Burger Basics and More
"Burger basics and more" is packed with ideas to simplify preparation and give you juicy results:
- Use onion soup mix and eliminate tears from chopping onions.
- Mix ingredients in a sealable freezer bag for neat and easy clean-up.
- Use a light hand when forming patties, as manhandling meat will make the burgers seem firm and less tender.
- Indent the top to keep patties from puffing up during cooking.
- Use a digital rapid-read thermometer to ensure your burgers are cooked safely to perfection. Insert thermometer sideways into the center of each patty. Burgers are completely cooked when the temperature reaches 160°F (71°C).
- When barbecuing for a crowd, reheat frozen fully cooked burgers on the grill - it's faster, simpler and safer.
Of course for the best taste, you'll want to start with the best meat, Canadian Ground Beef. For a juicy flavour, mix half Regular Ground Beef with half Extra Lean. At about 20% fat, the resulting blend is lower in fat than Medium and the risk of flare-up is moderate.
From a 4 lb (2 kg) bulk pack of meat, using the So-Simple Burger mix recipe in "Burger basics and more", you can make a family picnic batch of six each pint-sized, standard-sized and he-man-sized burgers. Or for double duty dinners, use half the batch to make square meatballs, a quick and easy alternative to fussy round ones.
Often under-rated for their nutritional contribution, lean burgers have a lot going for them. They're an excellent source of protein, zinc and vitamin B12 and a good source of iron. Moreover, grilling a burger can reduce the amount of fat in ground beef on average by one-third.
Burgers don't always need to hide inside buns. Nestle a hot juicy grilled burger on a bed of fresh greens dressed with a low-fat vinaigrette and serve with tomato wedges, crumbled blue cheese, fresh onion rings and sesame croutons.
