Making the ultra-simple complicated: hamburgers

I'm looking for a hamburger recipe - that is, I want a recipe that's going to have me tasting juicy beef. Past burgers made with plain ground meat beef were bland; adding worchestershire and salt and pepper were an improvement, but not quite right.

A google search of my favorite food websites returned a plethora of ideas on how to top my burger, and all sorts of goat-cheese topped, guacamole-filled hybrid burgers, but nothing on how to enhance the flavor of beef. Last time I let the 'spouse at it, we wound up with excellent meatloaf patties, but that's not what I'm going for here.

I've got some ground chuck and ground beef in my fridge that's calling my name; I'm looking for ways to season it so that when I bite into it, my first thought is "gee, that cow is delicious!"

So, to LTH: how do you reach plain hamburger perfection?

Mhays wrote: So, to LTH: how do you reach plain hamburger perfection?

1. Save your ground chuck and ground beef for meatloaf mix. You can't squeeze more beefy flavor out of meat that lacks it in the first place.

2. Buy ribeye, grind the meat, add salt/pepper (nothing else!).

3. Grill burgers over natural lump charcoal.

You didn't say "cheap" plain hamburger perfection. Ribeye makes a stupid-tasty, beefy burger.

I agree with your objective: a truly satisfying beefy taste. The only way I know how to do this is to start with truly good beef with plenty of good fat. It is all about the breed, the diet, and the cut(s) of beef that are the source of the burger As you note, it is very common to dress up an unremarkable patty with all kinds of things; often these combinations are delicious, but where is that beefy taste?

I buy full packer-cut briskets in bulk to use for smoking, pastrami, etc. The flat, along with it's thick fat cap is what I grind up for the burgers I enjoy ythe most.

It really does make a difference.

I've been meaning to try this...Mark Bittman ("the Minimalist") from the NY times wrote an article about burgers suggesting the way to get a really great burger is to buy great meat and chop it yourself.
I haven't tried it yet but it's on my 'To do' list.
Here's the link to the article and recipe:
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F10A17F834550C708EDDAC0894DF404482
(I think you have to log in-feel free to PM me if you have trouble accessing the article)

Adding minced jalapeño, garlic and or onion. Any combination or just one at a time. To my taste less is more. Been meaning to try grated Ginger. Thanks for bringing this up.

These aren't going to make anything meatier tasting but worth trying at least once.

HI,

I like Bill/SFNM's idea to make your own hamburger from brisket. I am going to try that soon.

What I have been doing is buying cheap fatty hamburger. Not the lean "20 percent or less fat" hamburger. If there is enough fat present, then you will have the tasty, juicy hamburger you envision.

I have a sister who is a very health conscious. I have seen her buy the leanest ground meat to cook for a hamburger. Before eating she would place it between paper towels to press out any remaining juices that she thought was fat. Cardboard has more flavor by the time her preparations are finished.

Regards,

I think it was Alton Brown who showed me the light of higher-fat meat for burgers and the logic and results are solid... while the burger cooks, the fat drains off. When you start with super-lean meat, you loose the fat but then the water starts to leave the burger, leaving you with a cardboard patty.

Also, if you can find general "ground beef"... it's not a specific cut of meat, it's the odds and ends from all the cuts, ground with the specified fat percentage added, an IMHO has a pretty good flavor.

I'm a fan of a tablespoon or two of steak sauce in the burger. I also add some dried minced onion, I like the onion flavor.

I've tried grinding my own meat.... I didn't notice much difference.

Have you thought about adding ingredients that might boost the umami? Straight MSG has a bad rap, but a little might help increase the meaty flavor. Or you could add a natural source of glutamates - you wouldn't need a lot - I keep a jar of dried shitake which I've run through the spice grinder in my pantry for use in dry rubs and the like. I'm told you can do the same with dried seaweed, but I've never tried it. I've also heard that the two together may have a synergistic effect, but, again, no personal experience.

I've got three rules that seem to work fairly well:

1. Use fat ground chuck (if you can grind your own, even better);

2. Handle it as little as possible, and compress it as absolutely gently as possible;

3. Dimple the top side (I press the lid of a soy sauce bottle in about 1/2").

Since I finally learned (duh!) to follow all three rules, my burgers have improved great strides.

Geo

I agree with several prior posts - start with a fattier meat - no lean meat (I had good luck with about 85% lean chuck), then put some crushed ice in a bowl, add some salt and pepper into the ice, and add to the meat. Mix up quickly, making sure to incorporate the ice into the burger. I can't remember how much I put in, maybe a 1/3 ice cup in 2 pounds?

These were the best grilled burgers I've had in many a year. The beef flavor shone through and they were cooked much more done than I would normally do and were everything I wanted in a burger.

Assuming you start with good breed of cow, adequate fat content, and the other suggestions above - the one thing as far as additives go which I find compliment the beef flavour, is the addition of a little grated onion. Little bit of worcestershire and s&p too.

Since my OP was right before dinner, I had to improvise a bit on my own. Looking around google, I found a suggestion to marinate onions and garlic in worchestershire and add. I did them one better and added minced mushrooms and soy sauce (I had about 4 lbs of burger, and had about 1/3 cup of chopped veggies, just a hint.) Food Network suggested to gently break the meat up in small pieces and scatter them over a cookie sheet to distribute the seasoning before making patties. I followed this instruction and added some seasoned salt to the mix.

The result was not bad, considering I didn't have that high quality of meat: (I believe it was all 80% lean, I considered adding bacon grease which might have improved it) generally we tasted meat and not seasonings. My only complaint was that my knife skills aren't very good, and sometimes we wound up with a noticable bite of onion here and there - grating sounds like a better method. I'm very curious about the crushed-ice method - I think I'll try that next time.

I haven't been seeing ground beef with over 20% fat - in fact, I was hard-pressed to find ground chuck! Where do you get yours, Cathy?

Hi,

The last time I bought that kind of hamburger. It was in 2 pound logs sealed like a sausage in the meat case at Jewel. Going from cheap to expensive, I bought ground wagyu hamburger at Costco for around $12 for an unknown quantity.

I will likely be in Jewel in the next day or two. I will look for this hamburger to give you a better idea.

Regards,

We just saw the ground beef in tube at Sam's Club tonight. Must've been about a 5 pound tube of maybe 85%?? Didn't notice the price though.

beef bouillion - IE the main ingredient in onion soup mix for the onion soup burger. I learned early that using about 1/4 of the soup mix called for in the onion soup burger recipe was enough for my tastes as a subtle enhancement as opposed to the in your face soup mix flavor produced by the amounts in the recipe. There's probably some msg in there too. YUMM!

I found a number of tubed hamburger from between one and five pounds at Food for Less, one of which was 73%. Their ground chuck, tubed and otherwise (I like the tooth and flavor of ground chuck) was all 80% same as everywhere else. I'm going to try a blend like last time and see if that improves things a bit.

Thank you, Cathy - never would have occured to me to look for a tube-pack! Also, thanks everyone for your excellent suggestions!

I've had much better results with fresh ground hamburger rather than the tubes. When making hamburger patties I've had better results trying not to pack the hamburgers too much or too tight. The tubed hamburger seems so compressed that it just seems to compound this problem.


happy hamburgering
dan

Well, if you're open to letting someone else do the work, Whole Foods at Ashland and School makes a fatty burger studded with blue cheese and carmelized onions that makes me swoon. They also have one with portabello and swiss.

The blue cheese is one of the best burgers I have eaten.

YourPalWill wrote:Well, if you're open to letting someone else do the work, Whole Foods at Ashland and School makes a fatty burger studded with blue cheese and carmelized onions that makes me swoon. They also have one with portabello and swiss.

The blue cheese is one of the best burgers I have eaten.

That sounds wonderful!


I used to love GooseIsland's Stilton burger. A half pound of black pepper crusted burger, grilled and topped with roasted garlic cloves, Stilton cheese and Düsseldorf mustard on a pumpernickel roll.

This hamburger used to be the burger of burgers for me. Especially with the homemade potato chips at the bar too. But the last several times I got the hamburger the quality was just way off. Stale buns...cold meat, etc. I've stopped going there But man did I used to love that Stilton burger...yum!

take care,
dan

I go by Geo's rules. There's absolutely nothing wrong with chuck, and chuck has plenty of flavor, if you buy it no more than 80% lean. I don't think you need to get any fattier than 80:20 lean:fat. For me, that's the perfect balance. Salt, pepper, minimimal handling and nothing else.

If you really want to add some flavor, I like cutting in up to 50% ground lamb. It's not longer a purist's hamburger, but it's yummy.

Binko--

I second your addition of lamb from time-to-time! Takes me a ways toward the grilled 'donor' flavor that I really like. There's a restaurant here in Montreal whose signature item is a lamburger, served, 'natch! with spinach and feta, on a really good bun.

Geo

http://english.montrealplus.ca/bars_res ... urs/519953

I like to add a bit of oyster sauce to my burgers. It gives a nice roundness to the flavor, maybe the umami that was referred to earlier?

Other than that, nothing, a little smear of mayo on the bun as a moisture barrier and that's it.

Cathy2 wrote:HI,

I like Bill/SFNM's idea to make your own hamburger from brisket. I am going to try that soon.

Cathy2,

I've never measured, but I would guess that a brisket flat with a nice fat cap is ~30% fat. Others here have declared their preference for 20%, but I am convinced (or maybe deluded is a better term) that much of the fat is rendered out during cooking, basting the burger so that it retains more flavor and more of the juices. Rationalizing a higher fat content is so easy!

Bill/SFNM

gonefishin wrote:I've had much better results with fresh ground hamburger rather than the tubes. When making hamburger patties I've had better results trying not to pack the hamburgers too much or too tight.

What you're overlooking is one of the basic splits in burger prep: a loose burger with nice "flaps" that get crispy is an ideal you get from a griddled burger (fast food examples: Culver's, Steak 'n' Shake).

A "flame-broiled" burger (charcoal or gas grill) is a very different animal, needs a more regular disc to ensure you get most of the burger back to the plate and not through the grate, and probably patted more firmly too. I like the high-heat (carcinogenic?) char of this style burger, and the contrast between the outside and inside (which you will NEVER get from a thin patty)

A thought, though: does a griddled burger retain more juice (fat) during cooking, since it doesn't drip away? Can you get away with a leaner grind?

the umami angle is intriguing. I'm going to try adding some minced anchovy and a bit of the anchovy oil next time I make burgers. and I'll chop my own, a la Bittman.

sarcon wrote:the umami angle is intriguing. I'm going to try adding some minced anchovy and a bit of the anchovy oil next time I make burgers. and I'll chop my own, a la Bittman.

I've been using Goya Sazon for my umami kick. Seems to do the trick though I'm looking forward to trying oyster sauce and fish sauce.

I've discovered that a quick squirt of fish sauce does amazing things for all sorts of stuff, much more so than soy sauce. Now that somebody mentioned it, maybe it is indeed the umami. Funny, it doesn't fishy up the taste, but it certainly does deepen it.

Good idea.

Geo

JoelF wrote:

gonefishin wrote:I've had much better results with fresh ground hamburger rather than the tubes. When making hamburger patties I've had better results trying not to pack the hamburgers too much or too tight.

What you're overlooking is one of the basic splits in burger prep: a loose burger with nice "flaps" that get crispy is an ideal you get from a griddled burger (fast food examples: Culver's, Steak 'n' Shake).

A "flame-broiled" burger (charcoal or gas grill) is a very different animal, needs a more regular disc to ensure you get most of the burger back to the plate and not through the grate, and probably patted more firmly too. I like the high-heat (carcinogenic?) char of this style burger, and the contrast between the outside and inside (which you will NEVER get from a thin patty)

A thought, though: does a griddled burger retain more juice (fat) during cooking, since it doesn't drip away? Can you get away with a leaner grind?

oh not at all. You obviously can't put loose ground beef on the grill and expect it to become a hamburger patty. A loosely packed patty does work on a grill(charcoal or gas).

That aside...The tubes are so compressed, it's well beyond any handmade hamburger patty that you patted together yourself from fresh ground beef.


Great idea about the lamb! I bet it's delicious:)

Umami, huh? I had to Google this, having never heard of it before. Wikipedia says it's "one of the five basic tastes sensed by specialized receptor cells present on the human tongue....meaning "savory" or "meaty".

So that's why anchovies deepen my pasta dishes... I think "umami" is my new favorite word!

Wow! Y'all are making me ravenous for a burger! Already planning brats for tonight, but now I know what I'll be making tomorrow! I've been using bison for burgers the past year or so, but this has me planning a trip to the store fro some cow!

kat