What are the best burger recipes and cooking tips?

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Expert Comments

03/31/25 9:11am

I like an 80/20 mix of meat to fat ground chuck or if you are grinding your own ribeye and fillet. I do not have a preference on cooking surfaces but do like either a smashed pattie or one cooked on a grill. 6–8oz balls or patties is the size I like to cook. For the smashed pattie you will need the grill to be extremely hot because you wont to develop a nice crust on the outside. You place the ball of burger meat on the hot grill and let set for about a minute before taking a heavy metal spatula or burger weight and push the ball into a pattie about a half inch thick . Let that cook for about 2 more minutes before flipping. Let cook for a few more minutes on the other side. I like my burgers medium rare to medium. Just before they are cooked, I like to add cheeses to the pattie. My preferences for cheeses are havartti and good old american cheese whether its white or yellow. You can also use provolone. These cheeses give you that perfect melt.

For seasonings on the burger I like salt, my brewers blend from Tuff Momma Salts works great, white pepper, granulated garlic and a little lime powder.

Toppings is where you can get crazy. I love fried eggs, bacon and fried avocado on mine with mayo and ketchup. I am not a big fan of a lot of garden items on a burger but there are a lot of options. Butter lettuce is a great lettuce for the burger, heirloom tomatoes, caramelized onions, and pickles of course. Some other fun items to place on your burger are fried pickle coins, fried jalapeño bottle caps, thin sliced and fried onion straws, or cheesy tater tots. - just to name a few. Let your imagination go wild when topping your burgers.

And lastly, always toast your buns. I like a good brioche bun or a good pretzel bun for my burgers. The more you put on the burger the sturdier the bun needs to be.

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