Not a damn thing goes in or on my patties until fully cooked. Not even salt or pepper.
For the poster who is considering a George Foreman grill, I have one that was given to me as a present* before I got my grill. It is fantastic, though I just put it down for the season a few weeks ago. Great winter method for cooking burgers; I couldn’t imagine going back to pan-frying now that I’ve been using it.
*I compare getting a George Foreman grill as a guy to getting a vibrator as a chick. Your first reaction might be to laugh or be dubious, but the “joke gift” aura quickly dissipates on first use.
To turn your tables the other direction, there is no reason to ever flavor, marinade, or brine any meat if you’re going to introduce other flavors later anyhow.
Brining (the way I do it) is for moisture. I don’t heavily marinate meats if I’m going to douse them in any sort of sauce. Like I said before, I don’t see the point if you’re going to douse it with a bunch of other stuff. So no inconsistency there.
Those are adequate, I suppose. For bought burgers. If that’s what you’re aiming for, I think you’re setting your sights too low, but to each his own. I’m sure you “purists” make a decent burger, but I’ll stick with my way. Speaking of which…
I start with a spice mixture containing red pepper, black pepper, salt, garlic, and savory. (I have no measurements for this–I prepare it mostly by scent, and a roommate who watched me cook for years never managed to get the proportions right.) I spread the meat (80% chuck, usually) fairly thin and sprinkle it lightly with the spice mix, then fold it in with minimal kneading.
I form the seasoned meat into roughly 1-inch thick patties, and slap them on the grill. (I almost never cook burgers indoors.) While they’re cooking, I blend the leftover spice mixture with olive oil. About halfway through, I baste each patty once with the oil. This makes for nicely moist, flavorful patties. Shortly after basting, I may optionally add a slice of cheddar or provolone.
I build the actual burger in all manner of different ways, but usually it looks something like this stack:
bottom bun, with prepared horseradish
patty (with or without cheese)
purple onion
tomato
leafy lettuce (or, occasionally, basil leaves)
top bun, with ranch dressing
My wife who is an Ex-Hamburger, like them the German way. 50/50 ground pork and beef, onions, stale bread, maybe some parsley and a couple eggs and salt and pepper. A bun is not necessary, but if one is provided it better not be that squishy white American crap.
Agreed. I know it sounds unspeakably weird, and a gross violation of the whole “burger = beef” ethos, but it really, really works. It doesn’t taste fishy; the salt and the ineffable exotic-umami quality of the fish sauce elevates the beef experience to a new level. Seriously.
Just don’t overdo it. Use a light hand and administer the merest of splashes.
Then don’t do anything else. No cheese (even though I love bleu cheese on beef), no bacon. Maybe caramelized onions. Nothing else.
Ukranians eat an identical dish they call kotlety. It’s pretty much never served on a bun. Usually seen on a plate with some buckwheat kasha or mashed potato.
Same here for Poland, except they’re called sznycle (“schnitzels”).
As an aside, in Poland, kotlety are pork chops. It’s interesting to see how the same words represent completely different meals depending on what side of the border you’re on. Schnitzels are supposed to be pounded veal cutlets (at least that’s what they are in German-speaking countries), yet in Poland it refers to this hamburger-esque patty made from beef, veal, or pork. And, like you said, never served on a bun, and usually served with mashed potato (and perhaps a bit of drippings). Sometimes it’s lightly dipped in bread crumbs before baking. Also, occasionally my family has used mashed potato instead of soaked bread as the stretcher, to good results. I don’t know how common or authentic this is, but it works well and gives the sznicle a lighter texture.
I have tremendous respect for Alton Brown’s knowledge and skill, but I do not necessarily share his tastes with regard to any given food. De gustibus non est disputandum.
As for minimalism–my aim is to enhance the texture and flavor of the meat, not to overwhelm it. In this thread alone, we have everything from “nothing but beef until it’s on the bun” to something I’d be more inclined to call meatloaf. I lean a little toward the former, but there’s still a big gap between me and the absolute purists.
Aside: The worst burger I ever had was in a hotel restaurant in Sweden. It was snowing too heavily to go anywhere else, and I was starving…and I still couldn’t eat it. The meat was greasy, gristly(!), and something on the burger made my sinuses feel like I had been snorting napalm (it didn’t seem hot or spicy to my mouth, but it burned my nose).
Not touched on yet. Many folks (heritics) don’t like the “moooo” when they bite into beef. I make fairly thick patties and (suggested by a friend) punch a hole in the middle about the diameter of my little pinky. The hole fills in mostly/completely while cooking. The center portions get cooked well without carbonizing the extremities. The little depressions are fine for grabbing onto condiments.
I do my grilled burgers pretty simply- typical hamburger meat made into tight large patties (to compensate for shrinkage), then seasoned with pepper, salt, and or garlic salt. Slap on a piece of cheese the last 3 minutes on the grill, serve with a thick slice of onion, tomato, and mustard and ketchup on a hamburger bun. Occasionally, I’ll make a fried “welfare burger” (frikadelle) with bread, eggs, and onions and various seasonings. I usually eat that on a couple of slices of wonder bread with onion, mayo (miracle whip), mustard, and ketchup.
Interestingly, there is a special Hungarian Hamburg that is indigenous to Toledo. It’s basically a “meatloaf” style burger, or what should be more accurately called, a Hamburger Frikadelle in the European tradition. What makes this burger so special is that it’s a “wet” burger. The Hungarian Hamburg is kept warm and served with a delicious Hungarian gravy on rye or white bread. It’s truly unique to our area and available only at Tony Packo’s restaurant. A Hungarian Hamburg with Tony’s Baked Beans and Pickles and Peppers is realllllly tasty.
Here’s a Hungarian Hamburg Recipe:
Hungarian Hamburgs
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork
Soak 2 slices of bread
1/2 t chopped onion
1 beaten egg
1/2 t chopped parsley
1/2 cup of milk
Season to taste
Make patties and fry golden brown.
Recipe: Mrs. Julia Toth
Packo’s finishes them by slow simmering the hamburgs and keeping them in a Tomato-Paprika Gravy. That’s their secret, and I’m not sure what’s in it.
For years I made my burgers with bread in the patties because that’s how my mother did it.
Then one day I realized that my mother only did it like that so we’d have enough patties to feed all of us, not because she thought it made better burgers.
True, the bread is an extender, Jophiel. But it’s also a binder along with egg and goes towards cooking properties. You might think it cheap, but really it’s part of the meatball, to frikadelle, to American all-beef hamburger metamorphosis and lineage. A hamburger, after all, is just a large flattened meatball.
I’ve always thought it rather ironic that the so-called “welfare burger” is so much more substantial, well seasoned, and tasty than an American Hamburger Patty.
Really, the American approach to the Hamburger is rather backwards in an aristocratic way.
Because of our prosperity and access to cheap beef, somewhere along the line somebody decided to take out all the extra flavor components of the traditional Hamburger Frikadelle. Making for a plain, standardized, and somewhat generic hunk of pure meat. The Hamburger is descended from the flavorful meatball…not a steak.
