June 28, 2025 • 12 mins
How to make the perfect burger this grilling season? Neil has some tips about meat temp, seasonings, ingredients, and more! It's all on KFIAM-640!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's always grilling season. I wanted to talk about burgers,
something seemingly so simple, but technique and ingredients are imperative
because of its simplicity. When you're making something complex, a
lot of times it can, you know, kind of hide
behind all the other ingredients and the complexity of it.
(00:21):
But the more simple something is that you're going to
cook or make, the more right on the money has
to be. And I hear this probably more than any
other thing. Pizza dough is probably up there somewhere, but
more than any other thing. I'm asked about the perfect burger,
(00:42):
which lends one to ask, or leads one to ask,
what is perfect to you? Do you like a thick
burger a thin burger? Do you like thin patties? Like
a smash burger? But you want two of them? My
brother cannot eat a patty. He thinks it's gross. I know, right,
(01:05):
he just can't. He won't have like a double cheeseburger
or something. Yes, I know your next question is gonna
be even at in and out it's a single like
he doesn't go give me a double doubt like the
rest of us humans, and that because that's not his jam.
But why is it gross, Like is it just too
much meat? That's something gross something. But I mean even
(01:27):
but you would think, well, what about a smash burger?
But even a smash burger bothers him. I have no idea.
I don't do therapy on this show, whole other show.
But so I want to talk about these. So whatever
your perfect burger is, let's go through some of the
things you're gonna need. The biggest problem people will say
(01:51):
is my burgers turn out to dry. So there's two
things that can go wrong when your burgers go dry,
wrong meat ratio or wrong meat altogether, or cooked too long,
just overcooked. So the right meat to use. And I'm
sorry for those of you who are like, oh, I'm
gonna make a chicken burger, it's going to be dry.
(02:15):
Probably you're opting for ground beef with good fat content,
and you can't get that anywhere else than an eighty
twenty ratio. That means eighty percent lean twenty percent fat,
which is the exact opposite of my body makeup. Strangely enough,
(02:36):
if you're playing the home game. So for a juicy burger,
which my boy loves, Daddy, make me one of your
juicy cheeseburgers, you need an eighty twenty ratio. So if
you're going lean on the meat, you will not get this.
You just won't. You gotta avoid lean meat. That's you know,
lean meat. You put it if you're mixing it into
(02:56):
your spaghetti sauce or you're doing something like that. That's
when you go for the lean stuff. But don't do
it when you're doing a burger when it's the star
of the show, right, So avoid that because it's gonna,
you know, give you dry burgers. The second thing is
that when you're cooking the burger, people tend to overcook them. Yes,
(03:18):
you want them at a certain dunness. The better quality
of the meat, the looser you can be with the heat.
I kind of hesitate saying this because reality is you
need to know what you're doing. The reason why you
can have a rare or medium rare steak and then
(03:42):
at a restaurant when you ask for a burger medium rare,
they said, okay, that's this, And then there's a little
thing on the menu that says having hamburger meat less
than one hundred and sixty five degrees and be dangerous
is because when you grind a steak to make hamburger meat.
(04:07):
The steak has the most bacteria on the outside and
it's most preserved on the inside. Once you grind it,
they all mate with each other and now all the
bacteria is throughout the entirety. That is why hamburgers should
be cooked to one sixty five. So what I do
to keep them from drying out is I slowly. If
(04:32):
it's a thicker burger, I put it on high heat.
I'm searing that while I'm cooking it, turning it over
and then bringing it. I bring it up to a
top rack off of the direct heat, and that's where
I put my cheese on it, drop the lid and
melt the cheese. But what I'm doing is that heat
is going to continue to travel from the outside to
(04:53):
the inside of the meat as I take it off,
and as I put it on to the plate, it
will continue to cook and then it will get to
a nice juicy state. Rather than cooking it to one
hundred and sixty five and then taking off, it's going
to go up to about one hundred and seventy five
after that. So that's one of the things that you
(05:15):
have to battle with is the keeping those juices in there.
When we come back, I'll talk about the tricks and
tips you need to actually make those patties. There are
a trick to it. My mom makes great patties, always have,
probably because with seven kids you couldn't spend a lot
of time on them. And that's really the tip that
(05:35):
we'll get into to get those patties perfect for grilling
or roasting. If you're you know, if you're putting them
under the broiler whatever it is on pans here, man,
the heat gets up and it's just these lovely Southern
California days, great for grilling. Been doing a lot of grilling,
enjoying that. I hope you're doing the same. I want
(05:58):
to remind you a couple of things. One mo Kelly
is on YouTube every night during his show. You've got
to check it out. There are so many times that
I'm either in my home office or in my home
shop and I have them on and it's exactly like
sitting as I have done. I've sat with him during
his show before. It's exactly like doing that. But you're
at home. So if you're in your Tony's or something,
(06:20):
no one's going to have a problem if you do
that live with mo. There's a problem, trust me. I
found that out the hard way. But it's a lot
of fun and it's an interesting way to listen and
enjoy the program. All right. I also want to remind
you that the twelfth Saturday, July twelfth, write that down,
(06:41):
join me at Wild Fork Foods in Santa Clarita. That's
right off the Magic Mountain Parkway. There in store at
Wild Fork Foods, and if you've never been to one, man,
it's spectacular. You can get all kinds of rare meats
and things like that, as well as your classics, but
they also have pre prepared aired stuff. A unique experience,
(07:05):
to say the least when shopping. But it's a summer
grilling season. We'll be doing giveaways broadcasting live right there
at two four one seventy five Magic Mountain Parkway. I
would love to meet you. I'm going to bring some
swag to give away, some Folk Report swag as well.
So July twelfth on Magic Mountain Parkway at Wild Fork,
(07:25):
So write that down. Talking about Technique of the Week
and burger patties. I know it seems simple, but man,
if you can't get a burger patty right then people
will hate your guts. There, I said it. That's your
life is going to be people hating you and talking
bad behind your back. There is nothing more sad to me.
And someone makes bad burgers because you know those people
(07:49):
you invited, they may be smiling now and all of that,
and you can tell they're the ones that are putting,
you know, three times the amount of condiments on the
burger that they should be because that's how bad it is.
And they're going to talk bad about you. So it
should be a point of pride. When you make the paddies.
You want to keep the ground beef cold. You want
to keep it cold until you're ready to make those patties.
(08:12):
You want cold hands too, and it's one of the
people that one of the things people do, and one
of the tips that I've seen is they keep a
bowl of ice water next to them and you can
actually put your hands in the ice water when you're
packing them. The key to this is you want to
make them, you know, quickly. You do not want to
overwork the meat. You want to gently shape them. This
(08:33):
will help you get little pockets in there that will
hold the juices if you make it too dense. You're
going to get a dry burger. There's nowhere for that
juice to kind of hang out. Also, when you have
your hands are naturally warm, and they are going to
heat the fat. And that's why when you make patties
for too long with too warm hands, you come and
(08:56):
you you pull your hands away, and your hands are
covered in fat, even chunks of fat. And those chunks
you've actually pulled because you've ground They've ground the meat together,
so you got the eighty twenty meat, and that twenty
percent fat is now getting onto your hands, which makes
the patty have less than twenty percent fat, and that
(09:18):
will make them. You want patties to be slightly larger
than the buns because they're gonna shrink during cooking. Some
people do this. I do this on occasion, depending on
if I'm hand making my patties means I'm not using
anything else to create their shape. Then I will put
a little divt, a little divot in the center of
(09:43):
the burger, and that way, when it can constricts because
of the heat, it'll push that divot out rather than
making it look like a football. Some people will put
when they go to put it on the grill they'll
put a piece of ice on. It does similar. It
keeps it very cool on the inside and the top
(10:03):
so that it doesn't constrict. As fast. As far as
seasoning goes, salt and pepper is great. You really don't
need anything else. I'll tell you something I'm a fan
of though, and this was because of my mom. Is
lowery seasoning salt. Love that on a burger. I just
you know, and I'm mostly a salt and pepper guy,
(10:24):
Like when it comes to meat, I'm like, hey, just
you want it to taste like the meat, not a seasoning.
But I do love me some lowery seasoning salt and
it goes great on a patty. So you don't want
to salt too early. Can you know? The thing about
salt is it pulls moisture out, so you do it
right before it goes on, and you want it on
(10:48):
a hot pan or grill. You get that sears. It's
almost the opposite of cooking a steak, where you're doing
a reverse sere. High heat, does that great crust, Oh
that crunchy, lovely crust. And avoid pressing down on the patties.
But as far as flipping them, flip them, however, once
you want. People say, oh, you should only flip it once.
(11:10):
If that's how you grill them, that's fine, but there
is no real difference there is like people. Matter of fact,
science has shown that the more you flip meat, it
actually rotates the juices, just like a rotisserie does on
the chicken, and can actually keep it more flavorful. But
(11:32):
the sear gets there because of the heat, right, And
if you flip a bunch of times, you won't get
that seer because the grate that you're cooking on or
the pan never gets time to come back to heat
high heat again because that burger every time you flip
it is stealing heat from there. So, for instance, when
(11:54):
I cook burgers, if I'm cooking for burgers because my
wife doesn't eat red meat, I'm doing it just for
my son and me, and so I will make room
so that when I flip them after the first year,
I'm flipping them not back to where they were, but
onto a new part of the grate so that they
(12:15):
get that full heat again. And that works nicely. And
then if I need to flip them over again, the
part that I didn't flip them on before is now
hot enough to do that. So those are some things.
Let them rest a few minutes to really what you
want them to do is to come to one hundred
and twenty degrees in the center. Is when they've rested enough,
that goes down. So they've gone from their high heat
(12:36):
down to one twenty, and you know they're not going
to squeeze out
It's always grilling season. I wanted to talk about burgers,
something seemingly so simple, but technique and ingredients are imperative
because of its simplicity. When you're making something complex, a
lot of times it can, you know, kind of hide
behind all the other ingredients and the complexity of it.
(00:21):
But the more simple something is that you're going to
cook or make, the more right on the money has
to be. And I hear this probably more than any
other thing. Pizza dough is probably up there somewhere, but
more than any other thing. I'm asked about the perfect burger,
(00:42):
which lends one to ask, or leads one to ask,
what is perfect to you? Do you like a thick
burger a thin burger? Do you like thin patties? Like
a smash burger? But you want two of them? My
brother cannot eat a patty. He thinks it's gross. I know, right,
(01:05):
he just can't. He won't have like a double cheeseburger
or something. Yes, I know your next question is gonna
be even at in and out it's a single like
he doesn't go give me a double doubt like the
rest of us humans, and that because that's not his jam.
But why is it gross, Like is it just too
much meat? That's something gross something. But I mean even
(01:27):
but you would think, well, what about a smash burger?
But even a smash burger bothers him. I have no idea.
I don't do therapy on this show, whole other show.
But so I want to talk about these. So whatever
your perfect burger is, let's go through some of the
things you're gonna need. The biggest problem people will say
(01:51):
is my burgers turn out to dry. So there's two
things that can go wrong when your burgers go dry,
wrong meat ratio or wrong meat altogether, or cooked too long,
just overcooked. So the right meat to use. And I'm
sorry for those of you who are like, oh, I'm
gonna make a chicken burger, it's going to be dry.
(02:15):
Probably you're opting for ground beef with good fat content,
and you can't get that anywhere else than an eighty
twenty ratio. That means eighty percent lean twenty percent fat,
which is the exact opposite of my body makeup. Strangely enough,
(02:36):
if you're playing the home game. So for a juicy burger,
which my boy loves, Daddy, make me one of your
juicy cheeseburgers, you need an eighty twenty ratio. So if
you're going lean on the meat, you will not get this.
You just won't. You gotta avoid lean meat. That's you know,
lean meat. You put it if you're mixing it into
(02:56):
your spaghetti sauce or you're doing something like that. That's
when you go for the lean stuff. But don't do
it when you're doing a burger when it's the star
of the show, right, So avoid that because it's gonna,
you know, give you dry burgers. The second thing is
that when you're cooking the burger, people tend to overcook them. Yes,
(03:18):
you want them at a certain dunness. The better quality
of the meat, the looser you can be with the heat.
I kind of hesitate saying this because reality is you
need to know what you're doing. The reason why you
can have a rare or medium rare steak and then
(03:42):
at a restaurant when you ask for a burger medium rare,
they said, okay, that's this, And then there's a little
thing on the menu that says having hamburger meat less
than one hundred and sixty five degrees and be dangerous
is because when you grind a steak to make hamburger meat.
(04:07):
The steak has the most bacteria on the outside and
it's most preserved on the inside. Once you grind it,
they all mate with each other and now all the
bacteria is throughout the entirety. That is why hamburgers should
be cooked to one sixty five. So what I do
to keep them from drying out is I slowly. If
(04:32):
it's a thicker burger, I put it on high heat.
I'm searing that while I'm cooking it, turning it over
and then bringing it. I bring it up to a
top rack off of the direct heat, and that's where
I put my cheese on it, drop the lid and
melt the cheese. But what I'm doing is that heat
is going to continue to travel from the outside to
(04:53):
the inside of the meat as I take it off,
and as I put it on to the plate, it
will continue to cook and then it will get to
a nice juicy state. Rather than cooking it to one
hundred and sixty five and then taking off, it's going
to go up to about one hundred and seventy five
after that. So that's one of the things that you
(05:15):
have to battle with is the keeping those juices in there.
When we come back, I'll talk about the tricks and
tips you need to actually make those patties. There are
a trick to it. My mom makes great patties, always have,
probably because with seven kids you couldn't spend a lot
of time on them. And that's really the tip that
(05:35):
we'll get into to get those patties perfect for grilling
or roasting. If you're you know, if you're putting them
under the broiler whatever it is on pans here, man,
the heat gets up and it's just these lovely Southern
California days, great for grilling. Been doing a lot of grilling,
enjoying that. I hope you're doing the same. I want
(05:58):
to remind you a couple of things. One mo Kelly
is on YouTube every night during his show. You've got
to check it out. There are so many times that
I'm either in my home office or in my home
shop and I have them on and it's exactly like
sitting as I have done. I've sat with him during
his show before. It's exactly like doing that. But you're
at home. So if you're in your Tony's or something,
(06:20):
no one's going to have a problem if you do
that live with mo. There's a problem, trust me. I
found that out the hard way. But it's a lot
of fun and it's an interesting way to listen and
enjoy the program. All right. I also want to remind
you that the twelfth Saturday, July twelfth, write that down,
(06:41):
join me at Wild Fork Foods in Santa Clarita. That's
right off the Magic Mountain Parkway. There in store at
Wild Fork Foods, and if you've never been to one, man,
it's spectacular. You can get all kinds of rare meats
and things like that, as well as your classics, but
they also have pre prepared aired stuff. A unique experience,
(07:05):
to say the least when shopping. But it's a summer
grilling season. We'll be doing giveaways broadcasting live right there
at two four one seventy five Magic Mountain Parkway. I
would love to meet you. I'm going to bring some
swag to give away, some Folk Report swag as well.
So July twelfth on Magic Mountain Parkway at Wild Fork,
(07:25):
So write that down. Talking about Technique of the Week
and burger patties. I know it seems simple, but man,
if you can't get a burger patty right then people
will hate your guts. There, I said it. That's your
life is going to be people hating you and talking
bad behind your back. There is nothing more sad to me.
And someone makes bad burgers because you know those people
(07:49):
you invited, they may be smiling now and all of that,
and you can tell they're the ones that are putting,
you know, three times the amount of condiments on the
burger that they should be because that's how bad it is.
And they're going to talk bad about you. So it
should be a point of pride. When you make the paddies.
You want to keep the ground beef cold. You want
to keep it cold until you're ready to make those patties.
(08:12):
You want cold hands too, and it's one of the
people that one of the things people do, and one
of the tips that I've seen is they keep a
bowl of ice water next to them and you can
actually put your hands in the ice water when you're
packing them. The key to this is you want to
make them, you know, quickly. You do not want to
overwork the meat. You want to gently shape them. This
(08:33):
will help you get little pockets in there that will
hold the juices if you make it too dense. You're
going to get a dry burger. There's nowhere for that
juice to kind of hang out. Also, when you have
your hands are naturally warm, and they are going to
heat the fat. And that's why when you make patties
for too long with too warm hands, you come and
(08:56):
you you pull your hands away, and your hands are
covered in fat, even chunks of fat. And those chunks
you've actually pulled because you've ground They've ground the meat together,
so you got the eighty twenty meat, and that twenty
percent fat is now getting onto your hands, which makes
the patty have less than twenty percent fat, and that
(09:18):
will make them. You want patties to be slightly larger
than the buns because they're gonna shrink during cooking. Some
people do this. I do this on occasion, depending on
if I'm hand making my patties means I'm not using
anything else to create their shape. Then I will put
a little divt, a little divot in the center of
(09:43):
the burger, and that way, when it can constricts because
of the heat, it'll push that divot out rather than
making it look like a football. Some people will put
when they go to put it on the grill they'll
put a piece of ice on. It does similar. It
keeps it very cool on the inside and the top
(10:03):
so that it doesn't constrict. As fast. As far as
seasoning goes, salt and pepper is great. You really don't
need anything else. I'll tell you something I'm a fan
of though, and this was because of my mom. Is
lowery seasoning salt. Love that on a burger. I just
you know, and I'm mostly a salt and pepper guy,
(10:24):
Like when it comes to meat, I'm like, hey, just
you want it to taste like the meat, not a seasoning.
But I do love me some lowery seasoning salt and
it goes great on a patty. So you don't want
to salt too early. Can you know? The thing about
salt is it pulls moisture out, so you do it
right before it goes on, and you want it on
(10:48):
a hot pan or grill. You get that sears. It's
almost the opposite of cooking a steak, where you're doing
a reverse sere. High heat, does that great crust, Oh
that crunchy, lovely crust. And avoid pressing down on the patties.
But as far as flipping them, flip them, however, once
you want. People say, oh, you should only flip it once.
(11:10):
If that's how you grill them, that's fine, but there
is no real difference there is like people. Matter of fact,
science has shown that the more you flip meat, it
actually rotates the juices, just like a rotisserie does on
the chicken, and can actually keep it more flavorful. But
(11:32):
the sear gets there because of the heat, right, And
if you flip a bunch of times, you won't get
that seer because the grate that you're cooking on or
the pan never gets time to come back to heat
high heat again because that burger every time you flip
it is stealing heat from there. So, for instance, when
(11:54):
I cook burgers, if I'm cooking for burgers because my
wife doesn't eat red meat, I'm doing it just for
my son and me, and so I will make room
so that when I flip them after the first year,
I'm flipping them not back to where they were, but
onto a new part of the grate so that they
(12:15):
get that full heat again. And that works nicely. And
then if I need to flip them over again, the
part that I didn't flip them on before is now
hot enough to do that. So those are some things.
Let them rest a few minutes to really what you
want them to do is to come to one hundred
and twenty degrees in the center. Is when they've rested enough,
that goes down. So they've gone from their high heat
(12:36):
down to one twenty, and you know they're not going
to squeeze out
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