Grilling The Perfect Burger

Grilling burgers is as much a part of camping as campfires and S’mores. So, you’d think there would be one way to cook a burger on the grill but we’ve seen hundreds. Some of them were a hit and some of them never made it to the plate. Recently, we came across what appears to be a near-perfect burger recipe and thought we’d share. You never know…it just might make a burgermaster out of you on your next camping trip.

In this article; The Science of Cooking Burgers, they state that one of the most important components to a good burger is moisture. Since burger can lose some of it’s juices into that absorbant pad the stores put between the burger and the styrofoam plate when they package it, you need to add some back. They say to add 2-3 tablespoons of ice cold water per pound.

The next thing they recommend is to leave it alone once you put it on the grill. Flipping and pressing it will leach more of the moisture. Use somewhere around 15% fat content and your mouth’s salivary glands will marry up perfectly with the meat making it an experience to remember.

Another tip is to preheat the grill for 15 minutes. Cook with one side high and one medium. Start your burgers on the high side to sear and carmelize them, then move them to the medium heat side to finish. Oh, and they like Groung Chuck for burgers.

They say, when you are making your burger into patties, to put a dimple in the middle. This will keep the burger from getting fat in the middle and shrinking in from the sides – like little flying saucerers.

So, there you have it. Give it a try and let us know how well, or not so well, it works. Great camping requires great burgers and we wish you the best of both.