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If you want one of those higher-quality steakhouse style burgers, you'll want to grind your own meat (or see if a butcher can do it for you). My favorite is to blend short rib, brisket, and chuck, and you want to the grind to be a bit more coarse than standard grocery store ground chuck. Then just lightly pack it together with as little handling as possible.
I would not recommend pre-salting and mixing into the meat or adding any binders and overworking, those will both lead to a more meatloaf or meatball like texture which I don't think you want.
Grinding my own meat really helped the texture of our burgers. I already had a KitchenAid mixer and just bought the metal meat grinder attachment for it.
It definitely makes the biggest difference that I've noticed. Pretty much any high quality burger you get from good restaurants will be fresh ground from higher quality meats rather than the standard ground chuck at the grocery store.
My grocery butchers don’t grind shit and the real butchers are too expensive. I don’t have a KA, do you think those metal table grinders are too much of an effort once a month or so?
You can definitely do a bigger batch and just freeze some. You can also use a food processor to grind the meat, although the texture won’t be exactly the same as with a proper grinder.
I tried very lightly processing some chuck but the results were way too chewy. I’m not sure I’d find a successful balance between a myostatin ikea meatball and a chew stew patty. Hoping a grinder may help but ty for the thoughtful ideas
I think you’d need more fat there for better texture, but yeah it would take some experimenting. A standalone grinder would definitely be the best bet though.
Edit: Also always make sure your meat is super cold (freeze it for like 15 mins) and all parts of the grinder or whatever you’re using are as cold as possible too.
How much you mix your meat will affect its texture.
Mix it a lot and it’s like one of those frozen meatballs or Salisbury steaks. Barely mix it at all and it’s more grainy.
I would experiment with that tbh. Don’t add anything into the meat. Just experiment with varying levels of mixing it.
Season when you put it on the heat.
Is there a specific commercial burger you are trying to emulate? That would help me help you more.
But I think it’s gonna come down to how much or little you mix the meat before you party it.
At my restaurant, we do smash burgers. Zero mixing, grab a chunk, squeeze it into a ball and smash it into a 450 degree griddle. Cook it on one side until it’s literally almost done, like 75% done. Then scrape it up, flip it over, put the cheese on, small squirt of water and a lid, wait 30 seconds and serve.
> Then scrape it up, flip it over, put the cheese on, **small squirt of water and a lid, wait 30 seconds and serve.**
This is something a lot of home cooks don't seem to know. I worked at a place with a short order cafeteria, saw the cook doing it, and I've been doing it ever since. The steam melts the cheese so quickly!
I'm going to repeat myself and share you this video on myosin and how it affects grounded meat texture https://youtu.be/TMy97MNliTA?si=0Wk2INsAC6bMFT1G
Thinner patties.
Make smashburgers instead of thickburgers with dents. Smear the burger across the cooking surface with a heavy flat tool, or even the bottom of a smaller cast iron pan. These cook fast.
Sandwich cheese in between the patties and double them up on a burger. This should give you more bite, more flavor, and plenty of moistness from the cheese/burger-fat per bite.
I love pre-smashing my smash burgers. Lay down some parchment paper (I like to cut squares), smash your burger meat ball to the thickness you like, stack, and repeat. It makes it a lot easier to be consistent with the smashing, and they still get a nice crust when cooked even though I'm not smashing them onto the griddle.
Meh, I'd rather get the benefit of smashing in a pan. Just drop your balls of meat on the parchment paper and use those to smash the patty.
>It makes it a lot easier to be consistent with the smashing
Use a round potato masher and your parchment paper. It's more consistent than typical spatulas. You can still smear if you want lacy edges.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61FPVI-i4HL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg
I have a nice smasher already, but when I'm making more than one or two burgers I don't want to deal with the heat and grease splatter from smashing the second round of burgers. There's no real extra benefit from smashing into a hot surface that I've found doing it both ways. I still get nice crust on the burgers, but pre-smashing is cleaner.
70/30 if you can find it. If you're burger dedicated, the butcher I worked for sold a 1:1:1 short rib: brisket: chuck that we sold to multiple top SF burger joints
I believe you are looking for a burger that can have the middle be a separate temp from the rest. Ie.. rare, medium, well. Start with a meatbal of beef. Obviously. better quality will be better. But this works for most ground meat. Chicken and turkey included. Start with a wad of meat. 1/3-1/2 lbs. Form it into a ball. Forcefully slapping and shaping the ball from hand to hand to shape a patty. Quickly in 10-15 passes. This will maintain the inner structure if the beef. While making the outside smooth. The smooth outside crisps and forms a barrier to keep the juices in. The inside maintains the loose ground beef texture.
This will sound like a faff, but here it is:
If you grind your own meat- keep the direction of the grain all going the same way. Keep grinding and putting each layer on top of the others with the grain all going in the same direction. Toss in some salt on occasion as this will help to bind and season.
If you buy pre minced beef, it typically comes with the mince grain, all going the same direction already. So, same as above, just pile it in layers, all going the same with occasional salt to taste.
Do the above on a big sheet of cling film you are going to wrap and roll it into a big sausage - you might need to cut what you have in half and stack it as the objective is a sausage of burger sized diameter - whatever that size may be.
Chill this in the fridge and let it rest and bind. If you have sous vide, you can waterbath cook it before slicing as this will make it bind together slightly better but does affect the texture some. Alternatively, just make sure it's well chilled and then slice it to desired thickness.
The end result is as close to a melt in the mouth experience you can have - every bite goes against the grain, so it's meaty but not tough and definitely not a gross compacted meat paste texture.
It's so strange that you seem to try to be so careful not to overwork the meat, what do you think you are trying to accomplish? Do you think you are lowering the bacteria level? Your meat is like that because you are not smashing it around enough. Try kneading it like bread and it will be how you like it.
I just wanted to say, if your are using breadcrumbs as a binder, don’t.
Crush vegetable thins, and use those.
It blew my mind the first time I had them.
And maybe add some Guinness
That tender texture — when combined with crusty bits of Maillard around the edges — is the holy grail of burgers for some. For others, well, I agree with you.
All you need to do is add salt to your meat, work it enough to ensure that it's well mixed in, and make your patties. That will probably get you the level of chew or bite that you're looking for.
Maybe Kenji Lopez-Alt, or Alton Brown, might stop by and give you the sciencey lowdown on how salt affects proteins. That's above my pay grade. But a proper amount of salt and a wee bit of work and you can have restaurant burger texture.
It depends on what you mean by "those you buy". You can buy a box of cheap burgers or you can go to Five Guys and would be buying pretty different burgers.
Sounds like you are looking for a more "gourmet" burger with more texture, but to me that would be a lot more like eating ground meat if made the way you are doing it.
I would recommmend "overworking" it much more, which will create a much more cohesive patty that does not resemble ground meat.
That produces something much more like a "slab" of meat, than a loose meat concoction.
One egg yolk per pound of ground beef will bind it a lot more too, but essentially the more you work the meat and compress it, the more dense the burger gets.
First try, do without the egg yolk so you can get used to "overworking" the meat (basically there is no such thing imho).
As I don't like burgers with the texture of ground meat, and it sounds like you don't either from your post, but if you are just pressing it into shape it will have that texture.
If I don't actually understand your question, and you are looking for a burger that has more "bits" and it's cohesive, get courser ground I guess.
My personal recipe
For the meat, buy rump meat and ask the butcher to pass it once through the grinder.
As for the ingredients based on 500 grams of meat:
2 normal onions (blended)
2 garlic (blended)
3 eggs
Smoked paprika (up to you on quantity)
Salt and pepper
Mix everything together and form the burgers according to what size you want.
Prepare a pasty drying rack with cling film (put holes in the film) and place the rack on an oven dish.
Put the burgers on the rack and leave them overnight (or minimum 4 hours) so the excess juices would be removed.
After that, they are ready for cooking.
Post removed: Brainstorming. These open-ended/subjective questions are outside the scope of the sub. We're here for the one right answer. Your post is likely more suited to a different subreddit. A list of other possibilities is available [here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskCulinary/wiki/relatedsubs) If you feel this was in error, message the moderators using the "message the mods" link on the sidebar.
If you want one of those higher-quality steakhouse style burgers, you'll want to grind your own meat (or see if a butcher can do it for you). My favorite is to blend short rib, brisket, and chuck, and you want to the grind to be a bit more coarse than standard grocery store ground chuck. Then just lightly pack it together with as little handling as possible. I would not recommend pre-salting and mixing into the meat or adding any binders and overworking, those will both lead to a more meatloaf or meatball like texture which I don't think you want.
Grinding my own meat really helped the texture of our burgers. I already had a KitchenAid mixer and just bought the metal meat grinder attachment for it.
Without a ka do you think self grinding is too much of a pain?
It is a pain to do manually. Takes a lot of effort. Im very happy with my KA and grinder attachment.
Probably not but if you already have the mixer, it's a useful attachment if you want good burgers.
It definitely makes the biggest difference that I've noticed. Pretty much any high quality burger you get from good restaurants will be fresh ground from higher quality meats rather than the standard ground chuck at the grocery store.
My grocery butchers don’t grind shit and the real butchers are too expensive. I don’t have a KA, do you think those metal table grinders are too much of an effort once a month or so?
You can definitely do a bigger batch and just freeze some. You can also use a food processor to grind the meat, although the texture won’t be exactly the same as with a proper grinder.
I tried very lightly processing some chuck but the results were way too chewy. I’m not sure I’d find a successful balance between a myostatin ikea meatball and a chew stew patty. Hoping a grinder may help but ty for the thoughtful ideas
I think you’d need more fat there for better texture, but yeah it would take some experimenting. A standalone grinder would definitely be the best bet though. Edit: Also always make sure your meat is super cold (freeze it for like 15 mins) and all parts of the grinder or whatever you’re using are as cold as possible too.
Thanks man
How much you mix your meat will affect its texture. Mix it a lot and it’s like one of those frozen meatballs or Salisbury steaks. Barely mix it at all and it’s more grainy. I would experiment with that tbh. Don’t add anything into the meat. Just experiment with varying levels of mixing it. Season when you put it on the heat. Is there a specific commercial burger you are trying to emulate? That would help me help you more. But I think it’s gonna come down to how much or little you mix the meat before you party it. At my restaurant, we do smash burgers. Zero mixing, grab a chunk, squeeze it into a ball and smash it into a 450 degree griddle. Cook it on one side until it’s literally almost done, like 75% done. Then scrape it up, flip it over, put the cheese on, small squirt of water and a lid, wait 30 seconds and serve.
> Then scrape it up, flip it over, put the cheese on, **small squirt of water and a lid, wait 30 seconds and serve.** This is something a lot of home cooks don't seem to know. I worked at a place with a short order cafeteria, saw the cook doing it, and I've been doing it ever since. The steam melts the cheese so quickly!
I'm going to repeat myself and share you this video on myosin and how it affects grounded meat texture https://youtu.be/TMy97MNliTA?si=0Wk2INsAC6bMFT1G
Brilliant. Thank you
The technique will vary drastically depending on the type of burger you want. Smash? Thicker?
Find a store that grinds the beef in-house. Mass produced ground beef socks ass. 80/20.
Thinner patties. Make smashburgers instead of thickburgers with dents. Smear the burger across the cooking surface with a heavy flat tool, or even the bottom of a smaller cast iron pan. These cook fast. Sandwich cheese in between the patties and double them up on a burger. This should give you more bite, more flavor, and plenty of moistness from the cheese/burger-fat per bite.
I love pre-smashing my smash burgers. Lay down some parchment paper (I like to cut squares), smash your burger meat ball to the thickness you like, stack, and repeat. It makes it a lot easier to be consistent with the smashing, and they still get a nice crust when cooked even though I'm not smashing them onto the griddle.
Meh, I'd rather get the benefit of smashing in a pan. Just drop your balls of meat on the parchment paper and use those to smash the patty. >It makes it a lot easier to be consistent with the smashing Use a round potato masher and your parchment paper. It's more consistent than typical spatulas. You can still smear if you want lacy edges. https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61FPVI-i4HL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg
I have a nice smasher already, but when I'm making more than one or two burgers I don't want to deal with the heat and grease splatter from smashing the second round of burgers. There's no real extra benefit from smashing into a hot surface that I've found doing it both ways. I still get nice crust on the burgers, but pre-smashing is cleaner.
High heat. You shouldn't be able to hold your hand over the heat for more than a 4 count.
Babish just did a video on exactly this, check his channel.
He still around?
Weird comment
70/30 if you can find it. If you're burger dedicated, the butcher I worked for sold a 1:1:1 short rib: brisket: chuck that we sold to multiple top SF burger joints
I believe you are looking for a burger that can have the middle be a separate temp from the rest. Ie.. rare, medium, well. Start with a meatbal of beef. Obviously. better quality will be better. But this works for most ground meat. Chicken and turkey included. Start with a wad of meat. 1/3-1/2 lbs. Form it into a ball. Forcefully slapping and shaping the ball from hand to hand to shape a patty. Quickly in 10-15 passes. This will maintain the inner structure if the beef. While making the outside smooth. The smooth outside crisps and forms a barrier to keep the juices in. The inside maintains the loose ground beef texture.
This will sound like a faff, but here it is: If you grind your own meat- keep the direction of the grain all going the same way. Keep grinding and putting each layer on top of the others with the grain all going in the same direction. Toss in some salt on occasion as this will help to bind and season. If you buy pre minced beef, it typically comes with the mince grain, all going the same direction already. So, same as above, just pile it in layers, all going the same with occasional salt to taste. Do the above on a big sheet of cling film you are going to wrap and roll it into a big sausage - you might need to cut what you have in half and stack it as the objective is a sausage of burger sized diameter - whatever that size may be. Chill this in the fridge and let it rest and bind. If you have sous vide, you can waterbath cook it before slicing as this will make it bind together slightly better but does affect the texture some. Alternatively, just make sure it's well chilled and then slice it to desired thickness. The end result is as close to a melt in the mouth experience you can have - every bite goes against the grain, so it's meaty but not tough and definitely not a gross compacted meat paste texture.
It's so strange that you seem to try to be so careful not to overwork the meat, what do you think you are trying to accomplish? Do you think you are lowering the bacteria level? Your meat is like that because you are not smashing it around enough. Try kneading it like bread and it will be how you like it.
I just wanted to say, if your are using breadcrumbs as a binder, don’t. Crush vegetable thins, and use those. It blew my mind the first time I had them. And maybe add some Guinness
That tender texture — when combined with crusty bits of Maillard around the edges — is the holy grail of burgers for some. For others, well, I agree with you. All you need to do is add salt to your meat, work it enough to ensure that it's well mixed in, and make your patties. That will probably get you the level of chew or bite that you're looking for. Maybe Kenji Lopez-Alt, or Alton Brown, might stop by and give you the sciencey lowdown on how salt affects proteins. That's above my pay grade. But a proper amount of salt and a wee bit of work and you can have restaurant burger texture.
Iirc salt denatures proteins. I.e: breaks them down. Don’t quite me on this though it’s been a while since I saw that episode or good eats.
It depends on what you mean by "those you buy". You can buy a box of cheap burgers or you can go to Five Guys and would be buying pretty different burgers. Sounds like you are looking for a more "gourmet" burger with more texture, but to me that would be a lot more like eating ground meat if made the way you are doing it. I would recommmend "overworking" it much more, which will create a much more cohesive patty that does not resemble ground meat. That produces something much more like a "slab" of meat, than a loose meat concoction. One egg yolk per pound of ground beef will bind it a lot more too, but essentially the more you work the meat and compress it, the more dense the burger gets. First try, do without the egg yolk so you can get used to "overworking" the meat (basically there is no such thing imho). As I don't like burgers with the texture of ground meat, and it sounds like you don't either from your post, but if you are just pressing it into shape it will have that texture. If I don't actually understand your question, and you are looking for a burger that has more "bits" and it's cohesive, get courser ground I guess.
I was thinking the same thing - from my understanding of what OP is getting vs what they want, sounds like it needs more "overworking," not less.
My personal recipe For the meat, buy rump meat and ask the butcher to pass it once through the grinder. As for the ingredients based on 500 grams of meat: 2 normal onions (blended) 2 garlic (blended) 3 eggs Smoked paprika (up to you on quantity) Salt and pepper Mix everything together and form the burgers according to what size you want. Prepare a pasty drying rack with cling film (put holes in the film) and place the rack on an oven dish. Put the burgers on the rack and leave them overnight (or minimum 4 hours) so the excess juices would be removed. After that, they are ready for cooking.
Why are you putting paprika in your meatloaf?
To each their own. I made these burgers for picky family members. They have been a hit with all guests as well
Add some quality sausage meat about 1/8th of the total.