How to Grill a Cheeseburger or Hamburger

Welcome,

In this Instructable I will show you how to grill/cook a burger.

I am using a LP (Liquid Propane) gas grill.

These same steps are the same regardless if you are cooking on a gas grill, charcoal grill, or frying it in a pan on the kitchen stove.

Step 1: Safety

OK boys and girls I will start with the safety issues related to this process.

1. Wash your hands prior to handling food, after all I don't know where you hands have been.

2. Raw meat carries coodies make sure you wash your hands after handling.

3. Under cooked meat still carries coodies, make sure you cook to at least medium well, or so I am told, to kill the coodies.

4. Fire can burn you so don't play around with it. Or if you need to experiment with it to understand what I am saying that is your own choice.

5. Don't be a Doofus and burn your house down either or else I will laugh at you. Keep you grill away from your house, flames and houses should not go together.

I think that is it, I am sure someone will let me know if I have missed something.

Comments

[zachninme]

Recently, I've experienced this odd phenomenon where the outside of the burger stays red, even though the inside is overdone. At first I thought it was something to do with water vapor from the grill, but the same thing happened in a frying pan. Is it something in the meat itself, maybe? (i.e. a preservative)

[red-king]

 it happens to moose meat from hunting too. so it isn't from a preservative.

[ReCreate]

maybe you are cooking them too perfectly? :P

[Mr. Rig It]

Hmmm.. I don't know, I have never heard of that before.

[=SMART=]

MMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNNN That looks tttaaasssttttyyyyy ! dammit im really hungry now !

[littlechef37]

EHH GEEZE A Burger without BBQ sauce ??? Whats going on ? Thats like perogies without sour cream, or flap jacks without Canadian maple syrop ! I am going to make a BBQ Sauce instruictable..... maybe one on pork chops too ! Other that forgetting the most important part of a burgers Not a bad instructable !

[I Am An Evil Taco]

I agree on the gourmet buns. I use onion rolls, personally, when I have a choice. They just make the meat taste better. Another side note on the "when to flip" thing is look at the side of the burger. You want to flip it when the line of cooked meat is about 2/3rds of the way up the burger. Another way to tell when it's finally done is touch testing. Make an ok sign. Touch the meaty part where your thumb and your hand meet, just below the middle of your palm. Feel that? That's medium rare meat. Now, make the ok sign with your middle finger instead of your index finger. That's medium. ring finger is medium well, pinky is well. rule of thumb (literally?) is you cook chicken to the ring finger, and steaks are unsafe below the middle finger. They say medium well, but I think that's just to be cautious. Medium meat is, for the most part, safe. Your chances of food borne illness is miniscule at that point.

[TheEliminatorX]

thanks, 5/5 clear instructions. wana check out my instructables?

[Mr. Rig It]

I did, very cool Tommy Gun.

[TheEliminatorX]

i did this and added rock salt to it, it tastes great. thanks again

[Mr. Rig It]

Cool, I'll have to look into the rock salt thing.

[mrmath]

What about doing mulitple burgers. My grill has hot spots in it. Every grill I've ever worked, as a matter of fact, has hot spots. How do you deal with them when you're doing a 10 burgers?

[dizzydave]

just move the burgers around as you're cooking

[mrmath]

But that leads to flame ups, which in turn leads to flipping. At least it does for me. I was hoping to avoid both.

[Mr. Rig It]

Don't flip just move them around some will cook faster than others. You can always move them to the upper cooling/warming rack, if you have one. 10 burgers will keep you busy on any grill that is a lot of grease. You will get flare ups regardless of what grill you are on. Hot spots, oh yes, I have them on mine I also have cool spots. Both can help when you are cooking 10 burgers at a time. You amy have to raotate them in and out of these spots. You don't wan't you grill to hot though or else rotating won't do that much good for you. Everything will just burn. Normally I go just under medium on my grill and then shut the lid. This helps keep a more even temp on the whole grill. Every grill is different though, just experiment with yours until you get it tuned to how you like it.

[mikeasaurus]

A trick I use often when bbq'ing loads of different items at once is 'the stack', so when something is more done than the rest I just stack it on top of whatever is still cooking. Works great for burgers, dogs, potatoes, kebabs, corn... you name it, I'm pretty sure you can stack it. Then you can time everything to come up at once!

[Mr. Rig It]

That's right I didn't even think of it, duhh. I got caught up in the writing.

[dizzydave]

the best solution is to use charcoal, and do a good job of spreading out your coals evenly--it tastes a lot better too...

[lucek]

and if you got the right stuff its cheaper. I have a charcoal/wood grill/smoker so I (for now http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-some-Charcoal/ not mine just a good instructable) keep a bag of kingsford around for a quick BBQ but I often get a fire going in the morning let it burn till lunch and spread the coals for 5 square feet of food. ( its nice to be able to cook ribs, burgers, dogs, kielbasa, and chicken at once.)

[Mr. Rig It]

That is good also, add a little mesquite wood to it and BAM!! You got the makings of an awesome meal.

[lucek]

mesquite is way over rated. simple cow parts for me nothing special.