I’ve printed this before, but sometimes I have to remind myself just how good a hamburger can taste if you don’t really care how many calories it contains. Such is the case with the Perfect Hamburger. The recipe is fairly simple, only two ingredients – hamburger and Kosher salt. But the type of hamburger is critical.
Modern hamburger is trending leaner. They have 96/4 burger, meaning 96 % lean and only 4 % fat. They have ground round and ground sirloin, both with 90% plus lean meat, and perhaps the most popular blend is ground chuck at 80/20. But the Perfect Hamburger requires lots of fat because that where beef gets its flavor – from the fat. In the story of the Prodigal Son, they didn’t celebrate by cooking the lean calf, but the fatted calf. So our Perfect Hamburger uses 72/28 or even 70/30 if you can find it.
Once you have the burger, roll it gently into 1/3 pound or even slightly larger balls. Don’t squeeze it to death, just shape loosely. Next, load it with Kosher salt. Don’t just sprinkle the salt, load it with salt. Leave the burgers at room temperature for 15 or 20 minutes, turn them over and add more salt. The salt will draw the fat to the outside and when the burger hits the grill, it will form a nice crust and seal in the juices. Cook over fairly slow coals so the fat can permeate the burger and drip through. I like my burgers a little pink inside and I don’t really care what the Health Nazis say.
When the burgers are done – I poke them on top until they are no longer spongy – then take them up to rest for about 5 minutes before serving – preferably on a sour dough or pretzel bun. If not, a plain white bread bun will suffice. These burgers are so good, they don’t need much in the way of condiments – a slice of cheddar cheese, a slice of Vidalia onion, maybe a little tomato and some spicy brown mustard works for me.
You don’t want to be eating Perfect Burgers on a weekly basis, otherwise your arteries will be like concrete, but every now and then, if you want a burger exploding in flavor, grill up a batch of Perfect Burgers.
The Perfect Burger
1 pound of 72/28 ground beef (makes 3 burgers)
Kosher Salt – pour it on