How do you like your burger?

[BvBPL]

I'm fixing a burger and I'm curious how you like your burgers.

I'm more interested in what meat you use, how you cook it, and what not relevant to the burger itself more than the fixin's.

Some guidelines:
Rare is bloody meat (on the inside).
Medium rare is pink meat with some blood in the center.
Medium is pink throughout.
Medium well is dark with a pink center
Well done is dark throughout.
Crust refers to the crisp outer layer you get when cooking on high, direct heat.
Ground beef is, generally, sold by fat % rather than cut in the US. Chuck is about 80-85% fat and sirloin 90%+

Personally, I like a chuck burger with a pepper or Adobe seasoning cook to medium or so on a iron skillet. BBQ is nice too, but I can't set up a BBQ in my apartment.

I top mine, generally, with sauteed mushrooms and onions, lettuce, tomato, whole grain mustard, and horseradish sauce or Russian dressing.

For buns, I like a potato roll myself.

What do you think?

 

[Zelig]

I like mine vegetarian.

Or moose.

 

[illram]

Salt and pepper on the ground meat, cooked to medium rare with a good cheese. I.e. blue, gorgonzola, english cheddar, gouda. Onion rings on the burger if I am really feeling extravagant. Spinach or romaine, spicy mustard, ketchup usually. Mayo if available but not always necessary and sometimes too many condiments ruin a nice burger. Mushrooms are also good if available.

 

[shadowplay]

Well done, cooked in Buffalo wing sauce instead of BBQ sauce.

 

[Glassfan]

I'm fixing a burger...

Some guidelines:
Rare is bloody meat (on the inside).
Medium rare is pink meat with some blood in the center.
Medium is pink throughout.

What do you think?

Old McD Manager here with Food Safety Certification. "Rare" hamburger is dangerous - almost certainly contaminated with ecoli bacteria.

In the slaughterhouse, beef is sliced up by large meat cutters - spilling bowel (feces, bacteria, acids) onto the meat. And while the large cuts are hosed-down with water, the small number of remaining bacteria continue to multiply, regrowing and reinfecting the surface of the meat. As the beef works it's way down to grocers and butchers, recut to retail - cross contamination continues - bacteria gets on the saws, which recontaminates further meat as it's cut. Then the meat sits on the shelf, growing new colonies of ecoli.

Now a solid cut of beef, like a steak or strip, has bacteria on the surface, so you can have it "rare", as long as you broil the surface killing the ecoli there.

Hamburger, or ground beef, is leftover beef parts and fat after the premium cuts are taken. The leftovers are ground up into chuck - meaning that the bacteria is now mixed inside the meat. So a rare hamburger has active ecoli inside, and can cause food poisoning and make you sick - even kill you.

The only exception is meat that is irradiated, and even then...

Chicken and Pork have similar problems.

So I think - you can have your steaks rare, but you should always have your hamburger well done.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

<nvm>

 

[holy king]

eating minced meat anything other than well done strikes me a tad strange, but to each his own.

my steak needs to be medium rare though.

 

[Borachio]

What? <nvm> What?

After all the fuss you made at me????!!!!!



Minced beef I like to see as a cut before it's minced. Otherwise, who knows what's in it?

And 80%-90% fat seems very very high to me. Are you sure those figures are right?

Steak, very rare, please. Lightly singed on the outside and just warmed through. Otherwise it's an insult to the beast. I do like the fat nicely browned though.

 

[Antilogic]

I don't have easy access to a grill I do them on the stovetop, and this has resulted in a slight adjustment to the type of meat used. I typically use 85/15 or 90/10 ground sirloin, mixing in 1 beaten egg per pound or so of meat, and then I add whatever I can think of to flavor it. A little bit of panko if I have it available, minced onion and garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and maybe some basil. Don't know why I like that combination, but I'm partial to it.

I do mid-rare with a decent sear on the outside, although that's hard to pull off on the stovetop.

As for finishing the burger, I don't often prep mushrooms for myself but if they are available a mushroom-and-swiss burger is pretty good. My most common prep is probably mayo, (either ketchup or mustard), provolone cheese, tomato, and a potato or whole wheat roll.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

What? <nvm> What?

After all the fuss you made at me????!!!!!

Well, considering I don't cook, my answer was moot, I guess.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I don't know about how to cook the meat, but I don't like to have a burger with cheese, mayonnaise or any kind of sauce, which means I can't ever buy one from anywhere that sells burgers.

 

[Formaldehyde]

The odds of meat being infected with bacteria from properly operated and inspected slaughterhouses and grocery stores is incredibly small. This is why the more advanced countries can eat such dishes as steak tartare without fear.

It wasn't all that long ago that you could order even rare hamburgers in restaurants. All that really changed when Reagan became president and deliberately crippled the food inspection in this country. But even still, I continue to eat medium rare and even rare hamburgers with ground beef from the more reputable providers.

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

I don't know about how to cook the meat, but I don't like to have a burger with cheese, mayonnaise or any kind of sauce, which means I can't ever buy one from anywhere that sells burgers.

I'm not entirely convinced that you can't ever find a burger vendor that won't serve you one without sauce or cheese. I think you need to be more burgassertive.

As for me? As long as it has beetroot I'm generally happy.

 

[Antilogic]

Just plain? Unless you do something to the meat, that sounds boring.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I'm really boring when it comes to food, because I'm a fussy eater.

 

[Antilogic]

Eating shouldn't be a chore, it should be a joy.

 

[ace99]

Medium, potato roll, pepperjack cheese, tomatoes, onions, lettuce and bacon

 

[Wolfbeckett]

Old McD Manager here with Food Safety Certification. "Rare" hamburger is dangerous - almost certainly contaminated with ecoli bacteria.

In the slaughterhouse, beef is sliced up by large meat cutters - spilling bowel (feces, bacteria, acids) onto the meat. And while the large cuts are hosed-down with water, the small number of remaining bacteria continue to multiply, regrowing and reinfecting the surface of the meat. As the beef works it's way down to grocers and butchers, recut to retail - cross contamination continues - bacteria gets on the saws, which recontaminates further meat as it's cut. Then the meat sits on the shelf, growing new colonies of ecoli.

Now a solid cut of beef, like a steak or strip, has bacteria on the surface, so you can have it "rare", as long as you broil the surface killing the ecoli there.

Hamburger, or ground beef, is leftover beef parts and fat after the premium cuts are taken. The leftovers are ground up into chuck - meaning that the bacteria is now mixed inside the meat. So a rare hamburger has active ecoli inside, and can cause food poisoning and make you sick - even kill you.

The only exception is meat that is irradiated, and even then...

Chicken and Pork have similar problems.

So I think - you can have your steaks rare, but you should always have your hamburger well done.

While probably true, life is full of risks. We risk death every time we get behind the wheels of our cars. This is a risk I choose to take. If I had an immune system problem or was a pregnant woman or something I would definitely reassess the risk, but as a more or less healthy dude I will take my burgers medium rare please. No fancy seasonings, just salt and pepper. I like to put a thin layer of mayonnaise on the bun to stop meat juices from turning the bun into mush. Other than that I like some tomato, sometimes if I'm feeling sassy I'll go western burger style with some BBQ sauce and nicely caramelized grilled onions, and of course quality mustard is always welcome to the party.

Also, OP, I think you mixed up your terminology, chuck isn't "80-85% fat", it's 80-85% lean, same for sirloin, it's 90%+ lean.

 

[_random_]

I don't know about how to cook the meat, but I don't like to have a burger with cheese, mayonnaise or any kind of sauce, which means I can't ever buy one from anywhere that sells burgers.

I've eaten many a burger in many a restaurant, and I've never found a place that won't serve it to you plain if you ask. Order it that way if that's what you want.

As for me, I typically make my burgers on a grill, heated high. Make the patty thick. Salt and pepper are always a good idea. Garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, and/or crushed red pepper can be used if you wanna give it more of a kick. It's time to flip once the char starts creeping up the side.

Pretzel buns are ideal.

 

[Synobun]

Well-done. Anything less tastes rubbery.