The Only Ingredients Bobby Flay Uses To Season His Burgers

According to grill master Bobby Flay, there are only two ingredients you need to season your burgers: Salt and pepper. Adding other spices, garlic, or onion is a no-no. "That is meatloaf," he told Today Food. 

For what it's worth, Flay isn't the only famous chef who sticks to just salt and pepper. "Adding junk like onions, herbs, eggs, bread crumbs, anything to your ground meat not only forces you to over-handle the mix, but instantly relegates your burgers to the 'meatloaf sandwich' category," J. Kenji López-Alt wrote for Serious Eats.

At first blush, this rule seems a little arbitrary. If you like onions, why not add them to your burger mix? Well, there's actually a strategy behind this unspoken rule. The more you handle ground beef, the denser it gets. When you add extra ingredients to it, it's easy to overwork. As for turning your burger into meatloaf, well, that's a matter of preference. If you like meatloaf sandwiches, you like meatloaf sandwiches — and that's okay. Just don't expect to win any best burger contests.

If you've spent your whole life adding egg, breadcrumbs, and chopped onion to your burger mix, you might need a little more convincing that salt and pepper are enough. Let's think it through.

Beef comes out of the grinder in, to use the scientific term, little squiggles. If you leave them alone, just barely forming the beef into a patty, the end result will be a caramelized, craggy crust on the outside with a light, juicy texture inside. If you vigorously mix the beef, on the other hand, the squiggles knit together, forming a dense puck. That effect intensifies if you add salt to the mix. According to J. Kenji Lopez Alt, salt causes muscle proteins to dissolve, and then crosslink. The result? Dense, chewy meat. That's why you should wait to sprinkle your patties with salt after you've already worked them into your desired shape.

Sprinkling extra seasoning right on top of your patties is the way to go. There's no reason that should negatively affect the texture of your burger. Even Bobby Flay added some ranch seasoning to one of his burger recipes in a sponsorship for Hidden Valley. Thus, the fewer seasonings you add to your mixture, the less you mix your meat and the juicier your burgers turn out.

Whether you agree with Bobby Flay about mix-ins or not, you can learn a lot from the grill master about making a great burger. His lessons start at the grocery store (or better yet, butcher): Buy ground chuck with at least 20% fat. The high-fat content makes for a juicy, flavorful burger. (Psst: Other high-fat cuts like brisket can also be part of the perfect burger patty blend.)

Next, break out the cast iron skillet. "Cast iron has excellent heat diffusion and retention and produces evenly cooked burgers with a really great crust," he told Today Food. But before you fry up your patties, be sure to shape them correctly: With a big thumbprint in the middle. Otherwise, "it plumps up like a football," Flay said.

Once you've fried up perfect burgers, serve them with potato chips. "I love getting a mouthful of juicy burger and salty, crispy potato chips in one bite," Flay wrote in a recipe for the Food Network. "It's a way to get a true contrast of textures into your cheeseburger." Bon appétit.