Beef Up Your Burgers – Grilling Tips

Along with budding trees and fresh-cut grass comes another familiar smell wafting across backyards: burgers hitting the grill.

We combed through the latest cookbooks for the fresh batch of burger recipes printed here. And we asked a few backyard-grilling aficionados (along with a few professionals) for their tricks on making a better burger at home.

• Make an indention in the middle of the patties with your fingers and it will grill up flat on both sides, instead of balling up like most people’s burgers. Use at least 20 percent fat ground beef and it will be moist with beef flavor. — Ryan Rudolph, Hendersonville

• Use a lid from a mayo or peanut butter jar as a mold to make your burger patties. I sometimes put a cube of cheese (any kind will work) inside the burger patty, so when you bite into it, there is a surprise cheesy bite. Yum. — Rob Hennes, Spring Hill

• I use breakfast sausage with my ground beef. For one cup of meat, add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sausage. — Paul Wright, sous chef at Eastland Cafe

• We use jerk seasoning in our turkey. You don’t handle turkey very much, because that makes (the burgers) dry. Then we grill them, but not too long. Top with a wet jerk marinade. . . We usually put them on grilled English muffins. — April Parker, Nashville

• Don’t overcook it. I just make sure the fat content’s right on whatever meat I’m using, and that’s typically grass-fed of some sort. If there’s not enough fat, I might add some bacon or something. I think a good burger is 30 percent (fat), maybe. — Jeremy Barlow, chef/owner of tayst

• Ketchup, honey-mustard, chopped garlic, Worcestershire and hot sauce mixed into the meat. It’s pretty tasty and keeps it moist. — Danny Casella, Nashville

• Combine the meat with a Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning packet. I’ve also mixed ground pork and ground beef together in one patty. Tasty.” — Brooke Martin, Nashville

• Roll blue cheese chunks and diced Vidalia onion into the meat. Serve with lettuce and tomato. — Chris Lassiter, Nashville

Source: The Tennessean by Jennifer Justus

Tags: burgers, grilling, grilling burger tips, grilling tips, hamburgers