The Best Burger Ever

Ever since going to the Mosh-Burger pop-up dinners earlier this fall I have been wanting to grind my own beef to make burgers at home. I searched the internet for guidance and came across Alton Brown’s recipe for the Burger of the Gods. I used Alton’s recipe and my observations from the mosh-burger pop-up to come up with my own method and recipe.

My mom and I headed to Acme Meat Market, a small, local butcher to get the meat for the burger. Alton’s recipe called for 8 ounces each of chuck and sirloin, however I opted for a pound and a half of chuck and 1 large sirloin steak (I think it was a bit more than half a pound), just based on what was cut and ready to go.

I also opted to fry my burger in some canola oil and butter (for flavour) after seeing how delicious the butter made the burgers taste at the mosh-burger event.

INGREDIENTS:
– 1 1/2 pounds chuck
– 1 sirloin steak (about half a pound)
– canola oil
– butter
– coarse salt
– burger buns

METHOD:

1. Trim any large chunks of fat off of the meat.

2. Cut the meat into 1 1/2 inch cubes, ensure you keep the 2 types of beef separate.

3. In separate batches, pulse the chuck and the sirloin in a food processor about 10 times. Before doing this, I put the cubes of meat on a sheet pan in the freezer for about 15 minutes to help ensure the meat didn’t turn to slime when in the food processor.

4. Gently mix the meat together.

5. Form the meat into patties.

6. Heat a cast-iron skillet to medium high heat. Add the oil and butter.

7. Once the butter is melted, sprinkle the outside of each patty with coarse salt and place the patties in the pan. For a 5 ounce patty, cook for 4 minutes a side for medium rare and 5 minutes a side for medium.

8. Flip the burgers only once, to ensure you get a nice crust on the burger.

7. Serve the burgers on a butter toasted bun, with whatever condiments you desire. I kept my burger pretty simple and just added some grilled onions. Enjoy!

These burgers were SO good. I thinking grinding my own beef, that came from a high quality butcher, made such a big difference, the burgers had such a good beefy flavour. I also think the butter didn’t hurt. I personally cooked my burger to medium rare. I felt comfortable doing that because again it was beef from a local butcher shop that I had ground it myself. The medium rare burger was so moist and flavourful on the inside, but had a great crispy crust on the outside.

There was a lot more work and clean-up involved with these burgers, but I really think they were worth it. I highly recommend them!

Happy Saturday!