House Made Burgers and Chips

House Made

Burgers & Chips

Great burgers are my husbands favorite food I think. When we go to a restaurant that serves many dishes but is known for their burgers I know exactly what he's going to order. So I decided I needed to work on this meal for him at home.

Until I learned this tip I was never very good at making burgers because they would always shrink and fall apart.This is the best way to make perfectly formed burger patties that are uniform and never fall apart on the grill. I know I could go out and buy a burger forming gadget but what fun would that be? The method I'm using has an added bonus too. Crazy easy clean-up! I love the way these patties are all the same size and thickness for even cooking too.

Here is my technique:

First, go find the lid to a large jar that's very close to the size of the burger buns you will be using and some plastic wrap. Lay a square piece of plastic wrap across the top of the upside down lid like in the picture below.

Next, mix up your ground meat. I'm not going to give you a recipe here because I encourage you to be creative and enjoy the freedom to make your own burger and not have to buy a preformed one from the freezer section of your local market. I will say that whatever you decide to put with your ground meat it should include one egg for every 16 oz of meat. It works as a binder that will keep your patty from disintegrating on the grill.

Fill up the lid with your burger mixture and mash it in lightly with a fork until it's nice and level and goes all the way out to the edges without leaving any big air spaces. Be careful not to over do it and pack it in too hard.

Now fold the edges of the plastic wrap back across the burger patty and gently press it smooth with your fingers taking care to keep the burger filling level with the edges of the lid.

Now open the plastic wrap back up and lay a square of wax paper across the top of the newly formed patty and flip it out onto your hand like this. Now you can remove the plastic wrap from the perfect burger patty and place the plastic wrap back into the jar lid clean side down to use again.