Y'all could buy cellophane-wrapped burger patties languishing on styrofoam trays at your neighborhood supermarket. But are you serious—like really serious—well-nigh hamburgers? Then it'due south about time y'all caput to your local butcher shop and work with the staff tocreate a custom burger blend.

Earlier yous get started, you'll desire to acquaint yourself with the fundamentals of skillful burger-making. You might assume that that fancy, expensive cuts like ribeye and filet make the ultimate blend. But according to "Meat Prophet" Tom Mylan, head butcher at The Meat Hook in Williamsburg, this logic is manner off. "I don't believe in bedazzled blends that use fancy cuts—it's a total waste material of money," he says.

Mylan recommends a well-mixed alloy of cheaper cuts with an optimal lean-to-fatty ratio. He besides encourages you to find a passionate butcher who uses high-quality beef and volition help you create a blend to your specifications.

Read on to master the art of burger blending, with pro tips about cuts, fat-to-lean ratio, creative add together-ins, and more than. Nearly all of today's most coveted burgers come from proprietary blends, and then why shouldn't you accept your own?

i. The fat content

beef

Fat equals juiciness and flavor, which is why the lean-to-fatty ratio in footing beef is critical."If you desire a skillful burger, 70/30 is definitely the manner to go," says Mylan. He explains that 30% fatty is platonic if you lot want to cook your burger anywhere from medium-rare to medium-well.

If you lot programme to melt your patty anywhere exterior of that range, Mylan recommends tailoring the amount of fat appropriately. "If you like your burger well-done, it should be more like 40% fat," he says. "If you lot desire it to be really rare, y'all would bring down the fatty content, because you don't want a lot of united nations-rendered fat in your burger." (Get with eighty/twenty, or ninety/10 for a blackness-and-blue burger).

2. The grind

texture

Have your butcher grind your meat twice through a medium blade. "This gives the burger the correct texture; it will have those individual pieces of meat that are going to make you lot get, 'Oh my God, this is kind of like I'chiliad eating a steak.'" Grocery stores attempt to hide the amount of fat in the meat past grinding it over and over into a fine pink paste, because people are afraid of fat. But fatty is your friend, especially when it comes to delicious hamburger patties.

3. The cuts of beef

chuckmaybe

Don't believe the "bedazzled blend" burger hype. Using fancy cuts of beef is not important and kind of a bullshit move, according to Mylan. What is important is making sure the meat is loftier-quality and comes from mature animals, and that your blend has the right fat content.

Use cheaper cuts of beef from harder-working muscles, like chuck or circular. Why? These cuts have more myoglobin, Mylan says, and myoglobin is what gives beefiness its "beefy" flavor and ruddy colour. Each cut will contribute its own flavour and textural nuances, and you can play around with different cuts to eternalize the flavors y'all prefer.

Hither are some go-to cuts to utilize for your custom burger blend:

Lean muscle:

  • Chuck:This is the master cut at The Meat Hook when it comes to burger blends. The muscles at the superlative of the shoulder, where the chuck is establish, are interspersed with small-scale weavings of fat throughout. This gives the burger a great "steak-like, merely giving" texture. What's more, the chuck is a hard-working grouping of muscles, so y'all never have to worry well-nigh blandness.
  • Round : Round has awesome flavour, but is generally very lean. Adding short rib to the blend—to give it a 70/30 lean-to-fat ratio—is the move.
  • Brisket: The meaty part of the brisket has tons of season and is super bulky, considering information technology's a muscle that'southward used every solar day.

Fattier cuts:

  • Navel: Mylan, who is a huge Milk shake Shack fan, says, "I would guess Shake Shack uses navel in their alloy, considering it gives the burger a sort of weird, kind of creamy, buttery flavor."
  • Brusk rib:This is the kind of rich-tasting fatty that will stay intact and not render out equally quickly or easily as other fats constitute on the creature. Ultimately, this helps the burger stay moist.

four. The Meat Hook Custom Burger Blends

Mylan has a sense of sense of humor. In response to the hype over proprietary patties, he created Meat Hook burger blends that took the meaning of "fancy custom blend" to the next level. One blend incorporates bacon, one incorporates pastrami, i uses 100% dry-aged beef, and the concluding incorporates bacon, cheddar cheese, and sour-cream-and-onion potato chips. Wild, we know.

House blend: seventy% lean muscle (chuck or circular) ground with 30% fatty (navel, curt rib, or brisket).

reg

Fat Kid Blend: 70% lean muscle (chuck or round) ground with 30% salary trimmings. This alloy is meaty, smoky, and slightly sweet. Mylan suggests a lighter-smoked, breakfast-style bacon.

Fat Kid Blend, "Earth of Warcraft edition":Fat Child Blend with abrupt cheddar cheese and sour-foam-and-onion potato chips mixed in. "If y'all're an antisocial stoner agoraphobe, this is for y'all," writes Tom Mylan in The Meat Claw Meat Book.

fat-kid

Hypertension Blend: 75% lean muscle (chuck or round) ground with 25% pastrami

When Mile End Deli first started out, owner Noah Bernamoff was trying to effigy out what to do with all of his smoked-meat scraps. He came to Mylan and proposed that they grind up the smoked meat to use in burgers. The balance is bovine history. (Tip: Not all pastrami has the "point"—or the fattier office—but information technology's platonic to use the bespeak when making this blend.)

pastrami

Dry Age Alloy: 100% dry out-aged steak trimmings

Equally beef dry out ages, it loses liquid weight, leaving behind protein with more than full-bodied flavor. As it dry ages, information technology as well undergoes an enzymatic reaction—"similar to what happens when you're turning soy beans into miso," says Mylan—which increases umami and makes the meat taste even meatier.

A few means Meat Hook employees draw burgers made from the dry-age alloy: "This is the best burger you'll e'er have"; "Smells like mushrooms and toasted hazelnuts"; "Take no substitutes."

dryage2

five. Shaping the patties

Do yourself a favor and buy a hamburger patty maker ($fifteen-$20 on Amazon). Mylan recommends using ⅓ pound (or six oz) of meat for each patty. "Any more than than that is gross, and if you employ any less than that, it'due south difficult to hit medium-rare."

If you lot're working without a patty maker, exist gentle when you shape your patty and do Not slap information technology dorsum and forth between your hands; if you do this, yous'll overwork the meat and the muscle fiber volition bind together (trust united states of america, this isn't a practiced thing). When you don't overwork the meat, microscopic gaps will remain in between the little pieces of beef. As you cook the patty and the fat renders, the fat will go into those tiny microscopic voids, making your burger a whole lot juicier.

Steps for shaping your burger (using a patty maker):

1. Place a slice of plastic wrap over the patty maker, and put⅓ pound basis beef on top of the plastic.

shaping1

2. Cover with a 2d piece of plastic wrap and press down. Now you have a perfectly-shaped patty.

shaping2

6. Seasoning the patties

When you're using a great burger blend, the patties need nothing more than kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Salt the patties liberally a one-half an hour alee of cooking them, and get out them out to come up to room temperature; this will let the salt migrate from the outside to the interior.

season2

seven. Buns

"If y'all have access to Martin's potato rolls and you lot don't apply them, you're a fool," says Mylan. There'southward no need to toast your buns, simply if you exercise, slather some mayo on pre-toasting.

martins

eight. Condiments

Mylan makes "special sauce" from ketchup, Kewpie mayo, and chopped dill pickles (don't use sweet pickles, and don't use relish). Use a niggling bit more mayo than ketchup—eyeball information technology until it looks like the right color. (Pro tip: Turn your "special sauce" into "comeback sauce" using this NYT recipe.)

sauce

nine. Commandments for Cooking Burgers

  • If y'all're non grilling your burgers, apply a cast-iron pan.
  • Use a dry pan (with no butter or oil in it) to melt your burger.
  • If you insist on cooking with fat in the pan, apply butter or tallow. NEVER use olive oil (it's the wrong season).
  • Do not constantly flip your burger—you should flip it three times.
  • Don't press down on your burger while cooking it, or you'll clasp out the juice.

Steps for cooking the burger patty (to medium-rare):
one. Heat your pan over medium-high heat. Place your burger into the pre-heated, dry out pan. When your patty achieves a gilded-brown crust on the start side (after most iii-4 minutes), flip it over. Cook until the other side develops a chaff (another 3 minutes), then flip information technology once more and add cheese.

burgcook

2. Immediately cover the pan with a lid to cook the cheese.

lid2

4. After about 30 seconds to a minute, lift the lid and place the patty onto your (pre-sauced) burger bun.

cheese

10. What almost lamb and pork burgers?

"Beef is the rex of burger meats," says Mylan.

lastburger