Now that the weather has warmed up are you looking to cook some hamburgers on your grill? Would you like your hamburgers to be the envy of your friends and family? Well here are some tips to grill the perfect hamburger.
When grilling a hamburger you need to consider several key ingredients to successful grilling. These include the cooking utensils, preparing the grill, choosing the right pellet flavor (if you’re cooking with a Traeger), handling your burger while it cooks, and serving the hamburger.
Finally, have this video handy on your phone so you can see how you should eat your hamburgers while you watch them cook on the grill!
When preparing to cook a hamburger on the grill, many people make one crucial mistake. They put the hamburger on the grill way too early. You should not put your hamburger on the grill until the coals have ashened over. This means they all appear grey.
This is when the coals are at their hottest and will sear the meat to maintain the natural juices of your hamburger meat inside the hamburger itself. If you do not sear your hamburger properly the juices will leak out while grilling and bead on top of the burger. You will have some minor beading no matter how well you sear the hamburger on the grill, but a proper sear on the grill will limit this.
Speaking of the beading of juices on the hamburger. This is a great time to consider flipping your burger. It gives you an indication the hamburger is starting to get close to the desired temperature.
You will want to let the juices drain though over an area of the grill with no coals as these juices will cause major flare ups. If you just flip your hamburger when grilling it and let the juices land below you will likely end up with a charred burger.
Many people like to season their burgers. There are two times that are perfect for doing it, one is before cooking and the other is just before flipping the burger. Keep in mind though that some seasoning will fall off after it is flipped. This should only occur once during the cooking cycle, as when grilling the perfect hamburger the burger should only be flipped once on the grill.
If you wish to add a barbecue sauce to your burger as you cook it on the grill, make sure you wait until the last few minutes. Most barbecue sauces have very high sugar content. Sugar content results in burning of the barbecue sauce on the burger. My preference to have the ultimate grilled hamburger is to put the sauce on 30 seconds to a minute before removing the hamburger from the grill.
Finally, serving the hamburger is key. Keep your hamburger buns in your grilling area. Toast them on the grill for 30 seconds just before your hamburger finishes. Then place the hamburger on the bun immediately. This helps keep the “grilled” or smoked flavor of the burger on the the bun as well as the meat.
Hopefully you will find these tips to cook the perfect hamburger on the grill helpful. My friends and family certainly do as they request to come over for hamburgers on the grill at my place all the time during grilling season.
