Choosing the Best Meats for Tasty Burgers

There is no end to the variety of tasty burgers you can make, however here are 12 that will make your mouth water.

By J. Kenji Lpez-AltJ. Kenji Lpez-Alt composes a column for The New york city Times on food and science, and he develops dishes and appears in videos for NYT Cooking. He is also the creator and host of Kenji's Cooking Show on YouTube. This video and short article become part of, our series on kitchen area basics.

Credit ... Adam CentrellaAs a professional chef, food writer and cookbook author, I have actually spent the last 20 years of my career carefully researching and checking dishes, methods and extensively accepted kitchen wisdom to determine the whys of cooking. Over this time, I have actually operated several hamburger joints and even composed a regular monthly column for Serious Eats called the Hamburger Lab, in which I separated and evaluated every possible variable that can affect the taste and texture of a hamburger.

But that does not mean you can't go for something much better. Here are the most crucial suggestions I've found for optimizing your hamburger experience, whether in the yard or the cooking area. Working hamburger excessive can cause it to become dense. Credit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Using Professional Flat-Top Styles in the Home

In bread, this can be an excellent thing, however with hamburgers, overhandling can produce an undesirable dense texture. (Including extenders, like eggs or breadcrumbs, or extra spices, like onions and herbs, also requires you to exhaust the meat and distract from the beef flavor, so avoid it.) Salting the beyond your patties keeps their texture loose and tender.

Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Salt breaks down muscle proteins and helps them to connect more easily. This is a good idea in sausages, which should have a firm texture, but with burgers, you want looseness. A burger must hurt, with plenty of pockets for juices and rendered fat to gather.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

Whether you're making a huge hamburger on the grill or a crisp-edged smash hamburger on a griddle, browning is flavor, and high heat is crucial. For thicker grilled or griddled burgers, wait until your pan or grill is hot before adding the patties, and cook them until they're well browned on both sides.

This optimizes flavor while preserving juiciness. Do not let your patties sit around on the cutting board (or worse, a steam table). Burgers are at their finest fresh from the fire, before any juices have had a chance to leak out.

Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

New Gourmet French Fry Methods for the Home

Upgraded May 7, 2026, 8:42 a.m. CTI've constantly been a hamburger fan. If there were any little melty American cheese leavings stuck on the wrapper, I 'd drag my french fries through them (I still do this).

Capture me on the ideal day and I might confess that a cheeseburger is my favorite food. In fact, I may say that on the majority of days. And you might state the exact same. But even if you do, it's likely we do not have the very same idea of what makes the ideal burger.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

I kept some old favorites, added some brand-new ones and continued to end the ones I know individuals like however I simply. don't. get. Yes, I understand your favorite isn't there. Perhaps we have various taste. Maybe I haven't tried your favorite burger. Possibly I'm out to get you (simply joking).

There's one perfect burg out there for everybody. Let me show you what makes the perfect burger for me. Let's start with the patty. Can I state I'm growing a little fed up with smashburgers? The very best ones miraculously remain juicy with just a hint of flaky char around the edges, but unfortunately, a lot of places go too difficult on the smash.

When I bite in, I require to see a little shimmer, some shining from the beef and perhaps a little grease running down the sides. When I see a smashburger on the menu, I constantly go with a double patty. Smashburger or not, the patty must be seared to assist secure the juices, but not too crusty.