It's all about the meat....you want to see your guests with juice dripping down both sides of their chins after taking a big bite of your big wonderful and juicy burger. Again, it's all about the meat!
A perfect burger should contain about 60 percent clean and fresh lean red beef and about 40 percent good white beef fat from a graded steer at least choice or prime for the ultimate burger.
The above red meat is from some choice chuck roasts and the fat is from the tail that I cut off the back of a choice whole beef loin. The chuck roasts are about 80/20 lean meat to fat and the tail cuttings are about 20/80 fat to lean meat. This is about perfect.
Now, that's a great color coming out of my grinder. And for the folks that don't know, white or good fat IS the flavor in any burger!
Ok, now we are rollin with some real burger...
Next step is to form up your burger patty with about a 1/2 to 3/4 pound of your ultimate burger beef. You need a fairly large amount of meat as a great burger will shrink up some during the cooking process. This step is critical in the making of a great burger.
Grab a handful of that meat with both hands making a ball without working the meat at all and place it down on your hot griddle. Take a large spatula and press it down ONCE to about the thickness you desire and leave the damn meat alone. It pains me to no end to see someone working the patty back in forth between between their hands and squezing and squezing trying to form up a patty! Doing this just flat ruins a great burger...don't do it!
Seasoning, why? Are you ashamed of your meat? Anything more that a very light sprinkle of salt and pepper is more than any good burger might need and a great burger really doesn't need that.
Cook the burger watching closely and turning often and each time you see a hint of moisture coming to the surface of the burger patty and finish it to about 130 degrees internal.
Serve the burger on a PLAIN bun that is no larger than the burger.
Just before serving, offer your guests a large bib as they will need it as they will be tasting the most juiciest and best tasting burger they have ever eaten. Do tell them that you have made the burger yourself from real good clean top grade meat and is safe eaten with some pink left inside the patty.
Be sure to hide all the condiments as there are still people out there that will want to kill the taste of probably the best burger they will ever eaten. Hell, some of the fools may want to put some cheese or a garden on top of it as well! Don't let them do it.
