MEATliquor's Backyard burger recipe: how to make the perfect patty at home on the barbecue

In honour of National Burger Day (Aug 27) - a National Day we're happy to get on board with - one of London's finest purveyors of burgers, MEATliquor, shows you how to make the perfect patty
Bee's knees: MEATliquor's Backyard burger
Paul Winch Furness
Yianni Papoutsis26 August 2015

Backyard Burger recipe

In the course of my travels across the USA, I’ve seen many different methods of preparing and cooking burgers, and in general the simpler recipes work best on a barbecue (our transatlantic cousins would call it grill).

This technique of using a thick, circular slice of onion is a classic serving method in roadside burger joints all over the States. In most cases the onion would be raw, but for this recipe we’re going to cook it a bit on the barbecue, sweetening and softening the onion so it doesn’t overpower the meat.

I always use processed American-style cheese slices. I don’t use them for anything else, but on a burger no other cheese comes close.

For the bun, use a white roll with a bit of texture. It needs to be able to stand up to the meat juices without disintegrating.

Your butcher will be happy to grind you some chuck steak, ideally something dry-aged.

You’ll also need a barbecue and some real charcoal. Try and get hold of some British hardwood charcoal – you get a much better flavour than you do with briquettes.

Ingredients

160g freshly ground chuck steak

A generous pinch of salt and pepper

1 burger bun

A half-inch-thick slice of a large white onion

2 slices of American-style cheese

A squirt of Heinz ketchup

A similarly sized squirt of French’s mustard

2 or 3 slices of dill pickle (not the sweet ones)

London's best burgers

1/4

Method

Light your charcoal, preferably with a chimney starter rather than chemical fire starters. The coals will need to burn down to cooking temperature. Be patient: this will take a while. When the coals are coated with a white ash (they will glow red in the dark) and all the flames have died down, you’re ready to cook.

Pull out a wad of ground chuck steak and form it into a ball with your hands. Squash this down onto a sheet of greaseproof paper so that it forms a burger patty. It should be a bit bigger than the bun to allow for shrinkage during cooking.

Place the patty on an oiled and preheated barbecue grill and cover the top side with a healthy dose of salt and pepper. Put the thick slice of onion on the barbecue, too.

Meanwhile, cut the bun in half and toast the cut sides over the barbecue. This will only take a few seconds. When the bottom of the burger has formed a good brown crust, it will easily lift off the barbecue without sticking. Flip it and cook the other side. It won’t take nearly as long. Flip the onion when it starts to brown.

Lay a couple of slices of ‘cheese’ over the burger while it’s on the barbecue.

Squirt some Heinz ketchup and French’s mustard on the bottom of the bun. Stick a couple of slices of dill pickle on there.

Lay the burger onto your bun base and stack the onion on top. Put the bun lid on top and serve immediately.

Drink: something with an umbrella

Recipe extracted from The MEATliquor Chronicles: Chapter and Verse, by Yianni Papoutsis & Scott Collins ; meatliquor.com

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