The hamburger might be an easy weeknight staple, but it can also be a gourmet creation worth serving to company—if prepared right. The best hamburgers begin with top-quality meat. Grinding it yourself is preferable to buying packaged meat because you have a lot more control over the cut and quality of the meat you use. Chuck, with at least 15 percent fat, produces a juicier, more flavorful burger than a leaner cut like sirloin. Start with a top-quality chuck roast from the butcher’s counter. Doing your own grinding also allows you to determine the coarseness of the meat. The technique below was developed after much experimenting. Dividing the meat in half and grinding it two ways, one a bit coarse to keep the mixture juicy and not too dense, and one finer to help bind everything together, results in the very best burger. It’s more work than opening a package and tossing patties into a pan, but the effort pays off in a big way. You can add whatever seasonings you like to the meat, but don’t skimp on salt and pepper—a generous sprinkling of each is imperative. Handle the ground meat as little and as gently as possible—form it into patties with your hands, taking care not to press or condense the meat too much—since overworked meat will yield a tough burger. Make a slight indentation in the center of each patty; this will prevent a “ballooning” effect as it cooks, and help you resist the temptation to press it down with a spatula, condensing the patty and forcing delicious juices to be lost. Also, keep in mind that the meat will shrink while cooking. To ensure that your hamburger will be the same size as the bun, form the patties a half-inch larger in diameter than the size of the bun. Finally, because ground meat cooks relatively quickly, chilling the burger before cooking (especially on the grill, as in the variation below), will make it easy to achieve a burger with a rare, juicy center, if that’s what you’re aiming for. Chilling is also more convenient for entertaining, since the patties can be formed ahead of time and refrigerated and covered until needed.
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