The Simplest Tip Ever
Following on from my last post of 5 inspirational burger videos. I took some great inspiration and dreamt big. One day I hope to grind my own beef, bake my own rolls and assemble the best burger around. Until that time, I have discovered a top tip for you to make the best beef burger patties you have tried.
Think of this as tip an enhancement, if you normally start with store-bought basic mince, this will turn up the flavour. If you normally start with home ground premium ingredients this tip will have an equally awesome effect on the end result.
I took this fantastic tip from Malcolm Reed of howtobbqright.com in this video. The key tip is in the first 2.30min of this video.
How do you make your burger patties?
Now I have always been one to start with standard beef mince and add a bunch of seasoning, cheese, carrot, onion, egg, tomato sauce and a bunch of other ingredients and mix it and mix it until the mince resembled something more like a paste. If it was too moist I would even resort to adding breadcrumbs to the mixture.
It is what I grew up with, I always remember mince patties, rissoles, being made by mum this way. Put it all in the bowl and mix the crap out of it. Form it into round balls of mince paste and cook in a hot pan. The other thing I recall is the fact that they were always falling apart. Crumbling into pieces that no longer resembled a burger patty.
Now I have seen the light. The world’s simplest tip.
If you want the true beef taste to shine through in your beef burger patties, do NOT overwork the patty. Simply divide your mince portions into the size you wish, for me this is a 500gm pack of mince divided into 4 equal(ish) portions. Roughly form into a burger patty shape and that is it. Do not mix in anything, do not overwork the patty. Just keep it simple.
The flavour is added with the addition of a good coating of your favourite BBQ rub 
or favourite herbs and spices. Here it is always good to start simple and add to your previous attempt, just to refine each one until you have it perfect to your liking.
To cook the burger patty, use the “Smash Burger” method. This is basically on a hot grill plate or pan (I use a cheap cast iron pan from my camping equipment) place the patties in and flatten them with your burger flip or a burger smasher
. Wait for a good crust to form and flip. At this stage, I will add a couple of cheese slices. Once this burger patty has cooked to your liking, aim for 75C [167F] as recommended by the food safety authorities.
Flavour Bomb!
Since the first time using this method, I am 100% hooked. The flavour change is just phenomenal. You get that hit of flavour from your rub, plus the awesome crust formed from the hot pan and then it is just the natural beef flavour that is no longer overpowered by all the additional ingredients.
Keeping it simple really works. I have found that since owning the Kamado
I tend to be resetting all of my flavours. Starting from the basics and I am really enjoying it. It is almost like we have all forgotten the “pure” taste of our produce. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good flavour explosion, I just don’t think it should be at the sacrifice of the produce you are starting with. If you let the produce shine it will really reward you.
Till next time…JOE On !!
