A burger diatribe
So, you are already down the road with your grind work, but I’ll insert my .02. Not a professional, but I do grind all my own beef usually as well as pork and I have been accused of making some decent sausage.
This topic is really a personal preference thing. For burgers, I have seen chefs grinding several cuts to combine for this awesome flavor they describe. I have had burgers in restaurants that purport to do these custom “artisan” upscale grinds and the burgers are good, really good, but not twice as good as what I do at home…certainly more than twice the price though…
The leanness of a grind depends on what you intend to use the grind for in my humble opinion. You can add extremely lean ground meat to certain recipes and it would be the preference.
For burgers, I use a chuck roast. Period. The Chuck has a great flavor and the right amount of fat from my experience. That’s it, nothing fancy, no additives but I cube the meat and load it in to the grinder skillfully to make sure the distribution of fat is good. My preference for burgers is one single grind with the ¼” or large die. There is A LOT of debate and arguments on this.
I do add intentional fat to certain things, like sausage and I render almost all fats for future use. I render chicken fat for schmaltz, I make bacon as much for the rendered fat as the actual meat and I have even recently started rendering beef fat or tallow. All have a use like butter, vegetable oils, shortening, etc. for certain applications.
I used to do all kinds of things to burgers…terrible things I thought were awesome at the time. I used to grill burgers (grilling is over open flame or coals, not that rigged skillet thing) and thought I had it down just right. Yea, there is a certain flavor the grill provides and it has its place and they are tasty, but since I have discovered the flat iron griddle, I have never grilled another burger by choice again.
So now, after years of burger making I’m a purist. One grind, chuck roast, handle the ground meat just enough to form a burger that just does hold together (over working the meat making patties is a mistake I learned), salt and pepper on both sides (don’t skip or skimp on this), and on to a really hot flat cast iron griddle, skillet or a flat griddle if you have a fancy range that has one built in.
I make 6 oz burgers and weigh every one because they are perfect for me, and I have been using ciabatta rolls for a while now; they hold up to the abundance of juices better than regular yeast type rolls. I have a square form I used to form the patties. I like a good sear or crust on both sides of the patty yet pink on the inside, but even when I cook them beyond pink they are still tasty and running with juices. That square shape fits most cheese slices well too!
I love the works on my burgers but stop before bacon, blue cheese, bbq sauces and many toppings you see all over restaurant menus. I worked so carefully to get this burger just right, why would I want to jack with it?
I take those ciabatta rolls, split them and toast/heat them in the beef fat on the flat iron the burgers were cooked, soaking up all that wonderful fat and beef flavor (to be clear, I only eat a burger maybe once a month, twice at the most). Real full fat mayo only on both roll sides, then the cheese topped patty, pickle chips, a little ketchup, lettuce, little more ketchup, tomato, onion, then deli style mustard. This stacking scheme helps the assembly stay together better.
But! We’re not done…I bought those pro-grade sandwich wrappers from a restaurant customer of mine. The good stuff with the paper on one side and thin foil on the other. A careful wrap leaving 1/3 of the burger exposed and tear away and fold back the wrapper as you go and I have my burgers hold together till the very end usually.
OK…now I’m hungry.
On the rare occasion I buy ground beef for burgers, I go for the cheap stuff 70-73% lean. 80-20 is too lean for my preferences.
Back when I was screwing up burgers and never realized it using 80-20, 85-15 and even 90% lean, my best trick for a moist burger was mushrooms. Yep, finely diced and mixed in. They release their water content as the meat sheds its fat out on to the skillet or in to the coals or flames usually causing a fire in the grill. But then again I used to add all kinds of seasoning like Worcestershire, herbs and all kinds of silly stuff…more like “meatloaf burgers”.
So this is my evolution and preferences. Studies are coming out turning conventional health and diet advice on its ear. Animal fats are not the evil we were made paranoid about. Salt is not killing us with the exception of those with uncontrollable high blood pressure. Butter is better for you than we were told and remember we were told eggs were killing us? Yep, now a super food. Fat has a lot of calories, so there is a real consideration for diet and weight loss or gain.
The medical field is like the attorney field of work and study, the professions are both called a “practice” for a reason.
All above is an opinion from personal experience and is not intended to criticize others or put my preferences above another’s.