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damn you guys making me hungry at such unnatural hours 
How do you do your burgers
- Thread starter robfosters
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Soldato
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I've now got my mincer, so I'm going to try the Heston way of laying the mince strands all in the same direction on cling film, then roll over in to a big cylinder tube shape so all the strands are in the same direction, then fridge for 30mins and then slice in to burgers.
Will try this soon!
Will try this soon!
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My beef burger recipe is pretty much minced beef, a tablespoon of dry breadcrumbs and a lot of salt and pepper. Beef likes salt. Let it sit for a bit before cooking so the breadcrumbs soften and they hold in more of the juices when cooking, which is a bonus. I typically fry them on a griddle and the charred lines taste great, but otherwise just sling them in a hot frying pan. Don't go too thick because you have to cook it too long, but too thin and you won't be able to get any colour on it before you overcook the middle. Colour = flavour on a burger.
I'm increasingly finding supermarket mince isn't ground very well though and is full of a lot of sinewy stuff, so I'm thinking of buying myself a mincer and making my own. That way you can put it through a few times and get it nice and fine, and use some nice cuts of flavoursome meat of your own choice and fat ratio.
I saw a pretty cool way of making patties. Shape the meat into a squashed ball, place a piece of greaseproof paper over the top, then whack it with the bottom of a heavy saucepan. I tried it and it works a treat!
Some other ingredients I add range from smoked paprika, chilli, Dave's Insanity Sauce and garlic powder.
I'm increasingly finding supermarket mince isn't ground very well though and is full of a lot of sinewy stuff, so I'm thinking of buying myself a mincer and making my own. That way you can put it through a few times and get it nice and fine, and use some nice cuts of flavoursome meat of your own choice and fat ratio.
I saw a pretty cool way of making patties. Shape the meat into a squashed ball, place a piece of greaseproof paper over the top, then whack it with the bottom of a heavy saucepan. I tried it and it works a treat!
Some other ingredients I add range from smoked paprika, chilli, Dave's Insanity Sauce and garlic powder.
Minced beef, diced onion, chopped green chillis and an egg to bind it all (not much, I think I normally use 1 egg for about a pound of meat/6 burgers or so) - it may not be strictly necessary but I find it helps speed up the process a bit 
With regard to the salt in the mince/salt on the outside debate, it's up to you which way you do it, but it does alter the texture of the burger.
Salt in the actual mixture makes for a tighter texture, which will probably be more like a shop bought burger.
If you're binding with egg/breadcrumbs etc. then it probably won't make all that much difference, but if you use pure meat then it will.
I prefer a looser texture, so make an all meat patty and add salt and pepper just to the outside.
Salt in the actual mixture makes for a tighter texture, which will probably be more like a shop bought burger.
If you're binding with egg/breadcrumbs etc. then it probably won't make all that much difference, but if you use pure meat then it will.
I prefer a looser texture, so make an all meat patty and add salt and pepper just to the outside.
If I remember rightly, Heston doesn't actually add salt to the whole burger. He basically cures a bit of the meat and adds that in with the fresh meat before mincing. The cured meat binds the fresh meat together without the need for egg, breadcrumbs or any other binding additive and provides seasoning for the burger, enhancing the flavour. Adding salt to the burger patty itself would be a bad thing if you plan to leave it in there, raw, for any length of time as the entire burger would cure, and as Haircut says, the texture would tighten.
Yianni Pappoutis (sp?) of The Meat Waggon advocates using coarsely minced chuck steak, aiming for about 80% meat, 20% fat. He uses thin patties cooked quickly on a very hot griddle, and dents the patty with his thumb when it first touches the grill to stop it from contracting in to a meatball.
Hawksmoor use off cuts from their steaks, bulked out with chuck steak. They remove as much natural fat as possible, replacing it with bone marrow (as it melts at a lower temperature than hard fat, allowing the burger to be done medium-rare without lumps of hard fat being present).
Heston, as above, minces fresh and cured meat together. He doesn't form patties, but rather lays the meat out on cling film as it comes through the mincer, rolls it in to a cylinder and then slices the cylinder in to individual patties. He says this gives his burgers a looser, more tender texture, while the cured meat helps keep the whole lot together.
Also, if you must cook your burgers medium-rare then be very careful. The worry about medium rare burgers comes from the presence of E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria. These bacteria live on the outside of cuts of beef and lamb, they cannot live in the inner tissues. As such, it is fine to have rare steak. The bacteria on the outside of the steak are killed during the cooking process. The same thing doesn't apply to burgers, once you mince the steak the bacteria could be everywhere. Burgers should be cooked through. There are, however, ways to do medium rare burgers with a minimal level of risk. The longer a surface of meat has been exposed to the air, the more risk there is of harmful bacteria being present. Trim all outer surfaces off of your meat, especially those facing outwards on the carcass (i.e. the surfaces of the meat that have been 'matured' for 28 days or whatever). Mince the meat at home using a freshly cleaned and sanitised mincer, and cook your burgers as soon as possible after mincing. Do all of that and medium rare shouldn't be too much of a risk.
Yianni Pappoutis (sp?) of The Meat Waggon advocates using coarsely minced chuck steak, aiming for about 80% meat, 20% fat. He uses thin patties cooked quickly on a very hot griddle, and dents the patty with his thumb when it first touches the grill to stop it from contracting in to a meatball.
Hawksmoor use off cuts from their steaks, bulked out with chuck steak. They remove as much natural fat as possible, replacing it with bone marrow (as it melts at a lower temperature than hard fat, allowing the burger to be done medium-rare without lumps of hard fat being present).
Heston, as above, minces fresh and cured meat together. He doesn't form patties, but rather lays the meat out on cling film as it comes through the mincer, rolls it in to a cylinder and then slices the cylinder in to individual patties. He says this gives his burgers a looser, more tender texture, while the cured meat helps keep the whole lot together.
Also, if you must cook your burgers medium-rare then be very careful. The worry about medium rare burgers comes from the presence of E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria. These bacteria live on the outside of cuts of beef and lamb, they cannot live in the inner tissues. As such, it is fine to have rare steak. The bacteria on the outside of the steak are killed during the cooking process. The same thing doesn't apply to burgers, once you mince the steak the bacteria could be everywhere. Burgers should be cooked through. There are, however, ways to do medium rare burgers with a minimal level of risk. The longer a surface of meat has been exposed to the air, the more risk there is of harmful bacteria being present. Trim all outer surfaces off of your meat, especially those facing outwards on the carcass (i.e. the surfaces of the meat that have been 'matured' for 28 days or whatever). Mince the meat at home using a freshly cleaned and sanitised mincer, and cook your burgers as soon as possible after mincing. Do all of that and medium rare shouldn't be too much of a risk.
