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There is no end to the number of delicious hamburgers you can make, but here are 12 that will make your mouth water.

By J. Kenji Lpez-AltJ. Kenji Lpez-Alt composes a column for The New York Times on food and science, and he develops recipes and appears in videos for NYT Cooking. He is also the creator and host of Kenji's Cooking Show on YouTube. This video and post belong to, our series on kitchen area principles.

Credit ... Adam CentrellaAs a professional chef, food author and cookbook author, I've invested the last twenty years of my profession carefully researching and evaluating dishes, techniques and commonly accepted cooking area knowledge to figure out the whys of cooking. Over this time, I've run multiple hamburger joints and even composed a regular monthly column for Serious Eats called the Hamburger Lab, in which I isolated and evaluated every possible variable that can impact the flavor and texture of a burger.

However that does not imply you can't aim for something better. Here are the most essential tips I've found for enhancing your hamburger experience, whether in the yard or the cooking area. Working hamburger excessive can trigger it to end up being dense. Credit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York City Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

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In bread, this can be an excellent thing, but with hamburgers, overhandling can produce an undesirable dense texture. (Incorporating extenders, like eggs or breadcrumbs, or extra seasoning, like onions and herbs, likewise forces you to exhaust the meat and sidetrack from the beef taste, so skip it.) Salting the exterior of your patties keeps their texture loose and tender.

This is a great thing in sausages, which must have a firm texture, but with hamburgers, you desire looseness. A burger ought to be tender, with plenty of pockets for juices and rendered fat to gather.

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Whether you're making a huge burger on the grill or a crisp-edged smash hamburger on a griddle, browning is flavor, and high heat is crucial. For thicker grilled or griddled burgers, wait till your pan or grill is hot before including the patties, and cook them until they're well browned on both sides.

This maximizes taste while keeping juiciness. Don't let your patties sit around on the cutting board (or worse, a steam table). Burgers are at their finest fresh from the fire, before any juices have actually had a possibility to drip out.

Smash BurgersCredit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York City Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Restaurant BurgerCredit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Thick Yard BurgerCredit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York City Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Follow,,, and.

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Updated May 7, 2026, 8:42 a.m. CTI've always been a hamburger enthusiast. Maturing, I 'd gladly chew them down at sit-down restaurants and from the drive-thru getting home from gymnastics practice. I 'd crush the soft bun and let ketchup dribble down the sides over my fingers. If there were any little melty American cheese leavings stuck on the wrapper, I 'd drag my french fries through them (I still do this).

Catch me on the best day and I may confess that a cheeseburger is my preferred food. In fact, I may state that on many days. And you may state the very same. Even if you do, it's most likely we do not have the same concept of what makes the perfect hamburger.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

I kept some old favorites, included some new ones and continued to leave off the ones I know individuals like but I simply. don't. get. Yes, I know your favorite isn't there. Perhaps we have different taste. Maybe I haven't attempted your favorite hamburger yet. Possibly I'm out to get you (just joking).

There's one perfect burg out there for everyone. Let me share with you what makes the ideal burger for me. Let's start with the patty. Can I say I'm growing a little sick of smashburgers? The finest ones astonishingly stay juicy with simply a hint of flaky char around the edges, however regrettably, most places go too hard on the smash.

When I bite in, I require to see a little shimmer, some glistening from the beef and perhaps a little grease running down the sides. When I see a smashburger on the menu, I constantly opt for a double patty. Smashburger or not, the patty should be seared to assist secure the juices, but not too crusty.