- The USA consumes more Worcestershire sauce than every other country on earth combined.
All these “that’s meatloaf” people on my technique can suck an egg.
It isn’t meatloaf if you don’t add bread crumbs. Adding egg/seasonings is not a meatloaf.
Also, that is what you have to do to get good juicy burgers from store bought ground beef. Without the egg, you have a hard time keeping moisture in. The bad cuts plus all of the shelf time make it so much harder for the meat to hold onto moisture. The worcestershire sauce is there to add in the beefiness lost by the sub-par cuts butchers use in ground.
You may be kidding yourselves with the “purity of meat salt and pepper”. Keep eating your sub-par burgers when the egg and Worchester sauce is there to help fix the cheap stuff. The only real way to get away with just salt and pepper is making your own ground beef.
I have a grinder, I make my own ground beef patties. 2/1 chuck to sirloin. Those burgers just get salt an pepper. They taste amazing. If you are using store bought ground, the extra help from the egg and seasoning goes a long way and making some sort of burger purity test out of not using an egg is keeping you from having juicy burgers, and makes no sense to argue about if you aren’t grinding your own meat anyway.
You’re wrong of course, but I love your enthusiasm!
Couple of secrets to a juicy burger.
- Fat content. The “juice” is fat, so use meat that’s at least 20% fat.
- Don’t salt until just before you cook. You don’t want salt inside the burger, that toughens them up and gives a sausage-like texture.
- If you’re really serious about maximizing juiciness, reverse-sear. But I don’t bother.
- Don’t overwork the meat (what she said). This will emulsify it with the fat giving that sausage texture again.
If you like the taste or texture of egg inside your burger, that’s your deal. People enjoy different things. But it isn’t a traditional burger, in the same way that deep-dish Chicago-style isn’t really pizza. It may be delicious, you may love it, and that’s fine, but it’s a different thing.
There is no difference to taste or texture with an egg in a burger than.
Better and juicer.
Again, if you are not going to go to the trouble of grinding your own meat fresh, than go ahead and not use the tools you have to make a better burger and keep eating your sub-par dry flavorless burgers.
I prefer my home ground beef burgers to the store bought plus egg, but I don’t always have the time and freezer/fridge space to grind my own. When I buy the cheap stuff at the store, I use the egg. I eat better burgers.
I think the biggest thing we all can agree on is… don’t grill burgers. You have to make burgers on a skillet (cast iron or not) because you get the best sear on the outside. You also have to make sure the skillet is hot as hell to get that nice crust.
Are you unable to taste egg? I don’t really mean this as an attack or facetiously. Meat with and without binders are very different to my pallet, moistness be damned.
That’s true, if you do not know how to properly use a grill. If you do, go ahead and grill. Know what you’re doing and your burgers come out great. I’ve had more overcooked hockey puck burgers from a pan than a grill. Its about about knowing what you’re doing.
Is this going to be a thing where we have a thread about food, and it suddenly turns into an argument rather than the usual opposite? Have we coined “Qt3 Effect” yet?
correct
Well then I suddenly understand your argument.
Also, get checked for covid?
Yep. The “you’re wrong” effect is strong here. This burger thread is a great example. There is not one perfect way to cook a burger. There are many options and all of them are work fine. You have several options and at that point is merely a matter of individual taste but the various methods are not wrong just because someone thinks they are.
Yeah, I’ve heard the egg thing and tried it - it changes the burger to taste a bit eggy. That’s okay, I do like eggs, but my wife wasn’t a fan so I don’t do it anymore.
We use The Green Egg and I can get that sucker up to about 700 degrees and it makes a real good steak as well as burgers, getting a very good sear on both sides and cooking the burgers to perfection real quick. We use some awesome pre-made patties that often have some goodies like peppers or cheese chunks from the local food store, they use meat from a local locker to make their patties, and they are delicious. All I do is throw a little salt/pepper on them along with steak seasoning - that’s because I did it once years ago and the wife and kids love it so I put a bit on every time now.
I have made some on the pan - they are fine, but I prefer them grilled. Also it makes a huge f’in mess in the house and I try to avoid it. Even in the dead of winter I’ll get that green egg grill going. I might this weekend, seeing this thread pop up has made me miss having burgers on Saturday and left over patties for the Sunday as well!
Yeah, I also hate that people think only one way exists for food stuff. It’s like saying there’s only one choice for favorite band or whether they should like tomatoes or not.
Hopefully I didn’t look like I was trying to be on one side up there, I was just trying to understand Jon. With a little bit of snark, of course. :P
All I am saying is if you are trying to be a purist and are not using home ground, what are you even arguing about?
Store bought ground beef is just so bad, you gotta give it some love to make it better. Why eat worse burgers?
Also, I challenge your ability to taste the egg in the burger in blind taste test.
I don’t know if I can agree with this, but I also live in Iowa so I’ve had access to fresh, premium beef my entire life.
You aren’t alone @JonRowe , I’ve had and used egg as a binding agent in burgers and meatloaf, and never taste it.
It is though, if it has been sitting on a shelf ground for days (possibly weeks) you are going to lose a lot of flavor.
Big caveat though is what store you are at. If you are at Kroger it is one thing than if you are at the local butcher shop. That ground beef is going to be good.
You really don’t taste egg assuming you don’t drop an entire omelet’s worth in there, it just changes the texture to something that isn’t a burger. The unnecessary binder makes it dense and does not make it juicier.
And then you can add a panade to combat that, and then you really do have a meatloaf. Panade will make it softer and juicier, but it simply isn’t a burger.
Sure, it’s hard to argue with your logic, but if I’m buying ground beef to make patties it’s happening that day (and they are probably pre-made from one of the places around here known for great meat). If we are making tacos or something “later in the week” we don’t really care that much.
I will happily participate in any blind taste test you want to set up for me. I think I have a pretty good palate but I’m willing to test it.
Lol
Would love to have a burger party. One more excuse to bring out the grinder.
But seriously though, grinding your own meat makes the biggest difference IMO. Nothing better than the texture of fresh ground beef, plus you get control over the cuts you put in there. They will just taste beefier, and stay juicy, because you keep the work to a minimum.
One thing multiple people have brought up, not overworking meat. Store bought gbeef is already worked a lot (not to the point of overworked) and already starts you off behind.
If you don’t want to grind your own, I suggest finding a local butcher to grind it fresh for you, and you get the same results.