A homemade burger should be better than fast food, juicy and beefy with a real seared crust. Too often the home version comes out dense, dry, and puffed into a ball. Avoiding that is mostly about fat content and a gentle touch.
Fat is flavor
Lean beef makes a dry, sad burger. You want ground beef with enough fat to stay juicy and rich through cooking, around eighty percent lean and twenty percent fat. If you grind your own or have a butcher do it, a chuck blend is a great all-purpose choice. The fat is what makes a burger taste like a burger.
Handle it as little as possible
- Form the patties gently. Overworking the meat makes them dense and tough.
- Make them slightly wider than the bun, since they shrink as they cook.
- Press a small dimple in the center so the patty stays flat instead of bulging.
Salt outside, sear hard
Season the outside of the patties generously with salt right before cooking, not mixed into the meat, which changes the texture. Cook them over high heat for a real crust, flip once, and add cheese in the last minute under a lid so it melts. Let them rest a moment off the heat. Toast the buns in the pan and build your burger while everything is hot.