Local Cooks Offer Their Grilling Tips

Before tossing our burgers on the grill this Independence Day, we decided to grill a few experts first.

Specifically, we asked people at some of the more popular burger joints and meat markets around the area for advice on preparing the perfect patties.

Not surprisingly, they all agreed on one thing: You get out of a burger what you put into it.

“Keep the quality of the meat good - that’s the main thing,” says Todd Hudson of Hudson’s Hamburgers in Coeur d’Alene.

Even if you don’t grind your own meat, or have someone grind it fresh for you, at least avoid the frozen stuff.

“If it’s frozen, it’s going to have less moisture,” says Steve Egger of Egger Meats Southside in Spokane. “That’s what your freezer does, takes the moisture away.”

Besides, adds Mike Aquino of Mike’s Burger Royal on East Trent: “When you cook hamburger that’s been previously frozen, blood doesn’t just run off, it coagulates. You see these little goobers on the sides of the burger. With fresh meat, it will just evaporate.”

As for fat content, while fat provides flavor in meat, not everyone agrees that more is necessarily better.

“Anything fattier than 15 percent is just a way to use up fat,” says Egger, who keeps his ground beef at 11 to 12 percent. “The flavor isn’t going to change. You just get grease.”

Deanna Almeida, who handles the catering and deli operations at Sonnenberg’s Market on East Sprague, likes to use extra-lean beef for her barbecued burgers at home. “Otherwise, the grease drips down and you get flare-ups,” she says.

Don’t they dry out? “Not if you don’t overcook them,” says Almeida. She makes her patties 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick and carefully cooks them for about seven minutes a side over moderately low heat on a gas grill.

However much fat is in the meat, you don’t want to make your patties too fat.

“On a barbecue, it’s hard to regulate the heat,” says Jon Jordan, operating owner of Dick’s Hamburgers in Spokane. “If you have really thick hamburgers, you’re going to have a hard time getting the middle cooked before the edges burn.”

While compressing the meat too much makes for tough burgers, they should be firm enough that they won’t fall through the grill. “You want it medium packed, but not so packed that you squeeze the juice out,” says Aquino.

Seasoning is a matter of personal preference. Simple salt and pepper is plenty for Aquino. Almeida adds Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder. Egger swears by Johnny’s Seasoning Salt, made in Tacoma and available at area supermarkets.

Save the sauce for the end, though.

“What I hate is when people put barbecue sauce on raw hamburger and put it on the grill,” Aquino says. “All it does is burn the barbecue sauce. Put the sauce on after you flip it over and leave it there maybe two or three minutes. You heat the barbecue sauce, but it’s not burned.”

Flip the patties only once, and resist the temptation to play with them in the meantime unless you want sawdust for dinner.

“When people put burgers on the grill, usually they take a spatula and squeeze them, and all the juices run out,” says Darlene Campbell, assistant manager at D. Lish’s on North Division. That also causes the fire to flare up and burn the burgers, adds Jordan.

So how do you know when to flip? “It’s kind of like when you make pancakes,” says Almeida. “When the fat bubbles to the surface and the edges look cooked, it’s time to turn them.

“A lot of people flip them too soon. They’re not done enough on the bottom, so they fall apart.”

If you’re properly patient about flipping them, the burgers should only take about half as long to cook on the second side. Just don’t rush them too much.

“Some people eat hamburgers that aren’t even cooked - there’s so much other stuff on them, they don’t even realize it,” says Aquino.

While it’s important to make sure burgers are thoroughly cooked (and the nasty bacteria like e. coli are killed), you’re still tempting fate if you don’t have a fresh plate to put them on.

“The biggest thing is people put raw meat on a plate, take it out to the grill, then put the cooked burgers back on the same plate,” says Jordan. “You see that a lot.”

So there you have it. Except for one final word of expert advice from Jordan: “Eat them while they’re hot.”