Need hamburger help.

[ChshreCat]

My burgers always come off the grill just as flat as they are when the patties come out of the freezer. Dunno what your problem is.

 

[Beezy]

The freezer is the devil as far as meat goes.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

My burgers always come off the grill just as flat as they are when the patties come out of the freezer. Dunno what your problem is.

Shenanigans I say! Those always come out concave!

 

[ChshreCat]

Shenanigans I say! Those always come out concave!

When they do that, you just fill em up with ketchup and mustard.

 

[passedpawn]

When they do that, you just fill em up with ketchup and mustard.

Naw. Cheese. Extra sharp cheddar. Mmmmm.

 

[Bigscience]

My BIL owns a high end butcher shop and he just made some burgers that he ground bacon into. Cooks Illustrated also did burgers with the cheese ground into the patties too.

My secret ingredient has always been worstershire (sp?) mixed in. Unami baby!

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

My BIL owns a high end butcher shop and he just made some burgers that he ground bacon into.

Interesting, I'd guess that you need to cook it through to well since it's raw bacon inside the burger?

 

[Bigscience]

Interesting, I'd guess that you need to cook it through to well since it's raw bacon inside the burger?

It will also have raw beef and according to the USDA to prevent food born illness:

Cook all raw ground beef, pork, lamb, and veal to an internal temperature of 160 °F as measured with a food thermometer.

Personally, I'd eat raw, cured, smoked, quality local pork over medium well Safeway/QFC/Albertsons/Railey's ground beef.

Seriously doubt you're going to pick up trichinosis from quality buttered meat.

 

[thataintchicken]

Cook all raw ground beef, pork, lamb, and veal to an internal temperature of 160 °F as measured with a food thermometer.

The USDA dropped the temperature for pork to 145 this year. Feel free to cook that mixed bacon burger to a perfect medium rare and enjoy

 

[thataintchicken]

As far as burgers go, the last two restaurants I cooked at had completely different approaches to burgers.

One used hand formed patties, mixed with jalapeno and cheddar or bacon and bleu cheese. These were started on the hottest part of the grill, then moved to a finishing temperature area. Never had a problem with the shrinkage described in the thread.
This was a local joint, and had the best flavor and required more attention.

The second and most recent, used pre-formed patties on a Neico Broiler, with no shrinkage. These burgers were on auto-pilot. I spent more time assembling the buns and plating set-ups than cooking the burger.
It was a national chain, so --- that is the way it's designed to be.

At home, I grind the meat with the Evil Red Kitchenaid and hand form the patties ( ala kenji ) then cook on a cast iron grill pan. If I am indoors and use the stove, I do the dimple in the center. If I cook outside, on the weber grill or the SP-10, I use no dimple. Perfect burgers are achieved.

Seems that higher temps + no dimple = no loss in patty size.

your mileage may vary. patty net weight before cooking. etc.

 

[emjay]

I used to just get medium-fat chuck, but I much prefer Thomas Keller's suggestion of 50% sirloin, 25% chuck, and 25% brisket.

Also, I noticed the OP mentioned pressing it hard to get it thin. I think that is probably one of the most common things people screw up on with burgers, and certainly one of the easiest to remedy. Be gentle when forming your patties! It makes such a huge difference when you keep the "ground" structure/texture intact, and yet so many people manhandle their patties to the point that the meat might as well have just come from a food processor instead of a grinder...

 

[JollyIsTheRoger]

Being a cook in a couple short order places and a dive bar with amazing food, my suggestion to keep burgers from balling up, a steak weight. They will hold the patty down and help reflect some of the heat back in to the burger so it cooks faster. This is not the same as pressing on it since its light constant pressure.

 

[madbaldman]

I like starting out with a lean beef and adding bacon for fat. I usually go with 1/2 lb bacon to 2 lb lean beef. God it's good. The first time it made it that way was just because I had just finished grinding pork shoulder and bacon for brats and had some left over bacon (if there is any such thing). So was I was grinding the beef, I threw a couple strips of becan in there too. I had forgotten I put it in there until I made burgers and my youngest son flipped out, proclaiming his burger tasted like bacon. His palate is far more subtle than mine and he picks up things I often miss. All I knew was it was a great burger. When I grind chuck I don't add anything but with lean beef a little bacon will tempt a vegan.