I do quite well with grilling and smoking meats. The one food that I can't do well is burgers. Mine always seem too dense and flavorless. Would some of the grill gurus share some secrets? How do you select the meat? How do you season it? How do you cook it? Thanks in advance.
1. Remove McDonald's wrap. 2. Remove bun. 3. Scrape off special sauce, lettuce, onions, ketchup, any bun residue. 4. Lay flat on grill. 5. Wait five minutes. 6. Remove cup's 1/2 contents of ice (the other half is the drink from the combo meal). 7. Remove hamburger meat from grill. 8. Place back onto buns. 9. Eat. Sip from soft drink regularly while eating. It will no longer be dry.
Take the ground meat. Sprinkle in some pepper, allspice, worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, a sprinkle of oinion powder, and red pepper. If you are grilling go easy on any combination of the above spices, but it will fill out the flavor. Mix it up with the meat, then form the patties and put them on the grill.
There are two keys to burgers on the grill. The first is get the cheap hamburger meat, because it has a high fat content. fatty meat = moist burgers Second, you need to flatten your patties out as much as you can. I usually take the back of a plate and squeeze the patties between two sheets of wax paper. When the patties cook, they'll shrink towards the middle. Pancake patties cook faster, so they retain more moisture. They also cook evenly, and your burgers look like a pattie and not a hockey puck.
Fiesta Brand seasonings has a hamburger blend. When you form your patties, be gentle; if you pack it hard, it will cook dense.
Crack a few eggs in a bowl, whip them with a fork, then marinate your burgers in the eggs before you put them on the grill. Seriously, this is my secret to great burgers.
Here is the best damn burger you can hope to make: 1 lb ground chuck 1 large egg 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce 1 Greenpepper chopped into small pieces 1 Garlic chopped into small small pieces Mix all ingredients and refrigerated for an hour Then grill that sucker and garnish with tomatoes, sauteed onions, pickles, and lettuce. Warm up the buns on the grill and then spread some Spicy Garlic or Hot sauce from BW3's. Dont forget some cheddar cheese.
With any beef, let it stand with its juices for 4-5 minutes. That allows it to reabsorb the juices and not be as dry when starts cooling down.
Don't overwork the meat (makes it grainy), don't overcook but also don't cook too fast (pushes juices out). Time how long you cooked them, and if you overcooked reduce the time next time. If you go to Sams, buy their Angus Burgers (the ones in the box), and put a ittle worcestershire, garlic and onion powders, salt, pepper on before grilling.
Same seasoning you'd put on steak you can put on a burger. When you think you've put enough...put some more on. smoking chips wrapped in foil with holes punched in it will give it a nice smokey flavor. use one of those big coffee cups..to shape the patty (press down & cut out)..the bigger the better.
Thanks guys. You have given me a few good ideas. I have brisket down no problem. Burgers are killing me!
Just take sausage, (andouille, italian, chorizo, whatever you like). Mix it together with the ground beef, flatten into patties and grill.
If you get good meat, you don't need worstershire sauce or any of that other stuff to keep it moist. I like to use meat that is about 80/20 meat to fat ratio. Too much fat and your burgers shrink down to nothing, too little fat and they're dry. As far as spices go, that's your personal preference. I'm a traditionalist, so for me it's just salt and pepper. I like to taste the meat. You also need a high heat, and be sure to not close the lid on the grill. If you close the lid , you won't get that nice char on the outside. If the flames get to high, just squirt them down with a little water.
I do this (excl. the red pepper) but also add Italian dressing to practically everything I cook...I also add bread crumbs to make the patties stay together and I make them thick, not flat...I also agree with the higher fat ground beef...Yum...I may do burgers manana...
