Grill ‘em up. Sometimes the best burger you can eat is the one you fix yourself. I love to grill. I’ve been grilling for years and those who have had the fortune (or misfortune) to imbibe in my culinary delights seem to think I’m pretty good at it.
Lots of people only put one or two things on the grill. I cook all kinds of food there. Not just meat but potatoes and even vegetables. I’ve done pizza on the grill and always cook the Thanksgiving turkey there. Food just seems to taste better on the grill.
For me what adds so much flavor to grilled food is the fire and what the fire is made of. In the kitchen we have a gas stove. If I want to cook something with gas I can go there and cook away. But outside, grilling, that needs to be done with charcoal and wood. Yes, wood. Different woods can infuse different flavors. (I’ll blog about different wood some other time.)
Last night we decided to throw some burgers on the grill. I like to start with quarter to third pound burgers made from ground chuck that’s an 80-20 mix. I’ve found that too much fat content in the meet and the burgers shrink up. Not enough and they can have a tendency to fall apart. Besides, that fat is what adds so flavor; it’s like the marbling on a really good steak
Most times I’ll just add some sea salt and freshly ground pepper to the patties and go from there. If I’m in the mood, I’ll add my special steak blend seasoning to give them a little kick. My steak rub contains salt, pepper, dehydrated garlic and onion, along with finely minced red bell pepper and a couple of other secret spices. Last night I added the rub to my burger.
When grilling I believe in a lot of indirect heat. With burgers I’ll sear them over the flame for 30 seconds to a minute per side. This cooks the outer part of the patty and helps hold in the juices. Then I’ll move it off of the flame to cook for 10 minutes or so. It takes a little longer but the indirect heat doesn’t dry up the burger the way keeping over the flames sometimes does.
Another important ingredient in my burger grilling is the wood. My favorite kind of wood to use with burgers is hickory and last night I started my fire with some charcoal and added plenty of hickory chunks to the mix. Then, I formed a sort of bowl out of heavy duty aluminum foil and filled it with a mix of mesquite and white oak wood chips. These I put near enough to the fire so they don’t catch and burn but that the heat makes them start smoking.
As a side, I also chopped up some sweet potato, put it in another piece of manipulated heavy duty aluminum foil, mixed in some extra virgin olive oil, added sea salt and black pepper and put it on the grill for about 30 minutes.
When the burger is just about done I added my cheese. Last night was a fresh slice of provolone. I’ll choose different cheeses depending on my mood but last night was all about kick of the steak rub and the mellowness of the provolone let those flavors shine through.
I’ll write more about grilling burgers; about some different recopies and special ways I like to prepare them. I’ll also blog some about wood and different types of wood that I use, not only for grilling burgers but for all kinds of food.
For now, spring is here so grill ‘em if you got ‘em.
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