Preparing Restaurant-Quality Side Fries in Modern Home

There is no end to the number of tasty burgers you can make, however here are 12 that will make your mouth water.

J. Kenji Lpez-Alt composes a column for The New York Times on food and science, and he establishes recipes and appears in videos for NYT Cooking. He is also the creator and host of Kenji's Cooking Show on YouTube.

Credit ... Adam CentrellaAs an expert chef, food writer and cookbook author, I've spent the last two decades of my career rigorously investigating and checking dishes, strategies and commonly accepted kitchen area wisdom to figure out the whys of cooking. Over this time, I've operated numerous hamburger joints and even composed a regular monthly column for Serious Consumes called the Hamburger Laboratory, in which I separated and checked every possible variable that can impact the flavor and texture of a hamburger.

But that doesn't suggest you can't go for something better. Here are the most important suggestions I have actually found for optimizing your burger experience, whether in the yard or the kitchen. Working ground beef excessive can trigger it to become dense. Credit ... Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Choosing High-Quality Meats for Tasty Burgers

In bread, this can be a great thing, but with burgers, overhandling can produce an undesirable thick texture. (Incorporating extenders, like eggs or breadcrumbs, or additional flavoring, like onions and herbs, also forces you to exhaust the meat and distract from the beef taste, so skip it.) Salting the beyond your patties keeps their texture loose and tender.

This is an excellent thing in sausages, which need to have a firm texture, however with hamburgers, you desire looseness. A hamburger needs to be tender, with plenty of pockets for juices and rendered fat to collect.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

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

This makes the most of taste while keeping juiciness. Preparing your buns ahead of time lets you get to eating a lot faster. Credit ... Bryan Gardner for The New York City Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Don't let your patties relax on the cutting board (or even worse, a steam table). Hamburgers are at their finest fresh from the fire, before any juices have actually had a chance to drip out.

Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

How Premium Fresh Ingredients Transform Your Burger

Updated May 7, 2026, 8:42 a.m. CTI've constantly been a hamburger fan. 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 ideal day and I may admit that a cheeseburger is my favorite food. Even if you do, it's most likely we don't have the exact same idea of what makes the ideal burger.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

I kept some old favorites, included some brand-new ones and continued to leave off the ones I know people like but I just. Maybe I haven't attempted your preferred hamburger. Possibly I'm out to get you (simply kidding).

Let me share with you what makes the perfect hamburger for me. Let's start with the patty.

When I bite in, I require to see a little shimmer, some shining from the beef and perhaps a little grease diminishing 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 help lock in the juices, but not too crusty.