2019-08-01 Cook\'s Country

28 COOK’S COUNTRY • AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019

DIY: Grinding Your Own Meat

1. Trim the meat of excess fat so the burg-
   ers won’t be greasy or chewy.
   2. Cut the meat into small cubes to help
   them process more efficiently.
   3. Briefly freeze the cubes on a plate; this
   flash-freezing is key to even grinding.
   4. Pulse the meat in a food processor in
   two batches until ground; discard any
   long strands of gristle.

COOKING FOR TWO

I LOVE A casual burger as much as

(maybe more than) the next person.

But burgers can be special-occasion

food, too—why not eat burgers by

candlelight? Or, since we’re cooking

for two, why not whip up a couple of

burgers for date night?

The first thing to do is let go of the

notion of buying ground meat at the

supermarket; for the best burgers, you

need to grind your own. Don’t worry,

it’s easy to do in the food processor

as long as you cube and briefly freeze

the pieces of meat first—20 pulses and

you’re done. But which cut of beef

works best for burgers? I tested chuck,

sirloin, strip steak, short ribs, and even

brisket, and my tasters all favored the

burgers made with rich, well-marbled

short ribs. It’s easiest to buy them

boneless, but if all you can find are

bone-in English short ribs, you can

easily remove the meat from the bone

at home.

A couple of tips on shaping the

burgers: First, make sure to pick

through the ground meat to remove

any especially stringy or fatty bits.

Second, be gentle when you pick up

the meat and shape the patties in your

hands; overworking the raw patties can

make for tough cooked burgers.

These burgers are big, so I took care

to cook them perfectly. That entailed

searing one side in a hot skillet for

3 minutes, flipping the patties, and

then searing the second side for

Ultimate

Hamburgers

These big, bold, special-occasion burgers are

worth the work. by Alli Berkey

SHORT RIB BURGERS FOR TWO

Bone-in English-style beef short ribs

can be used if boneless are unavailable.

You will need to purchase 1½ pounds;

be sure to remove all silverskin and

excess fat next to the bone. While we

prefer short ribs, 12 ounces of sirloin

steak tips or chuck-eye roast can be

substituted. (We use less of those cuts

to start because there is less fat and

gristle to discard.) If you’d like to top

your burgers with cheese, do so right

before covering the skillet in step 5.

2 minutes. Then I pulled the skillet

from the burner, covered it, and let the

burgers finish cooking gently off the

heat (2 minutes more for medium-rare,

longer for medium and well-done). I

tried a variety of cheeses but ultimately

decided to skip the cheese and add a

sauce instead.

I tested mushroom sauces, wine

reductions, and even homemade

ketchup, but none was up to snuff.

Since meaty, savory flavor is the name

of the burger game, I turned to a su-

persavory ingredient: white miso. This

Japanese soup base is salty, bright, and

packed with umami flavor. After a bit

of experimentation, I ended up with

a quick stir-together sauce of white

miso, mayonnaise, scallion, rice vine-

gar, and pepper. It was perfect—acidic

enough to cut through the richness of

the short rib burgers while upping the

ante on savoriness. Let’s eat.