The Reason You Should Skip Preformed Burger Patties

For all their ubiquity in the American diet, not to mention their place in world history with early iterations of seasoned meat, burgers are not as simple as they look. Mistakes when cooking your burgers seem to be about as abundant as actual recipes. With one wrong move, you could end up with burgers that are too dry, too bland, or too burdened by garnishes. And one somewhat surprising pitfall is to not even make the burger patties.

No, we don't mean skipping burger night all together. Like a lot of life's apparent shortcuts, you just might not fully know what you're going to get. In this case, buying premade burger patties could lead to ruinous results. Even outside the seriousness of allergens, which, of course, should be disclosed by merchants, let's take something as seemingly simple as black pepper that might get added to your patty. You know the potency of whatever's in your own spice cabinet. But you don't know whether whatever's been ground into those manufactured patties has lost all flavor or, on the flip side, is hotter than what you're used to. Now, are a few shakes of black pepper going to kibosh your burgers, ruin the cookout, and render you friendless? Only maybe! But the number of questions you'd have to ask for a complete picture of what's in those preformed patties might take almost as long as it would to just do the work yourself. So you may as well do the work yourself.

You could spend all day investigating the patties you purchased. What was the meat blend? What seasonings were used? What proportion of seasonings were used? What's the fat content? Are there any binding agents? Are the patties more densely packed than they appear? These are critical questions that could affect how you actually cook the burgers and even what cheese, buns, and toppings you might want to pair with them. You're already busy, the unwitting retailer who's getting bombarded by your questions is busy, and the increasingly irritated people now forming a line behind you are all busy. Just make the burger patties with your own capable hands and keep the peace of crowd and mind.

You can avoid some of those other burger blunders by starting with a ground beef blend that's 20% fat. Skip the eggs, breadcrumbs, and other purported food binders, and let that fat be your combiner. Mix gently and then shape into patties that are thin enough to stay juicy, but thick enough to sink your teeth into. Use our favorite tip for seasoning, but only after forming the patties so that the meat retains moisture. Fire to the minimum doneness required for safety, emerge as a grill hero, impress your friends, and enjoy.