Home made burgers

How do you make home made burgers so that they hold together well when barbecued?
I have made burgers for frying and grilling before, and though they tasted good and mostly held together they were not going to be able to stand the assault of BBQ over coals, I would worry that they might break appart and fall through the BBQ grill gaps which would be a terrible waste. So before the BBQ on Halloween I would like to perfect the art of creating burgers that will stand up to being knocked arround on the BBQ grill.

Add an egg to the mix, like with meatloaf.

Don’t use lean meat. It dries out and gets crumbly. I’ve found that ground chuck works much better than ground sirloin. For a burger, more expensive meat is not always better.

Keep your patties thin so you can cook them very quickly over high heat. Big fat patties get dry on the outside and stay raw in the middle.

When you make the patties, take some time to smooth the edges so you don’t get cracks. These can propagate as the meat shrinks on the grill and split the patty in two.

A lot of supermarkets sell preformed patties in the meat section. These tend to hold up much better than anything you can produce at home. (They must have some sort of hydrolic meat press in back … .)

Good tip about forming the patties without any cracks around the edges.

I’ve also had good luck making them thicker around the edge. The middle will swell during cooking and even out to uniform thickness.

Yeah, but they taste like crap. Get yourself a patty-press if you insist on perfectly-formed patties. An egg will help the meat bind together. Otherwise, manipulate the meat as little as possible. Form a flat, even-edged patty. Cook over high heat. Flip once and only once. Do not press onto grill in any manner. Cook until medium.

:smiley:

The secret is to pack the ground meat. You will need:
Tin foil on the counter
An Apron
Hamburger meat (recipes vary)

  1. Get a palm full of meat. Wad it into a ball.

  2. Throw the Meatwad (gets the honeys, see) from one hand to the other.

  3. Again. Hhard this time.

  4. Harder! - That’s better, see why you need the apron now?

  5. Repeat until the meatwad appears almost uniform.

  6. Throw the wad o’ meat hard onto the tin foil.

  7. Shape it. Make sure there are no cracks on the sides.

  8. Peel it off, and start again with the next one.

When grilling, remember this Golden Rule: FLIP ONLY ONCE.

Burger should always be cooked to at least medium-well, so let the bottoms of each patty cook until they pull away from the grill on their own. Meat seals itself as it cooks, so by letting the bottoms cook thoroughly, you make it much easier to turn them over when the time comes.

Use 10 - 20% fat mince.

Coarse ground is better than fine - even better is to use steak (rump,chuck,blade) with at least 20% fat and cut it up and blend in your food processor until it looks like mince. Keep it coarse though.

Don’t add smooth chunks of stuff (onion, peppers etc) they introduce instability. Blend the stuff smooth and mix through.

Refrigerate patties after forming them.

Oil both grill and burger and chuck on hot grill. Don’t force turning the burger, it will let go when ready.

If you use good meat for the patties and learn to process the meat the bare minimum you may find that it is easier to cook “perfect” portions this way than using the original cuts. The brief processing tenderises the meat and allows for quick cooking.

Here English cooking doyen Delia Smith talks about American burgers.

She says:

There are several kinds of hamburgers, ranging from those that come frozen or served up in fast-food chains to the slightly more classy supermarket varieties. Few people, I suspect, have tasted the real thing, which consists of good steak chopped and tenderised, formed into burgers and grilled on charcoal. The degree of thickness is paramount, since that ensures a crisp, charred outside and a juicy, rare, medium-rare or whatever-you-like inside. I find that 4 oz (110 g) of meat is perfect if it is going to be served in a bun, but 8 oz (225 g) is best for a more sophisticated adult version. Personally, I prefer it to eating a plain grilled steak.

Thanks a load doods. I have not bothered with making the edges nice before, so that is probably my maon reason for crumbling patties (I do use egg, but probably use too lean mince). Would using roughly chopped onion in the patties make them more likely to split?
Has anyone tried adding cooked finely chopped bacon to the patty mix? I thought the flavour might go well and since no non-pork eaters are expected at the BBQ it may make a nice change.
Also anyone tried other minces (lamb, pork, chicken?) with good success?
Finally is it better to let the patties stand for a few hours in the refrigerator before cooking, or is it better to toss them straight on the BBQ as soon they are formed?

And the other part of that Golden Rule is DON’T ‘SMUSH’ THE BURGER WITH THE BACK OF THE SPATULA WHEN YOU DO FLIP IT (OR ANY OTHER TIME).
You’ll push out all the juices. Flip it and leave it alone.

This will help, or you can add a small amount of ice water (an old sausage-making trick), but do NOT add salt to the burgers if you’re going to let them sit for any length of time. Also, turning them more than once does no harm - it’s an old wives’ tale. Over-working the meat is a no-no; it makes the burger too dense and the result will be an unpleasant texture and dry burger.

Ardred’s Famous Hamburgers.

85% lean or fattier meat. 3 pounds makes us five burgers (we likes 'em big). No need for egg or anything inside. Onions will probably make them fall apart easier.

Take the meatwad (he’s a taurus) and smush it well, toss it back and forth a few times, form into a ball. Smash into even patty (his are 3/4 of an inch thick or so), press edges together as much as possible.

Salt and pepper on top and bottom (we also like a bit of Durkee Kansas City Steak seasoning on top, but never inside).

Get grill good and going; hot, white coals.

Cook large patties six(?) minutes (three a side) or until done to your liking (this takes some practice. (I may be wrong on the times, but you’ll have to work out your own times according to how big your burgers are.)

Never smush, unless your patties are becoming concave and no longer touching the grill.

PRACTICE before your big day! I’ll come over and eat the mistakes.

**World-Famous Spencerburgers ** (named after the friend who "invented them):

Mix 20% fat ground beef and skinned hot or sweet Italian sausage in a ratio not to exceed 70% beef/30% sausage. Use an egg as binder. Otherwise proceed as usual, only cook hamburgers well-done.

Note: onion, bacon, etc. belong on a hamburger, not in a hamburger! :smiley:

Obtain some medium ground beef.

Put in bowl.

Dump over beef, in no particular order, the following:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1 package dry onion soup mix
1 egg
Some ketchup
Some mustard
Garlic powder - or real garlic minced (to taste)
Chopped onion
Hot sauce (Tobasco, or anything else you can find and enjoy)
A bit of butter (again to taste)
1 cup grated 10 year old cheddar
Mix well, form into patties as described above.

Start BBQ on High, let warm up for 20 minutes with lid down (presuming gas BBQ)
Open lid, sear patties for 1 minute, then flip.
Sear another minute, flip again.
Reduce heat to Medium - Low, close lid.
Wait 6 minutes, flip again.
Another 6 minute period.
Remove burgers from grill and serve, garnished as you wish.

Interesting mcott I was wondering about using rolled oats instead of bread crumbs to the burgers (I know purists like only beef, but I find some crumbs help absorb the meat juices and keep in the flavour). Do they gt soft enough in cooking, or do they sometimes stay hard and seem like gristle?

DesertRoomie doesn’t like “all that blood” in her burgers so I smush hers. I weep while I do it.

DD

In an effort to cook lighter food, we make our hamburgers with extra lean ground beef (less than 9% fat) However, we never have problems with patty structural failure, even on the grill. I can’t say for sure why this is, but here are my top 3 hypotheses:

-we use 1 egg white in the bowl during mixing
-we add in a little oatmeal (along with BBQ sauce, Worcesteshire, garlick & onion powder)
-when I make the patties, I’m carefull to first make a well rolled, spherical meatball, that is then flattened on a cutting board. The side are squared (making the patty like a cylinder with straight sides) by “rolling” a long flat spatula around the edges when the patty is on the board. I make sure there are no breaks in the circumference. I always make pretty thick patties 1 - 1.5 cm – 1/2 -5/8"

There are all kinds of warnings to make sure ground beef patties are cooked to well-done (no pink left) to make sure any e-coli bacteria are killed. The oatmeal absorbs the juices during cooking, and retains the flavour.

Damn, now I’m hungry…