That was a good article. I was coming by to see if it had already been linked in.
Two keys in there (to my way of thinking about burgers): don't overhandle the meat, and don't use lean meat. 70 - 75% seems to be optimal.
Quote:70 - 75% seems to be optimal.
Yeah I have my butcher mix 70% and 80% ground sirloin. I like it.
We go to the same butcher, smiles. I get the twenty percent when I go there, and 15% if I succumb to the regular grocery store, and that's usually only for meatloaf. Next time I'll try your mix from the butcher, Dys.
Re the mayo jar mold thing, I like the patties with more of a diameter and moderately thicker.
Since I'm a burger stuffer, I like to use patties that are just under 1/2" thick and a little bigger in circumference that a standard patty. One patty - cheeses - second patty - gently press the edges in - grill til the outside's done and the inside will be hot but still pinkish and the cheese is just melted.
Mmmmmmmmm!
The article was good about using various cheeses too.
We did the burgers tonight and it was a hit with our friends. My buddy had tried doing them in the past with onions etc and said they actually have a lot more flavor with just salt.
I made 'em a bit too salty though, and a bit too thick. But they were pretty good!
We may try doing them again soon, and I might try the oven route (searing in pan, letting it cook through in oven).
Thanks to all of you for your input and suggestions!
We liked them so much we got together and did them again with hot dogs tonight!
The hot dogs were damn good on french bread, much better than a traditional bun.
I finally made a decent burger last night. It wasn't just decent, it was REALLY GOOD. Sozlet (who loves burgers) declared it the best she's ever had. She's given to hyperbole but I was still happy.
I started out with ground buffalo -- cheaper than regular ground beef at Whole Foods. Not sure of the fat content.
I read a bunch of recipes for buffalo burgers and also recalled advice from this thread. Ended up with a mishmash of tips that seemed to work pretty well (not from any one recipe).
- Sauteed finely chopped red onions in butter.
- Mixed the sauteed onions and butter, about a quarter-cup of bread crumbs, and some kosher salt (not much) into 1 pound of ground buffalo. (Mixed very gently/ lightly.)
- Put about 2 tbs olive oil in the pan I'd used to saute the onions.
- Gently shaped mixture into three patties, each about 1 inch thick. Pressed my thumb into the top to make an indentation.
- Put a little kosher salt on the surface.
- Fried patties for about 5 minutes per side* in the olive oil, on medium-high heat. Took spoonfuls of the olive oil/ butter/ buffalo fat mix from the pan and ladled it over the burgers as they cooked.
They were moist, had a nice crust, and were super-flavorful. Served with sliced fresh tomatoes from local farmer's market and red onions. (Plus ketchup etc.)
*Did 5 minutes each, but they were still a bit too pink inside, did another ~3 minutes per side on top of that.
