BBQ Season Part 1: Burgers

Now that summer has seemed to have finally reared its head in this Great Britain of ours and across the Northern Hemisphere, the smell of lit BBQs is filling the air down almost every street. Men across the country who would never usually dream of cooking will push everyone out of the way to get a chance to play chef. This can show in the food, and never more so than in that BBQ staple the humble burger.

I make no secret of the fact that I love a burger, but when I get invited to a BBQ and the host says they are making homemade burgers I do shudder a little. It seems lots of people make burgers more like meatballs with a mighty list of ingredients including breadcrumbs, eggs even raw onion. They invariably end up with a lumpy, horrible looking thing that burns and disintegrates on contact with their BBQ grill, and it ends up shoved in your face with the promise “they taste fine”. Why people feel the need to do this I really do not know. The burger is an easy thing to master, just remember the whole beauty of them is that you can put any other ingredients on a burger and not in it! I’m going to show you how to make a fantastic no fuss burger that your friends and family will sing your praises over.

Ingredients

• 500g/1lb – Minced beef (20% fat content minimum)
• 1 heaped TSP – Fine ground salt
• ½ Level TSP – Fine ground black or white pepper

Is that all? It will fall apart! I hear you shout. Trust me like most good cooking it’s all in the technique. We need that fat content in the meat too, remember fat = flavour. First place the beef into a bowl and dust the seasoning over as much of the meat as you can.

Now take a fork…and mash. Smash those strings of mince down, as it’s those lines of air running through the mince that would cause a simply “pushed” together patty to fall to pieces the second you start to cook it. Keep mashing and “cutting through” the mince with the edge of the fork until it starts to turn into a ball in the bowl. You want it just at the stage you need to pull the meat apart rather than it falling apart willingly. For this quantity of meat we will make 4 x quarter pounders, so half the meat and then half again and roll into 4 nice smooth balls. You can of course size your burgers anyway you want!

To make an individual patty, lay enough cling film (Saran wrap) on a chopping board so that you can fold it over the ball of meat leaving about 3 inches (approx 7 cms) all round it. Now here is the fun bit! Take a plate with a good “burger” size rim underneath it and place on top of your cling film/meat sandwich and press down. I mean press down hard and roll your hand pressing the meat out to the edge of the rim. Lift your plate and you should have a good size burger, wrapped and ready for your BBQ! Repeat this method for the other balls of meat. You can use immediately, but a bit of time in the refrigerator will benefit them.

There you have it, perfect, juicy burgers that won’t fall apart. They take about 2-3 minutes per side on a nice hot BBQ grill. Did I mention that the same seasoning and method will work with:

• Pork
• Lamb
• Turkey (ONLY use thigh!)

Now use your imagination for toppings, different cheeses, salad or any of your favourite combinations. By the way this is now the time to add onion and maybe a fried egg if you so desire! ;) If you like this recipe you'll love my bestselling Kindle BBQ book! http://myBook.to/ManVsFire Remember to share how this recipe wowed your BBQ guests in the comments below. Michael Robinson