Home made burgers and buns! [Cooking]

2010 Apr 3
Wish you could smell this!


2010 Apr 3
Zym - you sound like you're having a burgergasm in the video! Hilarious!

2010 Apr 3
Close!

2010 Apr 3
More than one flip and a "squish" is a fail IMO. Good job on the buns though! What kind of bbq is that?

2010 Apr 3
I don't buy into the whole "1 flip only" nonsense. There is simply no reason not to flip more than once - same as with steaks. Just a bunch of uppity hooey if you ask me. An arbitrary rule with nothing to back it up.

It is a Centro grill that I got for free. I bought 2 cheap cast iron griddles to turn it into a really nice cooking appliance. The whole "direct flame" thing is another bunch of hooey I don't buy into.

2010 Apr 3
LOL burgergasm @ 1:24

good stuff hahaha

2010 Apr 3
You can't fake a burgergasm!


2010 Apr 3
I agree with Bobby Fillet, no flipping and no squishing out the moisture/fat content. At least not for me.

It's not a matter of uppity hooey. It's more about the finished product. I like my gas grilled burgers and steaks to have the criss cross grill marks. (The eyes feast first. I also like the moisture content I seek to have an equal distribution in the meat. To achieve these standards I have had the best success with room temperature meat, one flip (with a quarter-turn to get the criss cross marks), and no squishing.

Also, the whole idea of using a gas/charcoal grill is to allow the fat/moisture drippings to hit the hot coals to produce smoke that flavours the meat, which I also like alot. A flat grill plate on a gas bbq ? That's not BBQing/grilling, that's frying. Might as well use a cast iron frying pan on the stove top.

I'm not saying Zyms methods are wrong. It just looks like we have different expectaions.


2010 Apr 3
Zym - just because you don't approve doesn't mean that it's hooey. The flipping "nonsense"...eliminate steaming of the meat...leave out squishing...stop losing juices (yes, fat, but flavour...)....''

Can meat taste good without this 'hooey'? Sure...but much better when respected. You seem vocal when it matters to you...maybe this should be your next calling...try it before you knock it. Ditch the squish for sure...excess flipping next....you WILL be happier.

2010 Apr 3
Sooo, cooking a burger on a grill versus a flat top has no difference to you? I don't care to go into differences, but they most certainly ARE different.

Why "bbq" with a flat top?how is this different from your household range for a heat source?

2010 Apr 3
Zym, after you flip a burger or a steak, the side facing up is no longer exposed to radiant heat from the fire and it starts to cool down. When you flip it back down, the outer layer has to heat up again before the heat can penetrate through to the center. If you flip a lot then by the time the center is perfectly done the outer part is overcooked.

The more times you flip, the steeper the temperature gradient through the meat. In other words, for normal cooking it makes sense to keep flipping to a minimum. If you're trying to achieve a "blue" steak with a thin blackened crust, you could get away with flipping a lot.

Note that if you take it to the extreme (i.e. constant flipping) then the cooking might work out well because the top side doesn't get a chance to cool. You become a human rotisserie!

So the moral of the story is: if you're cooking poultry on the grill, it's best to minimize how many times you flip the bird. ;-)

2010 Apr 4
I think Captain hit the nail on the head - different expectations. Which is another way of saying "uppity hooey" :-) My burgers are good. Really good. And if you hadn't seen how I made them I'm sure they'd pass any of your taste tests. i.e. there may be differences, I'll admit that, but I would bet my next paycheque most of them are below the flavour threshold of most normal human beings. Bits of juice vaporizing on the coals and adding flavour to the meat? C'mon, I wasn't born yesterday. It is on there for 5 or 10 minutes, there is no way that is adding flavour that anyone can taste. Not to mention the fact that by my method the juice stays with the meat, where it belongs. It does not fall away and get wasted.

Case in point about 5 years ago the family was at my parents place and I took over the grilling of the steaks. My brother was aghast to see me flipping them more than the requisite once he'd seen on TV - until he tasted the results and declared me to be a grill master.

Same for my grill top. My goal there was to save someone else's piece of junk from going into the landfill site. And in part to show what a bunch of nonsense some people will believe. I took someone else's garbage and turned it into an outstanding outdoor cooking appliance that has my guests coming back over and over again. Mission accomplished! I plan to use this thing as long as I possibly can - hopefully many years. Versus the crowd who get sucked in by all the marketing BS and are buying new grills every few years (and sending the old ones to our overflowing landfill sites) because that is what the TV commercials and cooking shows tell them to do. I also happen to like the results I get cooking on it. Quite a lot in fact. So do my guests. I get perfectly even heat and a beautiful cooking surface - out of an old piece of someone else's garbage. (insert laugh track)

Now, all of this said, I will experiment with not squishing and less flipping. Not that I flip that often anyway. And I think the squishing rule may not apply on a full surface because I squish out the juice and then allow the meat to cook in it because it does not fall away like it would on one of those inferior grilling surfaces :-) So it is a bit of apples and oranges. But what Fresh Foodie wrote is about the only thing above that seems to actually make any sense. But the conclusion would still not necessarily be "flip only once", but rather "don't flip until the middle is cooked" :-) And I suspect that it is one of those theories that works better in theory than in practice at lot of the time. It probably is exactly what would happen with a 1" or thicker steak. But anything thinner and the heat is still going through it just fine.

I already know that the surfaces I use do not make a difference - or even that they make for a better grilling surface. Because I grilled for many years the more traditional way with open grills, and when I switched to this I'd have to say it was a switch for the better.

BTW, the Australians claim to know a few things about the Barbie, and one of their most prized appliances - the Sunshine - has a top which is precisely this.

2010 Apr 4
looks like they're burnt

;)

2010 Apr 4
Yeah, they are on one side monty - that much is definitely a fail. I did not let the cast iron griddles cool down enough after giving them a really good burning with the lard seasoning I'd just put on them. They were really, really hot at first and I should have given them another few minutes to cool off a bit (or flipped more often :-))

2010 Apr 7
Nice vid! The burgers look delicious, and those buns are adorable! I agree with the others about the no-flip, no-squish (especially the latter), but with your cooking method on the flat griddle, it cooks in the juices, so the damage is limited I guess.

One other comment: why the garnishings on the cheese? Don't you want it to melt? I put the cheese (usually jack or cheddar or both) on the hot bun and lay the burger on it. Cold toppings on the other side.

I also hardly handle the beef, just a rudimentary patty shape, and you can still see the wavy, strings of beef in places, salt and pepper on the outside surfaces, medium-rare (I am that confident in the provenance and handling history of my ground beef).

You got me aching to fire up my charcoal Weber

2010 Apr 7
WRT the cheese - I normally put it on the burgers for the last minute while they are still on the grill but completely forgot about it this time.

2010 Apr 7
Now these cowboys know how to make a burger !!!

bbqpitboys.com

JDK

2010 Apr 7
Yup, gotta love that sliced cheese, just in case there were not enough chemicals in those briquettes!

2010 May 24
OK, so I did try making burgers without squishing them down, and it does make a very different burger even on my flat griddle which does not let the juice fall away. But the jury is still out on whether or not it is actually better. It makes a burger with a consistency and mouth feel like raw ground beef - even when I check the internal temp with a good thermometer and verify it at 180F or 185F. And I guess it is a subjective thing whether or not that is "good". Personally, I find it pretty creepy. But I'll try it a few more times to see what I really think.

2012 Jul 16
From a man who swore by his (constantly flipped) flatgrill fried hamburgers were good. "My burgers are good. Really good." See above.

What Zym said (above) about cooking hamburgers 'flat grill vs: over coals method' : "Bits of juice vaporizing on the coals and adding flavour to the meat? C'mon, I wasn't born yesterday. It is on there for 5 or 10 minutes, there is no way that is adding flavour that anyone can taste."

(Even Fresh Foodie poked fun at the sight of your burgers. See link: ottawafoodies.com )

So Zym, can you still say that, now that you use a Big Green Egg ?

(I am assuming you have already cooked hamburgers on your BGE without your flatgrill.)

(Like Fresh Foodie, I too am testing your sense of humor. ... But I'm kinda hoping you say you are truly enjoying cooking hamburgers on your BGE vs your old method. You see ... I don't have a Big Green Egg ... but I do have I have BGE ... Big Green Envy.)


2012 Jul 16
Well Captain Caper , I certainly won't be going back to propane any time soon. And I have learned that stuff dripping onto the coals does indeed burn to add flavour to what you are cooking. I've also learned that this flavour is not always desirable and sometimes you want to do everything possible to avoid it. For example, it completely ruins roasted chicken, in my opinion. So when roasting a whole chicken on my egg I use an oven roasting pan with a rack that elevates the chickena a bit off the pan, just like I do in the oven. This avoids that flavour on my roasted chicken, and also allows me to catch the precious drippings for use in other things.

Whether or not the drippings add flavour when using propane versus charcoal - I am doubtful. I've used propane for years and never experienced that. I know weber has some sheet metal shields they claim does this, but I've never tasted food off one of those.

Oh and you'll be perhaps displeased to know that I still flip my burgers and steaks several times, not just once. The exception being when cooking them for my wife who like steaks rare. The main reason is that I don't like the crispy char that a lot of people seem to think is a requirement on a good steak or burger. If you leave it too long on 1 side you get that.

Anyway, love my egg and won't be going back. The flavour of the drippings is a personal taste thing though. Sometimes I don't even like it on my steak but what can you do? On burgers I always like it. Biggest thing I like about the egg is using it as a smoker.

2012 Jul 16
I've completely abandoned propane too, in favor of charcoal. Almost any recipe for the burger is better when it's got a nice crispy exterior and a juicy interior. I generally top them with monterey jack cheese for the last couple minutes and put the lid back on the grill, then top them with roasted poblano chiles.

If anyone can share a trick for keeping juicy burgers from sticking to the grill it would be much appreciated. I generally oil the grill just before tossing the burgers on. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

2012 Jul 16
Cast iron is a burgers best friend.

I used to propane grill my burgs, but have started doing them on a cast iron pan in the oven (GASP! I KNOW! - it also goes against my beliefs). BUT they turn out awesome! Nice char, juicy and pinkish inside.

I started to try burgs this way after I had a mean steak cooked on cast iron in the oven. Best homecooked steak I have ever had.

2012 Jul 16
G'day fellow foodies. I've got propane, charcoal and a smoker and I find if you know how to make a good burger( regular ground beef only ) its pretty hard to tell the difference. Rules being 1 flip is all you ever do and always leave the lid open. Have a beer and don't try to speed up the process. I gotta say when the kids are hungry and yo've got 1 hr till hockey practice nothing beats propane.

2012 Jul 16
My oldest boy told me I had to post his favorite burger recipe, regular ground chuck stuffed with pepper jack, ranch dressing and pieces of my home smoked bacon. When an eleven year old will take these over mickey d's I must be doing something right.

2012 Jul 16
As long as we're sharing burger recipes: I use 85% lean ground beef, augmented with the fat from 8 slices of cooked bacon, two slices of white bread mashed with a fork in a bit of milk, salt, pepper and a clove or two of chopped garlic. I got this recipe years ago and I don't know the science behind it, but they are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside with a ton of flavor. In a pinch I've added in melted butter instead of the bacon fat, and that worked too.

2012 Jul 16
BTW I made burgers last night and my 10 year old told me I should open a business selling hamburgers because my burgers are so good. He told me this completely unprompted and is normally not so keen to give me any compliments.

2012 Jul 16
Whooo Hoooo !

Looks like Zym has become a 'Born Again Burger Maker' ... by abandoning his flat-grill, multi-flipping ways. And joining the fellowship of the BGE.

Hallelujah !

... And winning over his "not so keen to give me any compliments" son ... an absolute miracle !

Betcha they no longer look like this either.

Congrats ZYM !! And if you act on your son's idea, and open a burger joint, I'd love to be first in line.

(My BGE (Big Green Envy) has just grown a bit more.)

2012 Jul 16
You missed the part where I said I still multiflip

And I may actually decide to use my griddles on there to prevent the flavour from the splatter on the coals. Sometimes anyway.

My burgers do pretty much still look like that though captain. Not sure how else I would want them. Like I already said I don't like those ones that are burnt to a crisp on the outside which so many people seem to think is good.

2012 Jul 16
Here you go Captain


2012 Jul 16
Gotta confess..my favourite way to have a beef burger is cooked on a cast iron grill on top of a charcoal bbq. This method allows a small amount of smoke flavour (I am not a fan of huge smokiness) but also juiciness. And even with the propane bbq I still prefer the cast iron grill/pan. I also like to use lean ground meat and it can be too dry if the chef is not careful. My bbqr's (son and husband) indulge me but their preference is on the charcoal, flipped once, no pressing (and medium ground not lean)
See we can all be foodies with individual twists! I am pretty picky about how my burger is cooked! BTW-I can bbq but only do when I have to-when it is 32C why would I want to stand beside a sizzling hot fire?
And my hubby has BGE also!

2012 Jul 16
Well, while we're doing this, here's a burger I did a while ago. This was on propane, the patty is nothing but about 1/3 of a pound of medium ground beef with salt and pepper. This was on a pretzel bun with swiss cheese, carmelized onion relish, dijon, tomato, and spinach. It was pretty great -- nice carmelized crust and still juicy.

2012 Jul 16
W.C. said "See we can all be foodies with individual twists!" - and that is exactly what I go on about - how so many people seem to think there is only 1 right way to do a burger. In fact W.C. is right and there are almost as many 'correct' ways as there are people.

2012 Jul 16
1/3 lb beef patties stuffed with jalapeno and cheddar, smoked with hickory until 150ish internal, then grill it and sauce it.... they were amazing topped with more cheddar and my hoe smoked bacon!

2012 Jul 17
I love to eat burgers and cant stay away for long period. I will gonna prepare all these types of burgers.

2012 Jul 17
Aha, I'll catch it before someone else does... I use only the freshest hoes to smoke my bacon lol....

2012 Jul 17
On a sort of related but different topic, the only burgers I eat now are veggie burgers (I'm not vegetarian, but I've pretty much given up eating red meat). Most of the veggie burgers in the store are pretty crappy - anyone got a good recipe?

2012 Jul 17
Hey nukem way to beat Rizak to the punch on that one.

2012 Jul 17
Johnny - the best store bought ones I've tried are Veggie Patch. Costco carries them for a good price.

2012 Jul 18
Thanks Bobby, I'll look out for them next time I'm there.

Aug 3
Looking for some ideas on what meat you are putting into your burgers.
Does anyone have a good source for a slightly higher fat content meat?
I know I can just go to the local mega mart and get medium ground.

Aug 4
Call Around the Block or any other butcher. I get them to put up 10x 1lb packages of regular ground beef at a time and then freeze them. Each package makes 8 smash burger patties which makes 4 burgers (with cheese in between).
It might even be a regular freezer item for them. I've seen it on their product board.

Aug 4
Just copy Around The Block’s “backyard burgers.” They listed the ingredients in a Facebook post a few months ago.

Aug 5
One thing I really like is about 2/3 extra-lean beef and the other 1/3 ground bacon.

Adjust ratios as desired as well as types of bacon.

Aug 6
I've been making a lot of burgers since this whole pandemic started.

First pic is my Big Mac, smoked gouda instead of american cheese.

I use lean meat, seasoned with smoked sea salt and black pepper and cooked in a cast iron pan with Butter and olive oil. Use a cast iron press to smash them down. The smoked sea salt gives it a nice smokey BBQ flavour without juices dripping down into the grill.

Aug 6
Second is Smoked Cheddar, pickles, jalepenos, onions and burger sauce.

Aug 6
@AD_2 I tried to find the recipe but couldn't. Do you mind writing down the ingredients here?

Aug 6
I was curious about the Around the Block ingredients so I asked Dr. Google:
https:/www.facebook.com/aroundtheblockbutcher/posts/atbs-backyard-burgers-are-back-perfect-for-small-and-large-but-small-right-now-g/3045748538797639/

"ATB’s Backyard Burgers are back! Perfect for (small! And large but small right now) gatherings soaking up the sun. Ground beef, ground pork, ground bacon, red onion, garlic, parsley, eggs, breadcrumbs, chilli flakes, paprika, salt n peppa. Heartburn makers"

It has been a while but to make our go to burger, we freshly grind our beef (a high fat cut such as chuck roast) using our KitchenAid attachment.