Love burgers? Here are some top tips for perfection…

We all love a good burger. Regardless of preference, diet or condition, they don’t discriminate. A vegetarian can have just as good an experience with a burger as anyone else – in some cases a better one – but traditionally, the success of the burger comes down to one key ingredient… the meat.

Choose your meat wisely

This really can’t be emphasised enough. To get the perfect burger you really have to get the meat just right – too much fat, and it becomes too greasy and unhealthy, but too little, and you’ll end up with a dry husk. Many people would argue that the best burgers are made from ground beef, which is usually between 20% and 30% fat and labelled ‘lean’ meat in most stores. It’s usually a good idea to find out what part of the animal the meat came from too as this can have a huge impact on flavour…

When cooking, don’t press down on the meat

This is a big one. So many people, when cooking a burger at home or at a BBQ, will press down on the meat to sear the outside or in the hope that it’ll cook quicker. The best burgers are cooked nice and slowly and those juices are allowed to sit inside and flavour the meat. Compressing the meat causes all of that flavoursome juice to simply trickle away, leaving you with the same dry burger you were hoping to avoid in the first place!

Puncture the top

Sounds odd doesn’t it? But have you ever noticed that when you try to make a homemade burger from course meat, the top often rises causing your toppings to slide off? Try pushing down slightly in the center, creating a round indentation that’s maybe a quarter inch lower than the surrounding meat – that way, your burger will come out nice and flat, without losing any of its juices because you’ve been compressing it so much during cooking.

Add stuff

This may sound surprising but so many people miss this opportunity. You can completely change the nature of your burger by adding things to it, and I’m not just talking about herbs and spices. You could get some extra moisture in there by dicing some onions and mixing them with the meat for example, or how about adding some olive oil and mushrooms to give it a different flavour? With so many different ways of customising your burger meal, it’s a dish that can truly be enjoyed time and time again without ever getting boring…