Cooking the perfect burger is an art. The first thing to do is to decide what kind of meat or burger patty material that you wish to use. If everyone you are cooking for is a meat eater, you can use ground beef or ground turkey. If someone you are cooking for is a vegetarian, you can use a combination of soy products and vegetables to create a patty mixture.
The next step is to ensure that your patty is compressed into a uniform thickness throughout. If you are an experienced cook or a chef, you can do this manually. But, if not, you can use meat pounders or other automatic tenderizing tools to assist you. The more uniform your patty is, the easier and more evenly it will cook and the better it will look at presentation time.
Once you have formed even patties, the next step is to decide what heat source you wish to use. Season permitting, you can grill your patty on an outdoor grill and, if the weather is not cooperative, you can grill indoors using a cast-iron grill pan. An alternate method is to fry your burger in a regular frying pan using a few tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. A lot of people prefer the grilling method because if done properly this will create a less greasy, more smoky flavor and nice uniform lines on both sides of the burger.
If you choose the grilling method, you must place your patties in the grill pan or on the grill a few inches apart and cook them evenly on both sides. To cook a standard sized patty all the way through usually takes about 5-6 minutes per side on a medium to high heat. To get the nice lines, commonly associated with grilling, the trick is to turn your patty a quarter to a third turn a few times during the cooking process.
Should you decide to fry your burgers or cook them in oil, preheat your frying pan on a medium to medium-high heat BEFORE placing the extra-virgin olive oil in the pan. When you do place the oil in the pan, apportion it according to your grade of beef. The leaner the grade, the more oil you need to use; the fattier the grade, the less. While a leaner grade of meat is healthier, it requires more help from the oil to cook than does a fattier grade which can oftentimes be cooked either in its own fat or the grease from that fat.
Keep in mind, too, that whichever grade of meat that you use, you still need to use the oil sparingly and to consider the type of pan that you are cooking in. Using too much oil will create splattering during the cooking process and will create excess grease that will negatively impact the integrity of the burger patty and, thus, create a greasy, oil-soaked taste. Again, place your patties an inch to a few inches apart and cook on a MEDIUM to medium-high heat. Too high a heat will char the patty and too low a heat will potentially leave the patty undercooked. You must keep your level of heat consistent throughout the cooking process and you must cook each side of the patty for the SAME AMOUNT of time on each side. Ensure that each patty is as close to the middle of the pan as it can be. That way it is getting the optimum heat exposure.
One last note on cooking the perfect burger. Be creative. Think of interesting toppings to place on the burger once it is cooked or even consider embedding something like cheese or a vegetable within the patty itself for a more melty or unique flavor and texture. Here is one of my newest burger creations:
The Bursting Broccoli-Cheddar Burger (serves 2-4)
Ingredients:
2 large stalks of broccoli
1 2-cup bag of shredded cheddar cheese
1.3 lbs. of ground turkey meat or ground beef
1 16 oz. jar of mild or medium salsa (to taste)
1 package of hamburger buns
Preparation:
Cut the florets of the 2 stalks of broccoli into small, edible pieces. Place them into a steamer or into a pot of water where the florets are barely covered. Steam or boil the broccoli until it is very tender, but not mushy. Once the broccoli is cooked, strain it. Then take your ground turkey, ground beef, or patty mixture and form patties, placing as many broccoli florets as will fit into the mixture on each side of the patty. Carefully place your patties in your grill pan or frying pan and cook 5-6 minutes per side as discussed above. Once the patties are cooked, remove them from the pan, place them on a plate and place a heaping portion of shredded cheddar cheese and salsa on each of them. Place the patties in the microwave and cook them on high power for 45-60 seconds or until the cheese and salsa are melted together. Then remove your patties from the microwave, place them on the hamburger buns and back into the microwave. Microwave the burgers just enough so that the buns are warm (15-20 seconds on high heat) and serve.
The good thing about this recipe is that not only are the burgers delicious, but you can use the leftover broccoli pieces as a side dish.
Finally, here are some places to obtain meat pounders or meat tenderizing tools:
www.kitchenkapers.com/marinadetools.html
www.cooking.com
www.bridgekitchenware.com
www.williams-sonoma.com
Enjoy!