Burgers are one of the most well-known foods in modern cuisine. With how they only really just need meat between two halves of a bun to be considered a burger, the dish is incredibly simple and quick to make. They’re also quite easy to be customised and made even more unique, making burgers a perfect option for a wide range of different dining experiences. Today, burgers can be served everywhere, from a simple made-at-home dish to deep fried fast food and to a fine dining experience.
With how many different ways you can cook and customise a burger to be considered delicious, many barbecue experts and lovers often search for how to make some of the best burgers possible. However, due to how burgers today greatly vary between each other, the most perfect, best burger is completely up to what you as the chef and the people that eat them think. Fortunately, there is one key factor that can make a burger far more delicious than some of the ones you can buy from a store; juiciness.
Along with showing you how to make sure that your burgers stay juicy when barbecuing them, we also included what kind of meat you should get, how to prepare them and how to grill the perfect burger in this article. Some of these tips can also help you learn more about where you can get a good barbecue, any seasonings and rubs, or any accessories to make great burgers.
Make it with the right ground meat and seasonings
In order to make some of the best burgers, you need to start with the right ingredients. While you do need to get high quality ground meat to make delicious burgers, having fairly good quality veggies to add in, like onions and mushrooms, can make the burgers even better. Even the right seasonings can make a good burger great.
Pick the right beef or meat
If you’re aiming to make classic beef burgers, you want to make sure that you’re getting the best beef that you can to make the base. This often means that you need to keep an eye out for a higher fat content, since the fat is what renders down to create the delicious juiciness that many homemade barbecue burgers have. The ideal ratio of meat to fat you want to look for is an 80 percent meat to 20 percent fat mix, though you can also get some slightly fattier beef for more flavour.
Other kinds of ground meat can follow the same ratios of meat to fat as ground beef. Pork and lamb are far more likely to have the same kinds of fat content that beef would, making them great alternatives for beef burgers. However, if you want to make ground chicken or turkey burgers, you may need to search more. While there are fattier poultry options, you would likely need to find a butcher to get ground poultry meat, or simply make it at home.
Season to your liking
The least amount of seasoning you need to use is just salt and a bit of black pepper, since the meat would otherwise taste rather odd. This doesn’t mean that you can’t add whatever seasonings you want, or even completely omit the pepper if you don’t like it. When it comes to burgers, many people like to season the ground meat with garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, or Worcestershire sauce to add more flavour to the burgers when they’re barbecued. You can even experiment a little with a few teaspoons of powdered onion soup mix or ranch dressing.
You don’t have to limit yourself to just powdered seasonings and sauces when seasoning your burgers either. Diced onions, cheese cubes and even chopped bacon is often added to ground meat to make great burgers. You can add whatever you’d like to the burgers, though you do need to make sure not to overpower the meat’s original taste.
Making the final preparations
Once all your seasonings, sauces and additions have been mixed into the ground meat, the only thing that’s left to do is to form the patties. The general size that many barbeque masters prefer is roughly the same diameter as the buns you’re using to serve the burgers on, so that each bite has some of the meat. Additionally, you want to make sure that the patties aren’t too thin, so aim to have a thickness between ¾ of an inch to one inch.
Once you have the patties shaped and ready to grill, push your thumb into the center of each patty, roughly half the thickness deep. Burgers often puff up around the center when they’re cooked, causing many barbecuers to push down on it to even the burgers out. However, pressing down on the patties actually forces them to release their juices and ends up giving you drier, less delicious burgers.
Grill it up
The only thing that’s left after seasoning and preparing the burgers is grilling them up. Many barbeque experts also take the opportunity to toss a handful of wood chips into a smoker box or directly into their charcoal grill to add a different kind of smoky flavour to their burgers.
Depending on the doneness that you want to get, grilling can take different times. Ideally, the USDA and its Canadian equivalent, the CFIA, both highly recommend cooking the burger patties to at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit – or well done – to be completely safe to be served. The total amount of time to cook the burgers is four minutes total to get rare burgers to nine minutes for well done, so always keep a meat thermometer on hand to check the meat’s internal temp!
Takeaway
Grilling the perfect burger can seem like a daunting task at first, especially if you haven’t done so before. But, once you do know the little tips and tricks, making a great burger each time becomes far easier. While you don’t need to season the meat with only salt to have them be perfect, making sure that whatever flavours you do add don’t overpower the meat’s flavour is important as well. Many people enjoy burgers for the flavour of the meat as well, and the seasonings should emphasise that.
