What a Grind

Share

I love burgers. I love them any way that I can get them. Fried, grilled, broiled – slap it on a bun and I’m ready to eat. McDonald’s, Kuma’s Corner or the backyard grill-out – for the most part I don’t care where I get them, as long as I do.

What makes a great burger? With so many different choices out there, this was a harder question to answer than I thought it would be. Patty size, how it’s cooked, cheese, toppings and bun form a mind-boggling number of combinations. In the end though, we focused on the one aspect that transcends every combinations: the patty.

After much thought, consideration and a few burgers we found the perfect patty is…

Juicy – If you take a bite of a patty and don’t reach for a napkin, it’s too dry. Conversely, if you’re going through a roll of Bounty to get through a burger, you may want to back off a bit.

Texture – The best burgers have a split personality. The exterior has bits of crisp browning from where the meat was seared, whether over a flame or a griddle. The interior is like a steak – tender, medium rare and delicious. When the two mix, you get the best of both worlds.

Tasty – Unrepentantly, yet not overbearingly, beefy and well seasoned.

With this as our guide, Clare and I set out to make our Kentuckipino burgers.

Wanting a definite beef flavor and a decent amount of fat, I went with 1.3 lbs of sirloin and .85 lbs of chuck. The final product was beefy but not greasy. In fact, I’m wondering if I shouldn’t up the fat next time so that we’re closer to 50-50 between sirloin and chuck.

Once we got home, we went about prepping the meat for grinding. This was a necessary step because the last thing you want to do is throw an entire steak into the food processor. Unless of course you’re making dog food, in which case by all means proceed.

Prep consisted of cutting the steaks into 1-1.5″ cubes and then placing them on a baking sheet in the oven. Most sources (Alton Brown, America’s Test Kitchen, etc.) recommended these steps regardless of whether you are using a processor or grinder. The smaller size cuts down on the grind time and yields a more uniform consistency to the meat. The chilling time firms up the meat, allowing for two things. First, the fats to have as much opportunity to heat up and separate during the grind and second, it allows for a more solid target for the processor blades to slice through.

I will say, I was not successful at grinding during the first few batches. The meat ended up glomming on to the processor blade and smearing itself along the side of the bowl. We thought that perhaps the blade needed more to grab onto so we added more meat. FAIL. We tried taking meat out. FAIL. We tried pleading with the machine. FAIL. What Clare finally realized was that the blade was getting gunked up with meat and that was causing it to push the cubes around instead of slice through them. With this figured out, I cleaned off the blade and added a small handful of meat to try again. SUCCESS!

With the meat ground-up I started the enhancement process. Normally, I would say that the meat should be able to stand alone, with perhaps salt and pepper only. In this case, I wanted to turn the flavors up a notch because the steaks weren’t exactly prime or dry aged.

So, to the mix I added two tablespoons of mustard for brightness and two to three splashes of Worcestershire sauce for added depth. I thought about adding breadcrumbs, but I wanted to see how the burgers would hold together by themselves. I also thought that this would alter the flavor and texture of the burger a bit more than I would like. Add a couple of pinches of kosher salt and 4-5 grinds of pepper and we were ready.

Be gentle when combining the ingredients. It is really easy to over work the meat. The more the mix is compressed, the chewier the final product will be. This has to do with the collagen proteins in the connective tissue of the meat. The more protein molecules there are in closer proximity to each other, the tighter they grip each other, making for a tough and rubbery burger. I would suggest folding the ingredients by hand, and a light hand at that.

Once mixed, I formed five patties. As I was folding in the additional ingredients, Clare heated up the skillet. Once it was slightly smoking I placed the first two burgers in. These weren’t as flat as the later ones and were a bit thicker. As a result I was worried about it cooking through. I went for a total of 4 – 4.5 minutes on the first side before flipping them over. There was some great browning going on. On the second side I let the burgers cook for closer to 5 minutes because I could still see some pink from the top and I was worried that they weren’t cooked through. Once our friend Ethan took a bite though, we found out that the burgers were actually on the well done side. Thankfully they were still moist and chewy. The second batch of burgers I made thinner and wider. I still cooked them closer to 4 minutes per side. While still well done, they maintained their juiciness.

The next time we do this I’m definitely considering the following:

• Seasoning the meat beforehand. I’m wondering if marinating the cubes or at least seasoning with salt and pepper before the grind will more evenly distribute the flavor without compressing the meat unnecessarily when trying to combine the ingredients.
• Do one burger by itself to start in the griddle. I only mention this because the second batch of burgers looked even better than the first because there was some grease in the pan for them to fry in. It doesn’t take much.
• For this size of patty I think 3 minutes a side would have been plenty for a medium rare burger.
• Perhaps stuffing the burgers next time with bleu cheese or a compound butter like chipotle or herbed.

All in all, very happy with the results.

Kentuckipino Burger v1.0

Ingredients

1.25 lbs of sirloin

.75 lbs of chuck

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp of fresh ground pepper

1-1 1/2 tbsp of dijon mustard

3-4 splashes of Worcestershire sauce

Your choice of cheese, toppings and buns

Directions

1. Cut the steaks into 1 – 1.5″ cubes. Place in a single layer on a cookie sheet and chill in the freezer for 25-30 minutes.
2. In small batches, grind the steak cubes in pulses to a coarse grind. A one-one-thousand count for each pulse should suffice.
3. Preheat your cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.
4. Place the ground steak in a bowl and add the remaining ingredients, gently folding them in by hand.
5. Cook burgers for 3-3.5 minutes per side for medium rare, 4-4.5 minutes for well done.