The Key To Super Tender Burgers? Embrace Patty Imperfections

When you build a customized cheeseburger, you can pack between those buns your favorite cheeses with pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, bacon, green chiles, barbecue sauce, ketchup, or mustard. You can even trade out those buns and upgrade your cheeseburger with waffle buns for a sweet twist. All of these ingredients are delicious. However, the delectable experience of eating a cheeseburger begins and ends with that scrumptious beef patty. Whether you like your patty rare, medium, medium-well, or well-done, one thing it absolutely must be is tender. So how exactly can you ensure that succulence when you're preparing your patty to be cooked? It's simple. Be gentle and embrace a lumpy, jagged patty.

You might feel the need to smash and shape your beef into a flat, round patty before throwing it in the pan to cook. However, if you actually take a delicate approach to forming your patty by softly mashing large chunks of beef with your open palm into a knobbly patty and letting the edges remain uneven, you will get the succulent burger that you desire. If you don't allow for these "flaws" in your patty and instead smash it with a heavy hand into a flat, round disc, your patty will be thin, hard to chew, and lack flavor when it's finished cooking. If you heed this warning, but you're afraid you'll still be too heavy-handed when shaping your patty, there's actually a simple hack that you can use to get the job done.

By using the lid from a 1-gallon jar, you can shape your beef into a patty for the perfect tenderness. Simply place the lid on your cooking board. Delicately pack your beef into your 1-gallon lid until it reaches the level or just above the level of the lid. Don't try to completely smooth out the beef in the lid. Allow for lumps or bulging in the beef and splits in the edges. Turn the lid over to let your patty drop onto your cooking board and resist any more shaping or forming aside from some very light patting. Cook that patty and then enjoy that tender burger.

This lid trick works for smaller patties as well. If you'd like to make cheeseburger sliders, then use a small lid from a can or Tupperware. So your patty is now perfectly imperfect to ensure the most tender result, but there are other things you can do as well to create a succulent cheeseburger.

There are lots of ways to upgrade your burger, but one of the best ways to make your burger juicy is to literally add some juiciness with water. Mix a half cup of water into your ground beef before shaping your patty or using the lid trick. You can even place an ice cube right in the middle of the patty while it cooks. When that patty is done cooking in the pan, it'll be oh-so tender and tasty.

Incorporating butter will also help you achieve a really tender burger. Simply add a few spoonfuls of butter to your pan as your patty cooks to let the butter melt. Use a spatula to drag the patty over the melted butter, then flip the patty over the melted butter so it can soak up all of that buttery deliciousness on both sides. You'll have a very juicy burger to enjoy, and it's all because you initially allowed your lumpy and jagged-edged patty to become the tender burger that it could be.