by Tierney O'Hara

Created on: August 31, 2009

How does one cook the perfect burger?

Burger lovers are a disparate group; we have the "big, thick, juicy", burger lovers, and the people who like a "thin, well-cooked" patty of top quality beef and lots of fixings like lettuce, tomato, cheese, onion, bacon, pickles, mustard, catsup, relish.

For the thin patty lovers, it's about balance. A burger should never be huger than the bun; the bun should never be huger than the burger. For the thick burger souls, it is about the beef, lots of it and cooked to a medium-rare so there's plenty of pink in the meat. Even some red is okay.

Horrors! Red or even pink in the meat is not what the thin patty lovers can tolerate. Part of the reason they love that caramelized, crisp coating on their burger is fear of the pink.

Many people, who can easily eat a steak medium-rare, balk at red or pink-colored, ground beef - which illustrates why the perfect burger is and always will be exactly the way each individual person likes their own burger.

For example, steak tartare is raw ground beef, formed into a patty and seasoned with a variety of seasonings and served on rye bread. It is the ultimate "burger" for those people who can't get a burger rare enough for their tastes.

Others, on the other hand, request their burger double cooked, burnt, or cooked until it looks like a "hockey puck."

I once heard someone say: "Cook it until you think it's very well done, then leave it on the grill for five more minutes."

The perfect burger can be served on anything: a poppy-seed hard roll, an English muffin, white toast or rye bread. Some people like a burger unadorned, bunless on a plate, while others love it atop a mound of mashed potatoes with gravy dripping down the side.

There's a restaurant that serves burgers on two crispy potato pancakes rather than a roll and another that cooks a burger in the shape of a hot dog and rolls it up in a thin, French crepe: Both restaurants are always jammed with customers proving what we know, that burger lovers are an eclectic group of souls.

Cooking the perfect burger is all about pleasing the burger eater; there is no "one way" of cooking a burger that pleases all.

For me, I'm a super slider lover. So if I'm ordering, give me a thin square of ground beef, steamed with a couple teaspoons of minced onion, and put it on a soft, miniature roll. I'll hit it with a squirt of A-1 steak sauce and a twist of cracked pepper and that will be my perfect burger.

Learn more about this author, Tierney O'Hara.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.