Beef

Hamburgers are America’s greatest invention. Grind up some beef, put it on the grill, and everything is right with the world. But what about steak? If hamburgers are our passion, steak is our obsession. How do you cook a great steak? From basics to the spectacular… this is for you, beef lovers.

TECHNIQUES

Burgers

To really make great burgers, you need to know how to use a grinder, how to shape the patties, and how to use the griddle.

Rules for grinding hamburger meat

1. Make sure the GRINDER is cold.  You want the grinder attachments (all of them: shaft, tube, plate, die and screw) to be extremely COLD. Place clean and sanitized equipment in the freezer at LEAST 1 hour before you plan on using it.
2. Make sure your MEAT is cold. After you cut the meat into 1’’ cubes, spread them evenly on a baking sheet and place in the freezer until the meat starts to get firm, but not frozen, about 20-30 minutes.
3. Make sure the BOWL that will catch the ground beef is cold.  To ensure your meat remains out of the temperature “danger zone” while you are grinding, fill a large mixing bowl with ice and a little water. Place another large mixing bowl inside the bowl of ice. Place this underneath the attachment to catch the meat as it falls from the grinder.

Cuts of Meat for burgers

While there are endless blends of different cuts of beef, all great hamburgers have a few things in common – texture, flavor and fat.Regardless of what meat you choose to use in your burger blend, make sure you have 25% to 30% fat. When tailoring your burgers to taste, keep in mind that the 25% to 30% fat percentage applies to burgers being cooked from medium-rare to medium, respectively. Burgers being cooked to medium-well will need more fat (about 40%), while a rare burger will need less fat (20%).

• Chuck steak.  Chuck is the most commonly used cut of beef in burger blends. Marbled throughout and well-balanced in flavor with a decent lean-to-fat ratio, chuck steak is generally the primary cut used in burger blends and is supplemented with one or two other cuts of meat.
• Sirloin or Tri-Tip.  Sirloin is a relatively lean cut of steak, but has a good amount of flavor. You will need to supplement sirloin with another cut of meat that has a higher fat content, such as chuck, brisket, or short rib.
• Round.  Round is extremely lean and very cheap. If you are looking to adjust your protein-to-fat ratio or lean out your burger, round is a great choice.
• Brisket.  With a distinct beefy flavor and high fat content, adding brisket to your burger will yield a beautifully rich burger. This is the cut of choice for Jacque Pepin’s famous burgers – and if it’s good enough for one of the greatest chefs in history, it’s good enough for us.

How to Shape and Cook your Tavern-Style Patty

Great hamburgers fall into two distinct categories. There is the traditional griddled hamburger of diners and takeout places, a patty that is smashed thin with a burnished crust. That is an entirely different style, approach, and recipe. We’re making the pub- or tavern-style hamburger, which is larger, plump and juicy.

Here is the hamburger you get in better taverns and bars, big and juicy, with a thick char that gives way to tender, medium-rare meat. Like all burgers, it’s best cooked in a cast-iron pan, though it also translates well to the grill.

The pub- or tavern-style burger has a precooked weight of 6 to 8 ounces; two pounds of beef will yield four burgers. Avoid making patties that are larger than that, as they will be difficult to cook through.

Rules for shaping patties

Use your hands to gently divide the ground beef into 4 piles about 8 ounces each, then lightly form each into a thick patty, roughly an inch thick and 3 ½ inches in diameter, like flattened meatballs. Take care not to handle the meat too much. Do not pack the meat tightly; the patty should just hold together. Use your thumb to create an indentation in the top of each patty, which will help it cook evenly. 

Season both sides aggressively with salt and pepper.

Oil the griddle and warm over medium heat for 15 minutes. When you’re ready to cook, turn the heat to high, place the burgers in the skillet with plenty of distance between them and allow them to cook, without moving them, for about 3 minutes. Flip them over and, if using cheese, lay the slices on meat. The burger is done 3 to 4 minutes later for medium-rare. Remove and let them rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Steaks

Cuts of meat

For just about any cut of steak, it’s important to look at thickness. Although thinner cuts of steak can cook just fine on the grill or in the oven, they’re a little more difficult to master. An extra 30 seconds or minute too long, and your delicious steak can turn into a not-so-tempting hockey puck. Thicker cuts allow you a little more time to play with, so you can get the perfect grill marks and cook without overcooking it. Of course, the right thickness can vary with your preferences, but it’s a good idea to choose a cut that’s at least 1-inch thick for any cooking method.

Then, look at the marbling. See those white lines running through each cut? That’s marbling, which is another name for the fat that runs through the steak, almost like thin veins. You think you don’t want fat in your steak, right? That’s a common thought, but naturally occurring marbling through the muscle is what gives your steak tenderness and flavor. As it cooks, the fat renders itself down, creating the excellent texture and rich steak flavor you expect. So, the right amount of fat is a good thing! Of course, you don’t want a fatty steak, so look for nice, thin lines of marbling rather than chunks of fat.

As far as the cut goes – think about where it came from on the cow. The more that muscle was exercised, the more tough and flavorful the cut. The filet mignon – which comes from the “bottom” of the tenderloin? No exercise at all. Super tender. No fat at all. The rump steak? Exercised constantly. Pretty tough. LOTS of flavor. Sirloins are the middle ground cut – they aren’t excessively expensive, decent marbling, good flavor. For someone learning how to make a good steak – sirloins are the perfect cut to practice with.

Seasoning – It’s All About Salt and Pepper

What makes a restaurant steak better than your homemade one? It’s not the price. It’s not the sauce or the fries served on the side. It’s the fact that the chef knows how to season a steak. Really, truly season it.

A lot of home cooks are afraid of salt. Maybe it was passed down from your grandmother’s timid palate, or maybe it came from your dad’s health-conscious tendencies. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change the fact that to make steak—or anything rich and fatty—taste good, you need to season aggressively.

The first thing you need is kosher salt. We use kosher for seasoning steaks, because its crystal size allows for prime absorption into the outer layer of the steak. Partnered with freshly ground black pepper, it’s an absolutely essential.

Coat both sides of the steak, and its sides, with salt and freshly ground black pepper, so a visible layer of seasoning exists on every surface. The salt shouldn’t pile up, but it should coat the meat.

After you’re finished seasoning it, searing it, letting it rest, and slicing it across the grain, there’s more work to be done. We’re going back in for another hit of salt, but this time, it will be large, flaky sea salt, like Maldon. The crunchier the salt, the better the steak will be. The point here is to make sure the rosy, juicy, tender interior of the steak is every bit as flavorful and delicious as that crusty-seared exterior.

How to Cook a Steak on the Grill

Steaks are best cooked on a charcoal grill because they get significantly hotter than gas grills, and the high heat is the thing which creates the crust by which an excellent grilled steak is known. Bone-in cuts are best, like ribeyes or t-bones. Trim excess fat, so that it does not burn.

Start by massaging a little neutral oil on the steak, then season it aggressively with salt and pepper (see the section on seasoning above).

Allow the steak to sit at room temperature while you heat the grill. It’s ready when you can only hold your hand 6 inches over the grill for a few seconds. Put the steak on the hottest part of the grill, and cook until deeply seared, about 4 to 5 minutes. Turn the steak over, and cook 3 to 5 minutes more for medium-rare.

To take the meat’s temperature, insert an instant-read thermometer into the center of the steak without touching the bone. For medium rare, remove the steak from the grill at 122 degrees and allow it to rest, tented by foil, for another 5 minutes or so before serving.

RECIPES

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Hamburger Seasoning Blend

All-Purpose Seasoning for Ground Meats

Keyword Beef, MustangChef Summer Camp

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 ¼ teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• ¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Instructions

• Add all ingredients to an air-proof container, cover, and shake to combine.

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