Great: the other comments cover it quite well.
Ruin: too much of any one topping. I want to be able to taste the other ingredients. This is an especially easy mistake to make with onion. Red onions have a very strong flavor which can mask others. A little goes a long way.
Ruins it: When the gimmick of the burger is some “special sauce” or house ketchup (and/or they put pickles on it yuck)
Makes it: When the flavorings, seasonings, ingredients are mixed into the ground beef before grilling
i think its important that all the ingredients chosen fit well together (i guess thats the case for all food?) also i will not stand for the egrigious pickle-slander in the comments
I make my own pickles and will NOT have a burger without them.
Good: Maillard reaction. That lovely, savory sear on the meat and juices. This is why a proper slider tastes good.
Bad: Dry cardboard. Usually created by people who don’t know how to grill.
Usually created by people who don’t know how to grill.
The main subcategory of these people are those that cook it from frozen.
It’s kind of hard to fuck up a burger. The worst burger is what they have at AM/PM or a school cafeteria. And even that isn’t completely terrible.
The best burger though would have bacon, blue cheese and A1 sauce on it. 🤤
I cooked Oklahoma onion burgers yesterday.
Really simple.
- Season your mince with salt and form into small rounds.
- Smash the burgers topped with really finely sliced onion smashed straight into the burger on a hot griddle (I used a soapstone in my Kamado).
- When the lacey edges of the burger are starting to caremalise, flip and add a slice of cheese.
- Place the top of the bun on top of the cheese and the bottom face down on top of that. This lets the buns steam a little and soften.
Serve.
Five ingredients: beef mince, onion, salt, cheese, bun.
Great burger.
The classic:
Beef: salt and pepper only
Cheese: sharp orange cheddar
Toppings: lettuce tomato
Sauce: classic burger sauce or mayo ketchup and relish but not too much sauce
Buns: brioche, slightly toasted
Alternative:
Cheese: smoky Gouda
Toppings: sautéed mushrooms in butter
Sauce: classic barbecue
What ruins a burger: those vegan fake beef patties. Or when the patty to bun ratio is bad.
Speaking of which, people always forget some good alternative like salmon, turkey or chicken burgers. A salmon burger with a grilled pineapple ring is yummy!
Meat.
Lack of meat.
A perfect burger to me is a paddy (rissole size) lettuce on the bottom, then the paddy, then tomato, pineapple, beetroot and onion then cheese on top.
In a bread bun not a fucking brioche thing.
If I’m extra fancy an egg under the cheese but the egg needs to be so close to solid that it runs and cooks solid at the same time. I hate the smell of runny egg.
What ruins a burger for me, fucking sauce I don’t want your drippy shitty BBQ sauce or whatever sogging up my bread.
Make a good paddy and that will carry the burger
It needs something to provide crunch, as a textural counterpoint to the warm softness of the bun and patty. Lettuce, raw onion, potato chips each work, just pick ONE.
It needs acidic elements to cut the fatty richness. Mustard, pickles, fresh tomato, these you can double up on.
It needs a patty that holds together. I love a blackbean burger but most of them fall apart, might as well call it a blackbean sloppy joe.
It needs to fit in my mouth without squirting condiments out the other side.
It needs catsup, independent of all other requirements. You cannot leave off or replace the catsup.
An extra patty or a couple slices of bacon + barbecue sauce makes it great. Lettuce is hit or miss with varying degrees of freshness depending on the store, so sometimes it’s just better without.
Cheese makes for a great burger. Almost every hamburger can be good with some cheese on it.
What I do not need on a burger is sauce of any kind. Especially not American hamburger dressing.
American hamburger dressing? What is that?
https://kavli.se/produkt/original/ Don’t know if there’s an English page. But it’s some sort ofof dressing used only for hamburgers
Chicken or turkey. Seriously im trying to cut down on red meat. I only eat it when a vegan online rails against reducing meat consumption because its not eliminating meat consumption. Which means I can still eat a fair amount of beef. Still though. Trying to cut down.
To me a burger is a very simple thing. Few ingredients, cooked properly, simple.
When people just keep stacking sloppy stuff on top it just feels like distractions.
As a non food comparison, it’s Like somebody with toktok going on their phone, a streamer going on twitch on their PC and a show going on tv at the same time with led gamer shit everywhere
The real secret? Fried egg. Instantly elevates a burger from good to great.