Beef Burger served with salad
Quick to make, tasty to eat and healthy when made with low fat, quality beef. This is a meal all the family will enjoy.
Our recipe keeps them simple, delicious and we describe how to cook them perfectly.
Ingredients for beef burgers
450g / 1lb of lean minced beef
1 medium onion
1 large egg
Handful of parsley
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
4 pinches of ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
SERVE WITH
4 white bread burger buns
4 rashers of back bacon
Shredded iceberg lettuce
1 large chunky tomato
1 medium red onion
Take the minced beef from the fridge and leave it on the side in the kitchen. Minced beef at room temperature makes for a better, more evenly cooked beef burger.
Finely chop the medium onion (not the red onion)
Finely chop the parsley
Slice the red onion and separate the rings
Slice the tomato into 8 slices
Shred the iceberg lettuce
There are so many variations on the best beef burger recipe that it's difficult to decide which one truly gives the perfect burger. Take McDonalds for instance, who have been in business from 1948. Their recipe is simplicity itself, 100% minced beef seasoned with just salt and pepper, yes that's the truth! What is missing from that description though is that they add a relish on top which provides a huge dollop of flavour.
Almost all relishes or chutneys will fit the bill. Our tomato chutney or sweet pepper relish are ideal.
To come up with our recipe we have cooked endless burgers all with different seasoning levels and ingredients. We enjoyed all of them but one particular recipe has been crowned by CookUK as the best in the world and we present it to you below.
Just a quick word about the minced beef. We used lean minced beef to keep the saturated fat and calorie levels to a reasonably healthy level. By all means use a fattier cut of meat but remember that much of the fat will come out in the cooking process loosing much of the cost benefit of cheaper beef.
The cooking time in our recipe is four minutes on one side and four minutes on the other. This will give you a burger which is medium done. Add a minute or so each side for well done.
The thickness of the burger (we recommend 2½cm / 1in) is important because much thicker than our recommendation and the burger will not be cooked through. Much thinner than that and the the burger will be over cooked.
Rare beef burgers are not a good idea health wise! Unlike a steak where the inside of the steak is enclosed, minced beef, used in beef burgers, is a mixture of of the inside and outside of the meat and all parts are open to infection and need to be cooked through.
Put the frying pan on a medium heat, add the vegetable oil and fry the chopped onions (not the sliced onions) for 10 minutes turning the onions frequently. Remove the onions (leaving the oil in the pan) for use later.
Add the bacon rashers to the pan and fry for about four minutes on each side. Remove the bacon (leaving the oil in the pan) for use later.
Frying bacon for beef burger
Add all the beef burger ingredients (except the oil) to a large bowl and mix them together well.
Separate the mixture into four equal portions. With wet hands, form each portion into a ball shape. Flatten the mixture with your hands to a thickness of about 2½cm / 1in. Place the beef burgers on a plate, drizzle a little oil over them and place in the refrigerator for half an hour (longer if preparing well in advance).
Form the uncooked beefburgers
Pre-heat the frying pan to a high heat for three minutes then turn the heat to medium. Then add the uncooked beef burgers with the oiled side down. Fry for four minutes, drizzle oil over the surface and carefully turn the burgers over. Fry for a further four minutes.
While the burgers are frying cut each burger bun in half and lightly toast the cut sides under the grill.
STEP 4Assemble your beef burger in any order you fancy (see our picture below for our preference). It should include the burger, lettuce, tomato, sliced red onions, tomato relish / chutney and a slice of bacon.
The beef burgers, by themselves, freeze very well and will last a couple of months in the freezer.
Beef burger cooked and ready to eat