{"id":582,"date":"2011-09-11T05:10:48","date_gmt":"2011-09-11T09:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/?p=582"},"modified":"2019-05-18T17:03:02","modified_gmt":"2019-05-19T00:03:02","slug":"tips-burgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/tips-burgers\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips: Grilling Burgers (Beef)"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_12319\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12319\" style=\"width: 234px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/marbling.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" 12319\" src=\"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/marbling.png\" alt=\"Grades for Marbling\" width=\"234\" height=\"263\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12319\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grades for Marbling &#8211; click to enlarge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>See also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/tips-steaks\/\"><strong>Tips: Steaks<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/cow-parts\/\"><strong>Cow Parts<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Buying your Hamburger<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>80\/20 lean has the best fat to meat ratio for grilling<\/li>\n<li>What does 80\/20 or 85\/15 mean?\u00a0 <span class=\"_Tgc\">If ground beef has 20 percent fat and 80 percent lean beef, it is good for grilling, but not necessarily good for you. To be called \u201clean,\u201d ground beef, it must have a lean point of 92% lean (or higher) and only 8% fat . \u201cExtra lean\u201d ground beef must have a lean point of 96% lean or higher.\u00a0 <\/span><\/li>\n<li>Another good meat option is 1\/2 LB ground chuck mixed with 1\/2 LB ground brisket<\/li>\n<li>MARBLING EQUALS FLAVOR<br \/>\n&#8211; SELECT is right around BMS Grade 3<br \/>\n&#8211; CHOICE is right around Grade 4<br \/>\n&#8211; PRIME is right around Grade 5<\/li>\n<li>Select a piece of chuck with lots of marbling and have your butcher grind it (yes, there are people behind those doors &#8212; just ring the bell).<\/li>\n<li>Ask for a &#8220;coarse&#8221; grind.<\/li>\n<li>You can also grind the meat yourself with a meat grinder or chop in the food processor (cut into 1- to 1\u00bd-inch cubes first).<br \/>\nAn advantage to this is that there are fewer worries about contamination and you can safely cook your burgers medium-rare, if that&#8217;s how you like them.\u00a0 A chef&#8217;s favorite that I see on TV a lot is 1\/3 chuck, 1\/3 shoulder and 1\/3 short ribs.<\/li>\n<li>Try different combinations of meat.\u00a0 Almost any kind of ground meat can be used to make burgers, or mix together different ones. I&#8217;ve heard of mixing pork with beef, chicken with lamb, or even buffalo with beef. For flavor, try mixing some fresh sausage in with another type of meat.<\/li>\n<li>A good combination is half short ribs, half brisket with an extra handful of fat thrown in.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Prepping your Meat for Cooking<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When making your patties, don&#8217;t handle the meat too much.\u00a0 It will become mealy.\u00a0 The heat from your hands begins to melt the fat and makes the patty too dense. Move it lightly from hand to hand and loosely make a patty no thicker than one inch, or you will have to cook it too long).<\/li>\n<li>When adding other ingredients to ground meat, use a spoon or spatula to avoid heating the meat with your hands<\/li>\n<li>Make an indentation in the center of the meat.\u00a0 Have you noticed that your burgers tend to form rounded tops when cooking, causing the condiments to slide off? If you push down slightly in the center, creating a round area about \u00bc inch lower than the surrounding meat, your finished burger will come out flat.<\/li>\n<li>Many people just want great beef, straight up with salt and pepper. But it&#8217;s also fun to add flavors, and if you are using leaner meats, or leaner cuts of beef, you can add moisture at the same time. Finely minced vegetables such as onion, mushrooms, or mild chilies are especially good for this.<\/li>\n<li>Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce are common liquids to add to burgers.<strong>.\u00a0 <\/strong>About 2 tsp per pound of meat is good.<\/li>\n<li>You can also take a lean cut of meat and add some olive oil for good fat, or butter for flavorful bad fat; although this will cook faster than meats that are naturally fattier like 80\/20 hamburger<\/li>\n<li>If using lean meat, add moisture or fat to your meat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Cooking your Meat<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Start charcoal in center in a pyramid, then move to one side<br \/>\n\u2022 Direct Heat:\u00a0 Things that cook quickly or to get a sear (steak, chicken skin)<br \/>\n\u2022 Indirect Heat: Finish cooking.\u00a0 Also use for flare ups<br \/>\n\u2022 Spread out coals for thin hamburgers, zucchini, asparagus, hot dogs, skewered seasoned shallots<\/li>\n<li>Press down gently, but firmly, at the very beginning to get a good sear on the meat.\u00a0 After that, don&#8217;t press down on the burgers when cooking.\u00a0 This compresses the meat, making it denser, and also squeezes the juices out of the meat.<\/li>\n<li>Salt and pepper are a must, but consider garlic powder or onion powder.\u00a0 I personally recommend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/roberts-thunder-powder\/\"><strong>Grandpa&#8217;s Thunder Powder<\/strong><\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Once your burger is on the heat, don&#8217;t move it until it naturally releases.\u00a0 Once it does, flip it.\u00a0 Flip it twice more so that both sides get two cookings each.<\/li>\n<li>A thermometer is a must-have.\u00a0 I have a page of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/gadgets\/\"><strong>Kitchen Gadgets<\/strong><\/a> with a link to Thermoworks.\u00a0 I recommend both an infrared (or IR) thermometer and an instant read ThermaPen.\u00a0 Cook your meats at least to 145\u00ba internal temperature, unless you have ground the meat yourself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>See also Tips: Steaks and Cow Parts Buying your Hamburger 80\/20 lean has the best fat to meat ratio for grilling What does 80\/20 or 85\/15 mean?\u00a0 If ground beef has 20 percent fat and 80 percent lean beef, it is good for grilling, but not necessarily good for you. To be called \u201clean,\u201d ground &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/tips-burgers\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Tips: Grilling Burgers (Beef)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,172,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tips-tricks-and-tools","category-meat-to-eat","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18406,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions\/18406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}