The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: englishteacheralex on July 16, 2017, 06:38:16 PM
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Decided to have a spur-of-the-moment dinner with friends tonight, about four hours from now. We have a bunch of Costco ground beef in the fridge and all the fixins for burgers.
But...I almost never make burgers. In fact, I don't think I've ever made a burger. I cook all the time, but with burgers, somebody always makes them for me, usually on a grill. I looked up a recipe from the NYThttps://cooking.nytimes.com/guides/5-how-to-make-burgers (https://cooking.nytimes.com/guides/5-how-to-make-burgers) and it seemed pretty simple: break out my trusty cast-iron skillet, use a cookie scoop to scoop out wads of hamburger, and flatten them with a spatula. Cook for about 3 minutes per side. Season with salt and pepper in the middle of cooking. Throw a slice of cheese on there for them's that want it.
Our beef is 88% lean 12% fat, so that's a fail right there but it will have to do. I'm a strong believer in "done is better than perfect" and I also believe in hospitality in the absence of perfection. But does anybody have any tips on good burgers?
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If you have any garlic, mince it and squish it into the patties. Gives it that extra something. Garlic powder would also work.
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Red pepper flakes, maybe a bit of salt or garlic salt, and a splash of Worcestershire sauce mixed in with ground beef. Then grill/frying pan/etc.
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Red pepper flakes is definitely yum, just make sure the guests tolerate spicy
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Remember to make the raw patties way bigger than you think they should be, as they will shrink when you cook them. A 4" patty will shrink to a 3" cooked burger, etc.
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Don't squish them down while they are cooking, you'll squeeze the juice out of them. If you want the middle not to puff up, squash it down more than the outside edges before you cook it.
I toss in whatever spices are available (Montreal Steak Seasoning is good, but I've done garlic, salt, onion powder, mesquite rub, 7 spice, whatever sounds good from the spice cabinet).
And I'm not exact with size, I'd never bother to use a scoop or measure, I just grab a handful, form a rough patty, and cook. We get hamburger (and other beef) from my brother, and it comes in 1 lb tubes, so about 1/4 of a tube is close enough.
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Ground beef, salt, mix, roll into balls, flatten in palm of your hand, cook, flip, cook, done.
As mentioned, do not squash in the pan. If burgers are coming out too small, make them larger to start with, allow for 30% shrinkage as they cook.
https://youtu.be/Q84nfWkLsYU
Although I do put more filling in the burger, tomato sauce, caramelised onions, gherkins, lettuice, mayo.
If I'm adding cheese, I'll do it after the fist flip, turn off the stove and cover the frying pan.
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Ah, but what do you put into your burger as well as the patty? I thought that EVERYONE had lettuce, tomato, fried onions, and beetroot in their burgers, and added pineapple, cheese, egg, and bacon if they were having it with the lot, only to find that Arebelspy thought that PINEAPPLE was astounding in a burger. There aren't many places in Australia where a burger with the lot DOESN'T have these ingredients (apart from foreign imports such as MacDonalds).
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Thank you for warning me about Australian burgers! I'm not going to Australia anytime soon, but that certainly would have been a shock.
I don't like cooking burgers in the house - too greasy - so they are always grilled outside here.
Sometimes I make them just plain, but onion soup mix is a surprisingly delicious secret ingredient.
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Seriously, has no one mentioned bacon yet? Unless you are just doing plain burgers, bacon is a must have topping along with cheese, lettuce, mayo, ketchup... I'm also a fan of barbecue with a bit of a smoky flavor (applewood or mesquite), but the act of grilling (and smelling like I've been grilling) is half the fun for me. I like a toasted sourdough bun. Sadly, the burgers themselves only seem to last about 5 minutes once they're served :)
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Our beef is 88% lean 12% fat, so that's a fail right there but it will have to do.
That's actually a very good mix for burgers. Are you thinking it's too fat, or too lean? Fatter, and you're just paying for a bunch of fat that's going to melt away. Leaner, and burgers get too tough.
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Long time lurker, first time poster. This is my favorite recipe and iI always get lots of compliments. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/49404/juiciest-hamburgers-ever/
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The best burger technique, in my opinion, is to grind the beef yourself, form small patties, salt and pepper the surface, and smash them in hot cast iron. Cannot overstate how much better than regular grilled burgers these are.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/03/the-food-lab-maximize-flavor-by-ultra-smashin.html
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Ah, but what do you put into your burger as well as the patty? I thought that EVERYONE had lettuce, tomato, fried onions, and beetroot in their burgers, and added pineapple, cheese, egg, and bacon if they were having it with the lot, only to find that Arebelspy thought that PINEAPPLE was astounding in a burger. There aren't many places in Australia where a burger with the lot DOESN'T have these ingredients (apart from foreign imports such as MacDonalds).
I'll never forget my first burger in Australia. It had a yucky slice of beetroot on it which I was assured was standard Aus practice...
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I add salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika to my ground beef, mix well. Then portion out for patties. Finally I either put oil in the pan or use bacon grease if I'm topping the patty with bacon. Set to high heat and put in the patties and try to flip it as little as possible.
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Try this one:
Put blue cheese crumbles, onion flakes, a little barbecue sauce, a raw egg, and some cracker crumbs with burger in bowl and blend together.
Make large thick patties about 1/3 lb each, wrap perimeter with a slice of bacon tooth picked in place and grill to medium.
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I got a sous vide cooker and now that's my favorite burger.
1 hour at 129F and then sear it in an iron pan with a little butter. So good!
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Red pepper flakes, maybe a bit of salt or garlic salt, and a splash of Worcestershire sauce mixed in with ground beef. Then grill/frying pan/etc.
If you aren't adding a bit of Worcestershire sauce, you aren't doing it right. It's the secret ingredient to a great burger.
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Anything more than salt and pepper and I call that burger meatloaf.
More a joke than being serious, but there is some truth here...
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I love the costco burger meat, it's my go to for making burgers.
I chop up an onion very small. Minced. I also use the large costco jar of minced garlic. About 1 medium onion, and 2 table spoons of garlic for 6 lbs of beef. Adjust accordingly to how much beef you have. Then add salt and pepper. Measure out 1/3 of a lb and make into a patty.
Burgers should be grilled on high heat. 4 minutes per side on your highest grill setting. Cheese for the last 2 minutes. All grills are different, so your cook times may vary slightly. You can also cook them inside on a griddle or a frying pan, but it's much messier and the grease doesn't drain away nearly as well.
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Thanks everybody! Such a great community. So usually I'm all about adding that special something to basic recipes, but for this burgers-with-friends situation I kept things simple.
Talkin' bout four lbs of Costco 88/12 in a mixing bowl with nothing else. Scooped it out, formed loosely into balls with my hands, melted 3 T butter in my cast iron skillet and then turned up to high heat, put the balls in three at a time, smashed 'em down with a heavy spatula, salt/pepper on one side, 3 mins per side, cheese, done.
These were a huge hit and I can't believe how easy it was. My NYT recipe said to avoid handling the meat too much, so I didn't add anything. Plus, I kind of agreed with the poster who said adding a bunch of stuff makes it meatloaf, not a burger.
Remember that Parks and Rec episode where Ron Swanson enters the burger competition where everybody's making super fancy turkey burgers with tons of add-in ingredients, and he just sits around until the last minute and then finally throws a couple of straight ground beef burgers on with a bun and everybody declares him the winner?
That was how I felt. But we DID have some good fixins.
Cast iron skillet (again!) for the win!
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Thanks everybody! Such a great community. So usually I'm all about adding that special something to basic recipes, but for this burgers-with-friends situation I kept things simple.
Talkin' bout four lbs of Costco 88/12 in a mixing bowl with nothing else. Scooped it out, formed loosely into balls with my hands, melted 3 T butter in my cast iron skillet and then turned up to high heat, put the balls in three at a time, smashed 'em down with a heavy spatula, salt/pepper on one side, 3 mins per side, cheese, done.
These were a huge hit and I can't believe how easy it was. My NYT recipe said to avoid handling the meat too much, so I didn't add anything. Plus, I kind of agreed with the poster who said adding a bunch of stuff makes it meatloaf, not a burger.
Remember that Parks and Rec episode where Ron Swanson enters the burger competition where everybody's making super fancy turkey burgers with tons of add-in ingredients, and he just sits around until the last minute and then finally throws a couple of straight ground beef burgers on with a bun and everybody declares him the winner?
That was how I felt. But we DID have some good fixins.
Cast iron skillet (again!) for the win!
Sounds great. Simple (and smashed) is the way to go.
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Red pepper flakes, maybe a bit of salt or garlic salt, and a splash of Worcestershire sauce mixed in with ground beef. Then grill/frying pan/etc.
If you aren't adding a bit of Worcestershire sauce, you aren't doing it right. It's the secret ingredient to a great burger.
Yep--this is basically our burger recipe too. I do like some bread crumbs in mine otherwise I think they get a little greasy. Sometimes we'll also add Parmesan or blue cheese crumbles.
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Anything more than salt and pepper and I call that burger meatloaf.
More a joke than being serious, but there is some truth here...
I tend to agree. I use roughly 1/3 lb. of ground beef per patty. Put some salt and pepper on them, and cook them over charcoal (while drinking beer, of course).
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I buy frozen patties at Sam's Club. I heat up a skillet with some olive oil. I pull out my fancy salt and pepper shakers and go to town on both sides of the frozen patty. Now its time. I place the frozen disk into the skillet. I cook for about 7 minutes covered on medium then flip. I wait for the core temperature to hit 165. While the burgers were cooking, I placed buns upside down in the oven on broil for about 90 seconds.
Now I place my burger on my buns and add the toppings I enjoy: Mustard, Mayo, and Jalapenos.
I live in an apartment with a no grill policy. :(
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I live in an apartment with a no grill policy. :(
I would struggle with that.
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I live in an apartment with a no grill policy. :(
I would struggle with that.
Yea. We are trying not to run our AC this summer, so we have been grilling almost exclusively. Probably 6 nights a week for the past 5 weeks.
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Long time lurker, first time poster. This is my favorite recipe and iI always get lots of compliments. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/49404/juiciest-hamburgers-ever/
Interesting. As a person with a complicated relationship with lactose I'm pretty paranoid about hidden milk but would be surprised to find condensed milk lurking in my hamburger patty.
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I live in an apartment with a no grill policy. :(
I would struggle with that.
We broil ours in the oven on an elevated rack. Would they be better grilled? Sure, but I find broiling works better than pan frying.
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Lawries seasoning. That's it.
I used to go nuts with different burger recipes but noticed the best burgers always had Lawries seasoning. Now I only used Lawries and am always told the burgers are amazing.