Your Best Burger
Contributed by: Personal Chef Christina Phipps; christina@culinarycomforts.com
Last Monday was Memorial Day and with grilling season gearing up, I decided to seek out ways to make the "best" burger ever. I pored over pages and pages on the internet and looked through a few of my hundreds of cookbooks. What I found was that, although there are a LOT of great tips out there which I will share with you today, finding your best burger is just that - finding what YOU like best!!
Some things are agreed upon by all of the experts though. Start with the best burger meat that you can. Shop that day for your meat - or have your favorite butcher or supermarket grind the meat fresh for you - you can even pick out your own cut to grind. For the juiciest gourmet hamburger, you want to have some fat on the meat - and the generally agreed upon cut is chuck. Another idea is to blend sirloin and chuck together.
When you get the meat home, the next best tip to remember is to not overwork the meat. If you do, you will end up with a dense, tough burger. So, season the meat with salt and pepper and then gently form the meat into patties. Or, you can form the meat into loose patties and then salt and pepper after. Some burger experts recommend that you salt the meat after cooking because the salt extracts the juices during the cooking process - so, the placement of the seasoning step is left up to your discretion. I weigh the balls of meat before patting out so that they are even and will cook that way - or if you are a pro - you can eyeball it. I use the scale as a back-up - but find that my "eyeball" works pretty well (and it is a fun game to see how close you can get!)! I refrigerate the burgers at that point so they are easier to handle come cooking time. This way you can make them ahead of time and have plenty of time to work on your gourmet side dishes or toppings!
As far as thickness goes - shoot for about ½ to ¾ of an inch thick and the weight should be around ¼ pound or a little bit more. Do you notice that sometimes when you make burgers they end up rounded in the middle - and the condiments slide off? A cool tip that I found on the internet and have seen on a few cooking shows is to place an indentation in the center of the burger - this helps the burger turn out flat when it is finished cooking.
For the grilling - I will just touch on the basics. Start with a clean, hot grill. Grease the grates and then place your burgers over hottest part of your grill. Don't close the top - and don't move the burgers until time to flip them and then don't move again until it is time to remove them. The general rule we found is: 2 ½ - 3 minutes a side for rare; 4 minutes per side for medium rare; 5 minutes one side, 4 minutes the other for medium well; and, 5 minutes a side for well-done. This will depend a lot on exactly how hot your grill is - so, just use these times as guidelines. But, remember - only turn once - and don't ever press down on your burger with a spatula - this presses all the juices out - and creates a denser, drier burger.
On the second side in the last minute or so, you can add a slice of your favorite cheese. After you remove the burgers from the grill, let them rest for about 1-2 minutes to let the juices settle. This will also give you time to gently toast your buns. Turn down the grill a bit - or just keep a close eye!
Now you get to build your burger - go simple - or go crazy!! The choices are endless - experiment and explore! Whatever you like - try it on a burger. Find your perfect combination - or find a few. One fun way for everyone to experiment is to just put all the things you like in little dishes on a buffet - and let everyone find their favorite burger - or have a contest!!
Finally, pair your perfect hamburger with a great liquid refreshment. We all know milkshakes go great with burgers - so, make a blender full for everyone! For even more fun - try your favorite beer alongside or play on a theme - French beer with a brie and mushroom burger; Mexican beer with a jalepeno Monterey Jack burger; your favorite microbrew with a simple no-frills burger….see how it works???
And, finally, don't be afraid to pair wine with your burger. On our last trip to the California wine country, we were surprised to find that our favorite was Zinfandel - and what a great match that makes with your burger. The robust, peppery flavors of a zinfandel will brighten and compliment the flavor of any burger. But, again, try your favorite wine with your gourmet hamburgers - you might be surprised how good it is.
So, as you can see - there are only a few guidelines to making the best hamburgers - and they are easy to follow. Start with the basics and then go from there - keep your burger simple or dress it up as much as you like. You have the whole summer to find your best burger - or your top ten - just get out there and get started!! Cheers!
About the Author:
Personal Chef Christina Phipps has been serving the beaches of Jacksonville, Florida for 6 years. She loves traveling the world to further explore and research all the differing food ethnicities while studying the history and science of gourmet cooking. Holding a journalism degree from the University of Georgia along with a lifetime education and love of great food she would be happy discuss gourmet food topics or attend to your personal chef needs and can be reached at http://www.culinarycomforts.com or christina@culinarycomforts.com
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