I Made The Perfect Burger

there's millions of combinations of ingredients to choose from when creating a burger but which are the best today I am joined by Burger scholar George Moes chef and owner of hamburger America New York City we'll be going on a culinary Deep dive to compare and test just about every common component that goes into creating a hamburger the Buns the meat the sauce the toppings by the end of this assuming we did everything right we'll have created the perfect hamburger or at least my idea of it or at least given you the power to create your own let's begin George is our scholar George is the legend he's going to be here to give his inputs as we go along and he'll be judging my final burger at the end so we have several buns in front of us we're going to be judging these based off of Squish toast taste and appearance we'll be choosing a top three and then I'm going to pick my top one to assemble into my perfect burger let's begin our testing the kaiser roll it's an uncommon choice I feel like for a hamburger it's sturdy listen that listen that it's soft on the inside though if you have a thick Patty with greases dripping out of it you need that squish test what I like about it is it Springs back it's got Al integrity that's a plus toast ability these were all toasted exactly the same butter in a pan flat toasted it required some pressure in order to get it well it naturally deflated whenever the heat went up through that for sure but it looks great though and it's crisp oh yeah that's nice we give a little taste it's a little chewy tastes like breakfast it's too much bread I think for a burger flavor is nice texture is a little chewy maybe not perfect for a burger next one milk buns appearance they look good this just looks like a classy hamburger bun what's the funk in there not a yeast is it it seems we're introducing a smell test which I kind of like it's important one of the most important parts of tasting is through your nose squish test you know these are a little less sturdy but I don't mind it I kind of like that there's a little bit of squishiness to it it's just on the edge of too squishy for a fancy classic white squishy bun that's pretty perfect in a way if George thinks it's fancy we're so today for our toast test this tested super nice went edge to edge kind of like an air hockey table because it wants to move around just because it's so perfectly even oh yeah o wow it does smell amazing it was caught right before it was burnt and that's actually a good thing that's a good bun that's a great bun and it has a little bit of sweetness but it's not too much and you don't smell the sweetness which I appreciate I think it's on the edge but I give it a thumbs up this goes in our top three moving on bios what do you smell sugar sweet yeah which you don't want buttery I smell sugar people say that I'm overly critical I'm like smelling this I'm like that smells good and George is like too sweet too sweet when you take a bite of a burger your nose tastes the Burger first and then you taste beef hopefully the first thing you taste is the smell of the top of that bun so appearance test they look beautiful nice shiny top they're bulbous they're brown it looks like french bread squish dest Springs back it's got a little bit of a crack in it just because such a tender Crumb from the butter but all in all pretty good structure it toasts very nicely beautifully actually and that's because that extra fat it's too dense it's heavy it's almost like you're eating like the croissant version of a bun it's actually true yeah which I don't want to have on my burger English muffin I have had had a good cheeseburger on an English muffin they're good in the bar they have a long shelf life squish test pretty dense I would say English muffins are one of the few buns that have throw at thewall durability I'm glad that didn't land on the ground and look at that toasted it looks nice but it doesn't toast evenly because of the kles I put it in a toaster without butter it also has a little bit of bitterness to it eliminated next the pretzel bun that's seriously dense this has Bounce Off the Wall durability super yeasty oh wow smells like a beer well visually I think a pretzel bun looks beautiful but I also think it's very distracting it's almost like the bun is screaming and then what it can handle a squish you really have to toast it it'll be a different bun when you heat it up yeah I mean this toasted nice and evenly it's got a good crunch to it I like it I need mustard German mustard the pretzel I think will overtake the quality of the burger I'm going to say that's eliminated would you agree oh I agree yeah it's the potato roll I didn't sniff the crack yet what do you smell I smell yeast which is really what you should smell first but also look at the inside it's so soft crazy hillo visually they don't get in the way of the appearance of the burger they compliment and they keep it super simple squish test you could play the piano on this thing and it would retain its shape bounces right back good structure this toasts beautifully the funny thing about the top every time I toast one of these in butter it's toasted all the way through but you'll notice that the top bun has a ring around and why is that because we're desperately afraid of concaving this beautiful top right here cuz they do have a tendency to deflate a little bit taste wow they did something man there is sugar in there not much just enough and it tastes like the milk bun it kind of tastes like a Brio it's kind of a perfect balance between all those buns it's the perfect canvas for a burger this one goes in my top three my top one H got a dirt quality it looks like dirt but it's it's a white squishy bun but with some wheat coloring in it and then like some wheat flakes it smells unique but I don't want that in a burger like sand that's going to be a no yeah now moving on seated white bun visually I love sesame seeds when your nose hits that bun Sesame and yeast together that's a pretty powerful combination squish test can withstand a squish toasted a nice even toast the inside's nice and soft these deflate a little bit when you toast them doesn't bother me though this is what I love about sesame seeds on a bun you taste them but it's somehow such a complimentary flavor it just becomes the bun and not in an intrusive way at all it's amazing I love it no it's very subtle that concludes our top three with milk buns potato rolls and the seated white bun that I will be choosing for my perfect burger let's move on to the next component we have all different kinds of ground beef all the way way down from 60% lean all the way up to 90% lean this is possibly one of the most important elements to the Burger the way we'll be judging this is sear test structural Integrity test and flavor test so we're going to pick my top three followed by my number one pick which George Will judge at the end so we're going to start with some unusual ones these are not commonly used you won't even find this at the grocery store oh no I'll start with the 60% which is 40% fat wow yeah I mean that's like a grease fire way in the oh oh but we already got a problem it's stuck to the wax paper looks like you're trying to make like a beef cracker might as well season it so this is only 5% more lean I saw your method is paper and all this extra stuff you don't need that what I like to do cook a little patch on one side and that little patch actually prevents it from sticking to the spatula see that wow just that one little cook patch helps look at yours look at that thing it's literally all my art there's a little more heft to this the 5% alone is allowing it to stick together more like a hamburger patty so uh sear test good structural Integrity test very bad taste literally just straight fat tastes good this has a little more Integrity to it why didn't smash as thin as you did so sear test good structural Integrity test better but not perfect it's a lot better but I still think these two don't work so I'm going to say thumbs down for both 85% 90% I've always hated lean beef on a burger but let's test them pop that guy down I'm going to do this stupid por paper so stupid look at look look look when I first pulled this off it immediately sh drunk inward give a little salt 90% that's intense man no parchment that's a flex that's a flex the liquid portion of the lean muscle is bubbling there is some fat in there but not rest in peace not too bad of a my art I can be happy with that oh God it's stuck cuz there's no fat to lubricate this Patty yeah and you can actually see the difference and even just that 5% fat gave it a much better myard so let's start with the 85% he F wow it loses so much flavor there now I'm afraid to try this this actually it tastes like a steak like a sirloin steak with no fat in it so if you took this and added butter to that that would be fantastic as is both of these to lean lacking in flavor lacking in juiciness when you eat a burger and you're thinking oh that's so juicy it's not just the liquid in the burger but it's the fat so these are both going to be a no-o this is The Sweet Spot 70 75 and 80% these are already my top three but we'll test and find my top one first the sear test 75 got the best structural Integrity test both 75 and 80% ret beautiful structural Integrity whereas the 70% shrunk a little bit I also probably could have scraped this area a little better but it still shrunk pretty significantly so all there's left to do is taste 70% it's nice you taste the fat still but it's important to taste beef when you're having a hammer yeah yeah it's still got some structure to it I don't think that there's like a huge loss it definitely is a little bit of a loss though now for the 75% more beef flavor mm just a 5% increase immediate beef flavor comes in maybe 20% more finally 80% fantastic it's a little beefer and less fatty the 80% is the territory that it begins to dry nice and moist at 70 nice and moisted 75 with a little more beef flavor and then 80% good beef flavor but starting to get a little dry yeah I tell people who don't know what they're doing with hamburgers to choose 8020 because it's a pretty standard balance and you really can't go wrw there 80% is good but my top number one pick would be 75% now on to the next component the burger patty style rather than my top three this is going to lead into what my number one choice is we we have thin which would essentially be a smash Patty we have medium kind of like I guess a Burger King Patty that could be grilled that could be seared and then we have thick which has been seared and a thick which has just been grilled straight up whenever you get a thick Burger you're going to end up with a little bit of a medium or a medium rare this is like in between medium and medium mirror I would say another thick one that's been seared again we got a nice medium we now have our medium thick so really some pink in there a little bit of pink and then of course our smash which is well done but high enough fat that it can handle being well done so should we start with maybe the grilled typically when you grill something you will end up with a pretty significant crust if you grill it hard enough flavor it's good it's a little smoky charcoal texturally it's nice thick it's juicy it's very toothsome yeah it's also loose on the inside there I like it not bad classic the seared Burger there's no flavor of charcoal but I don't really need that this is what we call a New York Pub style burger moderately thick burger cooked on a flat top kind of like a steak in away it's a real process to eat medium thick it's good but it's my least favorite so far it's not quite announcing itself like the thick one it almost wants to be a smash Patty something you made at home cuz you were hungry that's all I can think of and then finally the smash Patty really good it's fantastic way more myard way more crust obviously it's a little less toothsome cuz it's not as thick but you heavily outweigh that texture with tons of flavor from this super flat even contact this is my number one choice for my perfect burger I agree to me every Burger is different as long as it tastes like beef that's all I care about they all have their place but not in my perfect burger cheee let me just make a quick statement that's really important all of these cheeses can work all of them will melt differently I should say but I do have a top three so I'm going to start by eliminating the cheeses that I don't want via taste first smoked goua it's tasty but it's going to taste differently I think when it's melted I think it's way too overwhelming of a cheese for my perfect burger so that one is out Swiss great melting cheese sweet though nutty it's not as creamy of a cheese white American cheese you don't see this that often Northeast you do I don't personally like white American cheese because of the appearance of it I want to see an orange slice of cheese so I'm nixing the American white aged cheddar so you can see that it's age you see like the little cagles in here looks like a bathroom tile it is tasty but will it melt you have to think about how to melt this so we have my top three yellow American cheese regular cheddar not aged and provolone what do you think of these for the top three out of all these cheeses one of those is really perfect for a burger I also think one of them is really perfect for a burger let's find out we're going to be testing and melting these cheeses on my Top Choice for blend and Patty style which is going to be 75% lean and a smash Patty now why didn't you cover that doesn't really need it exactly or you only have two bowls but that's a good point though the meltability on this it's so good that it doesn't need an overturn Bowl you could look at American cheese and it melts don't have to do much to yeah right there you go you're melting it look at just like that you're melting the cheese melting melting melting melting so we have our cheddar provolone and the American cheese visually the American cheese held the best structure has the nicest shine has has the best smell by far even the provolone being one of the lower fat cheeses on here you can see the oil on top of it not bad but not great not bad meltability is great oh yeah I'm not in love with the chew little Gummy flavor is great but funky which is what I like about provolone but it's not the flavor I want in a burger Tak away from the burger no go let's move on to the cheddar flavor Department step in the right direction but you still got that gummy chewy and oily the cheese goes onto the roof of your mouth and just like splashes oil into the back of your throat last but not least American cheese first you notice there's twice the amount of sodium I didn't even think about that before until just now way saltier I would argue that maybe even the provolone or the cheddar have more of a deep flavor this is a little bit more one note but that salt in that classic like American cheese flavor somehow it's now a burger texture is clutch creamy it almost sort of becomes a sauce with the fat of the meat in your mouth my number one for my perfect burger is American cheese I'm with you I think American cheese is the way to go now on to sauces this is an important one for me for a burger how do you feel about sauces on a burger I think they're un necessary but I like them that hurts we have three simple ones in the middle and then on the outsides we have two completed sauces one simpler and one more complex ultimately I do think they tend to come down to these three sauces right here Mayo yellow mustard and ketchup I don't even have a top three I'm just going to pick a one so let's start with just a little bit of ketchup very sweet very overpowering I've always hated straight ketchup on a burger me too to me this is a children's Burger I believe the second generation of burger lovers in America back in the 40s 50s they added ketchup to the Burger to get children excited about hamburger I'm not a little baby okay no now straight mustard it's nice good alone it's not not the answer if I were to imagine this on a burger my thoughts would be it's tart it's adding some acidity it's cutting the richness and it's also adding a new flavor that's complimentary to whatever it's on especially beef and then last of the simple sauces is a little bit of May it doesn't add much of a flavor but it does add a texture that's fat it's creamy I like Mayo on a burger but I don't like it by itself I think it needs another sausage to accompany it all of these components when combined you end up with this this has a little bit of ketchup a little bit of mustard a little bit of mayo salt and pepper now we have something going on cuz the ketchup's coming in for a little sweetness a little bit of tomato but it's so far away it's just helping being a little holster to the real flavor makers which is the mustard and the Mayo and then finally a very similar one this has a bit more ketchup in it but what makes this different is we added aromatics holy that tastes great hey what the it's really good man I'm not a sauce guy that's really good man well perfect because that's my number one choice for the sauce better be this is sort of like my rendition inspired by the In-N-Out spread I'm not blowing smoke up your if I put sauce on a burger that would be the one thank you we got the George Moes approval I appreciate that I'm not putting it on my burger but I think you should put on yours now we have one more component to talk about it is the toppings I want to set a few rules here number one toppings cannot over power the burger number two we're only limiting ourselves to the common burger toppings that you see which is lettuce tomato onion and pickle are there any no no for you here I think these could to all go on a burger there's actually not a whole lot of flavor here I'm just saying I agree there's not a lot of flavor here it's just really about texture I do think that there are some things like obviously this is like explosive well that's got flavor yeah onions sometimes but I actually wash my onions a little bit I can get into that in a sec but basically I'm just going to go through a quick elimination round let's just talk about lettuce these are all Iceberg but sometimes you see iceberg as a leaf sometimes you see it shredded also known as shredders sometimes you see it chopped lazy this is line cook wants to go home and then obviously there's butter lettuce which you're going to see this at like a be you get one leaf ironically somehow this is lazier lettuce I'm eliminating on my perfect burger sometimes it goes flacid and the flavor is almost non-existent that said if I were to choose one I'd probably pick shredd this super texture that leaves us with only four ingredients to choose from Tomatoes This is my least favorite ingredient on most Burgers I do think it's good on a thick Burger but my burger isn't a thick Burger this doesn't belong on mine it's going out it also can sometimes get a little bit flaccid we're left with dill salty vinegary neutral pickles and thinly sliced onion it is going to go on my burger but not necessarily as a topping I'm going to be including this in my burger through the OKC version of a Smash Burger so that really only leaves us with one option which is the dill pickle that is my one and only topping I would put on my perfect burger the acidity and a little bit of crunch but I think you have an opinion on how how it should be cut I do lengthwise for coverage also less skin by the way you get a little bit of pickle in every bite but there's a bigger issue they will slide out the straight cut it looks too much like it's homemade but there's something about that little CR cut yeah I think those crinkles will actually allow it from slipping out it's holding on to the Burger when you bite it all these little ridges are like whereas mine may or may not slide out which we're going to find out because now it's time for the burger scholar to taste my perfect burger I'm ready I'm going to begin with my buns just so that they're going a little bit of softened butter this is a big Marty's bun why do you butter the bun I get a better toast M because the Butter's kind of integrated with the bun a little bit I actually prefer it the other way I think there's something about adding bread to a hot butter which changes it's almost as if you're frying something you know what's funny I actually normally do that too but because you're here for some reason I felt compet my balls are going onto the hot griddle doing a little bit of thinly sliced onion I personally like to just kind of ball it up so not too much of it spreads all right put a little more do a little salty salt let those cook out check my buns that looks good these are coming off nice yeah give him a little Flip Flip what's happening I toast the other side get the sesame seeds toasted add my American shei transfer this guy on top of this guy like that we got our sauce I go pretty hefty on the sauce I like a lot of it I got my three pickles which have been sliced lengthwise and then my cheesy patties go directly on that it looks really good thank you and just for extra measure I do add a touch of sauce in the top bun and then she goes on she's juicy she's Loosey she's Goosey I won't be eating this I will walk away and Georgia I want you to break this burger down as deeply and madly As You Wish give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down visually it's beautiful this is a beautiful thing also it's the right size Burger shouldn't be too big so if you had 2 and2 oz patties that's 5 ounces of meat right cook down it's probably like 4 and 1/2 4 and a/4 ounces of meat that's actually the perfect size for Burger you also have four sides of my art cuz they're two patties so we know there's fat in there and the fat is going to create the the juice the liquid the flavor the downside of the first thing I smell is the sauce cuz the sauce is cooking in there I think it may be a little too much sauce cuz now star to see it sliding around like that that's my dill pickle baby is that my face okay to be totally honest there too much pickle there a little too much sauce other than that the onions were cooked perfectly the balance of the perfect meat of course as we know the perfect cheese a great bun that's excellent I give it a thumbs up for sure you got it all right so we've tried my perfect burger but this feels one-sided what's your perfect burger you should try this oh not very complicated I am merely a steward to history this is a very historical Burger two smash patties with American cheese and I dop the bun with only three things which is Mustard Pickle onion and that's it those three things together create a flavor profile that will help the burger along wow okay here we go cheers whoa know what that is by the way that is usually my highest compliment to food it's so no I asked for a burger and I got that at the highest level basically it's no confusion you don't need to have a conversation about all the different toppings and everything like that it speaks for itself immediately you're were right I mean the first thing I smell is yeast and beef and that's it and then the American cheese kind of comes in a little bit at the end I Now understand why you're not a sauce guy the American cheese like we said earlier is like emulsifying with the fat from the burger and it kind of creates Its Own creamy nice sauce you don't need to worry about the lack of acidity because it comes in with the mustard it comes in with the pickles and a little B of Sweetness from the onion I mean I don't even know if I want mine anymore this is a perfect burger I'm like confused now I don't even know what my original statement was when we started this this is the perfect burger the so George thank you for this I tried yours and it made me realize there are many ways for a burger to be perfect which is exactly why we appreciate you your cookbook and more specifically this burger because now you have the knowledge to make your perfect burger goodbye love you subscribe n [Music]

Channel: Joshua Weissman

Views: 1,037,488

Keywords: sat bawl pro, joshua weissman, easy burger recipe, fast burger recipe, smash burger recipe, the perfect burger recipe, the best burger recipe, burger, burger recipe, best burger, how to make the perfect burger, the perfect burger, burgers, best burger recipe, smash burger, burger bun recipe, homemade burger recipe, best burger bun recipe, perfect burger recipe, make the best burger, best burger buns, george motz, burger scholar, george motz restaurant, hamburger america

Id: z8Otk01Xi-U

Length: 20min 37sec (1237 seconds)

Published: Sun May 05 2024