Beef Burgers

Dudes,

As promised many months ago , I'm going to do various cooking tips. As regulars will know, I started off my  work journey as a  professional chef working at a well-known burger chain, getting my qualifications and then spending time how to really cook ( the higher you go the less cooking you do, focusing on stock and general transferable skills such as managing ).

Today is the basic  beef burger. Because I'm Jewish I don't eat beef burgers with cheese and I don't add pork mince to make the burgers cheaper.

So to start off you need ground beef mince (from wholesalers or butchers), at 15-20% fat.  This mince is cheaper ,  but that's not the point from a culinary viewpoint ,  as the marbling (posh for fat) ensures the meat maintains its moisture amd gives a much more satisfying texture and taste.  

[As an aside you can buy in the meat  from the butcher and mince it yourself , but this is time consuming and o.k. if you are an upper middle-class , housewife,   lady of the manor type who has got time on their hands].

There is also a note about equipment. In a professional kitchen I would use a blender of some description ( preparing multiple dishes at 4.am 6 days a week is enhanced by machinery wherever possible). At home you just need hands-on and a bowl.

What you need :

Small to medium-sized onion very finely  chopped (hence why using blender is useful if not a trained chef)

2 teaspoons Dry parsley

1 teaspoon of Black pepper

1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt

500g  of  beef mince meat (1.637 pounds and ounces).

How simple to prep :

1)Parsley, pepper , onion into bowl or blender.  

2).Mix this mixture with the meat (again a blender helps get this more even and uniform).

3).Then divide the meat into four or five ( I can get about five)  balls. Gently and I mean gently ( being rough makes the meat tough and chewy) with your hand pat the balls into patties. 

There. That's how you make a cracking burger. These will be about a quarter of a pound uncooked , but you will note I haven't used breadcrumbs or egg yolk to bulk the burgers up or act as a binding agent. Given the fat content you don't need that and in any case you can but them into a fridge if you're worried about them breaking up.

...  If you want to you can, say,  add coffee , chilli, garlic  to make coffee burgers, chilli burgers , garlic burgers et al.

Now to cook...

Cleary were NOT doing  Tartare ( yes it's a dish of raw beef steak mince, very French). Incidentally , for whatever it is worth, I always cook burgers so there's no pink in them. Why?  People think burgers can be cooked like steaks. I disagree. With steaks you are killing the bacteria that's on the outside of the meat. With minced meat that bacteria isn't just on the outside, but all over the place . So as a chef I'd rather make sure the meat is fully cooked.

There are various ways to cook burgers , which again will change or determine the taste and texture : 

1).Fry (  the classic diner method, but you do add extra fat via oil in the pan).

2) Griddled ( using a griddle , without the oil).

3).Steamed ( which makes the meat extra moist. You don't actually cook this in hot water, but instead put a lid over the frying pan) 

4).Barbecued (charcoal will make for a smoky flavour , gas ones are easier to use, but won't impart such a flavour).

5) Smoked ( i.e. a barbecue using wood or wood chips which will create a wooden smokey flavour).

6). Grilled ( good if you live in Britain with unpredictable weather).

As to which one I use... it depends !

If it's for friends and family I will use our gas barbecue .

If it's at work I will use a grill ( in the kitchen this is basically an indoor gas fired barbecue, not like a grill you get at home in the UK ).

If it's just the two of use I'd use the  home grill.

Cooking times 

8 -10 minutes each side , on medium heat.

Then plate up with chips. Put burger into bun ( I could do a whole post about  burger  buns!) .  Here you can add sauces, pickles , coleslaw, sliced  tomatoes , jams etc (again I could do a whole post about these) . Or you can simply let the flavours of the burger stand on its own.

Up to you.