Creating a backyard version of a simple but perfect restaurant burger begins, of course, with the meat, ideally a home-ground combination of superior-quality (prime or choice grade Certified Angus Beef) large-muscle meats (no trimmings!), plus just the right amount of fat. Our signature formula is 46 percent brisket, 46 percent chuck (each of which have quite a bit of natural fat), and 8 percent beef fat (ask your butcher for help with the fat). That may seem like a lot of fat, but it’s essential for flavor, moisture, and texture. It also serves to hold the burger together; too lean a mix, and the burger will tend to crumble while you’re cooking it and will feel like gravel in your mouth. The right amount allows you to serve up a burger that has been cooked all the way to a safe temperature but is still juicy and flavorful.
It is essential to keep the meat very cold before, during, and after grinding—for ease, best texture, and safety. Use a #10 to #12 grinding plate with a 3/8-inch hole size. (A grinder, page 76, will also set you up to make your own sausage.) If you don’t want to grind the meat yourself, you can have the meat ground to order when you purchase it.
Take care not to overwork the ground meat; you want the texture to remain coarse, and if you knead it you’ll end up with mush. Do not mix anything—not even salt—into the meat; instead, season the outside of the burger just before you put it on the grill.
It’s also essential to use a light touch when forming the patties. Here’s how we do it: Take about ⅓ pound meat and make a loose ball. Play catch with it, tossing it from hand to hand four or five times. This condenses the meat a bit but doesn’t put so much pressure on it that it cooks up like a hockey puck. You want tiny air pockets within, where the juices can collect; this will help the meat hold together while you’re cooking it. Now press the ball lightly to flatten it to about ½ inch thick. Keeping the patties thin helps you take them to a safe temperature without drying them out. (You can always stack ’em for a thick burger effect).
Lastly, flip your burgers once and only once; repeated turning will wring them dry. Don’t press on them with the spatula, and do take them all the way to that 155° internal temperature—the juices will pool on the tops of the burgers and they will be clear, not tinged with pink.