Published July 1, 2000.
For a moist, juicy hamburger recipe with a tender and cohesive texture, we preferred chuck ground to order, with a ratio of fat to lean of 20 percent fat:80 percent lean. We formed the meat into 6-ounce patties with a depression in the middle (to 1/2 inch) to keep the burgers from puffing up when they cooked.
Weighing the meat on a kitchen scale is the most accurate way to portion it. If you don’t own a scale, do your best to divide the meat evenly into quarters. Eighty percent lean ground chuck is our favorite for flavor, but 85 percent lean works, too. If you start with a chuck roast or steak, ask the butcher to grind it twice and expect some weight loss - 2 to 3 percent in our experience - to the grinder. Toasting the buns is an easy extra flourish; just split them open and lay the halves cut-side down on the grill rack for the last 45 to 60 seconds of the hamburgers’ cooking time.
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