Cooking Hamburgers

Posted by Tom in Cooking Hamburgers | 0 comments

Hamburgers are a firm favourite in our house and quite frankly there is no need to buy prepacked hamburgers or beefburgers given they are so easy and simple to make anyone can make and cook hamburgers.

Beefburgers are principally made from minced ground beef with added seasonings and sometimes a binding agent usually in the form of an egg along with generous amounts of chopped onions. Choosing the right ground minced beef will have an effect on the end result, you are looking for a relatively lean mince beef with not too much fat content otherwise they do tend to get somewhat greasy and more liable to falling apart if you use the higher fat content ground mince beef.

Once you have made your hamburger patty from the simple ingredients (check out our hamburger section for some amazing hamburger recipes) you can then have some fun shaping and forming the mixture into perfect hamburger rounds with your hands (the kids love this bit – get them involved!).

So, what are the instructions for grilling hamburgers and best way to cook a hamburger? There are several methods to cooking burgers the most common of which is probably the stove top method using a heavy frying pan and a little oil to season the pan. A good tip to cooking on the hob is to ensure that the heat setting is not too high, you are looking to cook through the burger meat all the way through without burning the outside and having the middle still raw (a favourite BBQ pitfall).

The best way to cook on the stove-top is to use a low to medium heat giving the burgers a good 8 minutes on each side (for about a 1″ thick burger). If you are unsure whether the hamburger is cooked through then simply skewer the middle whilst still in the pan and watch the colour of the juices – you are looking for clear juices no pink and definitely not red.

Other methods to cook hamburgers include broiling in the oven under a broiling pan. Broiling in the oven by it’s nature provides a very high heat source and it is common to cook the outside without fully cooking the middle. So the best method is to ensure that you use the middle oven shelf and ensure that you check the burgers by skewering the centres before serving – you will need about 5-10 minutes per side for a 1″ burger. The variance in time is due to the type of oven you have – some are hotter than others.

Finally, the last method to cooking hamburgers is of course grilling but how long do you grill hamburgers for? Well, again this will depend on the thickness of the hamburger but you will still need to ensure that your heat setting is not too high and give the meat about 5 minutes each side following which it is a good idea to check the centres to ensure they are cooked all the way through.