How do you prep your homemade burger - grilled or fried your choice - for the best burger experience. I purposely chose a make your own so this wouldn’t compare fast food but for full disclosure, mine is based on a fast food burger, the Carl’s Jr. Old Time Star.
Salt and pepper of course
For cheese I get the American cheese love but it is just too gooey. Give me the best all-around medium cheddar. Has flavor but still melts well.
Mustard & ketchup, a little easy on the ketchup.
Dill pickles and onion.
Good sesame bun lightly browned
I’ve always liked a good mushroom-swiss burger. When I grill burgers, Mrs. Solost and the 2 sonlosts all have different burger prefs, but I often like to cook some thin-sliced onions in butter in a pan until carmelized, add the sliced shrooms, cook it all down, add a sprinkle of flour to make a bit of a roux, then a splash of Worcestershire, & a couple cranks of a pepper grinder.
Then I grill the burgers. When burgers are about done I add the onion-shroom mix on top of mine, cover with Swiss cheese (Provolone also does nicely) and put that finished beef-shroom-cheese stack on a nice toasted onion bun. Yummy.
A shot of Worcestershire sauce on the uncooked top while the other side is cooking. After flipping a sprinkle of salt and pepper if I’m not putting bacon on it. My choice for cheese is usually cheddar but I’ll use anything available.
I start with medium-lean good quality fresh beef patties – if they’re too lean they’ll dry out and not smoke on the grill, which is important to flavour. They’re fairly big but not too thick – about twice the thickness of a McD’s quarter pounder. I do them for about 4-5 minutes a side on an outdoor grill. I use a particular brand of large burger bun that is way better than most, and lightly toast on the grill just before the patties are ready.
Cheese is added just as the patties are coming off the grill. I know many cheeses work well on burgers and I appreciate fancy cheeses as much as anyone, but for me the thick variety of Kraft process cheese slices (what I believe you USAians call “American cheese”) works best for my taste.
Toppings are fairly simple. I’m trying for simple quality, not fancy gourmet. So, ketchup, diced white onion, a thin slice of vine tomato, and one or two slices of garlic dill pickle (the kosher full-sour variety). Just as when making pizza, the tendency to get carried away and overload it should be restrained – minimalism and quality ingredients is the key, IMHO.
My most basic is just mustard, ketchup, dill pickle, onions (sometimes sauteed/caramelized, but usually cooked short of caramelization). As for patties, my preference is for two on the thin side, from 1/8-1/6 lb each. Deli American cheese (slight preference for white, but it really doesn’t matter. They taste the same so far as I can tell.)
If I’m going West Coast fast food style, I’ll do the thin patties and cheese, but condiments are a hamburger sauce (mayo, ketchup, mustard, sweet relish–sometimes a little horseradish or Tabasco in there, as well. Maggi is another good addition.) Then lettuce, tomato, raw onion, dill pickle.
Bun preference is Martin’s potato rolls. (Buttered and griddled/toasted).
Really, the toppings depend on mood. I normally make the burger with the toppings in mind first, rather than as an afterthought.
Do I want a mushroom swiss burger (which is one of my loves)? Then I buy ahead of that.
Do I want a roasted jalapeno, Anaheim, or hatch burger? Plan for that.
I almost always have a couple of different cheeses, raw and home pickled onions, so if I haven’t planned, the default is an 80/20 burger, salted, then pressed into a dish of fresh cracked black pepper (so a black pepper coating), cooked in a hot cast iron skillet to the medium well side of medium, with onions sauteed in the pan while melting the cheese on the patty as it moves to target temp.
I’m not big into burgers but the only things I’ll really try to make sure are on there are mayo and raw onion. Beside that, I’ll also go for ketchup, dijon, sweet AND dill pickle relish.
As others say, it depends. If I want White Castle type sliders then I grill very thin patties on some onions and then steam them. For crispy ones, I use the smash approach. For pub style in like a juicy Lucy stuffed with serranos, onions and Monterey Jack.
You’re very knowledgeable about cooking (seriously) so this surprises me.
Any man from the house of Israel, or from those who sojourn among them, who sets mustard upon a burger, I will set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people, for mustard upon a burger is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord.
– I’m pretty sure this must be somewhere in the Bible!
All the basic burgers I grew up with had ketchup and mustard on them. Even a basic McDonald’s hamburger has mustard on by default. Ketchup on its own is just too sweet for me. I’d rather do mustard alone than ketchup alone, but I think the two together work best. Is mustard not normal on a burger up there in Canada?
Something I picked up in New Zealand is adding beet slices to burgers. I prefer freshly cooked beets that had been marinated in one of my vinaigrettes, I have a nice selection from a small shop in Port Townsend, Washington. Just happened to spend a week there and added a couple new flavors to my collection, dark cherry and maple. So far my faves are raspberry and Gravenstien apple. I also like a bit of Boursin shallot and chive cheese. A little bit goes a long way. I cook my burgers in a very hot cast iron pan for about 30 seconds a side to add a bit of char then they go on the grill till there is just a bit of pink left. Picked a bad time to answer this thread, it’s dinner time and now I’m really hungry.
Quite honestly, it’s probably no different than in the US – a matter of personal taste. The aversion to mustard on burgers probably came from my son, who feels pretty strongly about it and I’ve come to agree with him, though he and I are both fine with mustard on hot dogs, and Dijon mustard on many kinds of sandwiches.
75/25 patty of ground chuck and hot Italian sausage. Cooked medium well, because meat should be raw or cooked, dammit! Splash of Lea & Perrin’s as it cooks. S & P. Decamped onto a toasted sesame seed bun bottom smeared with a mustard of interest and scattered with chopped raw onions. On top of the patty goes relish & BBQ sauce. Version “B” swaps out 1000 Island for the mustard and ditches the BBQ sauce.
80/20 patty sprinkled with kosher salt, cooked in a cast iron pan (I find that’s the best way to replicate the “crust” that forms when it’s cooked on a flat-top grill at a diner)
American cheese
Bun, toasted on the inside only. I achieve this by placing it in a toaster oven with the insides facing up, and setting the toaster oven to broil. Griddle frying also works.
Mustard, preferably a spicy German mustard like Lowensenf Extra Hot, or a Dijon if that’s all that’s available.
You’re thinking of mayonnaise. Fine on sandwiches, fine on burgers, as long as they’ve got mustard or ketchup as well, but only savages put mayonnaise alone on burgers.
Dick’s in Seattle would have been awesome, save that emphasis on mayonnaise.
