The Perfect Hamburger
Posted by Ed Wright
"The Wright Gourmet"

What makes the Perfect
California Style Hamburger...

How to make the Best
Hamburgers on the Planet!

We are not sure where the “California Burger Thing” all started… perhaps it was in 1936 with the original Bob's Big Boy in Glendale California. This tiny 10-seat diner developed the original “Double Decker” Cheeseburger which developed into a nationwide chain of Bob’s Big Boy Restaurants and inspired the famous McDonalds Big Mac Hamburger that literally built McDonalds.

Perhaps the “California Burger Thing” was further inspired by the original Tommy’s Burger that opened in 1946 in Los Angeles, and was the first to combine Chili with the ever popular Cheese Burger. Or the drive thru venue originated in 1919 Roy Allen mixed up a batch of creamy root beer and sold the first “frosty mug” for one nickel. A&W restaurants were perhaps the first "drive-in" restaurants that featured "tray-boys" for curb side service. But it was in 1948 that In-N-Out opened their first drive thru restaurant that has grown into one of California’s Favorite Burger Restaurants now featuring numerous larger dining establishments with indoor seating.

We are not sure if anybody can honestly trace the original modification to the ever popular “All-American” hamburger that sparked the progression of modifications and additions that have come to be known as “California Style Burgers,” but will credit this evolution to First Bob’s Double Decker Burger and In-N-Out Burger’s “Animal Style” creation featuring grilled in mustard, extra grilled onions, extra pickles and abundance of sauce that originated the style.

Today the “California Style Burger” frequently includes slices of bacon, chopped up avocado, gourmet lettuce blends, caramelized grilled onions plus specialty cheeses (goat cheeses) all topped off with an incredibly creative selection of sauces. Long gone is “Jack’s Secret Sauce” (Classic Thousand Isle Sauce), and now replaced with Chipotle Chili sauces, special BBQ Sauces and creamy cheese sauces… not to mention chili and other additions.

Hey Guys… it is all fun, tastes great and typically easily made on your backyard BBQ Grill. Interestingly enough, most all of the Top Ranked Hamburgers are cooked on gas fired heavy steel flat grills and not over flames or on BBQs. As such, the Wright Gourmet has compiled the following “Perfect Burger Guide” of tips and tricks to produce the perfect Cheese Burger.

STEP ONE: MAKING THE PERFECT HAMBURGER PATTY; The perfect hamburger starts out by using freshly ground beef, and we prefer to have our ground for us or grind it ourselves. Personally I prefer a mix of 50% Ground Chuck and 50% ground Top Sirloin. We often ask the meat cutter (Stater Bros. Yucaipa Market) to grind this for us out of meat we select from the shelf. We always have them cut away any heavy fat… but it is important to remember that the fat adds a lot of flavor, so you want to have some fat left. Also note that if you do not have enough fat, your burgers fall apart on the grill. We typically look for about 10% – 12% estimated fat content. Avoid the frozen "Premade" packaged burger patties... they flare up badly on the BBQ and taste bad. Fresh ground hamberger is always the best (max 20% fat content).

Once you have selected your meat you want to make you patties. Avoid at all costs over seasoning the meat and/or the patties. We realize that there are many BBQ aficionados that think a “Little” Montreal Steak Seasoning improves all things Beef… and a “Lot” is even better. We disagree! We add nothing to the meat… and season only with a small amount of medium course “sea salt” and a few grinds of fresh black pepper.

In making the actual patties you want to use about 1/3 of a pound of meat for each burger, and carefully form the patties from a softball size ball of meat into a round burger about 1/2 inch thick. Never pack the meat too firmly… you want it pressed together just enough to form the patty, and not compressed into bricks. A loosely packed burger is a much juicier burger… and one that is not too thick cooks nicely without overly charring while cooking to medium rare, or medium. Health concerns aside (you ground the steak into the burgers), over cooking the meat destroys the flavor of the meat.

STEP TWO: IT IS ALL ABOUT THE BUNS; The best of everything can be used in building the Perfect Hamburger, but without the proper bun selection your burgers will fall flat. With so many different types of buns to select from we believe that the best ones are the onion rolls that many of the grocery store bakeries sell. Please note that these are not actually hamburger buns, but are sold as large toasted onion dinner rolls… but when sliced in half make the perfect bun; not too much bread, not too heavy, light and airy while being large enough to hold all of the ingredients.

TOASTING YOUR BUNS; No matter what buns you select, please consider that failing to toast the buns can be a big mistake. We believe that simple bread does not contribute anything to building the Perfect Hamburger… so we recommend going one step beyond selecting just an onion or sesame seed bun and spreading some garlic-butter spread onto the inside of the buns and then grilling them (inside surfaces only) on the grill until just golden browned. Grill marks always add to the presentation of your hamburger, so the perfect Hamburger Bun should have cross hatched grill marks demonstrating the chefs mastery of the grill… but the cross hatched thing is simply for presentation, it adds nothing to the flavor.

What toasting the Buns does do is help assure the buns do not become overly soggy from the condiments while the burger is eaten. So, if you want to build the Best Hamburgers and Cheeseburgers on the Planet… toast the buns.

ADDING CHEESE,for the perfect CHEESE BURGER; The top rated hamburgers in almost every reviewers list includes cheese… but what type makes the Best Cheese Burgers? Well, this is where the “California Style Hamburger” seriously starts to evolve. Typically Cheeseburgers use one to two slices of American Cheese; Please never ruin your burgers with that cheap, poor tasting “Cheese Food” garbage that pretends to be cheese… always use “Real Cheese;” there is a big difference in taste. All this said, we believe that the perfect Cheeseburger is built using several slices of quality Cheddar Cheese (Tillamook is a great brand); and prefer a medium cheddar over the Sharp cheddar slices.

In addition to the Cheddar Cheese, we like to also apply a liberal slathering of Bob’s Big Boy Bleu Cheese Dressing (sold in most grocery stores in the refrigerated section). Several of our friends have gone one step beyond and this, and even buttered their hamburger patties with a Bleu Cheese butter mixture when they come off the grill… Hey; It is all good, (tasting) the cheese just makes it better. These “Seasoned Butters” or “Cheese Butters” are very popular in the upscale steakhouses, so there extension to Cheeseburgers just follows the California trend.

Many of the more creative “California Style Burgers” use different types of cheeses, substituting more gourmet Goat Feta Cheese, Gouda Cheese, Bleu Cheese crumbles, Roquefort crumbles or other favorite cheese. It would be our position that some of these cheeses over power the flavor of the meat patty… and the Perfect Hamburger is all about the Hamburger flavor; The Best Cheeseburgers use a cheese that compliments the meats flavor without over powering it. Cheese sauces have become popular, but we feel these tend to get overly messy and cause the burger to easily fall apart.

GRILLED ONIONS; The Perfect Hamburger (in our mind), has to include one to two wedges of carefully caramelized grilled onion… period, not negotiable. Now the type of onion is open for debate; we prefer Vidalia or Maui onions, but also agree that a good sweet red onion is hard to beat. Once the type of onion is selected we recommend slicing the onion into thick slabs, with the rings being held in tact inside the slab as a unit; This slab is then lightly brushed with an olive oil blend and grilled on the BBQ grill. This will take about 5 minutes or so until the onions have been browned and caramelized, bringing out their sweetness.

We prefer to brush the cooking onion wedges with Worchester sauce and a little olive oil blend while cooking (we use a standard 30/70 olive & canola oil blend; “Smart & Final’s Brand”)… but go light on the olive oil. Once again, the cross hatched grill marks add to the presentation of the Best Hamburgers, so the “Perfect Burger” will have cross hatched, grilled onions… two thin wedges please! The grilling really changes the taste of the onion… and tones down any strong onion flavor.

LETTUCE: We believe that the “Perfect Hamburger” uses several leaves of “Hand Leaved” Iceberg lettuce, or possibly slaw sliced iceberg lettuce… but the jury is defiantly out on this one. More and more the “California Style Burger” features a liberal pile of gourmet baby salad greens replacing the worn out iceberg lettuce thing; and we agree this is more healthy… so feel free to sample and play around here. The presentation of the cheeseburger plate is enhanced with the addition of the multi-colored mixed salad greens… and they do taste good. Just keep in mind, we are making the “Perfect Hamburger,” and not the perfect salad burger; too much lettuce is just that… too much. We avoid heavy tasting greens because they seem to detract from the flavor of the meat.

TOMATOES: Most all of the best hamburgers we have tasted include a nice slice of red, ripe beef-steak tomato, but with numerous of the “California Style Burgers” we are seeing the addition of gourmet types of tomatoes… yellow tomato, grilled green tomato, or recently… no tomato. We believe that a simple slice of vine ripe red tomato does the trick here; the rest is just for presentation flash.

BACON: Bacon is good… and more bacon is better; so the Perfect Cheeseburger includes bacon cooked just under crisp. Personally we hate burned up, over cooked bacon. The most common bacon used in “California Style Burgers” is the gourmet apple smoked thick sliced bacon; and we love it, so add extra!

Please note:  for health reasons, and for numerous other reasons, including legal ones we can not recommend you do this… but we enjoy experimenting with custom grinding into the meat mixture "bacon ends" (replacing the beef fat content) with fantastic results… the additional flavor and moistness adds to the burger. Your local meat market can not do this for you... you have to do this one yourself. In the south this mixture is called a "Squeeler" burger. 

In any event, the only bacon we have had poor results with is the “Maple Sugar” cured bacon; the maple flavor seemed to detract from the overall combined product. Great with pancakes and eggs, just not on hamburgers!

PICKLES: We believe that the Perfect Hamburger has to include pickles… and pickle relish; which brings us to the fine point of preference. Our preference would be a relish blend like that used in Bob’s Big Boy Hamburger Relish (the best relish period!), or a sweet relish, or several pickle slices.

The Perfect Hamburger Presentation often includes pickles laid out on the burger in such a manner that when eaten a little bit of pickle is tasted with each bite; one big lump or pile of pickles in one spot is simply sloppy presentation and should be avoided. When we use a relish like Bob’s, we leave the additional pickle slices off. Many of the evolving California Style Cheeseburgers are incorporating the long hamburger style pickles in their offerings… very cool. It is possible to use too many pickles… and you want to assure the pickles are not so dripping wet is pickle juice so as to make the buns soggy (we hate soggy buns!)

AVACADO: We feel the addition of avocado is strictly a “California Style Burger” trend… but whether it is slices of avocado or a guacamole style diced avocado addition, it really adds to the making and presentation of the “California Style Cheeseburger”, but is not necessary for the Perfect Cheeseburger. Too many burgers we see today have forgotten that simple can be better, and add so many extras that the hamburger and cheese are lost in the combined mix. We strongly lean to the “Simple is More” concept ourselves… but often leave the additional “Making” out in our buffet line for guests to build their own burger as they like. We just cook the burgers and buns for our BBQ guests, and then allow guest to experiment as they like. This is great for large groups or even smaller family BBQs.

CHUTNEYS AND SALSAS: Strictly an over the top part of the “California Style Hamburger” evolution is the addition of Chutneys and Salsas. We do not include either in our presentation of the “Perfect Hamburger,” but have enjoyed the addition of peach and mango chutneys to several of the California Style Burgers. We have yet to have a salsa added to any burger that did not seem to cross the line into a “Taco Burger” … so we avoid this addition at all costs. Some things like salsa just do not belong on hamburgers! (No insult to salsa lovers)

THE CLASSIC HAMBURGER SAUCE: Let it be no secret, assuming it was, but the most popular Cheeseburger sauce is the original Thousand Isle Sauce. We make our own by combing real mayonnaise (Best Foods), ketchup, sweet pickle relish, and a dash of Worchester Sauce. This said, we seldom use this sauce ourselves preferring to use a combination of Bob’s Big Boy Hamburger Relish and Bob’s Big Boy Bleu Cheese dressing… we leave out the mustard in this style presentation (which is Ed, the Wright Gourmet’s personal favorite style).

Note: Many of the Best Hamburgers use the simple classic Ketchup, Mustard and pickle combinations with several slices of cheese.

BARBEQUE SAUCES: BBQ Sauces seem to have been the hallmark beginnings of the “California Style Hamburger,” but what type depends on who is making the cheeseburger. The most popular are the “Hickory Smoke” types which are being replaced with Chipotle blends and mesquite flavored sauces. BBQ sauce can really add to any cheeseburger as can some of the more “California Style Burger” sauces which also are tending towards BBQ combinations with teriyaki sauce blends.

SOUTH-WEST STYLE BURGERS: The “SouthWest Burger” seems to be a hybrid of the “California Burger” evolution. Typically we are seeing the use of BBQ sauces with monstrous, coronary inducing sized beef patties… but we believe the SouthWest trend we like most seems to be the inclusion of Ortega Chili slices and a little chipotle seasonings. These additions make for an exceptional taste… great presentation and add flare; but are not a part of the Perfect Cheeseburger.

Once again, we avoid heavy, or over powering tasting items in our “Perfect Cheeseburger” because these additions seem to detract from the flavor of the cheese and the meat. This said; one of the best versions of a “SouthWest Burgers” we have enjoyed recently included several crossed hatch grilled slices of Ortega Chili with a smoky mesquite flavored, honey BBQ sauce. Very finger licking good, very popular, very messy…

OTHER ADDED ITEMS: Chili seems to be a long time favorite addition to hamburgers, and many consider it part of the “Perfect Cheeseburger,” but has been discounted here as not being a true hamburger or cheeseburger. In fact many menus call this gastronomical time bomb a “Chili Size”… however you look at it, chili is great on Hamburgers, Cheeseburgers, or what ever you want to call it for marketing purposes, but over powers the cheese and meat making the chili the focal point of the meal; So, No Chili Burgers here.

Our goal here is to identify the items that make up the Perfect Cheeseburger; If you enjoy these chili burgers though… and you have an industrial size bottle of Tums handy, be sure to try “Johnny Rockets” and “Tommy’s Burgers” who both are famous/infamous for their chili sizes. The Chili thing aside, one hamburger we tried recently included a slice of BBQ Grilled pineapple with a teriyaki/BBQ sauce… very good, also very California, but once again, not the “Perfect Cheeseburger.”

Other items we are seeing regularly are grilled bell peppers, sautéed mushrooms, or even more trendy grilled Portobello mushrooms (or other even wild mushrooms), strange pickled vegetable items, slaws of every nature and type, deep fried onion rings and even gold leaf foil… all very flashy, hyper trendy and over the top, beyond even “California Style Burgers;” the goal once again is to bring out the taste of the cheese and meat, so quality and minimalist thinking prevails in our minds more often than strange for the sake of being different.

One trendy burger patty option we enjoy is the gourmet “Buffalo Burgers” and the rather expensive “Ostrich Burger,” both very California in nature.. very good if not a bit overly dry tasting because of the inherent leanness of the meat used. These items all come up in conversations of “California Style Burgers,” but we will limit this article to Ground Beef Cheeseburgers.

A NOTE ON VEGATARIAN BURGERS: For years we have loved to hate “Boca Burgers” and other Vegetarian attempts to duplicate a real hamburger tasting “Vege-burger;” and I will go on record stating it can not be done… they all taste like so much flavored compost; but not so fast. Recently I sampled a “Boca Burger” that was cooked on a grill that actually tasted fairly good; it was juicy (for processed sawdust), flavorful and even edible… but it will never become the “Perfect Cheeseburger,” not even in California. This said, properly done these compost burgers can be made semi-good eats; but why, when you can enjoy the real thing?

NOTES ON BURGER SIZE: Yes, we are told size counts, but "Bigger" is not always better… and we have found more often than not that bigger just is a camouflage for less quality. Unfortunately the problems with undercooked meat have caused restaurant to overcook burgers to the point most taste like overcooked pressboard… and huge burger patties just mean that much overcooked flavorless pressboad.

A simple single patty burger well prepared and properly cooked will outdo the “Western Mega, Compost Tasting Special” even if a scantly clad Paris Hilton is grinding all over it. Sexy bikini and BBQ sauce clad Paris Hilton types and ad campaigns aside, the bottom line to building the perfect Cheeseburger or Perfect hamburger would be to look to Bob’s Big Boy Restaurants “Big Boy Classic Burger” and the In-N-Out Restaurants “Classic Double / Double Animal Style” to see what the roots of perfect hamburgers are all about.

Simply put, carefully examining what has worked for so many years now, and still reins as the “Best Hamburgers” found anywhere by most reviewers lists… makes good sense; God willing, it will always be this way; that is why these Burgers are California Legends. To BBQ the Best Burger at home all starts with these basics… We hope this article improves your backyard barbeque and welcome your input. Thank You; Ed Wright, The Wright Gourmet.

This article was posted by: Ed Wright and Central City Mortgage’s “Wright Team,” specializing in Residential and Commercial Mortgage Lending… Purchase and Refinance. Serving all of California from offices in the Inland Empire. For all your mortgage lending questions please call Ed Wright “Your Personal Mortgage Consultant For Life” at (909) 938-3777 or E-Mail “The Wright Team:” Ed@ForHomeLoan.info

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