Eat This: Burgers

Overall Rating: 8/10, Fast cook time, messy/greasy, easy to make



I can't say enough about Burgers. I fuckin' love them. Homemade, store bought, or from a restaurant, they are always good. Last night we made some delicious burgers, each one built from scratch and unique. Making burgers is simple and fun. You get to combine whatever you want with the meat, then just cook it.

For this recipe we bought about 1.3 pounds of 80/20 ground beef. The percent of fat doesn't matter so much if you are going to use a George Foreman type grill, but I typically get either 10% or 20% fat. For this batch of burgers we decided to flavor the beef with Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper. Once the beef is mixed well with the flavorings, I like to use my hands to cut an 'X' into the beef, so I get about 4 equally sized portions.

The first burger was made in a sauce pan. Don't use any oil or grease, let the burger cook in its own fat. It takes a little bit longer to cook this way because there is not an equal amount of heat on all sides of the burger, but it is worth the wait. Burgers cooked in this way have so much more natural flavor and don't need any extra sauces.

I cooked Burger 2 on the stove, in the grease leftover from the first one. I stuffed this burger with a mix of shredded Asiago cheese and Yellow Hungarian Wax Peppers. I tasted the pepper as a slice before cooking and it was crazy hot. Diced into the burger, the spicy pepper taste was lost. I recommend keeping the pieces bigger or just using them as a topping. I topped this burger with red onions and American cheese. I used a Vienna roll with a spread of a spicy Chipolte sauce. This burger cooked in less than 10 minutes and was SO juicy! I didn't need to use any extra sauces or anything. This was the best burger of the night.

Burgers two and three cooked on the George Foreman. Be careful when using a George Foreman! They cook fast and you can't see food while it cooks. It is useful though because you can fit 2 burgers on at once. One of these was stuffed with cheese and peppers, the other had a bit of cheese and a secret ingredient: a few drops of Liquid Smoke. It added a great smokey flavor to the burger that reminded me of pulled pork. Both of these burgers got American cheese and were served on normal hamburger buns. While neither burger needed extra sauce, I did add an 'X' of Sriracha for an intense flavor. This hot sauce is also good to marinate the beef with.

My sous chef made an extra ingredient that went great on Burger 2, the mega burger. She greased a cookie sheet with oil, then put patties of Asiago cheese. Cooked at 350 for about 5 minutes, these were great crispy toppers to the burgers. I would even eat these on their own.


Tips and Tricks:
-Wear a shirt or apron when cooking burgers on the stove. The splattering oil is hot.
-Stuff your burgers carefully. I have two techniques for stuffing meat. Sometimes I make 2 smalls patties and combine them with my extras in the middle. For this recipe I chose to mix in the stuffing with the meat. Ensure that cheese is not on the outside of the meat, keep it in on the inside.
-When in doubt, go light on the seasonings prior to cooking. It's easy to add more flavor later, but tough to get rid of what is not wanted.
-Taste stuffing or toppings prior to inclusion to ensure you like their flavors.
-When doing the clean up, let grease cool then pour it in the trash. Dumping down the drain will give you a bad smell and plumbing problems. I like waiting until the grease is dry and easy to spot.
-For a different taste, use ground turkey instead of beef.




-XY