5 Burger Grilling Tips From The Pros
There’s no better time for a hot and juicy burger than a sweltering summer’s day. But if you find yourself hosting the holiday BBQ this year, you’ll need to know how to cook your burgers right. Want to impress your friends and neighbors will dem grill skills? Just follow these 5 pro tips and you’ll be on your way to making perfect burgs in no time.
1. Use High Quality Meat
No matter how you prepare it, the wrong ground beef can make or break your burger.The tastiest, juiciest burgers are the ones with a good lean to fat ratio. Ground beef that’s too lean will be tough and dry, so you’ll want to look for meat with a fat content of at 20-30%. Even if you’re trying to watch your weight, a little fat in your burger is only a good thing! If you’re cooking for a large group or you’re adding hamburgers to your restaurant’s menu, stock up on high-quality wholesale ground beef.
2. Keep It Simple
When it comes to the perfect burger, less is more. You don’t need to pack your patties with onion, garlic, and every seasoning under the sun – at that point, you’re not making burgers, you’re making meatloaf! The classic flavor you want is in the fat, but do add a generous amount of salt and pepper.
3. Timing Is Everything
What difference does it make if you season your beef a minute or an hour before you put it on the grill? A huge difference, actually – as soon as you shake out the salt, the proteins in the meat begin to break down. While it doesn’t have a huge impact on flavor, it affects the texture of the meat, making it tougher. For the best burger, wait until the moment just before they’re placed on the grill to add salt.
4. Make a Small Indentation In Each Patty
Before you put them on the grill, use your finger to make a small indentation in each raw patty, like you’re making thumbprint cookies. As your burgers cook, this will help the juices pool towards the center rather than slipping and dripping off the edges.
5. Only Flip Once
It can be tempting to flip your burgers over and over again and squash them down with the spatula to hear them sizzle, but both of these are huge do-nots in the world of grilling.
Patience and self-control are the most important qualities in a grilling master. Pressing down on your burgers will squeeze out the juices and leave you with dry, tasteless patties. Flipping a patty too soon interrupts the searing process. Just like how a pancake flipped too soon can’t become the golden flapjack of your dreams, a burger flipped before it’s time won’t be able to cook properly. An early flip can also cause your meat to fall apart, so play it safe and limit yourself to one flip per burger (two at most).