Sven Garrett Tells Us Five Steps To Make The Best Burger Ever

Sven Garrett Tells Us Five Steps To Make The Best Burger Ever

First, season your meat. I’ve spoken to a lot chefs of who don’t like to stretch much on seasoning their ground meat when making a burger. I believe there are many things than can be done to make a burger great before the cooking process even begins. A simple but tasty seasoning is sea salt, black pepper, soy sauce, and garlic. A more complex flavor can include finely chopped crimini mushrooms, crumbled bacon, truffle oil and basil. Seasoning your meat before grilling it, gives you a great foundation for the completed burger.  

The second thing is don’t overcook your meat. Nothing is worse than to spend time preparing and seasoning your burger patty and then eating a hockey puck. When you cook your beef burgers, whether on the grill or in the oven, flip them only once. Don’t push them down with spatula as you will push all the natural juices out of them. For medium rare burgers, they should be cooked for about 10 minutes. Turkey burgers are a little different and must always be cooked to 165 degrees.

Next, each of your toppings should taste their best before you put them on your burger. Slow roast your tomatoes with oregano, thyme, sea salt and fresh pepper or make a spicy pico de gallo. Grill or caramelize your onions. Sauté the mushrooms. Instead of iceberg lettuce try using a spicy mesclun lettuce mix with herbs.

Fourth comes your sauce or spread. The spread has the ability be the part of your burger with the highest caloric content, but you can make it healthier with a lot of flavor. Try sun-dried tomato or roasted pepper hummus - it has lots of flavor with less fat. An avocado spread like guacamole is tasty, creamy and filled with good, natural fats. Instead of using regular mayonnaise, make an aioli. It sounds fancy, but it’s technically just mayo with more flavor. You can make a pesto aioli, chipotle aioli or horseradish aioli depending on your flavor palate.

Finally, what to serve that delicious burger, toppings and spread on? Bread choice is important and varied. Your choices can range from brioche to ciabatta rolls to pretzel bread as well as sourdough, whole wheat and rosemary olive buns. Yet, whatever you choose to place your food on, make sure it is fresh. There is nothing worse than stale or hard bread. Also, you can always toast your bread for a nice crispiness.

And remember to stay creative with your sides. A burger goes great with more than just traditional French fries. You can try sweet potato fries, kale chips or fried plantains. You can pair it with a quinoa salad or broccoli cole slaw. There are many new, tasty, healthy side dishes to put with your “best burger ever.”