Why High-Quality Fresh Ingredients Transform Your Dinner

There is no end to the variety of delicious hamburgers you can make, but here are 12 that will make your mouth water.

J. Kenji Lpez-Alt composes a column for The New York Times on food and science, and he develops dishes and appears in videos for NYT Cooking. He is also the developer and host of Kenji's Cooking Show on YouTube.

Credit ... Adam CentrellaAs a professional chef, food author and cookbook author, I've invested the last twenty years of my profession rigorously looking into and checking recipes, strategies and extensively accepted cooking area wisdom to figure out the whys of cooking. Over this time, I've operated multiple hamburger joints and even composed a regular monthly column for Serious Eats called the Hamburger Laboratory, in which I separated and tested every possible variable that can impact the flavor and texture of a burger.

That does not imply you can't intend for something better. Here are the most essential ideas I've discovered for optimizing your hamburger experience, whether in the backyard or the cooking area. Working ground beef excessive can trigger it to end up being dense. Credit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Using Professional Flat-Top Styles in the Home

In bread, this can be an excellent thing, but with burgers, overhandling can create an undesirable dense texture. (Integrating extenders, like eggs or breadcrumbs, or additional seasoning, like onions and herbs, likewise requires you to exhaust the meat and sidetrack from the beef taste, so skip it.) Salting the beyond your patties keeps their texture loose and tender.

Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Salt breaks down muscle proteins and helps them to connect up more quickly. This is a good idea in sausages, which need to have a company texture, but with hamburgers, you desire looseness. A burger needs to be tender, with lots of pockets for juices and rendered fat to collect.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

Whether you're making a big hamburger on the grill or a crisp-edged smash burger on a frying pan, browning is taste, and high heat is crucial. For thicker grilled or griddled burgers, wait until your pan or grill is hot before including the patties, and cook them until they're well browned on both sides.

This makes the most of flavor while maintaining juiciness. Preparing your buns ahead of time lets you get to eating so much faster. Credit ... Bryan Gardner for The New York City Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Do not let your patties relax on the cutting board (or even worse, a steam table). Hamburgers are at their finest fresh from the fire, before any juices have had a chance to leak out.

Smash BurgersCredit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York City Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Restaurant BurgerCredit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Thick Yard BurgerCredit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Follow,,, and.

Expert Outdoor Grilling Hacks for 2026

Updated May 7, 2026, 8:42 a.m. CTI've always been a burger fan. If there were any little melty American cheese leavings stuck on the wrapper, I 'd drag my french fries through them (I still do this).

Capture me on the right day and I may admit that a cheeseburger is my favorite food. Even if you do, it's likely we do not have the same concept of what makes the perfect burger.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

I kept some old favorites, added some new ones and continued to leave off the ones I understand individuals like but I simply. Perhaps I have not tried your favorite burger. Maybe I'm out to get you (just joking).

There's one best burg out there for everybody. Let me share with you what makes the ideal hamburger for me. Let's start with the patty. Can I say I'm growing a little sick of smashburgers? The best ones amazingly stay juicy with just a hint of flaky char around the edges, however unfortunately, most places go too tough on the smash.

When I bite in, I require to see a little sparkle, some glistening from the beef and perhaps a little grease running down the sides. When I see a smashburger on the menu, I always go with a double patty. Smashburger or not, the patty needs to be scorched to help secure the juices, however not too crusty.