The humble Hamburger. What a great meal, and so simple to make; if you do it the right way and use a proven method.

The most common scenario I see is someone who ventures to the local all-in-one store and buys a packet of mince meat to take home and make some Burgers. Sometimes they’re terrific, but other times they’re..well..so, so. Why is that? Well, with a bit of insider knowledge let’s see if we can make those Burgers something to howl about.

Standard mince meat can have a lot of variations depending on what meats your supplier (butcher, super market, whatever) has available for mincing, and so the flavour can vary from one batch to the next.

Usually you can obtain three levels of mince. Standard, Premium, and Lean.
Standard mince most times has a lot of fat mixed in (which makes it the cheapest choice)
Premium generally has less fat content than Standard and so is the mid priced mince.
Lean has a very low fat content and is most times the most expensive.

OK. So which one is the best for Hamburgers?

Personally I prefer using Premium grade mince meat in my Burgers. Standard has too much fat and if you’re anything like me and can’t tolerate fatty foods very well, it makes you feel like you’re digesting the food hours after you’ve had it. Lean is terrific quality because of the lowest fat content, but the lack of fat tends to make the meat very dry after cooking. Premium (or whatever it’s called in your part of the world) has the right balance to retain a succulent texture to the meat and not cause the Burger to be too sloppy or too dry as the other two variations would.

Now, listen up very carefully here as I’m about to give you a proven and tested hamburger industry secret!

When buying your mince, tell whoever is serving you that you want an 80/20 blend.
By this I mean 80% of whatever you’re buying should be Premium mince and then ask them to mix in 20% of something like Rump Steak (minced).
It’s OK to mince the Rump with the fatty bits included. This shouldn’t make the fat content over the top but help flavour the meat while it’s cooking.
I like using an 80/20 blend but you can experiment with different ratios and different meat cuts. You could try 70/30, 60/40, Eye Fillet Steak, Porterhouse Steak, whatever. I guarantee this tip will add va-va-voom to your Hamburgers! It will also help keep a consistent result from one cooking session to the next.

Pretty simple huh?

The best local Hamburger shops use this method (and if you’re a local Burger shop that doesn’t, you should) and it’s probably one of the reasons you keep going back there for your favourite Burger.

Of course there are quite a few other tips and secrets to making the Ultimate Hamburger, but I’ll get into those in later articles.

In the meantime, have a great day around the BBQ!

Big Al