Project Friday: The Best Burger You'll Ever Eat

The secret of the best burger you’ll ever eat? It starts with grass-fed beef and the right cooking equipment. Read on for the burger experience of your life.

Step 1: Assemble ingredients and equipment.

You’ll need:

• A miniature cast-iron skillet, 6’’
• A third of a pound of grass-fed beef for each patty
• A plastic take-out container lid
• Condiments of choice: mushrooms, onions, pickles, jalapeno peppers, cheese, tomatoes, greens, pickled vegetables.
• Bread vehicle: Brioche bun (if available), ciabatta, bialy, Thomas’ English muffin.

Step 2: Preparations

• Take a third pound of beef and shape it into a thin patty on the top of the plastic takeout lid (it will puff up a bit as it cooks).

• Season patty with salt and pepper.
• If time allows, let patty or patties rest in fridge for a while
• Disarm smoke alarm
• Open windows and strategically place fans

Step 3: Fire it up

• Preheat skillet on high for a few minutes until it is blazing hot
• Slap a patty on the skillet, you may reduce heat a little bit if there is a lot of smoke
• WARNING: not uncommon for grease fires to break out at this point in the cooking. Watch carefully and take necessary precautions.
• Cook patty about four minutes on each side for medium rare (this is not a science, I figure the small-farm grass-fed beef you can eat practically raw, one good thing to do is to let the burger rest for a few minutes after cooking to let the center cook a little more)
• While burger is cooking, toast bun, prepare other condiments.
• Flip burger; it should have some nice charring—if not, raise heat and turn fan to high.
• Place desired cheese on charred side and allow to melt while other side is cooking.
• When burger is done, set it on the toasted bun and throw some thin-sliced onions in the pan to fry in the hamburger grease.
• Top hamburger and enjoy.

Some good burger iterations:

The blue velvet: blue cheese or gorgonzola, watercress, grilled onions

The Senor Caliente: jalapeno peppers, bacon, Swiss, homemade pickled hot onions and carrots

The Monsieur Canard: duck bacon, Gruyere cheese, pickles, red onions.