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7 Secrets How To Make The Most Delicious Burger At Home

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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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!
  6. 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.
  7. 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!
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Food

5 Steps How to Make the Perfect Steak

Cooking a perfect steak can be challenging, even for a skilled cook: small cuts of meat can cook too quickly, becoming dry and tough, too large to burn on the outside without being cooked on the inside. If you are new to steak, I recommend using a heavy skillet or grill pan – charcoal or electric grills are also great for steaks, but the pan will be easier to control the temperature.

Step 1 – prepare the steak

  • Cooking a steak begins by choosing meat from a grocery store or butcher. As a rule, imported beef is used for steaks, and although quality steaks from Russian beef have recently begun to appear, foreign terminology is still used to classify meat cuts. It is easiest to train in frying steaks on ribeye and striploin steaks, aka New York (in our classification, these cuts more or less correspond to a thick and thin edge) – they are soft in themselves, and will turn out to be tasty, even if you miss a little with the fry …
  • Pay attention to the so-called marbling of meat: the fat should be distributed as evenly as possible over the meat, then during the preparation of the steak, these inclusions of fat will melt, making the meat more tasty and juicy. The classic thickness of steaks is 2.5 centimeters, and if you buy meat already cut, make sure that the steaks are of the correct thickness, if you take a large piece, try on how you will cut it. So let’s get started.
  • If the steak has been frozen, defrost it overnight in the refrigerator and wipe it dry.
  • Remove the steak from the refrigerator at least 20 minutes before frying to allow it to warm to room temperature.
  • Brush the steaks on both sides with vegetable oil (I use olive oil, but you can use any unscented vegetable oil instead) and season generously with salt.

Step 2 – preheat the pan

  • Preheat the skillet over medium-high heat – it should be hot, but not smoking (if the skillet is too hot, the steak will burn on the outside before cooking on the inside, and it will be tough).
  • The hiss after placing the steaks in the pan will tell you if it is at the correct temperature.
  • Another way to check the heating of the pan is to drip a little water on it: if you have heated the pan well, the droplet will gather into an elastic ball that will run along the surface of the pan like crazy.

Step 3 – cook to taste

  • For medium-rare, place the steaks in the skillet so that they are not touching and let cook for 1 minute.
    Use tongs to gently turn the steaks over (be careful not to damage them to prevent the juices from leaking out) and cook for 1 minute more to form a crust.
  • Turn steaks over again and reduce heat to medium. Cook for 2 minutes, turn over and cook for another 2 minutes.
  • To check the doneness, gently press down on the steak with your fingertip. The steak with blood should be soft and pliable, well done and firm, and the middle one, as expected, will be something in between.

Steak cooking time

You can vary the degree of frying of the steaks to your taste by increasing or decreasing the cooking time. Below is the approximate time that is suitable for a 2.5 cm thick steak. Thicker steaks require a longer cooking time and vice versa.

  • Rare (with blood) – 1-2 minutes on each side, rest for 6-8 minutes;
  • Medium rare (low roast) – 2-2.5 minutes on each side, rest for 5 minutes;
  • Medium – 3 minutes on each side, rest 4 minutes
  • Well done – 4.5 minutes on each side, rest 1 minute.
  • However, the most accurate (although not always accessible to a beginner) way to determine the degree of doneness of a steak is to use a meat thermometer.

Step 4 – rest the steaks

  • Leaving the meat to lie down for a while is just as important as cooking it correctly – in these few minutes, the juices will be distributed inside the piece, the temperature will even out inside and outside, and the whole steak will become warm, juicy and tender.
  • Remove steaks from skillet, season with black pepper, and place in a baking dish. Place a slice of butter on each steak, cover with foil and leave in a warm place for 4-5 minutes.
  • Remember, it’s better to rest the steak longer than necessary, and not less, this will allow it to acquire the greatest flavor and softness.

Step 5 – serve the steaks

  • Steaks require sharp, non-serrated knives to cut the meat evenly.
  • Serve the steaks on hot plates to keep them cool.
  • It is believed that good meat does not need sauce – and if you agree with this statement, simply pour the juices mixed with the melted butter on the bottom of the mold on the steak.
  • Choosing a side dish for a steak is a personal matter, I prefer a green salad.
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Cooking Tips

5 Cool Tips on How to Make Pizza

Pizza preparation has been familiar to us for a long time. Over time, the recipe for making pizza has not changed dramatically, only the range of filling has expanded, and each chef has his own secrets in cooking. The main ingredients of the pizza are cheese and tomato paste. Even schoolchildren know how to make pizza with these ingredients.

  1. Better to use two types of cheese – hard and soft. Put soft cheese in a small amount on the sauce, but it is better to grate hard cheese on the pizza with a top layer. Using homemade sauce will greatly improve the taste of the pizza and make it taste the most individual, allowing you to use your favorite spices and herbs. Basil and “oregano” will be the key to the taste of pizza.
  2. It is necessary to cook pizza at high temperatures, which ensures fast cooking. In addition, either vegetable is used as a filling, which does not require a long cooking time, or meat brought to a half-cooked level in a pan.
  3. The use of olive oil adds a certain flavor to the cooked pizza. Provided that natural olive oil is taken. You can knead the pizza dough in a food processor, but manual kneading is preferable in this case. Pizza yeast dough is most common in recipes and uses raw yeast. You can replace natural yeast with dry, which will speed up the dough preparation process.
  4. The simplicity of preparation and the variety of flavors of pizza makes it more and more popular. Baking pizza takes a little time, most of the time is spent making the dough and filling. The taste of pizza directly depends on the taste of the dough.
  5. All food products at hand can be a filling in pizza: just tomatoes, tomatoes combined with smoked or boiled sausage, fried chicken and champignons, bell peppers, various seafood.
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Food

5 Common Mistakes Beginners Make When Frying Steak

Get it out of your head that frying steaks are a special art that only men are born with. In fact, this is a clear scheme, completely obeying the female logic, which you just need to adhere to. And avoid mistakes that beginners often make. There are not so many fatal ones to count, the fingers of one hand are enough. So, bend your fingers.

  • The biggest nonsense is to beat a steak. This meat is meant to be fried as it is. By hammering it with a hammer, you lose all the juiciness and flavor, turning the steak into something incomprehensibly flabby.
  • Let the steak warm – after taking it out of the refrigerator, do not put it directly in the pan. Fibers of meat that are too cold will shrink during frying, condemning even the best piece of meat to stiffness. It is enough to hold the steak at room temperature for at least 20 minutes so that the meat does not experience shock when it comes into contact with the pan.
  • Remove excess moisture from the surface of the steak – otherwise, the meat will not be fried, but stewed in its own juice. To avoid this, simply wipe the steak dry with a paper towel.
  • Place the steak in a well-preheated skillet. Grease it with oil, put it on fire and wait 3-4 minutes, that’s enough. Inexperienced cooks shouldn’t heat the pan “to smoke”, as the pros often advise, why do we need a burnt crust of meat?
  • Finally, a bad idea is to start turning the meat with a fork. By piercing a piece, you release the juice from it, even though frying from all sides aims to seal all the juices inside the crust. So either get yourself some culinary tongs or get the hang of using a spatula masterly. But turning the meat with tongs, of course, is more convenient.
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Cooking Tips

6 Chef Tips To Make A Delicious Pizza At Home

Who said that delicious pizza can only be tasted in a pizzeria? If you know some secrets and strictly follow some rules, the perfect dough cake with different fillings can be made at home.
We’ve collected tips from different chefs to help make homemade pizza as good as the one you try at the establishment. And maybe even better – who knows.

  1. Mix several types of flour. In addition to wheat, from which we often cook, there are many other varieties of flour: buckwheat, for example, or corn, or rye. Each of them has its own unique taste, aroma, and color. Thus, for pizza dough, you can mix two types of flour: standard wheat flour and non-standard rye flour. However, they should be added to the dough in a small ratio – for example, in a 4 to 1 ratio.
  2. Don’t be afraid to experiment with toppings. Pizza dough is like a canvas for an artist; you can “paint” anything on it. Therefore, the filling on the test is a complete flight of imagination. Any product can be the basis. As a result, you can get meat, vegetable, fish, or even berry-sweet pizza.
  3. Knead the dough with your hands. Of course, food processors can do everything faster and more efficiently. But tactile sensations are very important in making pizza. By touch, you can understand what is the consistency of the dough and whether it is elastic enough. And these nuances greatly affect the taste of pizza.
  4. Roll out the dough with your fists. This method is both cooking and therapy. Firstly, the dough is filled with air and becomes more elastic. And, secondly, such work will perfectly help relieve accumulated stress.
  5. Preheat the oven beforehand. Pizza should only be placed in a hot oven, so it is very important to preheat the oven while working with the dough. In a professional wood-burning oven, the temperature reaches 400 degrees, while in a home oven you can heat up to a maximum of 250 degrees. Just remember that for pizza, 5-7 minutes is enough for the dough and ingredients to brown, so be careful not to burn it.
  6. Sauce for the sides. If you are one of those who do not eat pizza sides, we advise you to pour them with some sauce during cooking or wrap any filling in them – for example, sausages or Philadelphia cheese. This way, you won’t feel like you’re just eating a dry piece of dough.
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