Ya’ll I’ve tried cooking my own burgers at home and they always turned out horribly wrong. They either laced in flavor, the burger juices make the bun all soggy and nasty or the burger was charred and overcooked. Check out these 10 Simple Tips on How to Make a Hamburger Even Better and invite your friends & family over for Sunday Dinner to showcase your new life lesson in how to make a hamburger 😉
I think the majority of my problem was cooking the burger on the grill. The grill gets hot on one side and not the other leaving your burgers unevenly cooked. I finally decided that’s not how they cooked burgers at my favorite local burger joints like Arthur’s, Flip Daddy’s or even Terry’s Turf Club {if you are in Cincinnati you’ve got to visit…at least according to Diner’s, Drive In’s and Dives!}.
In fact my local burger joints all cook their burgers on a flat top. Now I don’t have a flat top, but, I do have a Lodge cast iron skillet {I seriously cook everything in my cast iron skillet} and that’s what I have been using for the past 3 years to cook up my burgers!
The first tip is to place your bun face side down in the skillet and toast it for just a minute or two. This helps hold the burger and any juices on the burger will be able to soak into the bun.
The second tip is to butter your skillet….yet folks, that’s right BUTTER! Now one tablespoon should be enough…you don’t want to go drowning in butter and clog up your pipes. KWIM?!
Now that your bun is nice and toasted let’s talk about the beef. You want to go with a 80/20 mixture. You don’t want to much fat in the pan, but, enough fat that will help to cook and flavor your burger. If you end up with a 70/30 mixture you’ll have grease dripping down your elbows while you are eating your burger…I mean if you like that part of the burger eating experience by all means go for the 70/30!
The fourth tip is when you are shaping your burger don’t make it any bigger than the bun it’s going to rest on. Instead make it a bit smaller and put a divot in the middle of the patty with your thumb. This will ensure that the burger doesn’t grow when it’s being cooked. Now if your grill isn’t being heated up at this point please put the burgers in the fridge and keep them chilled until you are ready to cook them up and your pan or grill is hot.
My fifth tip to you is you need to heavily salt and pepper your burger, at a minimum! I find that people don’t load on the seasoning in their burgers and leave the burger undesirable. If you are feeling a bit froggy add some garlic salt or powder, a pinch of cayenne pepper or something similar to add a bite to your burger.
Alright now that you know to toast your bun, butter your skillet, make the burger a perfect shape and to season your meat the most important burger cooking tip I have to tell you is to STOP OVERCOOKING YOUR BURGER {Yes, I’m yelling!}.
You guys make sure you are paying attention to this sixth tip. It’s important!
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Alright friend – it doesn’t take 20 minutes to cook a burger! It takes about 4-5 minutes on each side to cook a burger, so that means like 8-10 minutes total over a medium high heat. Once you placed your season side down – season the side facing up{you remember tip #5 right!?!}. After 2-3 minutes rotate your burger 180 degrees. After another 2-3 minutes flip your burger and allow to cook for 3 minutes and remove. Did you count how many times you flipped that burger?!?
That’s right 3 times you touched it!
In those 8-10 minutes you’ve got a medium well doneness {is that even a word?!}. It should have a bit of pink and not all burnt on the outside. That leaves a super dry and undesirable burger that your friends are not impressed with.
Let’s talk about the cheese! You have got to melt the cheese yo. There’s nothing worse than getting a burger to have the cheese flopping around. You know the burger isn’t hot and that’s not what we wants as burger enthusiasts! You can do melt the cheese by placing your cheese on the burger, turning the heat to low or even off and covering with a lid or aluminum foil. if you are confident in your cooking skills this can be done when you flip your burger over and let it cook for a minute. Then throw your cheese on and melt the yummy goodness!
Something that I have done the past few times is throw the toppings on the burger and then melt the cheese over the top. It kinda holds everything together so you don’t have falling toppings! Which brings me to my next tip…
PLEASE {I beg you!} keep the condiments and toppings to a MINIMUM! There’s no need for ketchup, mustard, relish, mayo, pickles, tomato, lettuce, onion, a over easy egg and mushrooms. That’s overkill ya’ll!
Keep it simple.
Pick a condiment – mustard, mayo, ketchup. Then no more than 4 toppings, I actually would prefer you pick three, but, that’s just me! The burger is the star here and everything else just brings it all together. I like to think of it as a “theme burger”. So if you are going to do a mozzarella cheese on your burger consider doing a mushroom/onion and mayo combo to keep it simple and a theme of “philly style burger”. You can do a green pepper with provolone cheese and a bit of onion for a “supreme type burger”. If you are adding a bit of heat to your burger with cayenne cool it down with a spoonful of mayo, red onion for a bite and tomato to bring it all together.
Now that you’ve read these tips on cooking a perfect burger I can’t wait for you to come back and let me know how your next burger turns out!
Until next time, from my kitchen to yours – Have Fun. Keep it Simple. Enjoy Your Time in the Kitchen. Cheers!
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