I tried a new hamburger recipe


 
R

Robert McGee

TVWBB Gold Member
I wanted to put a little zip in my grilled hamburgers. Of late, I have been disappointed in the lack of flavor from beef in general. I was raised on a farm and I will tell you without fear of contradiction that beef tasted MUCH better (ground beef or steak, both) before everyone seemed to get on a lean meat kick.

At any rate, my hamburgers (typically ground chuck of 80/20) have suffered from lack of flavor. I work very hard to not over cook (and yet remain safe) and the moistness is there but somehow lacking in flavor.

I ran onto this recipe while surfing the net:

http://turkeysandwich.wordpress.com/2007/08/02/best-grilled-hamburger-recipe-ever/

So, last night we tried it. My wife mixed up a batch and made six hamburgers (1/4 pounders). I set up my grill as I normally do for indirect with a couple of firebricks. Putting the coals behind the fire brick raised the fire towards the food grill making the fire super hot for direct while maintaining the indirect 2/3rds of the grill.

First I grilled a couple of strips of bacon indirect (ten minutes then flipped for another ten minutes). Then I grilled the burgers. We always do more than we need then eat the others as left overs the next day or two. I grilled 3-4 minutes a side. The last two minutes of the second side I applied a slice of white cheddar to the two we were going to eat (just the two of us were present). Marilyn had found some nice sesame seed buns and I put a burger with cheese, two half slices of bacon, a slice of sweet onion and, for her, a slice of tomato. They made large burgers and had more flavor than I have seen in a while. While I was grilling the burgers on direct, I was also heating a couple of leftover ABT's on the indirect side.

While I was grilling, my wife made a pot of "Zuppa Toscana" similar (but better) than what is served at the Olive Garden (which is quite good, by the way). We had fresh kale for the soup and red potatoes along with broken up Jimmy Dean sausage. Definitely a superior soup that was perfect along with the flavorful burgers.

I didn't take pictures but now wish I had. The meal was yummy!

Dale53 (on an ongoing search for the most flavorful burgers out there...)
 
Like you say, little flavour in burger meat. Not enough fat.

I would say though that you are not really enhancing the meat flavour. More like substituting one flavour for another. I know that it now tastes really good BUT if you try without all the cheese, bacon, etc, THAT'S the flavour I would like to improve on.

Hiding the blandness of the meat is not the solution.

I applaud your efforts but until the meat is great by itself, I'll keep searching.

Having said that, try grinding your own and mix a bit of pork in with it (either "plain" pork or bacon or sausage meat--something with some fat in it). I believe that will help a great deal.

Len
 
For the past couple of years, I have been seasoning my hamburger with salt and pepper - and Worcestershire sauce sometimes, maybe some garlic - a couple of hours before I cook them - I leave the seasoned meat covered on the counter and let it warm to near room temperature. This seems to greatly improve the flavor of the burgers. In addition, I have purchased only locally ground meat at butcher shops or meat locker plants as well.
 
What about adding in a bit of fresh ground chuck to the 80/20 mixture??? Or maybe rubbing in some of your dry rub when making the patties?? Or buying 70/30 and having the local fire department on speed-dial??:rolleyes:
 
Pork added to a burger or to a beef meatloaf really makes a nice difference and adds a lot of flavour. I often will do 2/3 beef 1/3 pork. Bacon ends ground up and mixed with beef also makes a great pattie. I would sooner add the bacon before the cook.
 
I have tried various different ground beef from different super markets and butcher shops in the area. There IS a difference but haven't yet found a really good ground beef. It's almost to the point that all the meat I want to eat is pork. Area pork products, on the other hand, have all been pretty dern good. Everything from sausage to ribs, to Boston Butts and Picnics have been better than just good, they, if I do my job, have been outstanding. The area's chicken, from whole chickens to chicken parts has been outstanding.

Not so with the beef. Maybe I am expecting too much in this era of "healthy" foods...

At any rate, I'll continue to enhance what beef I get and continue to look for that "magic" ground beef.

Dale53
 
Robert, Get yourself a whole brisket ( packer ) and grind the meat yourself. If you don't have a grinder you can do it in a food processor. If you don't have either once you try this it will justify the purchase.
 
There's a butcher up here who says he has difficulty selling the points so he grinds them all the time. I can just imagine the flavor. I don't normally deal there because he is more expensive but that would be some great burg.
 
2lbs ground chuck 80-20, 1 log jimmy dean sausage, salt & pepper, mix together and you get an amazing juicy flavorful burger every time.
 
I would like to mention that we had left over burgers for supper last evening. They were as moist and luscious tasting as when they were fresh off the grill. I WILL be trying NOE's suggestion but will keep this recipe on hand as it really does do a good job.

In spite of the drought, we have been having excellent sweet corn (this area is KING of the sweet corn in this country). Both of our suppliers irrigate the sweet corn. It's a good thing as the field corn hereabouts has suffered greatly from the drought. Little of it is irrigated. That's not normally a problem around here but this year it certainly is. So, sweet corn accompanied our burgers last night.

Dale53
 
This is Written by a great Q´er. Might be something to tryout!?

Recently, there was a thread on here about cooking burgers on the Grill. I chimed in about cooking on the griddle. At some point in the thread somebody had mentioned using Fish Sauce. While this idea seemed intriguing at first. It originally posed two problems. 1) I do not add anything to my burger meat (I flavor the outside while cooking, I flavor the bun, garlic, butter, etc) and 2) Fish sauce smells like a decomposing wet dog! It has changed my world.

Before I continue I want to preface this with the caveat that I have had Kobe, Wagyu, Prime, both Corn and Grass fed versions of all (save grass fed Kobe)

With that being said I did some research on the web came up with a recipe and went shopping. I figured a great test meat would be a chub of Walmart 80/20.
I did this by my self (I wanted to cook these burgers!!!)

Well I made the burgers pursuant to my new recipe, cooked them on the Griddle, salted, some mild cheddar. While I added some garlic/Cajun butter to the toasted bun. The star was the meat. I can say without reservation that in that pungeant dead dog sauce is some “Ancient Chinese secret.” THESE WERE THE BEST I HAVE EVER MADE OR EATEN!!!!!

I am going to add Stinking Dog Sauce to many more cooked items (DO NOT TASTE IT RAW UNLESS YOU ARE VIET NAMESE) Because there is some ancient food alchemy going on.

The Recipe

1 lb 80/20 ground
1 clove Garlic pressed
1 teaspoon ground pepper
½ teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons Fish Sauce (preferably Viet Namese, 3 crabs brand)

Mix all three together till dissolved and incorporate into the beef before forming.

I didn’t take pictures because they are just burgers in appearance but they were nothing short of Magic Burgers. Please somebody else go to your local Asian Market get a bottle ($4.00) and try this and report back.


Just My .05

(cred goes to jrljd)
 
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My burgers are beef, salt, pepper, and garlic. They are very flavorful, and nobody has ever complained. I add Worcestershire sauce and onion powder or chopped onion when I make hamburger steak and it is also very flavorful, just different. To each his own, but if you keep adding stuff, eventually it's not a burger.
 
Ive been reading alot of this new Wally world beef. Personally I don't shop there but might take a trip to see if this is worth it.
Tim
 
How much fat is in a brisket? I have been planning on adding fat to lean beef by either using home rendered lard or grinding up cured pork fat from my "ham chops". Pork chops here in the Philippines are sold with a thick band of fat on them. I usually trim it off before curing, but now I'm leaving it on and trimming afterwards. Plus bacon grease from our homemade bacon. I usually cook my bacon in the oven on a wire rack and pan, saving the grease for other uses. Burger sounds like a very good use to me.
 
I find that a bit of soy sauce added to the meat in burgers and meatloaf (and turkey burgers too) gives you a meatier flavor - umami, another dimension. Similar to Worcestershire, but a more meaty, rather than a spicy flavor. Just enough so that one, knowing it's there and looking for it, can just barely identify it. I often use both soy and Worcestershire, but don't want to really pick out the flavors of either.

Rita
 
What a great group of ideas! Good quality beef is hard to find here in the Philippines. And the meat companies routinely use very old cuts and add bone dust. So we are grinding our own. We have sirloin-ish cuts of very lean beef from local cattle (Batangas beef) and the Koreans sell US beef that is very fat cut in long sheets and sold in 9 to 12 inch rolls. I grind each once, mix, and grind again. Pretty good stuff. Not premium US ground but very edible. It costs us 300 pesos (their cheapest priced stuff) for either the local or the fatty low end US stuff - $3.25 a pound. It tastes pretty good at this point, we've test fried some to see where it was at, but...

We do flavor substitutions and enhancements as well. Simply because the family loves the taste! After grinding, I add, by sight, a light amount of salt, pepper, onion powder, Worcestershire sauce, and a bit of KC style BBQ sauce. Mix and make 5 to 6 ounce patties. We also make our own cheese slices since we can choose the best of the limited cheeses available and make the slices as thick as we prefer. My wife often is a "double cheese" sort of gal. No, it's no longer just about the beef, it's about the bite. Everything that is going on when you bite into the burger. Which leads rather a bit astray from the Weber, sadly.

Sous vide the babies ... vac packed and water cooked at a specific temperature, 150F give or take 1F. That takes about 1 1/2 hours submerged in the water bath. Then it could go to the Weber for searing. However, we usually take a detour to the deep fryer. Not for long, maybe 30 to 40 seconds tops. Very hot canola, 400F and bingo ... you got a perfect crust all around the burger. Served on a toasted bun, a slice of homemade cheese melt on top (and maybe a second on the bottom), condiments of choice, one heck of a nice 6 ounce burger.

But the ideas about the brisket and the Jimmy Dean sausage sound fantastic. If I find a brisket I can afford here, I will try that. And sadly no Jimmy Dean in the Philippines. But I grind my own pork and can try one of the Jimmy Dean copycat recipes. The only down side to the pork is it cooks up "whiter" than the ground beef and is kind of obvious to the eye. But it really is all about the flavor. If you don't have great meat to work with, then you do have improvise. Nice that in the States, you have such a fantastic range of choices. But at the end of it, I'm kind of Robert McGee sort of burger lover.
 
My wife started adding ground pork to ours a few years ago and the taste is fantastic, she dose it at 1/3 pork 2/3's ground beef of the 80/20 varity salt pepper,( We have added chopped onions, garlic.mushrooms, and different peppers of choice also) it makes for a tasty burger i will say.
 
I'm going to have to try adding pork and bacon grease into our ground beef. We did the local, very lean, beef and added the US fatty beef to it for a higher fat content. Made burgers last night and they were okay but not great. Not a lot of flavor and only sort of moist. That is likely my fault since I lowered the amount of the fatty beef used. They gave off a lot of juice though. Since I'm making my own bacon, I have a lot of bacon fat available. I will try coating the ground beef with some of that to see how it changes stuff up. I really want to end up with something nice and juicy to bite into.
 
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