Ready to cook some great burgers? Let’s do this!
Cooking Your Burgers
Two major things to keep in mind when cooking: Don’t press
and divots. When your burgers are ready to cook, press a small indent on top of
the burger before you cook them. When burgers cook they swell a bit, making the
burger hard to put on a bun. By making the divot you give the burger room to
grow, making for a flatter burger.
When you actually cook the burger, don’t make the rookie
mistake of pressing the burger down, hoping for a quicker cook time; what you
end up doing is making a dry burger. Let the burger take its time cooking, and
you will be rewarded with some juicy burgers. Realize that when you see the
juices on top of the burger that it is almost ready, and let them seep back
into the burger. Flip only once in order
to keep the juices.
Although you may be tempted to not take readings, taking temperatures
is always a good idea; it keeps you from getting sick and allows for any
differences in temperatures. When it
comes to the temperature of your burger, your choices are:
Medium-Rare: 125-130 degrees. Cook for 2-3 minutes per side.
Medium: 135-140 degrees. Cook for 3-4 minutes per side.
Medium-Well: 145-160 degrees. Cook for 4-5 minutes per side.
Well: 160+ degrees. Cook
for 5+ minutes per side.
Putting Stuff On Top
Odds are you are going to want to put things on top of your
burgers. Cheese is the obvious; if so, wait until the last 30-45 seconds of
cooking to do so. If you throw the cheese on earlier it may get too gooey. If
it sounds too late, keep in mind that the burgers will continue to cook even after
you take them off the grill. This means that if you put the cheese on too soon
it will continue to cook and so it will melt for a lot longer than you want.
For other stuff, the same applies. You may want to grill any
other ingredients at the same time as the burgers to maintain freshness. If
possible, before you start cover part of the grill in aluminum; this will give
you an area to grill items such as vegetables. A little oil on the aluminum and
you are ready to go. If you want to do items such as bacon you may want to do
them ahead of time.
Fried Burgers
If you are cooking on the stove, another option is to cover
the burgers in cracker crumbs and then fry in a couple of tablespoons of oil.
After four to five minutes per side take off the heat.
Pocket Burgers
Eventually you will want to try something new, and I cannot
condone tofu. With that as a consideration, something you can try is a pocket
burger. Create a spice mix (1 tablespoon
salt, 2 tablespoons other spices such as pepper, cumin, cayenne pepper, etc.)
and put a quarter of a tablespoon on a thin burger. Put a tablespoon of
something else in the center of the burger, such blue cheese crumbles,
vegetables, or other ingredients. Spread it out to no more than a half-inch
from the edge and then cover with the other burger. Crimp the two burgers
together. Cook as per a medium-well burger (at least four minutes per side).
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