Randomly click on any page of this blog and you’ll be hit over the head with folks who can create a culinary masterpiece out of the most basic ingredients. Go ahead. Try it. Dave Martin, Zac Alft, Darryl Harmon, Cindy Hutson — even non-chefs like our overzealous Dr. Phil Bass (who makes his own sausage) and food writers Jennifer Schertz (our chili cook-off champ and cookie maestro) and Jennifer Kiko, who documents many of her culinary expeditions on her own blog, are well … well above the average hash slingers.
And then there’s yours truly. I don’t really cook, per se. I throw stuff together and hope like hotdogs it tastes reasonable. Sometimes it does. Often it doesn’t. But I do have one redeeming quality in my wife’s eyes — I grill a mean burger. It seems burgers are one of the few foods that are, for lack of a better term, idiot-proof. With a basic understanding of how heat affects meat and good ingredients, you can only enhance a burger — not ruin it.
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably spent time watching Food Network. Maybe you even classify yourself as a “foodie.” Think of all the preposterous things you see people put on a burger in the name of edgy food. Pineapple? Bratwurst? Jelly? Peanut butter? And what’s the end result? Every food-centric blogger this side of a Denver steak is stark raving about it to their legions of followers. That’s because burgers are the Superman of food — except they’d probably still be delicious with kryptonite on top. Burger 1, Superman 0. I am a living, breathing testament of this. I’ve cooked burgers all my life — even long before I was schooled in how to properly treat them. My old routine was this:
- Fire up the gas Weber® until there are lots of cool high flames everywhere.
- Drop the burgers on the grill and poke them mindlessly with a fork throughout the cooking process — ya know, so you can make sure the inside gets cooked, too.
- Make sure to press all the patties down so the juices spewing out make the flames shoot super high to impress onlookers.
- Then, just to make sure they’re done, cut one open on the grill to see the insides.
(Chef Michael Ollier just developed an odd twitch and he’s not sure why.) But I digress. You know what those burgers turned out like, despite my abuse? Not bad. Not bad at all, actually. Now that I’ve learned the intricacies of forming and grilling a burger properly, my creations far exceed “not bad.” But don’t take my word for it. Clearly, I’m far from the one to trust for cooking advice.
Chef Michael , however, has made some simple videos to help us along the way:
The Perfect Burger
Grilling Tips
Now that you’re an expert burger maker and grillmaster extraordinaire, it’s time to add some flavor. Try any one of our tasty burger recipes … and since it’s International Burger month why not start with the Big Greek Burger!
