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It’s doing your burgers more harm than good.
Now that it’s summer, I’m using my grill a lot more, especially for foods I usually avoid cooking indoors, like steak and burgers that can leave my house smelling like beef for days. But my burgers—whether I shape my own patties or pick up the pre-formed ones from the grocery store—are never quite as juicy or flavorful as the ones I order at restaurants.
That’s because I’ve been making one critical mistake: smashing them. According to Ronnie Faust, founder of Fat Ronnie’s Burger Bar in Martha’s Vineyard and New York City, pressing down on burgers while they cook is one of the fastest ways to end up with a dry, dense patty.
Why You Shouldn’t Smash Your Burgers, According to an Expert
If you’ve ever watched burgers sizzling on the grill and instinctively grabbed your spatula to press them down, you’re not alone. It’s a common habit, but Faust says it’s doing your burgers more harm than good.
“When you smash the burger, it compresses the proteins in the meat and creates more myosin,” a muscle protein that binds meat and fat together. “The more myosin created, the denser and more rubbery the texture of the burger,” explains Faust.
If you’re cooking burgers on your backyard grill, pressing them flat won’t give you restaurant-style smash burgers. Instead, “smashing the burger extracts the juice from the meat.” Faust recommends a different technique that’ll create a beautiful crust and keep the interior juicy.
“If you’re trying to achieve a charred crust on a pub burger at home, add a little butter to the flat top or skillet before cooking the burger, and let the burger cook a little longer on its first side before flipping. Also, when forming the patty, try to form it as loosely as possible. This creates air pockets in the patty, so the juice can sit in those pockets.”
Many home cooks may assume the secret to a better burger is using an expensive blend of beef, but Faust says that’s not always the case. “This question has long been debated between burger connoisseurs and even some of my cattle-farming friends. I say no, it does not matter. Most people can’t tell the difference between a burger made with chuck, short rib, sirloin, or a combination. The one thing we all agree on is that the grade of beef matters. Prime or choice, nothing less.”
His final piece of burger-making advice comes from his grandmother, Maxine Faust, the nation’s first Black female union butcher. “One of the things my grandmother taught me from a young age that would be counterintuitive to home cooks is don’t over season your burger. A tiny bit of coarse salt on top before flipping goes a long way.”
That’s advice I’ll also be following from now on. The next time burgers are on the menu, I’ll take it easy on the salt and keep my spatula where it belongs—for flipping, not flattening.
Read the original article on Simply Recipes
