The Midwest's Butter Burger Is Exactly What It Sounds Like

If you've ever tried to figure out how to get the world's juiciest burger, the secret might lie in one ingredient: butter. While other parts of the country may be less familiar with using butter to prepare their burgers, the Midwest has it all figured out. Once your burger patty is cooked, plop a slice of butter onto it as soon as you add it to the bun. This will create a new flavor element and ensure your burger is as juicy as possible. It's known as a butter burger.

If you're responsible for cooking the party's burgers, a dry patty is your worst nightmare. And while the butter burger might not be the healthiest variety in the burger game, it just might have your party guests demanding you come over and grill burgers for future gatherings, too. The method is most popular in Wisconsin, where it's been around for nearly 90 years, but we're certain it should be used in all 50 states.

You might have been told that using lean ground beef is the best way to get a juicy burger, but it turns out that adding butter is the real trick. The butter burger not only consists of butter but also generally requires a thin patty — no more than a half-inch thick.

Cook the patty smash burger style, using a spatula to make it thin. The butter comes in when you're ready to add it to the bun; that's where the magic happens. When you close the butter between the patty and the bun, it melts into a beautiful burger addition.

Adding butter to a cooked patty can be likened to adding butter to a hot off-the-grill steak. As the steak rests, it absorbs that melting butter, giving it an additional flavor element. Think of your patty as a less-fancy steak cut (it already is, right?).

Wisconsin might have made the butter burger famous, but Culver's, a chain restaurant with locations all around the country, has helped take this burger national. As for the best cuts of beef to use in a butter burger, Culver's suggests a combination of sirloin, chuck, and plate. If you can grind your own meat in a blender, you might want to try this, but if you are limited to patties offered at the grocery store, you can still get a delicious burger by using beef that's a bit fattier. Try an 80/20 (80% lean) or 85/15 blend. Anything higher than that might not give you that desired juiciness.

Fat, while not always healthy, adds flavor and moisture to ground beef, so using a healthier fat percentage will often result in a dry burger if not adequately prepared. It certainly doesn't hurt to use this kind for nutritional reasons, but stick to something in the 15% fat range for the juiciest butter burger.