that with the mince.

Helps to bind the burger together, gives it a lovely texture and adds that hint of onion all good burgers should have.
 
500g lean steak mince
1 red onion
couple of cream crackers
salt and pepper
an egg


Chop up finely and fry the onion until caramelised and then leave to cool. Crush the crackers down into a fine crumbs. Add the onion, egg and cracker crumbs to the mince plus a few cracks on the pepper grinder and a pinch of salt. Get your hands in and give it a good mix up. I'll use that to make 3 man sized burgers to go with chips or wedges or something, or 4 slightly smaller burgers if I'm just eating burgers and have two a portion. Put in the fridge for half hour (for some reason, was always told it helps) and then cook on the griddle pan when I'm hungry.

Obviously BBQ sauce, cheese, bacon etc as additional extras to make the experience. Oh and sliced beef tomatoes. Love em.

Pic of one of the ones I made this weekend:

001-8.jpg


All about the bread:meat ratio.
 
Open freezer, open box o' burgers, whack burger in oven 15 minutes, gas mark 7, job done.

Remove burger from oven, place between bun or some other form of bread, then top with bacon and cheese.

Eat and enjoy
 
Jay794 said:
Open freezer, open box o' burgers, whack burger in oven 15 minutes, gas mark 7, job done.

Remove burger from oven, place between bun or some other form of bread, then top with bacon and cheese.

Eat and enjoy
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I suggest you exit the La Cuisine forum with tripe like that lol :D
 
Don't need egg, it's all in the compressing.
And since seeing man vs food, I love the metal bowl over Tge top whilst frying method. Fry and steam at same time.
 
May not need it, but the egg makes things easier when it comes to binding. Plus, extra protein on with your protein. Huah! Yeaaaaaaah! :D
 
ditch the egg usually add a bit of chilli sauce such as nandos peri peri hot.. and a few chillis nomnomnom
 
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I like to add a teaspoon of mustard and some dried thyme. Often put my burger mix in a pastry ring then let the burgers firm up in the fridge for 30 minutes or so.
 
Many people get frying things all wrong, they turn the meat too early and too often. If you don't have the temperature right the moisture in the burger will boil the meat and the meat will fail to adequately seal and form a crust. If it has no crust or you turn it too early it will fall apart.

I regularly make burgers with a little diced onion, diced pepper, paprika, chilla, salt, pepper and nothing else. I use a cheap burger press to shap the patties, and although I was very sceptical at first it has made a big difference. Regularly shaped patties are easier to cook.

Because burgers are often made of chuck steak or similar which is a hard working high fat cut they are not ideal candidates for rare cooking. Personally I do 4 minutes on the first side 4 minutes on the second side another minute on the first side then in a hot oven (180°C) for 10 minutes. This will give the fat in the meat time to break down and the meat to completely cook. That is a for a 3/4 thick burger.
 
Ah..Hope I didn't give the impression that I was massively against salting the meat pre-patty. I am just pointing out what I have read, which has been semi backed up by my experiences, in regards to the burgers falling apart. Personally I think that the loss in structural integrity is more than made up for by the more even seasoning of the burger :)
 
Jay794 said:
Open freezer, open box o' burgers, whack burger in oven 15 minutes, gas mark 7, job done.

Remove burger from oven, place between bun or some other form of bread, then top with bacon and cheese.

Eat and enjoy
Click to expand...

Don't let the door hit you on the way out :p

Re; the salt, it's not really important either way.
 
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