Delicious Hamburgers

It still amazes me that there is room in this world for more kinds of hamburger. It amazes me even more that most people make BAD hamburgers. It's not hard! Here's my current recipe.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef - ground sirloin is tastiest, but regular is good, too, and cheaper. I use low fat, like 93%. Don't listen to people who tell you that lean meat makes bad burgers cuz it just ain't so! Lean meat is very flavorful and can be juicy too.
1 tsp ground ancho chili pepper, or paprika if you don't have ancho
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp reduced-sodium tamari, which is like soy sauce but more flavorful - soy sauce is an acceptable substitute, or 1/2 tsp salt if you don't have either
Ground black pepper if you like that sort of thing - I don't, but Ariel does, so I let him put it on his burger after cooking

Gently stir the ingredients together. Be careful not to mash up the meat, since that will make it tough. A pastry cutter can work, but NEVER a food processor.

Form the meat gently but firmly into patties with your hands. You can wear gloves but don't use a press or anything, hamburgers need love.

I like to cook on a Foreman grill machine at 380 for 5 minutes, but you can do whatever you like. The important thing to remember is that you want to use a reasonably high temperature so that the meat sears a little, which enhances flavor.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE JUICE? I hear you ask! If you love your burgers dripping with juice, here is what you do: You mix in breadcrumbs, an egg, or both. You want to use about 1/4 cup breadcrumbs per pound of meat, and/or 1 egg per 2 pounds of meat. That's why I don't usually use an egg unless I'm making a large batch, since my recipe is for only 1 pound and a whole egg is too much for that.

The breadcrumbs soak up the juice to prevent it from leaking out during cooking. The egg works differently - it makes a sort of meat-juice custard inside the burger. It sounds gross but it's good. Eggs and breadcrumbs are the reason why meat loaf is always so juicy (good meatloaf, that is).

Burger Toppings

The most fun part of a burger is what you put on top! I like to pile mine with mushrooms and onions with cheese and ketchup. I hate American cheese so usually use mild cheddar or Colby-Jack, but that's a personal idiosyncrasy. Here's my mushroom-onion topping recipe, which makes enough to top 6 burgers:

1 large white onion
2 portobello mushroom caps
1/4 cup cooking sherry (optional - use broth if you don't want sherry)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp minced garlic
Butter or oil

Chop the mushrooms into pieces no bigger than about half an inch, since otherwise they are hard to eat. Slice the onion lengthwise, then cut the slices once widthwise to make them shorter.

Grease a skillet with a little butter or oil and heat over medium-high. Saute the onion and mushrooms until soft, then add the garlic and cook, stirring, for another minute. Then add the broth or sherry and scrape up any stuck browned bits, for flavor. Simmer until the liquid is almost gone.