Cheeseburgers and Knives
I’ve made a few cheeseburgers in my time, in fact i used to be a professional - ( no, not at macca’s ) - so i’ve got a couple of tricks up my sleeve that will help you crush your home burger game.
firstly a lot of people focus on the meat , yes it’s important but it’s really the fat ratio that you want nail, the actual makeup of the cuts used is less important and you probably won’t be able to tell the difference if you used 20% brisket vs 20% chuck vs 40% sirloin as long as you have around 20% fat in the mix your golden. ( side note - just meat in the burger - no herbs, no spices no onion, no nothing ]
To make a smashburger all you want to do is ball up your mince into 120G balls, or if you want them squashed use this trick.
make a 120g mince ball
grab 2 sheets of baking paper - place your ball in between the 2 sheets
grab a saucepan or frying pan
smash the ball into a disc - not to thin though - around 2-3 cm is good.
place in the freezer for 10 min, before grilling so they won’t fall apart.
If your going to smash them on a flat top grill, just get it nice and smoking hot - the aim is to stick the first side to the grill. place your ball on the grill and let it sit for 30 seconds , you can drizzle some oil on the top if you like. Then with a burger smasher, spatula , bottom of a saucepan squash the burger into the flat top grill, smoothing the edges down thinly.
How long do you cook it for ? - here’s the secret to a juicy pink burger - watch the top of the burger and when it just starts to sweat with juice flip it over. but be ready with the cheese because we are just about done. Place your cheese slice ( american burger cheese) on top of the grilled side straight away - some people cover the burger with a metal bowl and squirt some water under it to create steam and therefore melt the cheese faster, which is a good idea if you like a medium rare burger, for a medium burger just watch the cheese until it starts to droop over the side of the meat , when you see that - your good. There aren’t any instructions for cooking a burger past medium, because … well - thats just crazy.
Number 2 tip is - toast your buns. - not really a tip, more of a non negotiable. if you really want to make an exceptional burger you’ll want to melt a bunch of butter , dip the cut side in it and toast on your grill until just golden - then dip it in the butter again. Oh and use either a Milk Bun, potato bun, or at a stretch brioche - white, soft and sweet is what you’re looking for.
Here comes the controversial topic - salad on top or salad on the bottom. just so we’re clear if you say salad on the bottom, your wrong. I get that some of the best burgers out there do the salad on the bottom , ‘in n’ out’ springs to mind but that’s the exception rather than the rule - basically it’s this - the juice from the burger should be absorbed by the bun , when you put salad on the bottom the juice runs into the lettuce and straight down your fresh white t shirt - every time - without fail. Salad is only ever - onion, tomato, green oak lettuce. plus dill pickle
so just to recap - 20% fat - smoking hot grill - toasted buttery buns and salad on the top.
in case you thought i forgot - Don’t put tomato ketchup on your burger - the sauces you use are - mayo , yellow mustard or burger sauce ( which has ketchup in it but not the main ingredient ).
Burger sauce is this.
equal parts - tomato ketchup , mayo , yellow mustard. finely Chopped dill pickle , splash of dill pickle juice.
I think that’s it - if you want to see me making a cheeseburger, just watch the video below.
