Ina Garten recommends using a fork to mix the hamburger meat.
Cookbook author Ina Garten advises mixing hamburger meat with a fork, because over-compacting it makes them dense and chewy.
“To make them really moist, and nobody wants a dry hamburger, I put in 3 tablespoons of olive oil,”
When making hamburgers at home, it's tempting to mix the meat, egg, breadcrumbs, milk, and seasonings with your hands, a spatula, or even a potato masher. According to Garten, this is a classic mistake because the meat becomes too compacted. His alternative is a utensil that almost every kitchen has: the fork.
“The key is to use a fork,” Garten says, mixing the meat. “Don’t compact it at all; it should be light.” Just as you shouldn’t overmix cake or cookie dough, you also shouldn’t make the burgers dense and chewy. The same goes for shaping them: “Roll it carefully, but don’t compact it,” he adds.
Garten uses top-quality, grass-fed beef, specifying "80% lean meat and 20% fat" for juiciness. For the marinade, he uses few, simple ingredients that don't mask the beef's flavor: three tablespoons of olive oil, salt, pepper, and mustard.
When cooking them, Garten brushes the grill with a little olive oil so the meat doesn't stick. As a final tip, he recommends not pressing the burgers down on the grill, because they lose too much juice and dry out.
Garten serves his burgers with caramelized onions and, as a special touch, between two slices of toasted English bread.
