How High-Quality Natural Ingredients Elevate Your Dinner

There is no end to the number of tasty hamburgers you can make, but here are 12 that will make your mouth water.

J. Kenji Lpez-Alt composes a column for The New York Times on food and science, and he establishes dishes and appears in videos for NYT Cooking. He is also the creator and host of Kenji's Cooking Program on YouTube.

Credit ... Adam CentrellaAs a professional chef, food author and cookbook author, I have actually spent the last twenty years of my career carefully researching and evaluating dishes, techniques and commonly accepted cooking area wisdom to figure out the whys of cooking. Over this time, I have actually run multiple hamburger joints and even wrote a regular monthly column for Serious Eats called the Hamburger Laboratory, in which I separated and tested every possible variable that can affect the taste and texture of a hamburger.

But that doesn't mean you can't intend for something better. Here are the most important tips I have actually found for optimizing your hamburger experience, whether in the yard or the kitchen area. Working ground beef too much can trigger it to end up being dense. Credit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Chef-Level Culinary Techniques for Superior Hand-Pressed Patties

In bread, this can be an excellent thing, but with burgers, overhandling can develop an unwanted thick texture. (Integrating extenders, like eggs or breadcrumbs, or extra spices, like onions and herbs, also requires you to strain the meat and distract from the beef flavor, so skip it.) Salting the outside of your patties keeps their texture loose and tender.

This is an excellent thing in sausages, which need to have a company texture, but with hamburgers, you want looseness. A burger must be tender, with plenty of pockets for juices and rendered fat to gather.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

Browning your patties deeply optimizes flavor. Credit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York City Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Whether you're making a big hamburger on the grill or a crisp-edged smash hamburger on a frying pan, browning is flavor, and high heat is key. For thicker grilled or griddled hamburgers, wait up until your pan or grill is hot before including the patties, and cook them till they're well browned on both sides.

This optimizes flavor while maintaining juiciness. Preparing your buns ahead of time lets you get to consuming so much quicker. Credit ... Bryan Gardner for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Do not let your patties sit around on the cutting board (or worse, a steam table). Burgers are at their finest fresh from the fire, before any juices have had a possibility to drip out.

Smash BurgersCredit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Restaurant BurgerCredit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Thick Yard BurgerCredit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York City Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Follow,,, and.

Essential Outdoor Grilling Hacks for 2026

Upgraded May 7, 2026, 8:42 a.m. CTI've constantly been a burger fan. Maturing, I 'd gladly munch them down at sit-down restaurants and from the drive-thru getting back from gymnastics practice. I 'd squish the soft bun and let ketchup dribble down the sides over my fingers. If there were any little melty American cheese leavings stuck on the wrapper, I 'd drag my french fries through them (I still do this).

Catch me on the best day and I may admit that a cheeseburger is my preferred food. Even if you do, it's most likely we do not have the very same idea of what makes the perfect hamburger.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

I kept some old favorites, included some new ones and continued to leave off the ones I understand individuals like however I just. do not. get. Yes, I understand your favorite isn't there. Possibly we have different taste. Perhaps I haven't tried your favorite burger yet. Maybe I'm out to get you (simply kidding).

Let me share with you what makes the ideal burger for me. Let's begin with the patty.

When I bite in, I require to see a little sparkle, some shining from the beef and maybe a little grease running down the sides. When I see a smashburger on the menu, I always go with a double patty. Smashburger or not, the patty should be seared to assist lock in the juices, however not too crusty.