/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>18551726
Burgers will always shrink, and sometimes they completely change shape and bulge in the middle, while other times they retain the same shape while only getting a little smaller. This is just a matter of how you shape them, and being sure not to overwork the meat. I don’t have a good video to link showing how you should do it, but that sounds like the main issue you're having and should look into. Cooking them consistently to temp is just a matter of practice. You should never listen to anyone who tells you to (e.g.) “cook one side for 2 minutes and then flip and cook for another 2 minutes” or anything like that. You want to cook them to temp, not to time, and there’s always a handful of different factors affecting how long it’s going to take. Burgers are simple, but you have to realize that they’re going to be a bit of a hot mess if you’re doing it on the stove. Get your patties formed, season well right before putting in a hot pan, flip once, pay attention and remove when it’s done to your liking. There’s going to be fat and juices and smoke, but as long as you’re not burning the thing you’re probably doing it right. Everybody loves to shit on my burgers for how they’re cooked, but nobody denies that they’re consistent - even going so far as to suggest that I’ve commissioned a sampuru burger bust or whatever.

>>16969357
Told a new hire to grind up some meat scraps and do something with them. He made fucking burgers, but added a bunch of shit to them for some reason. They're basically burger shaped meatballs.