If you want to make the most delicious burger, then these tips will definitely come in handy!
Cheeseburger. Cheese addition is always appropriate. The classic recipes use hard varieties – cheddar and parmesan. It is necessary to spread it on the cutlet, when it is still on the grill, a minute before removing. This will melt the cheese well. Cheddar can also be used to make a sauce and soak a bun with it.
We also recommend using soft cheeses – Camembert, Brie, Dor Blue, Gorgonzola. This will make the taste more piquant. Place the pieces of cheese on the cutlet after removing them from the grill.
Wedgeburger. The recipe is as follows: grilled eggplants, zucchini, and bell peppers. Tomatoes and braised onions, tofu or mozzarella to taste, rye roll, and ketchup. All vegetables are pre-marinated in soy sauce.
Kids will love the fruit and berry fillings of sweet burgers (pineapple, mango, nectarine, kiwi, especially strawberries) in a soft bun coated with Nutella. You can also try turning a sweet airy donut into a burger by filling it with peanut butter and banana chunks.
Bread part. Choose from a soft, fresh, wheat or rye bun, with or without sesame seeds.
The halves are best dried first in a toaster or grill for flavor. And again mayonnaise, tomato, and meat juice will help to soften them. It is important not to overdo it, otherwise the irreparable will happen – the burger will fall apart.
Fresh vegetables, grilled vegetables. Basic set: green salad, tomatoes, fresh or pickled cucumbers, and onions.
You can add olives, olives, capers, pickled vegetables: sweet peppers in a pickle, in a tomato, pickled zucchini, eggplant, plums, etc.
You can mix the rest of the additives: eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, avocado. Even a boiled or fried egg will add originality.
It is better to layout the vegetables before serving, otherwise, they will quickly lose their appearance from the high temperature.
It is better not to conjure too much with seasonings in order to preserve the juicy and aromatic taste of meat. The most basic – salt and pepper – is enough, but if you wish, you can add different spices and herbs.
Cutlets are quickly and conveniently molded using a special small press. You can find it in stores in the kitchen utensils departments. So the cutlets will be the same shape, clearly matching the size of the bun.
For frying, use a wire rack, barbecue pan, or a heavy-bottomed pan.
Delicious and tender burgers are made with chicken or turkey. In a burger with poultry, both minced meat and a juicy fried piece of fillet will be relevant.
Fishburger (from tuna, salmon or trout, with pike and pike perch) combined with a delicate sauce, lettuce and vegetables will appeal to lovers of healthy food.
It is important to caramelize the loaf. To do this, you need to grease its inner parts with oil and put it in an ordinary frying pan at home. The fire on the stove should be low, fry until crisp. This will prevent the sauce from soaking into the bun and turning the burger into mush.
The sauce is not spread on the cutlet, but on the top and bottom of the roll. Now it will not be absorbed into them, and the cheese will not slide off the cutlet.
In order for the cutlet to remain juicy after frying, in no case should it be pressed with a spatula against a baking sheet or pan. This is often done in American films, but it’s wrong. That’s right – just turn the cutlet over every 30 seconds, without putting any pressure on it. Then the cutlet will remain juicy on the inside, and the outside will be crispy.
You need to fry the cutlet for 6 minutes at a temperature of 200 degrees. On home pans and gas stoves, the temperature is under 300, so you need to fry over low heat and turn it over exactly every 30 seconds, and not every 3 minutes. Since pans rarely have a temperature sensor, you need to visually monitor the crust. And as a rule, in a frying pan, the cutlet will be ready in 4 minutes.
It is best to use marbled beef, but not required. It all depends on your capabilities, imagination and the range of the neighboring store, so minced meat can be made even from turkey or crocodile. The main thing is to observe the ratio of meat and fat. Optimal 80% to 20%, although someone loves fatter – 70% to 30%. You can even make vegan burgers – for example, from soaked chickpeas with turmeric.
A burger seems like a simple dish only at first glance. In fact, this is a whole art and science, which have certain rules, tricks and secrets. If you love to cook and are thinking of tackling such a controversial dish like a burger, this article will be useful to you.
The cutlet should contain from 10 to 20% fat, therefore, give preference to collar, rump, sirloin. Choose beef especially carefully, as it is a fairly lean meat. If you’re ready to experiment, combine lean and fatty meats.
No ready-made minced meat. You may not know which part was used in the store for minced meat, and the level of freshness is unknown. Even if minced meat looks aesthetically pleasing and greasy, it can contain dried meat, lard, leather, water to increase weight and give a fresh shine effect.
Cold and coarse. Disturb the structure of the meat as little as possible – the texture of the cutlet also depends on it. Keep the meat in the refrigerator before cooking, do not grind too finely. You can also use the chopped steak format instead of the cutlet: it is more expensive and more difficult, but definitely worth it.
The cutlet is meat! No onions, no bread, no breadcrumbs, no eggs, no even garlic – this is no longer a burger patty. Do not disturb the natural meaty taste; salt and black pepper are enough. Another important detail: salt is added last, so that it ruins the protein taste of the meat as little as possible.
With a hot heart and a cold … cutlet! During the sculpting process, moisten your hands with cold water – this way the cutlets will stick to your hands less and heat up more slowly. Keep the patties cold until you grill them. It is best to send the cutlets to the refrigerator after sculpting – let it stand for 10-15 minutes while you prepare the grill.
Gentle frying. The grill should not be overheated – when you can hold your hand over it for 7-9 seconds, this is the ideal temperature. And in no case press on the cutlets – they will lose their juiciness. Turn the cutlets over carefully and gently, making sure that their integrity is not compromised and the level of frying is not excessive. To check, cut one cutlet: if it is pink on the inside, this is sufficient roast.
The perfect bun. It should be fresh, have a neutral, but not insipid taste: not too salty and not too sweet, at the same time smooth and tender. Avoid buns with a lot of seeds and bran – they will only spoil the taste picture. Before assembling the burger, fry the halves of the bun until golden brown on the inside, otherwise the cutlet will absorb the juice and turn the burger into porridge.
The juiciness of a burger is not a sauce. Don’t overdo it with sauces, ketchup, and mayonnaise. They give moisture, fat content, but not juiciness. Responsible for juiciness is the cutlet and, of course, vegetables – lettuce, tomato rings, pickled cucumbers. If you want a veggie-free burger, add at least pickled onions! Vegetables refresh the taste and brighten the burger.
It’s about the cheese. In a burger, you need to choose not just “cheese that melts well”. You need a fatty cheese with a rich taste and aroma, this is a very important part of a burger. Cheddar, Mozzarella, and Parmesan are great for classic variations. For more exotic burgers, you can use Camembert, Dor Blue, Suluguni.
Traffic light rule. A tasty dish is one that works on all receptors. Burger is no exception. In a burger, you need to harmoniously and carefully combine notes of salinity, sweetness, acidity and a light spice
Burgers are a fairly simple dish, but there are cooking tricks that can help you get a great taste. To prepare this treat according to the rules, follow the simple tips from the chefs.
The ideal burger meat is the ground beef neck. It contains about 20% fat and 80% meat, so the burgers are the most juicy with it.
Use minced meat as close to room temperature as possible to form cutlets. However, before grilling cutlets, it is still better to keep them in the refrigerator so as not to lose their shape.
Salt and pepper minced meat or cutlets just before cooking.
If you form cutlets with your hands, then make sure that the thickness is at least 1.5-2 cm. Cutlets of a smaller thickness will turn out to be dry.
After the cutlets are formed, be sure to make a depression in the center of each of them with your thumb or a tablespoon – this is necessary so that they remain flat after grilling. The safest option for forming patties is to use a burger press.
When placing the patties on the grill, do not press down on them with a spatula to keep them juicy.
Grill burgers for about 6-8 minutes indirect medium heat turn once.
Many people love burgers, but not everyone knows how to cook them at home. On average, any amateur culinary specialist makes at least one of 7 mistakes during their preparation. We will tell you how to avoid these mistakes and get the perfect burger at home.
Mistake # 1 Wrong choice of meat for a burger. The principle “the more expensive the better” does not work here. But other works: the fatter, the better. Our goal is to make burger patties as juicy as possible, and these can only come from cuts with a lot of fat. The ideal ratio of meat to fat in minced meat should be 80% meat and 20% fat or 75% meat and 25% fat. For example, minced meat made from 2/3 shoulder beef and 1/3 of the flank is perfect for a burger.
Mistake # 2 The abundance of unnecessary ingredients in the burger mince. A bun, mustard, egg, spices, and herbs soaked in milk … All this is good in meatloaf, but not in a burger cutlet. It is enough to add only onions, salt, and freshly ground black pepper to the minced meat. Add pepper to the minced meat immediately, but sprinkle the ready-made raw cutlet with salt, otherwise, it may simply fall apart during cooking and may become harsh after cooking.
Mistake # 3 We make the perfect cutlet. Cook the minced meat yourself by turning it through the largest nozzle. And be sure to cool it before modeling so that the fat does not stick to your hands, and so that the cutlets do not stick to the pan, remove the cutlets in the refrigerator before frying (laying them with pieces of baking paper). It is even better if you scroll the meat chilled in the refrigerator. To keep your patties juicy, do not try to sculpt them perfectly even and thick. Make a notch in the center of each, so it will be both thick and regular when fried. If you cook burgers often, buy a special minced meat press or at least a cooking ring. Make the cutlet a little larger in diameter than necessary, because it will fry anyway. The cutlet with high-fat content is especially lost in size.
Mistake # 4 Using too fluffy burger buns. When we eat a burger, we want to taste the taste of meat, cheese, sauce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and … buns, not just the taste of a wonderful soft bun. Therefore, fluffy buns, in this case, are not the right choice. You can even make a pita burger if you want. This dish is less high in calories and tastes as good as a classic burger. A good option is a brioche. Yes, she is lush but squeezed wonderfully by her hands. Remember burger is eaten by hand! Before assembling, cut the bun in half and be sure to fry in a dry frying pan or grill on the crumb side.
Mistake # 5 Constantly checking the readiness of the burger cutlet. Do not stir the meat while it is cooking in the pan. Do not cut it open to check its readiness, do not turn it over every 15 seconds. Trust me, it will cook in 10-15 minutes (depending on thickness) and without your super-sensitive guidance. If you want to control the process, check the readiness of the burger patty with a special probe or thermometer. This way you will damage the cutlet less and keep it juicy. And fry the cutlet in a very preheated pan or grill, not forgetting about the vegetable oil. Only the cutlet should not float in it!
Mistake # 6 We use an abundance of sauces and additives when assembling a burger. A generous serving of sauce or even sauces looks incredible in Instagram photos, but in real life, it’s better to limit yourself to three additional elements (tomato/cucumber, bacon, a slice of cheese) and 1-2 sauce. The combination of mayonnaise and ketchup with lettuce, tomato, and onion may seem trivial, but that’s where you need to start! Firstly, you can easily bite off a piece of such a juicy burger, and, secondly, you probably won’t oversalt anything, don’t over-pepper, or spoil it with an inappropriate filling. The harmony of flavors in a burger is equally important for the right meat and buns.
Mistake # 7 Incorrect assembly of the burger. An approximate assembly scheme for a classic hamburger should be as follows (from bottom to top): half a toasted bun + onion + sauce + cutlet + tomato/cucumber + green salad + sauce + the second half of a toasted bun. Remember that the sauce should not get the bread wet!
Want to make the most delicious burger ever? we will help you with this!
Depending on the filling itself, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fishburgers, chickenburgers, veggie burgers (vegetarian), tofuburgers and others are distinguished.
Let’s start with the selection of meat for the king of all burgers – a hamburger, in the middle of which there is always a meat cutlet. Unlike regular cutlets in a skillet, the meat for a burger should not be greasy. When the meat is fried on the wire rack, fat will constantly drip onto the coals, burn, smoke, irritate.
Do not take young meat so that it does not come out dry and lean. If it’s veal, then half with pork.
When choosing meat at the market or in the supermarket, take not lean tenderloin, but a thick edge.
Minced meat should be cooked on your own.
Do not grind the meat too much. Elastic cutlet is much more stable to fry on the grate than fine crumbly, which, most likely, will fall on the coals.
Summer is getting closer, and with it the burger season. Appetizing, juicy, fragrant – no one would refuse a good burger? Perhaps this is the only dish that can be found both in countless fast food eateries and in expensive restaurants with a complex concept. And all why? Because burgers are divine. And since they are divine, then you need to treat them appropriately, and only the best should be cooked. How? Very simple.
Pay attention to temperature. And I’m not talking about the temperature at which we will cook our burgers – I think it’s already clear how important it is. No, I’m talking about the temperature of raw meat, from which we will sculpt cutlets. So, I have two comments on this. First, even if you’re hungry and your ground beef is frozen, don’t give up and don’t cook frozen. Just place the frozen block between a piece of paper and a saucepan filled with warm water. The meat will quickly reach room temperature. And second, when the package of minced meat is thawed, put it in the refrigerator before cooking. Here’s the thing: When you cook a steak, you heat it to room temperature, but the burgers must be at the same temperature as the refrigerator. Only in this way will the fat contained in the mince be in the consistency we need. Otherwise, it will evaporate all during cooking, it will grumble appetizingly in the pan, but the burgers themselves will come out overdried.
It might seem like any ground beef will work for burgers, but to make the best burgers, you only need to hunt a few specific types of ground beef. First, in terms of the meat / fat ratio, it should be in the range from 70/30 to 80/20. Ground beef Primebeef is a good option. Low fat burgers (5-10%) seem to be healthier, but by choosing them, you are depriving yourself of the recognizable flavor and tenderness of a burger. If you care about your figure, simply make a smaller cutlet instead of sacrificing flavor. Second, choose grain-fed marbled beef whenever possible. This type of meat is best suited to our mission of making the world’s most delicious burger.
Most people either add salt and pepper to minced meat, or use them only to grate ready-made cutlets, but few do both. For the perfect burger, season the minced meat, stir it, mold the patties, and season them again on both sides. What for? It’s simple: as long as you don’t sculpt the burgers as thick as a sheet of paper, they won’t be thin enough to be soaked in salt and pepper. In addition, rubbing the seasoning on the surface of the patties, you provide them with better browning, and at the same time an amazingly tasty crust. In general, you can do with black pepper and coarse salt alone. However, you can experiment by adding mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, onions, and even mayonnaise to the minced meat.
Each of us has thought at least once: how do chefs in a restaurant get burgers of such an ideal shape? No more guesswork: just use the lid from a large can (like a can of peanut butter). In shape and size, this lid is ideal for sculpting a burger. And remember: don’t be too zealous when squeezing meat into a mold. Using too much force can damage the meat fibers, and the burger can be too dense and dry.
And here’s a very simple and useful trick. When sculpting the patties, make a groove with your thumb on one side. In this recess, all the meat juice will accumulate and then be absorbed back, which will try to escape from the minced meat during frying. Otherwise, he would simply hiss uselessly in the pan while our cutlets lose their taste. Flip once – and only once. What’s the hardest part about making burgers? Show patience. We’ll have to watch the juicy cutlet brown appetizingly right before our eyes. You just want to touch it, check its elasticity or turn it over, right? Do not! When you flip the burger, you stop the meat fiber sealing process. To make our burger perfect, you need to caramelize it properly – and this process occurs only with direct contact with a hot surface. If you turn the cutlet over without letting it brown properly, all you will achieve is that all the meat juices will come out of it, and with them – the juiciness. A small note for all cheeseburger lovers. Cover the patties with cheese in the middle, or for of cooking, but not when the burger is already fried, otherwise the melted cheese will dry out your meat.
Give your burger a break. Remember what I said about patience? It looks like making burgers is the best way to train him. We swallowed drool for ten minutes while we cooked it, and now it is ready – but we need to wait a little longer. Just like the steak, the burger should rest after the grill so that the juices disturbed by the heat will spread over it and make it as divine as we needed it. All of these tips are designed to take your burgers to a whole new level. But maybe you have some other tricks that you use?
Making the perfect burger is not as easy as it seems at first glance. In today’s roundup, we’re sharing some cool tips to turn you into a true burger expert. Take on arms!
Of course, the temptation is great on the way home to buy ready-made minced meat in the supermarket so as not to waste time cooking it. But in this case, it is better to immediately give up the idea of making a burger – in 9 cases out of 10 it will turn out to be dry and tasteless. To make the burger cutlet perfect, do not be too lazy to cook the minced meat yourself from fresh meat. Bonus tip: To make the cutlet juicy, cut the meat across the fibers and scroll through the large attachment of the meat grinder.
More, more fat. The burger is by no means a dietary meal. Therefore, do not spare fat: ideally, the ratio of meat to fat in minced meat should be 80 to 20 (80% meat and 20% fat) or even 75 to 25 (75% meat and 25% fat). For example, minced meat made from 2/3 lean beef (shoulder) and 1/3 fatty beef is perfect for a burger.
Only salt and pepper. The perfect cutlet requires no additional ingredients other than salt and pepper. No onions, garlic, and even more so bread, potatoes, and eggs, which housewives like to add to ordinary cutlets.
The ideal cutlet must be perfect in shape. If you cook burgers often enough, buy a special press, but if you don’t, a regular cooking ring will do. Do not forget that during cooking your cutlet will fry, so make it a little larger than you want to end up.
Chill the minced meat before shaping the burger patties. Otherwise, the fat included in its composition will stick to the mold and work surface. But not only the minced meat itself should be cold, but also the hands and the tools that you use. Therefore, keep the culinary ring or press in the freezer, and wipe your hands periodically with an ice cube while forming cutlets.
Once the cutlet is formed, forget about it until the very moment of frying: the less you touch the cutlet, the more chances that it will not fall apart on the grill or pan.
Fry burgers in a well-heated skillet or grill with a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil.
The approximate frying time is 5-8 minutes on each side. Remember that the longer you fry the cutlet, the less juicy and flavorful it will be.
Choose the right bun. It’s simple: now in every supermarket, you can buy a special burger bun sprinkled with sesame seeds. But if you haven’t found any, then any will do, the main thing is that there are no additives in its composition that distract from the taste of the meat.
Don’t forget vegetables, cheese, and gravy. Any cheese you like will work for a burger. The main thing is its location: so that the cheese does not get too wet from the meat juice, put it on the bottom bun. Ideal burger vegetables: onions, pickles, lettuce (iceberg, lettuce, or romano), tomatoes. Traditionally, ketchup and mustard are used for the hamburger. But barbecue sauces, chili, and others are also great.
Burgers are great for a picnic or party, and they are damn delicious too! Today you will learn how to cook great burgers and learn ten life hacks that will help you become the best at this business.
Only cook with fresh meat. Marbled beef works best for the burger, but other meats can be used as well. It is only important to maintain the ratio: 80% meat to 20% fat (800 grams of meat – 200 grams of fat).
Don’t buy minced meat. It is not known who, how, and from what made it. Grind the meat yourself, but not too hard: the minced meat for burgers should be textured.
Knead the minced meat with your hands. You can even throw it on a board or table. This will distribute the fat, herbs, spices and other ingredients added to the meat evenly and make the mixture more fluffy. To prevent the minced meat from sticking to your hands, soak them in cold water.
To ensure that all burger patties are the same shape and mass, shape them with a cooking ring or use a lid from a large jar. Shallow plastic containers will also work. The main thing is that the cutlet should not be thicker than one and a half centimeters and weigh about 200 grams. And don’t forget to make a groove in the center!
Try to keep the burger patties slightly larger than the buns. Then the meat is fried to the desired size.
Keep the patties in the refrigerator while you prepare the sauce and chop the rest of the ingredients. When warm, the fat in the minced meat will begin to melt faster than it will be on the grill, which means the burger will turn out dry.
Salt the burger patties just before frying. If you add salt directly to the minced meat, sodium chloride will begin to break down protein bonds, and the meat will acquire a dense sausage-like texture. The burger won’t be juicy.
Don’t flip the patties too often. The less you touch them, the juicier they become. First, roast the meat in a direct heat zone, then move to the edge of the grill. While frying, lightly presses down on the cutlet with a spatula. For medium-frying, six minutes are enough. Readiness can be determined with a special thermometer: the temperature inside the cutlet must be at least 70 ° C.
Collect your burger the right way. First, the sauce (on both halves of the roll), then lettuce (on the lower, smaller half), and finally the cutlet. This will prevent the bread from getting wet ahead of time.
Put your knife and fork aside – eat the burger with your hands! With both hands. Press it down well, turn it upside down (so the contents will not fall out), and enjoy the yummy with a juicy cutlet.
