Tips on Grilling Burgers

Obeying a few key grilling tips can ensure that your burgers always come out delectably.

 1. Get fresh meat from a butcher you trust.

 Sure, your local supermarket may have yummy organic, non-chemically enhanced meats.  But going to a local butcher allows you to explore even fresher and more exotic culinary possibilities. Furthermore, a friendly butcher can give you advanced grilling tips per your family's unique dietary needs and tastes.  If you can't get the fresh stuff, you can order frozen organic grass fed beef patties online.  Avoid burgers that are extra lean - the fat gives a good burger its taste, and beef fat actually contains lots of healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

 2. Don't over-handle the meat when using BBQ grills.

 Amateur barbeque grill chefs often molest their patties to feel like they are doing something productive.  Unfortunately, when you mix ground meat too much, it can make the meat actually tougher.  Plus, if you've got great ground beef to begin with, you don't need to add hundreds of extra flavors and seasonings to make it delectable.

 3. Avoid "puff up patties" by indenting the centers of your burgers.

 Patties change their shape on outdoor grills. More specifically, disc-like burgers can spontaneously swell and come out looking like giant balls of beef.  This can result in the outsides of the burgers getting charred, leaving the insides raw or underdone.  But by indenting the middle (for instance, by pressing in the center with a spoon or your thumb), you nip this problem in the bud.

 4. Never, never, never squish your burgers down with your spatula when using barbecue grills.

 This is one of those grilling tips that so many backyard chefs ignore. Sure, it makes a nice hiss as the fat meets the heat source and sublimates. But squeezing the yummy juices out of your meat will ruin its flavor and make it tough and tasteless.

 5. Deal with flare ups sensibly.

 If you are getting flare ups from outdoor grills, turn down the heat or move the grilling area further from the heat source.  Keep lids to BBQ grills closed to avoid oxygenating the fire and thus feeding it.  (Don't worry, the burgers will cook even if the lid is closed and you can't see them!)

 6. Serve with kingly ingredients.

 A kobe beef burger served on a stale bun with gloopy year-old ketchup and relish that's been in the back of your fridge since 2006 won't taste quite right.  Dress your burger up with the right condiments, but don't overwhelm the meat with excessive flavorings.  Louis, a restaurant in New Haven widely considered to be the birth place of the hamburger, to this day forbids the use of ketchup on their burgers because ketchup so overwhelms the taste of the meat. If you do use seasonings, get interesting stuff, like Worcester sauce, or exotic, sour-and-sweet condiments from Asian supermarkets.

Written exclusively for PetesOutdoorGrills.com

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Tips on Grilling Burgers