Monday, September 5, 2011

Cheeseburgers

Any Monday holiday during the summer (oh and the 4th of July) means BBQ time! We still have a horrible BBQ, but not for much longer, and it grills burgers just fine.

To make our burgers, I "make" them and Jon cooks them. Here's how we do burgers in the Cantrell house.


Ingredients
Ground beef, GOOD ground beef, get it from a butcher if you can.  Fresh ground beef is a 1,000 times better than most store bought ground beef.  And ground beef from a tube, I won't even go there.
Johnny's seasoning salt
Dried chopped onions (dried onions are important, fresh onions make the burgers too moist they fall apart)
Worcestershire Sauce

I don't have exact measurements, it's all based on your taste.  Today I used four pounds of ground beef, approximately 2 tablespoons seasoning salt, 1/4 cup dried onions and 3-4 tablespoons worcestershire sauce.
Combine all the ingredients, form patties and grill. We like our burgers well done.  Jon cooks them about 5.5 minutes a side.  If you like your meat "pink" cook for less time.  Add cheese at the last minute, just long enough to melt the cheese.  We use American cheese just because it melts nicely.

I must tell you a couple things about grilling.  Jon wanted to make sure I told you these things, if I didn't tell you these things I would be in trouble.  Here are the things:
1. Only flip the burgers ONCE.
2. Do NOT press the burgers flat.

I hope you follow these rules, if not your burgers will suck and Jon will say, "I told you so."

Okay, now for my soapbox.  I use to form our patties by hand, we end up with baseball burgers.  They would swell and shrink and it was a pain.  I read in Food Network magazine a tip from Bobby Flay, pressure your thumb in the middle of your burger just enough to make an indention and it prevents the burger from swelling.  That tip worked great for swelling, but not for shrinking.  Jon decided we needed a burger press.  I thought he was crazy but I was wrong.  I love our burger press.  I use it every time.  Now our burgers don't swell (the press has a little indention maker) don't shrink and are all a uniform size.

Here's how the press works:
Put a ball of meat in the press.
Apply pressure.

And your patty is formed!

I highly recommend the burger press.  They aren't that expensive, $10.00 or less, and they are easy to use.  Plus your burgers will be the right size, all of them!


I like my burgers simple.  :)

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