Burgers and Hot Dog Info

BURGERS 
For beef burgers, use ground chuck with 15 to 20 percent fat. Ask the
butcher to grind it for you and then cook it the same day. Or if you
have access to a meat grinder, grind it yourself just before cooking to
ensure optimal freshness. 
The more fat there is in your ground beef, the more the patties will
shrink. 
To enhance the flavor of the meat, you can add seasonings and other
ingredients, such as finely chopped onion, garlic and Worcestershire
sauce. The possibilities are endless! 
Your hands are the best tools for mixing the ground meat with the other
ingredients. Be sure to wash your hands well with soap and hot water
before and after mixing. Use a light touch and DON'T OVERMIX; handling
the meat too much will melt the fat and produce an unpleasantly dense
burger. 
Use your hands or a burger press to form the patties. Again, avoid
overhandling the meat and don't compact it, which can cause the burgers
to become too dense. 
Cook the burgers over a medium-hot fire in a grill. Turn them only once
and don't press down on them when cooking, which will cause the juices
to escape and encourage flare-ups. 
About 2 min before the burgers are done, place the buns, cut sides down,
at the edge of the grill until lightly toasted. 
Easy flipping Use a grill basket (usually used to grill fish) to make it
easy to flip your burgers. They won't fall apart, and you can flip up to
4 burgers at the same time. 
Juicy burgers Press a few tiny chunks of ice cold butter, not margarine,
into each patty before cooking. Ground chuck makes the best burgers. 
Safe hamburger cooking To ensure safe yet 
delicious hamburgers make patties as usual make a deep thumbprint
(depression) in center. This allows center of burger to cook (problem
area) without burning edges to crisp. 
== Contributed by: ==
* Catsrecipes Y-Group
Category:Cathy's Recipes