The Best Way To Avoid Bloated Burger Patties, According To Shake Shack

If you've ever made burgers from scratch, you know that the patties don't always end up looking perfect. One of the most common mishaps is that they shrink, due to using ground beef with too high of a fat percentage. But what also tends to happen, regardless of the fat-to-protein ratio, is that the burger puffs out in the middle instead of staying flat. So, what exactly causes this?

Most people assume that this is a result of meat naturally contracting as it cooks. While this does influence the shape of a burger, it actually has more to do with heat transfer. Burgers cook the most evenly through direct heat transfer — when the entire surface of the burger touches a hot pan. When you cook a burger on a grill, however, much of it is cooked through indirect heat. This often results in uneven cooking, which ultimately translates to the middle doming. 

Making an indentation in the middle of the patty is an easy way to counteract this, but fast-food chain Shake Shack does something else instead.

Grilling burgers will give them a nice char, but Shake Shack prefers to use cast-iron skillets, the restaurant's culinary director Mark Rosati revealed to the Daily Beast. Not only does using cast-iron use direct instead of indirect heat transfer, but the metal material also absorbs and retains heat. Because there's plenty of direct heat to cook the burgers on, they'll cook evenly and therefore remain flat without having to dimple the center.

Shake Shack burgers might not have the same smokey flavor of a burger cooked on a grill. But as Rosati explained to the Daily Beast, cast-irons still create a sear. The more even a sear is, the more juices will be trapped in your burger. 

It also creates a more delicious crust. "The crust you're developing is where all the flavor is," he told the outlet.

Typically, when you shape ground beef into a burger patty, the meat spends a lot of time in your hands. Unfortunately, overhandling ground beef leads to a tougher burger, and shaping them into patties with your hands makes it harder to achieve an even thickness. Shake Shack, therefore, prepares its patties by gently forming the meat into balls, then smashing them right into the pan for as little handling as possible.

If you want a traditional shaped patty, Mark Rosati still advises against using your hands and recommends using a ring mold for the most consistent results. "I find packing the meat into a ring mold gives you a nice flat piece where the meat is all the same thickness, and you're kind of diminishing the chances of it swelling up," he told Food & Wine. For best results, line the ring mold with plastic wrap and pack the meat in as loosely as possible. 

Combine this tip with the cast-iron skillet one, and you'll never have to deal with domed burgers again.