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Ten Tips to Building a Better Burger
Summer's almost here and if you're anything like me, you've already
made that annual trip to the store to refill the propane tank on your
backyard grill.
One thing I often hear from guests is that my barbequed burgers actually
taste good ... rather than just being hard and dry as hockey pucks like
so many of those traditional family reunion barbequed hamburgers we've
all endured from time to time.
In honor of the hallowed summertime tradition of outdoor cooking, here
are some of my favorite tips for finding your way to Hamburger Heaven in
your own backyard.
1) Don't build your burger from low fat meat. Get
a package of ground beef with an 80/20 or even a 70/30 ratio of meat to
fat. The fat keeps it moist and flavorful and drains off during
the cooking process so the calorie count ultimately isn't much higher
than the lower fat varieties ... but the flavor is so much better.
Be aware, thought, that the higher the fat content in your meat, the
more the patty will shrink while cooking. So plan accordingly.
2) For additional flavor, try mixing ground beef with
other ground meats like pork, sausage or lamb. A good
ratio is two parts beef to one part other meat. Also, if you use
ground turkey to save money, keep in mind that turkey is probably one of
the least stable burger materials you can find, so mix it 50/50 with
ground beef to keep those burgers in one piece on the grill.
3) When forming burgers, mix the ingredients together gently,
handle your burger patties as little as possible, and don't fully
compress the meat ... remember, you're not making meatloaf
or meatballs. If you form the raw beef into patties with wet
hands, the grease won't stick to your skin nearly as much.
4) If you like adding extra things to your ground beef before
making patties, make sure to keep the pieces small. Large chunks of
onion or garlic make the patty unstable and more apt to fall apart while
cooking. Be sure to finely chop or grate all added veggies.
5) Add some particularly tasty additions. A few to try:
freshly ground pepper, minced garlic, finely chopped onion,
Worcestershire sauce, grated carrot, crushed vinegar & salt potato
chips, or soy sauce. I've discovered that burger purists tend to
insist on top-of-the-line ground beef (Sirloin) with nothing added but
salt and pepper (after grilling). Honestly, I love a good, pure
burger ... but sometimes it's fun to add the extras for variety. Also,
if you add steak sauce or applesauce to your burger patties, try mixing
in some dry bread crumbs, quick-cooking oats, or beaten eggs to help
stabilize the burgers.
6) Cook over a medium flame rather than a high one.
You want to cook the patties just slow enough to cook all the way
through. You don't want them charred on the outside and a raw mess
on the inside.
7) Don't press down on the cooking burger patties with your
spatula or flip the burger using tongs that squeeze the burger.
You'll just be squeezing out all the delicious juiciness and leaving
behind a much dryer and tougher finished product. Make an
indentation with your thumb in the center of each burger before cooking
to help keep them flat without squishing them under the spatula.
8) Never -- I repeat, "Never!" -- poke your cooking burger
patties with a fork or other pointy object. It's a
guaranteed trip to Hockey Puck Hamburger Land when all those delicious
juices pour out through that hole.
9) The less you move the burgers around on the grill, the better
looking the grill marks. Ideally, you only want to turn
the burger once, but be sure to focus on safety and full cooking more
than making the prettiest burgers on the block. You'll hear mixed
messages from burger aficionados about what temperature to cook the
burgers and how often to flip them, but I tend to not worry about the
perfect grill marks and have found that frequent flipping tends to keep
the juices in the burger a bit better.
10) Let the burgers rest for a minute or two before serving to
give a chance for the juices to settle. Serving too soon
may cause the burgers to dry out. Rather than melting cheese onto
the burgers during the grilling process, I like to set the cheese slices
on top of the finished burgers while they're "resting." The cheese
melts without dripping off the burger onto the grill. When the
cheese is done melting, the burgers are done resting and ready to serve.
Add your favorite toppings and enjoy!
About the Author:
Deborah Taylor-Hough is the author of the bestselling Frozen Assets
series,
Frugal Living For Dummies(R),
Mix-and-Match Recipes, and
A
Simple Choice: A Practical Guide for Saving Your Time, Money and Sanity.
Debi's also edits the Simple Times, Solo Parents, and Bright-Kids
e-zines.
http://thesimplemom.wordpress.com/
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