The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

(Nandana) #1
A   bulging burger  that    overwhelms  its bun.


  • Dry Matter. This symptom is too gruesome to


show     in  photographs.    It  occurs  when    the     griller     notices
that the burger is beginning to acquire a golf-ball-like
shape halfway through cooking. He responds by pressing
down on it with the back of a spatula. Fat and juices fall
into the flames and ignite. The result is a flat patty,
squeezed dry, and singed on the outside with a heavy
deposit of black soot from the burnt fat.

Here’s why all of these problems occur. As we know,
when meat cooks, it contracts. With very thin patties that
cook through quickly, this contraction is fairly even—they
shrink equally from all directions, remaining relatively flat.
With a thick burger, however, while the edges seem to get

Free download pdf