For a long time, I enjoyed thick, giant burgers. More recently, for several years, I liked very thin burgers with crispy edges. Lately, when I have a burger, I make a thick-ish 5+ ounce patty and cook it ‘medium’. (I’d make it rare, but my wife prefers more cooked.)
So let’s post about burgers. To start…
Tonight we had the 5+ ounce burgers, cooked on the barbie. Mine was a bit pink inside. Two slices of American cheese (not ‘American cheese food’), toasted garlic keto bun, mayonnaise, and an Ortega chile (mile green chile). Could’ve had two. Glad I didn’t, else I’d be bursting. My wife had Dijon mustard and mayo, lettuce, and a thick slice of tomato on hers.
If we are out and about, a smashburger is an awesome treat.
At home I like to make rare burgers using freshly ground steak that I sous vide then torch the exterior. I use roughly a pound of steak to make two monstrous burgers.
I typically make 8 oz. patties, cooked well done in a cast iron skillet, and flipped exactly once. Rare meat is for steaks - burgers need to be fully cooked.
Usually I’m making a chili burger - either Tommy’s style with beanless chili, mustard, tomato, onion, and pickles, or chili size style, open faced with chili with beans, topped with onions and shredded cheddar.
On rare occasions, I’ll make a bacon burger a la Hodad’s in my hometown of Ocean Beach, San Diego, where the bacon is chopped, boiled, and then formed into patties and grilled.
Or if I’m feeling basic, I’ll just slice a wedge out of the middle of an onion, cook it in the drippings alongside the patty, and throw the patty and onion on two slices of white bread with some tomato, pickles, and ketchup and mustard.
I find that so-called “premium” burger patties – usually claimed to be made from a particularly high grade of Angus beef – are just too damned thick. For me the best burgers on the grill are the regular fresh ones from one particularly good reputable butcher, which generally have just enough fat to contribute to smoky grilling. A pack of two might weigh a pound or less – they’re big and require big buns, but they’re not obnoxiously thick…
Unlike steaks that I generally grill medium-rare, I generally do burgers medium-well on high heat. Then toast large bakery buns for a few seconds on the hot grill, add the burgers, cheddar processed cheese (which I’m not ashamed to admit is better on burgers than real cheddar), ketchup, diced white onion, one or two slices of garlic pickle, a sliced tomato, and there’s your perfect burger!
However, based on a recent experience at a gathering where the most exquisite hors d’oeuvres were served which included deliciously juicy miniature gourmet burgers with pink interiors, there is something to be said for perhaps grilling the patties slightly more on the medium side.
I’m a fan of smashburgers, and have been since the 60s, but it seems like everyone overcooks them around here so they end up dry and charred. When I make them, it’s about 3 minutes on side A and 2 minutes on side B on med-high heat. That leaves them crispy but juicy. Never cared for the thick pub-style burgers; if I want meatloaf, I’ll order it.
I like a good mushroom & Swiss burger. I start carmeltizing thin-cut onions in a little butter, then throw some sliced fresh mushrooms in when the onions are a good ways towards carmelizing. Then a small splash of soy sauce and Worcestershire. Done when the mushrooms are cooked through. Cover the pan to keep warm while grilling burgers.
Put a generous pile of mushroom-onions on a finished burger, add a slice of Swiss and melt. Provolone is also good in a pinch. Served on a nice brioche or kaiser bun that’s been toasted on the grill. Yummy.
I’m mostly about thin patties, typically dressed with mustard, ketchup, pickle, and almost caramelized onions. Either that, or I go with the “salad” way with lettuce, fresh onions, tomatoes, pickles, burger sauce. If I’m making them, then I usually hit those onions and tomatoes with Slap Ya Mama or even Old Bay. A little salt and pepper at least, though.
The rare once-a-year time I get a hankering for a half pounder, the whole point for me is that I want it medium-rare, err on the side of rare. I’m looking for that mix of textures, flavors, doneness. Done well, these are awesome. One of my favorites is a peppercorn-crusted blue cheese burger that just hits all the right notes for me.
Had a boar burger on Saturday and it was delicious. I’ve had before so no surprise that it was good but juicy with a great distinct flavor.
Had an elk burger yesterday and it was… ok. Not bad but nothing exceptional. Had I not known what it was, I wouldn’t have guessed it was anything interesting. I understand that elk doesn’t have much fat so I guess maybe that translates to less flavor.
Heat up your ss griddle pan, must be hot! Slice very thin one onion. Put 4 piles of onions in the pan. Let them sear a bit.
Salt and pepper the meat or not. Make 4 meatballs, place on top of the onion piles. Let them sit a minute or two, then smash em good. Wait another 2-3 minutes then flip. The onions are steamy soft and sticking to the meats. Another minute add cheese then slide onto buns. Condiments optional. I usually add a tomato slice and that’s it!
I had a venison burger made by a friend’s old father. He sliced onions and cooked them in butter in a cast iron pan. The burgers were ground venison, salted/peppered/A-1 sauced, cooked in the same pan till with a good splash of chianti wine at the end cooked down a bit. Served on crusty bread, they were really good, not gamey tasting at all. I don’t think I could ever reproduce those burgers even with the same ingredients and pan.
I do a thick 1/4 lb patty, with 80/20 ground beef, sprinkled with coarse salt, cooked in a cast iron pan over medium-high heat so it gets a nice crust on the outside. Then melt a slice of American cheese on top. Like the OP, that’s real American cheese, not “cheese food product”.
For the bun I discovered the trick of toasting just the inside part by placing them in the toaster oven with the inside facing up, then setting it to broil rather than toast.
Then on bottom bun, mayo and a spicy mustard, like Lowensenf Extra Hot if I have it, or a Dijon. Then the patty with melted cheese, a slice of lettuce, tomato, a very thin slice of red onion, and pickles.
Growing up in southern NM, green chili cheeseburgers are the norm.
Onion roll when fancy, a decent telara roll when I’m cheap, cut in half, browned on the sliced side in the square cast iron skillet with a bit of melted salted butter (same pan to be used for burgers).
Good Anaheim peppers into the air fryer to roast, peel and chop (or decent quality roasted green chili peppers medium-to-hot). Once bun is toasted, 2 thin-ish 1/4 lb 80/20 patties seasoned with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, onion and garlic power in the 2 and 8 o’clock positions of the square cast iron, and thin sliced onions in the other quadrants, pan lubed with ghee for more love. Cook to just shy of medium and a slice of sharp cheddar goes on after the single flip.
Assembled into a double meat green chili cheeseburger with meat, cheese, onions, repeat for second layer. Final doneness at just over medium.
Huge, greasy, drippy, and wonderful. Enough food that sides aren’t needed, but will occasionally overdo it by adding some air-fryer shoestring or curly fries.
In the past I’d do single 8oz burgers but yeah, was hard getting the crispy exteriors I enjoy without over cooking the whole thing. And two single burgers is great, but the double buns is too much bread and empty carbs in most cases.
My second favorite is pretzel bun sliders, salt - pepper - onion and garlic powder, cheddar and thiiiiin sliced red onion, about 1/8 of a pound pre-cooked each.
Growing up in Southern California, cheeseburgers with green chiles (‘Ortega chiles’) were not uncommon – at home. I’ve only rarely seen them on menus. Ortega chiles are certainly one of the best things you can put on a burger.
Meat
Others have posted their preferred beef. I’m not that picky. Some ratios are better than others, but I like them all because… burger! But something happened a few years ago…
A cousin is pretty well-off. She’s an RN PhD, and has had some very prestigious positions. We visited her new house, and we had burgers on the barbie. The thing is, she mixed breadcrumbs (and maybe an egg) into the meat. Though today I’d call that ‘meatloaf’, it was pretty common when I was a kid; probably to ‘stretch’ the beef. My cousin certainly didn’t need to use filler to make more patties. I didn’t ask her, but I wonder if it’s a case of ‘That’s the way we’ve always done it’?
Come to think of it, my dad had his own way of making a burger. He’d thoroughly mix in dehydrated onions and Worcestershire sauce, then he’d cook the enormous patty in a covered pan adding at least two slices of cheese at the end. I always cooked mine uncovered, so we’d have different-looking burgers.
I use ¼-pound patties if I’m making a thin burger. My thick burgers are as close to ⅓ pound as I can get them. (I parcel the ground beef into 1-pound packages, and weigh the balls for three patties on a kitchen scale.)
Definitely my case. Standard operating procedure was to add bread crumbs and an entire egg to make two or even just a single burger. Other stuff too, like Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, sometimes chopped onion.
And today, thanks to The Straight Dope, I have come to my senses.
Burgers made 3 to a pound form 85% lean or less. The butcher will look for reasonably priced short rib meat for me and tries to include some lower chuck and brisket. A shot of worcestershire on top while the bottom cooks. I generally look for the juices coming up before turning then hitting it with salt and pepper. I like to fold the corners of cheese squares in to the middle so the cheese doesn’t drip all over the sides, and then cover the burgers with a dome lid to melt the cheese rapidly.
Agree. We always have a couple of cans of Ortega chiles in our pantry. With Swiss cheese, it’s my favorite omelet.
I don’t make burgers at home because I preferred them grilled, and I don’t have a grill. I have them done with wa grill pan, but it’s not the same as a flame grilled burger.
We’ve been meaning to try Smashburgers when we’re too lazy to cook, so I’ll have to make sure to actually try them.
There used to be a place called Mago’s that had an avocado-chili-cheeseburger (which had a good dosing of teriyaki sauce) that I used to be addicted to. That and at the late Hamburger Hamlet, I loved the burger with mayonnaise, finely shredded lettuce, and chopped peanuts.
