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Pro Tips For Burger Perfection
There's not much more quintessential than meat and fire — particularly throwing a few fresh ground burgers on the grill and serving up the juicy beef blend between buns with accouterments from pickles to mayonnaise to lettuce and tomato with an amazing basket of fries. Here are a few Pro Tips to achieving burger perfection every time.
Start with the proper Fat Ratio. One of the main issues a lot of folks end up having with their burgers is that its meat to fat ratio is off. More fat is better when grilling burgers since it'll help your patties not stick to the grates (as a lot of that fat will be dripping out), create a better crust, and leave you with a juicier burger. An 80-20 ratio is best for your grilling endeavors — even a 70-30 blend will work.
Grind the beef yourself. The best meat for a steak dinner doesn't necessarily make a good burger. Skip the fancy stuff like Wagyu or a nice steak to grind yourself. Chuck is, honestly, your best bet for a good, juicy, tasty burger on the grill. Chuck comes from the shoulder muscle of the cow, and the combination of fat, meat, and muscle makes for a well-balanced bite. If you're feeling adventurous, you can grind your burger with a combination of chuck, aged beef, and something like a brisket, too.
Pre-form your patties. A day (or even two) in advance, pre-form your burger patties, then store them in the refrigerator in an airtight container. Like when you make meatballs, pre-forming hamburger patties and then letting them rest will allow the meat to come together and will lessen the chances of your burgers falling apart on the grill during party time.
Save the seasoning for last. Once your patties are formed, a simple but heavy-handed mixture of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper is all you'll need to complement the beefiness of your burger. But, if you're feeling fancy, burger seasoning blends can be kept simple — like recipes for ones featuring brown sugar, cayenne, garlic powder, and dried parsley.
Thick or thin? If you want a thinner burger — more for the smash burger experience — you can try flattening your patties and then cooking on the grill almost entirely on one side. Flip, then cook for an additional minute or so until you see juices and fat coming through. For a more traditional, thicker burger, make sure the patty is at least at ¾ of an inch thick. The heftier patty can withstand more heat, allowing it to cook evenly without getting too blackened on the outside. Too much thicker, though, and you run the risk of serving a raw burger with an overly charred outside.
Chilled beef is best. Nearly as important as the right temperature on the grill and not over-handling your patties is the temperature of your burgers when they hit the grill. Your burger patties also shouldn't be warm or room temperature when they start to cook. The warmer your ground beef mixture, the more likely the fat holding everything together is to melt, quickly. The faster the fat melts, the less juicy your burger and the less likely it is to stay together. The absolute best temperature for your burger patties as they hit the grill is cold — not frozen — just out of the fridge is best.
IMPORTANT: The Dimple Step. Professionals agree: taking your thumb and leaving a small, central indentation in your burger patties before cooking them helps your cooking process by ensuring you have a nice, flat burger that lays nicely on your bun and allows for toppings to be stacked. When a burger hits the hot grill, the heat immediately makes the burger's juices push toward the center of the patty — away from the edges. Without a dimple, this would mean that as the edges of the burger crisp, the center of the burger puffs up, giving the patty a spherical look. When you add the dimple, the juices will still rush to the center, but they'll puff the middle of your patty up to be even with the rest. Burgers with dimples will also cook more evenly, ensuring you have a nice medium rare or medium burger throughout.
Fire that puppy up - HIGH. The key to a delicious burger is getting a good crust — essentially caramelizing the outside of the meat. You can only achieve that over very high heat, which will immediately start cooking the outside of your burger and leaving the inside to slowly get up to temperature. If you put your burgers over too low of heat, you'll miss out on the caramelization and, essentially, start steaming the meat first. Preheating your grill and making sure it's at the right temperature before you put the patties on is an important and not-to-be-missed step.
While tempting, don’t fiddle with it. A burger requires one flip on the grill, not two, three, or more. And don’t press it to flatten it out. The more you flip and handle the burger, the less likely you'll be to form that gorgeous caramelized outer crust you seek.
Want cheese with that? If you're creating cheeseburgers, make sure you're adding the cheese at the right time — after you've already flipped your burger once and have about a minute or two left of cooking time. You can't go wrong with American cheese, cheddar, pepper jack, or Swiss.
Let it Rest. When you pull your burgers off of the grill, place them on a grate above a plate to catch any dripping deliciousness — no more than a couple of minutes. This will allow the fat and juice to reabsorb, allowing you to have a juicy burger without the threat of a soggy bottom hamburger bun. Remember that the juices and fat have been forced to the center of your patties during cooking over high heat. Allowing them to rest lets those juices move back and redistribute into the other areas of the burger, meaning an all-over juicy and flavorful experience for your guests.
Buns Choices. Buns do make a big difference. What buns do the Pro’s recommend? The reigning favorite for most is a classic potato roll. It holds up better and is more sturdy than buns made with regular wheat flour, and can more easily contain your burger and toppings without becoming a mushy mess.
Toppings. Toppings can run the gamut from classic tomato and lettuce to fried onion rings and peanut butter. The rule for toppings is to try not to overwhelm your burger and make sure you can fit your mouth around it. And don’t forget the bacon!
Ed Sheeran
We have always know that Ed Sheeran has a great sense of humor. He confirmed it again this week on Theo Von’s podcast when he revealed that when he attended bestie Taylor Swift’s 2015 Fourth of July celebration, he came dressed for the occasion: "I turned up to my first July 4th in a redcoat... and a flag. Union Jack." Taylor posted the snap on her Instagram with the caption “When Ed shows up in a red coat for the 4th of July because he just can’t let it go.”
Ed has been a busy boy. While on the European leg of his current World Tour, he recently made a stop at @Pinkpop to perform with his longtime pal Hozier. He performed a new cover of Sons Of Anarchy at his Anniversary show last month, and will soon will be releasing a new video for his song “Tenerife Sea”, shot on the Tenerife Sea - a hidden gem of the Canary Islands. Keep it coming, Ed!
Secrets To Grilling The Perfect Steak
Grilling is a discipline full of little hacks and helpful tips, but it's also one replete with possible small errors or mistakes that can make the task more tedious than it should or could be. Luckily, there are excellent hacks for best grilling your meat, too, including even the thickest cuts of beef.
Especially with thick cuts, how do you get a good texture on the outside while also cooking the center of the piece to your desired doneness, all while avoiding overly burning your steak? The secret lies in cooking thick steaks off to the side of the grill, away from your direct heat source. Grilling them with indirect heat will allow the steaks to cook slowly. And once they nearly reach your desired level of doneness, you can simply transfer them to a direct heat source in order to finish the process with an excellent crust.
You'll want to set up your grill so that you have two distinct areas: A direct heating spot and an indirect heating spot. The majority of your steak's cooking time will be on the indirect source if it's a thick cut, and you can use a meat thermometer to gauge the doneness of the meat while it's cooking. Sure, this will take longer than usual, since your meat is cooking at a lower temperature. But when done this way, you have far greater control over how rare or well-done your steak becomes.
As the meat approaches your desired doneness (a good anchor point is when it's about 10 degrees Fahrenheit away from the goal temperature), move your steak to the direct heat source. This intense heat will caramelize the outer part of the steak and form a crust. Essentially, this is a method of reverse searing – in this case, one utilized to get the perfectly-done, thick-cut steak.
With these tips in mind, you're ready to expertly tackle any kind of steak, no matter how thick or intimidating it may be.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group announced they have tacked on eight (!) additional Friday and Saturday shows to their Eagles — Live In Concert at Sphere stint. These shows will utilize Sphere’s next-generation technologies, including the world’s highest resolution LED display that wraps up, over, and around the audience creating a fully immersive visual environment. The venue also features the world’s most advanced concert-grade audio system, Sphere Immersive Sound, powered by HOLOPLOT, which delivers audio with unmatched clarity and precision to every guest.
The residency will feature 16 shows over eight exclusive weekends, from Friday, September 20th through Saturday, December 14th.
Presale Registration is available now at Eagles.com. The presale begins Tuesday, July 9th at 10 AM PT.
Vibee Hotel & Experience Packages are on sale now at eagles.vibee.com/.
This Residency is going to be unlike any other. Make your plans and get your tickets TODAY!
At the heart of The Roddenberry Prize is a belief that scientific and technological innovation will help us lead better, healthier, and more productive lives while helping the planet and our environment flourish.
This year’s Roddenberry Prize is focused on AI and machine learning. As AI becomes more powerful and ubiquitous, we call for its use in service of a more equitable and prosperous world in which all of us – regardless of our background – can thrive.
The Gene Roddenbery Foundation is offering a grand prize of $1 million in non-dilutive financing that will be granted to an early-stage venture that is using AI to improve the world.
How it works
The Roddenberry Prize application process has three rounds. This allows us to ask for minimal information in the first round (LOI), and invite a smaller group to share more information in the second round, ideally saving candidates time and energy. In the final round, five finalists will be invited to share their work and vision during a one hour meeting with the foundation in October and November, 2024.
