Selecting the Best Meats for Tasty Burgers

There is no end to the variety of scrumptious burgers you can make, however 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 likewise the creator and host of Kenji's Cooking Show on YouTube.

Credit ... Adam CentrellaAs a professional chef, food writer and cookbook author, I've spent the last 20 years of my career carefully researching and checking dishes, strategies and widely accepted cooking area wisdom to find out the whys of cooking. Over this time, I've operated multiple burger joints and even composed a month-to-month column for Serious Consumes called the Hamburger Lab, in which I separated and evaluated every possible variable that can affect the taste and texture of a burger.

However that doesn't indicate you can't go for something much better. Here are the most essential tips I have actually discovered for enhancing your hamburger experience, whether in the backyard or the cooking area. Working ground beef too much can cause it to end up being thick. Credit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York City Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

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In bread, this can be a good thing, but with hamburgers, overhandling can develop an unwanted dense texture. (Integrating extenders, like eggs or breadcrumbs, or extra spices, like onions and herbs, also requires you to overwork the meat and distract from the beef taste, so skip it.) Salting the exterior of your patties keeps their texture loose and tender.

This is an excellent thing in sausages, which must have a firm texture, but with burgers, you desire looseness. A hamburger needs to be tender, with plenty of pockets for juices and rendered fat to gather.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

Browning your patties deeply maximizes flavor. Credit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Whether you're making a huge burger on the grill or a crisp-edged smash burger on a griddle, browning is taste, and high heat is crucial. For thicker grilled or griddled burgers, wait up until your pan or grill is hot before adding the patties, and prepare them up until they're well browned on both sides.

This optimizes taste while maintaining juiciness. Preparing your buns ahead of time lets you get to consuming a lot faster. Credit ... Bryan Gardner for The New York City Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Do not let your patties relax on the cutting board (or worse, a steam table). Burgers are at their best fresh from the fire, before any juices have actually had a possibility to leak out.

Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

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Updated May 7, 2026, 8:42 a.m. CTI've constantly been a burger lover. 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).

Capture me on the right 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 same concept of what makes the best hamburger.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

I kept some old favorites, added some new ones and continued to leave off the ones I understand people like but I just. don't. get. Yes, I understand your favorite isn't there. Maybe we have different taste. Maybe I haven't tried your preferred burger. Maybe I'm out to get you (simply kidding).

Let me share with you what makes the ideal hamburger for me. Let's start with the patty.

When I bite in, I require to see a little shimmer, some shining from the beef and possibly a little grease diminishing the sides. When I see a smashburger on the menu, I always opt for a double patty. Smashburger or not, the patty must be seared to assist lock in the juices, but not too crusty.