10 Genius Tips for Beautiful Burgers
Last week, we celebrated National Burger Day at Chur Burger in Sydney's Surry hills. Owner and burger mastermind Warren Turnbull gave us a crash course in the art of burger making, followed by an awesome lunch of burgers, fries and killer salads. So we're sharing the love today! From the master himself, Here are Warren's 10 Tips for Beautiful Burgers.
- Keep it simple – no one likes a burger that has so many fillings that everything oozes everywhere when you take a bite. Pick combinations like slaw, pickled veg or avocado to match your meat and make sure that your burger ends up in your mouth rather than all over your plate.
- Grind your own mince – it’s a great way to control fat content and know exactly what’s in your mince. Not many people realise how easy it is! If you don’t have a meat grinder, you can whip up some ground beef in your food processor. You can use meats like beef, lamb, chicken and turkey, whichever takes your fancy. For best results, I like a coarse grind rather than a fine grind.
- Cook meat medium rare – to me, a perfect patty is juicy with a pinky-red looking center. Cooked longer and you’re looking at a dried up piece of meat with no juice - one of the cardinal sins of burger-making!
- Know when to season – to ensure you have a juicy patty, season your meat after it’s cooked rather than at the mince stage.
- Cook meat on a flame – by simply cooking meat on a flame, you are adding loads of extra flavour to the meat.
- Pack lots of punch in your sauces – you can’t have a good burger without good sauce. I use ZOOSH dressings at home on my burgers. They’re no-fuss and the peri peri mayo packs a punch. Also, try the ZOOSH garlic aioli mayo with some fresh lime zest and juice and you’ll have a cracking sauce in no time at all.
- Use the freshest and best quality ingredients – I’m a stickler for using the best quality ingredients. I like to source everything locally and make sure that only the best, fresh ingredients touch the plate.
- Perfect buns – buns are extremely important. They must be soft but able to hold all of the ingredients together and should be as tasty as the ingredients you put inside.
- Be experimental – but work with flavour combinations that work. No chocolate and beef burgers here; it’s all about balancing salt, spice, citrus, creaminess and that touch of sweetness at the end.
- Don’t toast your buns too much – buns that are too toasted will become dry, may shrink and can become hard and crumbly. Another cardinal burger sin is having a bun so toasted that it scrapes the top of your mouth! Go light; a light toasting is ideal, both on the inside and out.
