Hamburger Trial & Error

I intend to post results of my experiments cooking hamburgers as sub-posts in this blog-post.

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6/25/15

Frozen 'Wolfneck' 5.3 oz burger was pasted with mix of Wright's Liquid Smoke & Red Palm Oil. Griddle preheated to 500° F. Griddle had hickory chips, black peppercorns, pieces of garlic in it. Deactivated charcoal & sea-salt were sprinkled in the area of the griddle where the burger was cooked. The first side was left to rest on the griddle for 4 minutes; the 2nd side of the burger for 5 minutes, then the 1st side again for 1.5 minutes while covered by a pot-cover, with the hickory chips & the peppercorns pushed close to the burger. The burger was then allowed to sit on a cool plate for 5 minutes. 

Result: perfect, pink in the middle, good outdoorsy taste, no offensive taste, but too dry. Felt better after eating the burger compared to how I usually feel after eating a burger, I suspect because of the beta-carotene Vitamin A on the burger, further released due to heating. 

Conclusion: Perhaps the salt should not be sprinkled in the pan. Perhaps the burger should be turns only once, not twice. I think that perhaps not sprinkling sea-salt into the griddle would make the burger juicier.

Note: This attempt was preceded by a couple of other attempts.

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6/26/15

Frozen 'Niman Ranch' 5.3 oz burger was pasted with mix of Wright's Liquid Smoke & Red Palm Oil. Griddle preheated to 500° F. Griddle had hickory chips, ground black-pepper, pieces of garlic in it. Deactivated charcoal & was sprinkled in the area of the griddle where the burger was cooked. The first side was left to rest on the griddle for 2 minutes with flame at max, then for 4 minutes with flame off & griddle heat falling from 500° to 340°; the 2nd side of the burger for 2 minutes with flame to max (griddle-heat rising 340-380°), and then for 4 minutes with griddle-heat off, (griddle-heat falling from 380° - 300°), & with a pot-cover covering the burger (but Iforgot to push the red peppers hickory wood & garlic under the pot-cover). The burger was then allowed to sit on a cool plate for 5 minutes. 

Result: pink in the middle, more juicy compared to the dry one in the previous entry, but had that fried or boiled taste I dislike. 

Conclusion: I thought I was being too unsophisticated & attempted to reduce the extent to which the burger was burned on the outside, by playing with the heat-level, which I could detect using my infrared-thermometer. In my attempt to get sophisticated I failed. We must remember this was working with a frozen burger on a griddle on a gas-flame indoors. I suspect that the extended cooking at low temperature with the pot-cover not covering & then covering the burger, results in the burger cooking in the frost & frozen-liquid inside the burger, creating the unpleasant boiled/fried taste. Not sure if the problem is extended low temp cooking with pot cover off, or with pot cover over burger ( danger of burger being steamed), or both. This is getting complex as I expected it would if I tried to perfect the burger. Think I'll have to sleep on the problem, then my rewired brain might be able to get a handle on this. Right now at a loss as to how to get the proper taste without somewhat burning the outside. 

Note: This attempt was preceded by an attempt that is not recorded in this log.