Burger Fundamentals: Build Your Own Perfect Burger
Most burger recipes on YouTube share someone's favorite burger, "the best burger I've ever made", but not what the components of a good burger actually are. This is the perfect homemade burger the other way around: through my gourmet truffle-mustard-mayo, caramelized-onion, oven-roasted-tomato double cheeseburger, I'll show you what matters in each layer so you can design your own darling. First rule: even though you can learn a lot from Gordon Ramsay, don't let anybody tell you what to put on your burger. It's your burger.
Ingredients
- 340 g bread or all-purpose flour (2 tbsp of it goes into the roux)
- 2 tbsp water, for the roux
- 130 ml whole milk, lukewarm
- 20 g sugar
- 1 egg, plus 1 extra egg yolk for richness
- 7 g instant yeast
- 1 egg + a splash of water, for the egg wash
- 7 g sea salt
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened, plus melted butter for after baking
- optional flaky salt or sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise (vegan works too)
- 2 tbsp white truffle oil
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp MSG
- a few good cracks black pepper and salt
- 200 g per patty high-quality ground beef, 70–80% lean / 20–30% fat (120 g for smash, 270 g for XXL)
- per burger cheddar and mature or young Dutch Gouda (at least one cheese, I say)
- to build pickles, oven-roasted tomatoes, slow caramelized onions, or classic lettuce, tomato, pickled onions
- generous salt and pepper
Method
The buns
- 1
Add the flour to your stand mixer bowl, then take 2 tablespoons of it into a pan with 2 tablespoons of water. Cook on medium heat for a few seconds until thick, this quick roux makes the buns softer and keeps them fresh longer. Set aside.
- 2
To the flour add the salt, sugar, egg and extra yolk. Add the yeast over the lukewarm milk, give it a quick mix, then pour it in and let the mixer knead with the dough hook for 15 minutes.
- 3
Five minutes in, add the roux and the softened butter. The dough should become a soft, smooth ball, sticky but not impossible to work with. Too runny, add flour; too dry, a splash of water. It all depends on your flour.
- 4
Form a smooth ball and rest it, covered with plastic wrap, for 1–2 hours or until doubled in size.
- 5
Punch it down like you learned in anger management class. On a floured surface, divide into 6 tightly rolled balls, place on a baking sheet with a baking mat, cover with another sheet, and rest in a warm spot for 30 minutes or until doubled.
- 6
Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Mix an egg with a splash of water and coat the buns for that gloss like a real boss brioche. Flaky salt or sesame seeds if you like.
- 7
Bake 15–20 minutes until golden brown, the inside of the bun wants to be around 88 °C. Brush with melted butter straight out of the oven and cool 5–10 minutes.
The sauce
- 8
Mix the mayonnaise, truffle oil, Dijon, garlic powder, MSG, and good cracks of salt and pepper. Creamy goodness, done.
The burgers
- 9
Pack the beef loosely into patties, 200 g for a gourmet burger, 120 g for smash, 270 g if you go XXL.
- 10
Cut the buns and toast them in a dry pan. Always toast your buns, if you don't, the whole burger goes soggy, falls apart, and it's just a sad experience. If you don't toast your buns, I will find you.
- 11
Get a cast-iron pan nipping hot on medium-high. That heat gives the Maillard reaction, the browning that builds the flavor crust.
- 12
Lay the patty in, press it down, and do not move it. Season heavily with salt and pepper, flip, season again.
- 13
In the final minutes, add the cheese, earlier and it melts into your pan and you lose the cheese. Not good.
- 14
Cook to internal temperature, not time: 62 °C for medium to medium-well with freshly ground beef, 70–75 °C for supermarket mince (like I shamefully used today). As a rule of thumb that's 6–14 minutes total depending on pan heat and patty size.
- 15
Rest the burger a couple of minutes so it soaks back up the juices it lost in the pan.
- 16
Assemble so nothing slides around: bun, sauce, pickles, oven-roasted tomatoes, the cheesy burger, caramelized onions, more sauce on the top bun, then crown this bad boy.
6 tools I used.
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