WHATMAKESA GREATBURGER
With so many kinds of burgers out there,“great” depends on context. Still, thereare some universal indicators.
beef-to-bun ratio
A burger needs enough beef so its taste comesthrough, and enough bun to support the meat and juices. And the burger should be the same diameteras the bun. Great burgers are like great sandwiches—all about balance.
bun
It needs to be fresh, appropriately sized, and sturdyenough to support the meat and soak up its juices.But it also needs some give—some softness andsquishiness. It’s a tough act, balancing tendernessand absorbency so you don’t have to resort to a knife and fork to finish.
doneness
Everyone has a preference as to how a burger iscooked; the best burgers are cooked perfectly toone’s liking.
burger grind
You want a nice loose-to-medium grind and a pattythat is not too densely packed. A fine grind andtight packing makes for a tough, dense burger thatstarts to resemble a sausage.
cheese
Regardless of what type of cheese you prefer, itshould be properly melted, not just perched on top.(Bonus points for two slices of cheese—one belowand one on top of the patty.)
fresh ingredients
It should go without saying. But how many burgershave you had with wilted, crunchless lettuce,anemic tomatoes, or stale buns? We’ve had toomany. Get fresh or go home!
BURGERSTYLES
The burger is a seemingly simple dish—meat, cheese, bun—but there are moreincarnations than a casual eater wouldsuspect. Now that you know what basicsto look for in a great burger, here are afew styles to try.
backyard grilled burgers
You know this one. There’s almost nothing like a thick juicy burger, charred with dark cross-hatch-ing, that you eat just minutes after pulling it off your grill on a beautiful summer weekend.
pub burgers
These burgers have sizable patties usually nosmaller than 8 ounces, often 10 ounces or more.They’re typically ovoid in shape, rather than flat,often broiled, and most often seen in pubs (hencethe name). It’s a style much celebrated in NewYork City.
fast-food burgers
Do we really need to define this for you? We didn’tthink so.
fast-food-
style
burgers
The term denotes burgers that seem to take theirinspiration from fast-food burgers but are some-how better—in terms of either ingredients or prep-aration or both. Fast-food-style burgers will bemade with fresh, not frozen, beef; use fresh pro-duce; and generally come from a single storefrontor, at most, a small, local chain rather than a nationwide chain. Burger Joint and Shake Shackin New York City and Gott’s Roadside Tray Gour-met (formerly Taylor’s Automatic Refresher) in SanFrancisco and St. Helena, California, are primeexamples.
sliders
Many people think a slider is just a name for a miniburger. Many people are wrong. A slider is some-thing specific: a thin, thin slip of beef, cooked on a griddle with onions and pickles piled atop the patty.The steam from the onions does as much cooking as the griddle. The buns are placed atop the onions,absorbing the pungent aroma and flavor. A slider isat once a hamburger and, yet, something more.
mini hamburgers
Mini burgers encompass every diminutive burgerthat does not meet the definition of a slider (seeabove), often because it has been grilled or broiledrather than steam-griddled and almost alwaysbecause it lacks the bed of pungent onions. Therewas an annoying trend, roughly from 2006 through2008, whereby every chef in the country wasputting mini burgers (often misidentifying themas sliders) on his or her bar menu.
steakhouse burgers
The steakhouse burger is defined more by whereit’s served than by any other unifying characteris-tic, though there are some general observationsone can make. Steakhouse burgers are usuallymade from the beef trimmings of the varioussteaks on hand and as such are ground from prime,aged beef. They’re almost always massive, heartyburgers on a par with pub-style burgers, and they’reoften broiled.
kobe/wagyu burgers
A Kobe burger is almost always a bad idea. Mostchefs cook these rare to medium rare, so as to notovercook the premium meat, but with so little cook-ing, the texture inevitably renders as mushy. It’slike moist cat food on a bun, with the meat oozing out the sides and back as you try to eat the burger.Kobe burgers are most often seen as mini burgers,as the meat is more affordable in smaller, sharableportions, and the Kobe/Wagyu and the miniburger/slider trends seem to have peaked at thesame time.
fancy-pants burgers
Chefs and burgers are a tricky thing: in some cases,high-end chefs work wonders with the humble dish;in others, overthinking can get in the way. Priceis a pretty good indication you’re eating a fancy-pants burger. But since price varies from city tocity, it’s difficult to set a hard-and-fast dollarborder. Let’s just say that if a burger costs doublewhat a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder Value Mealdoes, you’re probably in fancy-pants land. If that’snot enough of an indication, you know you’re head-ing into rarefied air when one or more of thefollowing is involved:
Search History:
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
p.
Excerpt and a Recipe From Serious Eats
Recipes and Tips included in this excerpt are:
-What Makes a Great Burger
-Hamburger Fatty Melt
-5 Cheffy Burgers
Ed Levine and the editors of food blog SeriousEats.com bring you the first Serious Eats book, a… (More)
-What Makes a Great Burger
-Hamburger Fatty Melt
-5 Cheffy Burgers
Ed Levine and the editors of food blog SeriousEats.com bring you the first Serious Eats book, a… (More)
15.8K
Reads
18
Readcasts
10
Embed Views
Buy Now
from
Get Scribd Mobile
To get Scribd mobile enter your number and we'll send you a link to the Scribd app for iPhone & Android.We've sent a link to the Scribd app. If you didn't receive it, try again.
We'll never share your phone number.
Recommended
More From This User
Featured Recipes
Notes
Load more
