What is the secret of making a really juicy burger?

Question

As the title says; What is the secret of making a really juicy burger?

Answer 1

• Use only good beef, salt and pepper. The beef should be a good fatty cut, with a ratio of 80% meat, 20% fat. Chuck is ideal. Any good butcher should grind it to order for you.

• You need to keep the ground meat as cold as possible, to prevent the fat melting out of it before you cook it. Do not salt the beef prior to shaping, just use pepper. Shape your burgers, then put them in the fridge for a couple of hours.

• Generously salt the outside of the burgers about 1 hour before cooking.

• Get a good pan (preferably a cast iron griddle) really, really, really hot. Brush one side of the burger with vegetable oil, then slap it on the grill. DO NOT PRESS IT WITH THE SPATULA, EVER. You squeeze out all the juice.

• Turn the burger and cook the other side. Timing will depend on how you like your burger. A good way of testing doneness is to insert a thin metal skewer into the centre of the burger from one side (not the top), leave it for a few seconds, then take it out and touch it carefully to your lip. If it's hot, it's just about done. Or if you have a good digital thermometer, use that.

Answer 2

When I'm planning on cooking a ton of burgers for large family gatherings (and I have the time to make the patties myself) I've had good luck with the following.

For every lb of ground beef I soak 1/2 piece of bread (without crust) in milk until it's saturated (I think this is called a panade). I then take the bread out of the milk and incorporate it with the ground beef. (I think I got this from an Alton Brown episode for something unrelated). It doesn't really alter the flavor, and can keep even slightly overcooked burgers nice and moist.

I know it's filler, not totally necessary etc. but it does seem to work as a bit of insurance.

Answer 3

The only thing I would add to the above, is that despite what many people say, only flip meat once. If you flip it over a second time, the first side you cooked will be back on the heat. Problem is, that side started to cool as soon as you flipped it. So it will take a bit of time to get to the point that the heat is penetrating far enough to cook more of the meat. It only serves to dry the meat out if it is cooked numerous times over. I personally salt meat right before I put it on the grill, as salt (by its very nature) will tend to draw moisture out of the meat.

Answer 4

Alton Brown puts on a good show and has a great sense of humor, but pointing to his caveats as outright truths is a bit misguided. Most of his experiments on the show usually make assumptions that are often arbitrary or unfounded. First off, there are two main sources of moisture in a burger: the fat that melts as it cooks and the water that is stored in the muscle tissues. You could also point to the possible source of gelatinous connective tissue, but usually the meat used for burgers does not contain much of this.

Worrying about when to salt your meat is probably wasted energy. The fat won't be affected by the salt. If you think about it, some steaks are dry aged to purposely drive the moisture out so the flavors can be intensified. If you have a 20% fat mix, it will be difficult to dry out even if you salt it an hour before hand. Of course, if you know some old school 'pink is poison' people, you know that sometimes you're just gonna be stuck eating a hockey puck regardless.

The number of times you flip the burger is usually a silly rule too. If you take it to the extreme and try flipping a burger ever 10-30 seconds, you'll most likely waste a bunch or time and probably miss out on a nice dark sear outside/med rare inside combo. But if you accidentally have to flip the burger one or two extra times, you'll still be fine. Alton's suggestion that flipping a burger often is better than not sounds meaningless without indicating the thickness of the burger, temperature of and distance from the heat source. Also, it depends on how you like your burger. Some people like an even cook throughout while others like a spice rub that sears to a near crunch around a moist, tender red interior. Alton Brown should stick to his entertaining sock puppets and oversized food props and stop indoctrinating people with fake science.

Squishing the burger down can lead to a good burger too. Have you ever been to Smashburger? It's a relatively new burger chain originating from Colorado (i think). Apparently, they start with a sphere of beef on a hot griddle, and they literally smash the thing into the hot metal with a weighted iron. This cooks the meat quick and ensures efficient heat transfer from the surface to the meat fibers. As long as you cook it at the right temp and get it off the heat right when it is finished cooking, it comes out an amazingly juicy and flavorful burger.

Basically, there are no magic rules for burgers. All that matters is your idea of the ideal meat texture, temp, and thickness and that whatever method you use, you avoid driving out all the water by evaporation and burning away all of the fat while you cook it.