Burgers 101

I’m not one for believing in expensive ingredients, my burger recipe focuses on a fairly simple rub and some slight seasoning to mix into the burgers themselves to elevate regular ground beef into a restaurant quality burger. No MSG needed, and you can freeze these ahead of time for easy dinners in the future!

Ingredients

  • Rub (makes enough for 20 quarter pound burgers, so will have some leftovers if you only make 2 lbs of burgers)
    • ½ Tbs Salt (1.5 tsp)
    • 1.5 Tbs black pepper (4.5 tsp
    • 2 tsp onion powder
    • 1 tsp paprika
    • 1 tsp ground mustard
    • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • Burger
    • 1/8 cup Worcestershire sauce per lb of beef (so 1/4 cup)
    • 1 Tbs unsalted butter per lb of beef (so 2 Tbs)
    • 2 lbs ground beef

Instructions

  1. Combine ingredients for rub.
  2. Cut wax paper into enough sheets for the number of burgers you will fix, need 2 sheets per patty. The sheets should be the size of your burger press or saucers.
  3. Mix together beef, Worcestershire, and butter.
  4. Divide beef into ¼ lb balls. Rub balls down in spice rub (use ½ tsp of rub for each burger, with 1/4 tsp on each side). Flatten between two saucers (or burger press), with wax paper between the beef and the plate.
    • Recommend freezing patties in freezer ahead of time, grill frozen, encourages the patties from curling when grilling.
  5.  Preheat grill on high for 5 minutes. Turn grill on low when you put the burgers on it. Cover and grill for 15 minutes. Flip, grill for another 15 minutes. Add cheese, cover for 3-5 minutes until melted.
    • To make patty melts, cook burgers the same way. While burgers cook, caramelize some onions and mushrooms inside on your stove. To assemble, coat some rye bread on one side with mayo. Add 1-2 patties, then top with onion/mushroom mixture, then top with provolone cheese. Top with other piece of bread, cook in non-stick pan, covered to help the cheese melt, over medium heat, for 2 minutes, flip and cook for another 2 minutes.

ALT: To make Salisbury steaks, add (1) diced and sauteed onion, (1) cup crushed rice cakes, (1) egg, (1) Tbs dried parsley. Pan fry, keep patties in roasting pan at 250F while you cook the other patties. Deglaze the pan with julienned onions and mushrooms, make a gravy from beef stock and corn starch.

Yield: 8 servings

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