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Essentials: Hamburgers

Posted by Robin Bellinger, April 18, 2008 at 1:00 PM

It isn’t summer yet, but the sun has me thinking. Every June when the food magazines put out issues full of gorgeous grilled things, I, a grill-deprived citizen of New York City, feel somehow snubbed. The rest of the country, I imagine, is enjoying lingering al fresco dinners on decks and in gardens as I continue to eat inside at a corner of the table that also holds my computer and my work. Certain things I never get to eat at home at all—grilled fish, grilled pizza, grilled corn.

Luckily, two summers ago I finally made the consoling discovery that you can cook very tasty hamburgers indoors in a cast-iron skillet. For some reason I never make them in winter, but now that I can leave the house without a coat, it’s time to throw open all the windows for a Saturday night cookout high above 57th Street.

I prefer soft supermarket buns to anything fat and fancy, and all I need for topping is mustard, mayonnaise, and raw onion (if tomatoes are in season, I’ll take a thick slice of tomato, too). Although my favorite recipe is the Julia Child take below, I know some people might object to the incorporation of sautéed shallot. Nevertheless, I think it’s delicious, and a thin burger is not only easier to cook in a skillet, it is also much more pleasant to eat. In fact, I think 1/4 pound meat is the perfect amount; Andrew doesn’t agree, but 1/2 pound burgers kind of gross me out.

I remember three things about my parents grilling hamburgers (outside, on a deck, of course) when I was a little girl: hamburger seasoning (I was fascinated that there was a spice just for hamburgers), the plastic device that my mom used to make patties (again, so specific!), and how intrigued and disgusted I was by the raw meat (I always wondered what would happen if I ate it raw). How do you make hamburgers?

I have been dreaming of repeating Blake Royer’s meat-grinding experiments ever since A Hamburger Today linked to his tantalizing photos, but my Kitchen Aid Mixer, alas, lives in an inaccessible spot and is hauled out only for the most arduous baking escapades. A garden, a grill, a counter big enough for the mixer (or any other appliance besides the coffee grinder)—a city girl can dream, can’t she?

About the author: Robin Bellinger recently escaped a career in book publishing, which was cutting into her cooking time. Now she's a freelance editor and can bake bread on Tuesday afternoon if she feels like it. She lives in Midtown Manhattan with her husband and blogs about cooking and crafting at home*economics.

Julia’s Pan-Fried Thin Burger

-makes 4 hamburgers-
Adapted from Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home

Ingredients

1 tablespoon minced shallots
1 teaspoon butter or mild olive oil
1 to 1 1/4 pound fresh ground beef, preferably 15 to 20 percent fat
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 hamburger buns or Kaiser rolls
Toppings and condiments as you like

Procedure

1. Sauté the shallots in a small pan until soft in 1 teaspoon butter or mild olive oil.

2. Divide the meat into 4 portions. One at a time, flatten each by chopping and spreading the meat with light strokes of your chef’s knife. Sprinkle over each a big pinch of salt, 2 grinds of pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon of the sautéed shallots. Blend them into the meat, chopping and turning it as you shape the portions into 4 1/2-to-5-inch round patties 1/4 inch thick.

3. Toast the hamburger buns and distribute them to your guests. Suggest that they dress the bottom halves of the rolls as they wish while you cook the burgers. You will cook 2 at a time in a cast iron skillet. Set the skillet over high heat. Sprinkle the surface with a light dusting of coarse salt. When the pan is hot but not smoking, pick up a patty with your pancake turner and lay it in the pan, rapidly adding the second burger. The meat will take just 15 to 20 seconds to brown on the bottom; lift gently to check. When browned, turn and brown the other side. If the heat seems too high, lower it slightly. As soon as the burgers test done, remove them to a warm platter, and as quickly as possibly onto your guests’ buns. (The best way to test the doneness of the burgers is to press them with your finger: uncooked meat is mushy and does not resist at all; very rare meat still feels soft and squashy; medium rare meat will bounce back just a bit when pressed; medium meat resists even more; and well done meat is completely firm to the touch. A medium-cooked burger takes just a minute or three with this recipe, depending on how hot your pan is.) Cook the remaining burgers.

9 Comments | Tags: hamburgers, Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home, Serious Eats Essentials

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