I know people who have secret recipes for what they put in their burgers. They're convinced they make the best burger in the world. Then three out of four burgers come off the grill with burned edges that you have to trim off. Unless you like crunchy burgers that is.
That's why I'm more concerned with how to make a well cooked burger. Not well-done, done well. (Speaking of well-done, my father once told a waiter, "Tell him to just put it on the grill. When the smoke alarm goes off, I'll come back and get it." I suspect this is why I didn't discover I liked steak until I was 19.)
There are three tips in here that are all about keeping it moist on the grill. And a little extra flavor doesn't hurt.
Ingredients
2 pounds ground beef (there's a second pack under the vacuum-sealed one)
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup sour cream onion dip
2 egg whites, plus 2 whole eggs (see note below)
Directions
Bread crumbs are not only a good filler when you're trying to stretch ground beef, they also hold moisture really well. The moisture from the meat gets soaked up instead of just dripping off into the grill. I'd be lying if I told you I measured these, but it was about a cup.
Normally I add one egg per pound of ground beef. But this night I had just made mayonnaise, so I had a couple of extra egg whites lying around. Actually it was three egg whites and a half a yolk, which I broke separating the whites. I could have gone with three whites and a half a yolk, but added the other whole egg because I had already taken it out.
My first attempt at making onion dip wasn't the roaring success I had hoped for. It was tasty, but not what I was looking for. So it sat in the fridge for a while, until I decided to put it in some hamburgers. It came out great, so I'm sharing it here.
I got the idea when I remembered that some meatloaf recipes start with bread soaked in milk. Well heck, I was adding bread crumbs already. The dip was made from sour cream (which is milk), onion and Worcestershire sauce. Perfect for burgers.
Mix everything else together before adding the meat. It's impossible to get the egg mixed in well if you wait until you add the meat.
Now add the meat, and mix well. I've heard you can do this with a mixer, but if I'm going to have my hands in it anyway to make the patties, I might as well not mess up the mixer and have to clean it.
Here's my last -- and best -- tip for moist burgers. Most people make patties that are thicker in the middle, kind of like giant M&Ms. Some use a form, like a big cookie cutter, to press them out nice and even and flat. Either way, burgers tend to shrink side-to-side while getting thicker through the middle when you cook them. I could explain the chemistry behind it, but then you'd have to read it ... I'd have to research it ... neither one of us really wants that, do we?
So anyway, the problem this causes is that the edges tend to burn by the time the center is cooked properly. You could fight this by mashing the burger down, which lots of people do when frying burgers. That squeezes all the juice out, leading to dry burgers. And you can't do it on the grill anyway; you'd press the meat straight through the bars.
Instead, I make burgers thinner in the middle. So as they get smaller around and thicker in the middle, they even out. I end up with flat finished burgers that are cooked the same way from edge to edge and everywhere in between. You can really see the shape on the one at the far right of this picture.
There were supposed to be eight quarter-pound burgers there. But my wife got big kaiser buns, so I got carried away and went large. Oops. But I did think ahead and rip the two pieces of wax paper before starting to mix the ground beef.
Now, just before turning the burgers over for the first time, you can see that they've all grown in the middle and are nearly flat all the way across.
The tomato is from Lou's garden, the onion is from the farmers market, the mayonnaise is homemade.
And that's it.
I'm heading off on vacation next week. I don't know if they'll have any WiFi there, so I can't promise I'll be around to respond to any comments. (Besides, I'm not taking the laptop to the pool.) If not, I'll get caught up with everybody when I return.
^
22 comments:
Well, I have to say that I can make the best burgers in the world! LOL only kidding, its all down to preference, but I do like the sound of adding in the onion dip to make them extra moist. Normally, I am quite a purist in terms of burgers – no bread crumbs, no eggs, just plain old meat and some herbs and spices/ seasoning.
I love to mince the beef up myself as well! There is something quite satisfying about that. I have linked to my burger recipes here too (shameless plug).
And the first one that comes up from that link you included a whole onion, two garlic cloves and two chiles. Oh yes, that's pure all right. :-)
You did remind me, though, that I want to grind my own beef eventually.
Weellll - you got me there! I did mention in my comment that I use herbs, spices & seasoning!
Grnding is really great! You have to be careful though, else you end up with beef paste instead of minced beef.
How could I possibly want a burger at 7:43AM?
I dunno April, but it's 7:28 a.m. here now and all I can think about is chowing down on that one. It looks SO GOOD.
Leftovers for breakfast. Why is sausage, egg and cheese on a muffin perfectly acceptable for breakfast, but people look at you funny when you do a cheeseburger on a kaiser bun?
I don't look at you funny. I had pasta with pesto for breakfast. Have a nice trip!
I never would have thought to shape the burgers like that! Well, I guess that's why you posted this in the first place - because you knew and we didn't. Next time we grill burgers, I'll follow these tips.
Smarties!
That's what I was trying to remember. Most people shape them like M&Ms, I shape them like Smarties.
I have no idea why that just popped into my head.
Just don't do what I did the time I said to myself, "Hmm, I wonder how extreme I can go with this shape?" The centers were -- and you have to use your Monty Python French chef accent in your head when you read this -- they were whaffair theen. They completely stuck to the grill. When I flipped them, the centers all fell out and I was left with meat doughnuts.
Smarties are in fact shaped like M&M's, at least in England anyway. They are convex, as opposed to your burgers which are concave. We are having a barbecue tomorrow so I will try out the concave shape burgers.
On the matter of breakfast, why is it that only pork is acceptable meat for breakfast? Sausages, bacon, black pudding, all come from a pig. For some reason you never get burgers at breakfast. I don't know why!
How about that, I never would have guessed. Take a look at the little images at the bottom of the home page for "America's favorite candy wafer roll!"
Candy wafer roll? Yeah, call it whatever you want to at the annual trade show, but that phrase should not be on anything customers see.
And as for breakfast, you can get steak and eggs, or corned beef hash. That's the only non-pork meat I'm used to seeing on a breakfast menu.
And now, from England... Smarties!
http://www.smarties.co.uk/home/
Only smarties have the answer!
Wow, that is completely different from Smarties in the U.S. It looks like yours are candy-coated chocolate, just like M&Ms?
Over here Smarties are slightly tart compressed sugar pellets. Okay, wafers.
I'm surprised they'd use the same name for different candies in different markets.
How confusing! We have something like smarties called refreshers - http://bp0.blogger.com/_c9OAmmPhHUI/R7BVWXLZoUI/AAAAAAAAABE/xzVxetvO9yg/s1600-h/Refreshers.jpg
By the way, I just tried making your concave burgers - they are great! Still a little thin round the edges, maybe I didn't concave them quite enough.
Anyway, I think I have commented enough on this post now!
Enjoy your holiday!
I was just showing my wife this thread and noticed this on the U.S. Smarties site: Do not confuse our Smarties® with Nestlé chocolate Smarties
I'm amazed one of them hasn't sued the other over this already.
oooh. Now I want burgers for dinner.
I think burgers for breakfast are totally acceptable. It's like having flapjacks for dinner - same difference. Drew, I have got to try that sour cream onion dip in my husband's burgers. He'll absoluely flip. Thanks for the tip.
It's a movement! I won't stop until McDonald's is serving quarter pounders for breakfast!
Not that I'll be eating them, of course. It's just the principle of the thing.
So Drew, this should be the post where I tell you how great those onion dip burgers were last night that we grilled. I'm sure it would have been a post full of praise if only I hadn't screwed them up. You see, this is where I'd like to give a tip to everyone who might read this.
IF you're going to make a potato salad and the potatoes marinate in a pickle juice/mustard mixture before adding the dressing please make sure you don't make my mistake. Let's make double sure that the good looking onion dip you mixed up earlier to let the flavors meld doesn't get mixed up with the potato salad dressing that you also mixed up to save time later in the day so you could sit on the porch and enjoy the lighting of the grill. Make triple sure you don't use that potato salad dressing on accident instead of the onion dip you were so looking forward to tasting in those burgers since they're both sort of white in appearance.
That's my public service kitchen announcement. Don't be a moe-ron like me and be in a hurry to get those burgers made so you can enjoy the nice temperature outside while hubby lights the grill and lets that charcoal get ready. Thankfully even with potato salad dressing mixed into them instead of onion dip they were still edible. Maybe next weekend I'll put my brain in my head before going into the kitchen.
Awesome burger, Drew!
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Amy
April, that's so sad. But you didn't say: Did you use the onion dip on the potato salad? And how did that come out? Considering I just did that with the mashed potatoes I'm guessing it would be pretty good.
Drew, I came to my senses and didn't use the onion dip in the potato salad. I had enough of the potato dressing left to still make a nice salad.
I did use it in some mashed potatoes later in the week though and those came out mighty tasty.
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