How to make the perfect burger?

Everybody is an expert :p

Trust me, I've tried it all...with salad, without salad, with mustard, without mustard, raw onions, cooked onions, tomatoes, no tomatoes, with tomatoes but minus the watery bits. single patty, double patty, ice berg lettuce, leaf lettuce, chopped up ice berg lettuce, or pealed ice berg lettuce. Thick burger patty, thin patty, pre-shaped, smashed, seasoned, unseasoned, with cheese, without cheese, cheddar cheese, sliced cheese, blue cheese, no cheese, grilled with mustard smeared on top (animal style from In & Out)....etc.etc

The above is what I like the most after a lot of experimentation, so there :p
 
Raymond Lin said:
Everybody is an expert :p

Trust me, I've tried it all...with salad, without salad, with mustard, without mustard, raw onions, cooked onions, tomatoes, no tomatoes, with tomatoes but minus the watery bits. single patty, double patty, ice berg lettuce, leaf lettuce, chopped up ice berg lettuce, or pealed ice berg lettuce. Thick burger patty, thin patty, pre-shaped, smashed, seasoned, unseasoned, with cheese, without cheese, cheddar cheese, sliced cheese, blue cheese, no cheese, grilled with mustard smeared on top (animal style from In & Out)....etc.etc

The above is what I like the most after a lot of experimentation, so there :p
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:p

It's all personal preference at the end of the day, even if some of us (including me) like to state it as "the best" way to do something.

That said, cheese is an absolute requirement :D
 
Best? That's a subjective surely!

Any vegetarian would say otherwise from the start. There is no best but simply what you prefer. And yes, I've tried lamb burger, bison, reindeer, zebra too and a few others I forget.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Best? That's a subjective surely!

Any vegetarian would say otherwise from the start. There is no best but simply what you prefer. And yes, I've tried lamb burger, bison, reindeer, zebra too and a few others I forget.
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Good god you really are on one aren't you. Do you want a two page disclaimer with every post.
Chill out man.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Best? That's a subjective surely!

Any vegetarian would say otherwise from the start. There is no best but simply what you prefer. And yes, I've tried lamb burger, bison, reindeer, zebra too and a few others I forget.
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So...in your opinion what would be the best meat from a vegetarian's point of view? ;)
 
I always pick a lamb burger of beef when available. Ground lamb is really hard to find in the US and really expensive, but strangely some good burger joints have great lamb burgers for only $1-2 more than beef.
 
Since today's a nice day and the last time I was going to make burgers the weather was "not the best" which do you think will be better for cooking the burgers, a skillet, copper bottom pan or carbon steel pan?
 
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Right, so I tried these today. Didnt have a proper flat griddle so I threw an old pizza tin thing onto the BBQ.

A simple two x 18% fat mince ball, smashed onto the tin, bit of salt and pepper, melted cheese, slightly toasted bun, bash two into the bun with ketchup and pickles. So nice! :D

Need to pickup a proper bbq griddle and one for the hob!

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Sounds great :)

Tbh if cooking on the BBQ I'd cook straight on the BBQ itself rather than use a pan. Cast iron pans are great for hobs and such but you can't beat cooking over coal/wood imo :)
 
FrenchTart said:
Sounds great :)

Tbh if cooking on the BBQ I'd cook straight on the BBQ itself rather than use a pan. Cast iron pans are great for hobs and such but you can't beat cooking over coal/wood imo :)
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Yeah but I had no way to "smash" the burger if straight onto the bbq. I do have a burger press that actually makes very thin burgers but its not quite the same. :)
 
Ah, fair point :p

For something similar(ish) with BBQ cooking try out using a lighter chimney in 'afterburner' mode with burgers. It works really well with steaks too :)
 
FrenchTart said:
Sounds great :)
Tbh if cooking on the BBQ I'd cook straight on the BBQ itself rather than use a pan. Cast iron pans are great for hobs and such but you can't beat cooking over coal/wood imo :)
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That was what I thought but from what I've read online I assumed a pan was better to using a BBQ :confused:
 
I used my griddle on the bbq for burgers the other day and worked a treat. No better or worse than on gas but I was cooking other stuff on bbq and had one kettle v hot and direct heat so thought may as well. Personally I am a complete convert to the smashed burgers over shaped.
 
looking to tryout these smashed onion burgers tonight is it literally just

Mince ball - smash - add onions and press - flip and leave till done ?

they look nice but im i cant see how these smash burgers can be so different. though any excuse to get the CADAC bbq out im in.
 
Electroshadow said:
looking to tryout these smashed onion burgers tonight is it literally just

Mince ball - smash - add onions and press - flip and leave till done ?

they look nice but im i cant see how these smash burgers can be so different. though any excuse to get the CADAC bbq out im in.
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Normally with smash burgers it's just meat, salt & pepper and nothing else. There is a video somewhere in this thread from Serious Eats that shows Kenji doing his smash burgers and it is near enough that simple.

Essentially 2" thick mince puck, salt and pepper on top, into pan seasoned side down and then smash down. Season other side while cooking, flip over once a nice brown crust has formed (minute and a half ish), cook for around 30 seconds or so (add cheese at this point if you so choose, which lets face it, you should be :p) stack in bun and devour.

The idea with a smashed burger is you get a really nice crust on the burger which if trying on a normal burger can lead to it going dry and overcooked. With a smash burger you get this nice crust while retaining the juiciness as well.
 
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