Hamburgers are one of the favorite meals of kids these days. Add to that fries and sodas and it’s like they’ve got a great treat. However, you should also be reminded that it’s not always healthy to eat these kinds of meals. Nevertheless, it doesn’t hurt to eat some once in a while. In fact, it would be way better to cook your own hamburger meals to ensure freshness and that you use healthy ingredients to make it. Match those with freshly sliced potatoes fried in healthier oils and voila! You have a healthy hamburger meal that the kids will enjoy! But the question is, do you know how to cook hamburgers? Perhaps not if you’re here reading this right now. But don’t you fret because here you will learn how to cook hamburgers in no time!
There are always those hamburger patties that you can buy in the grocery store. Those are easy to make because all you have to do is to fry them in butter or oil and you’re done in a couple of minutes. The big concern would be the additives or preservatives added to it. If you want to make a healthy burger of your own, you’ll have to learn how to cook hamburgers.
The first thing you’ll need to do is to select the meat for your hamburgers. While you can simply buy that ground beef or ground chuck in the grocery and select the percentage of fat against the lean meat, you can also select your own chuck. Yes, select a big piece of chuck – not ground. You just have to ring the bell and ask the butcher to have it coarse-grind for you! You can do this in your local grocery store. You just have to ask. Now if you have a grinder at home, you can even grind it on your own. That way, you have less risk of contamination. Just make sure to cut the beef in cubes before grinding.
Once you are done grinding, you can add flavors to your meat. Although most will just prefer salt and pepper to season their hamburgers, you can add in a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce to a pound of meat. You can also add in garlic or onion powder among any of the herbs and spices in your kitchen rack. You can even add a teaspoon to a tablespoon of wine or concentrated beef stock as you wish. When adding ingredients and handling your meat, make sure that you use a spatula or spoon. The heat in your hands causes the fats in the meat to melt which will make the patty dense.
Now when forming them to round patties, it will also do you good to make the center a bit lower than its sides. When frying hamburger patties, you’ve probably noticed that the middle part becomes rounder. Thus, when you add condiments to your hamburger, they slide off to the sides making it all messy. To avoid that, make the center lower than the edges to help make your hamburger patties flat when done.
When you’re ready, simply cook your burgers either in the grill or in the pan for about 2 to 3 minutes each side depending on how you want it done. Place them in hamburger buns and let your kids decide what condiments to add. Enjoy!
