It will soon be Labor Day, which means that the end of summer is upon us. The sun’s already going down earlier. The ferns are already turning brown. It won’t be long before the fields are full of goldenrod. Before you put away that grill, though, let’s make some burgers to celebrate summer’s last hoorah. Don’t let my poor picture-taking and complete lack of food styling skills convince you otherwise: these are Labor-Day-Weekend-worthy charcoal grilled burgers.
Charcoal Grilled Burgers
Course: Dinner18
burgersIf you have someone to help you, have them get the grill started just as you start forming the patties.
Ingredients
1 cup minced yellow onion
4 lbs. 80% lean ground beef
2 Tbs Worchestershire sauce
3 tsp salt
2 tsp coarsely ground pepper
Best-quality hamburger buns
12 Cheddar cheese slices (optional)
Directions
- Lay a sheet of wax paper onto a large cutting board or cookie sheet. Use a Sharpie to trace circles onto the paper that are 1/8-to-1/4-inch larger than the bun. Continue tracing until you’ve created a stensil for 6 evenly-spaced patties. Place another sheet of wax paper over your stensil. Return the bun to its packaging.
- Place the beef, onion, Worchestershire, salt, and pepper into a very large mixing bowl, and use your hands to mix it. Use a 1/3-cup measure to help you divide the beef mixture into 4-oz portions, placing each portion onto one of the wax-paper pattie circles. Once you’ve filled all 6 circles, flatten each portion of beef into a patty that fills the circle. Carefully pull the stensil sheet away, and slide the pattie sheet onto a second same-size cutting board or cookie sheet. Use your thumb to create an indentation in the center of each pattie. Place a fresh sheet of wax paper over your stensil in order to repeat this procedure, creating 6 new patties. Carefully lay the new sheet of patties on top of the former sheet, lining up the patties perfectly. Continue until you’ve portioned out all the beef. (If you have any leftover beef that weighs too little to form a new patty, divide it among your existing patties.) Lay a final sheet of wax paper over the top of the patties. Make sure that all the wax paper sheets are taught. Then, use sizzors to cut through all the wax paper layers at once, to separate the patties from one another. This will allow you to easily lift each one and place it onto the grill.
- Prep the grill: brush and oil the grates. Determine how much charcoal you’ll need to create a layer under half the grill surface, 4 briquetts deep (see notes). Ignite the charcoal and it burn until the coals are gray with ash, 10 minutes. Then, spread the coals over one half of the grill surface. Try to space them as evenly as you can; this is important. Adjust the grill rack so that it’s about 2 inches over the charcoal. (For me, that’s position one of four, if you’re counting from the bottom.) Put the grates in place. Close the lid, vent it, and let the grill heat up for 10 minutes.
- Grill the burgers: lay as many burgers as will fit over direct heat, indentation-side up. Close the lid and wait 1 minute. Flip the burgers, close the lid, and wait for 1 more minute. This should produce burgers with at least some pink inside. If you want them well done, move them to the indirect portion of the grill, close the lid, and wait 2 minutes. (Add the cheese during the final 30 seconds.) Check the grill temperature before you open the lid to remove the burgers. If it has fallen below 300F, add 10 briquettes before starting in on the next batch.
Notes
- Substitutions: another acid (wine, citrus juice, a flavorful vinegar, or a combination of these) for the Worchestershire.
- The size of your grill will dictate how many briquettes it takes to create a a quadruple layer of charcoal. I have a very large grill. It takes me 80 briquettes – which fills my chimney starter all the way – to create a quadruple layer under half of the grill surface. You don’t have to use a chinmey starter. You can stack the briquettes into a pyramid, or just arrange them in a pile.
Cheese or not, a beautifully charred beef patty tossed onto a bun and heaping with all your favorite condiments perfectly symbolizes a beautiful summer day. Surprise: if you avoid drying them out, they reheat impressively well.
Social Learning
The method I’m using here is to work with a very hot grill and sear the burgers quickly, giving you an option for medium or well-done burgers without drying them out.
I’ve made my directions explicit for my grill. You’ll have to adjust this for your own grill. So, if you’re planning a Labor Day barbecue or whatnot, you may want to do a few practice rounds beforehand. You can easily cut this recipe down to work with a single pound of beef for that purpose (or if you simply want to feed fewer people).
Bun circumference vary from one brand to the next. The larger the circumference, the thinner the burger if you make them the way I’m suggesting. The thinner the burger, the shorter the cooking time. The cooking time for this recipe is based on a bun circumference of 3.5 inches.
It’s not so much that the buns have to be the best you can find. It’s more that you want to avoid something dry, mushy, or bland. Although your intuition probably tells you that a good burger is all about the meat – and your intuition isn’t wrong – you can’t take the buns for granted. A bad one will make your beautiful beef patties seem irrelevant.
If you have leftover burgers – and I’d plan to if I were you – don’t cheese’m. Instead, let them cool, then keep them tightly wrapped up in the fridge. When you’re in the mood for one, cheese it, nuke it on full power, and by the time the cheese is melted, the burger will be warm. Place it on a bun, condiment it to your heart’s desire, and you’ll hardly notice any difference between this and a burger fresh off the grill.
In the recipe, I’ve recommended fewer cheese slices than there are burgers, because AI tells me that only 70% of people will want cheese on their burgers. Think it through for your own circumstances. Maybe your tribe likes two slices of cheese per burger. Get more cheese if you think you’ll need it.
The Backstory
It seems like everyone I know uses a gas grill. I feel like charcoal is a thing of the past. However, every grocery and hardware store is loaded with it all summer long, so obviously I’m not the only one who’s using it. It does come with baggage: lighting it, and then getting rid of it. But it produces tons of flavor, and of course, it gives you an excuse to play with fire.
I’m sure a purist isn’t going to go for the way I’ve doctored up the meat. I feel that it helps keep the burgers moist, while providing lots of flavor. I’ve tried not to go too overboard, in order to avoid a meatloafy texture.
Adult Lunchbox
The only acceptable (that I know of) way to nuke a burger is to nuke the patty by itself. Try this: take the cold, leftover burger out of the fridge and place it onto the bottom bun, and add a slice of cheese above. Above that, a (perferable patty-sized) tomato slice, then the condiments, and then a few lettuce leaves before adding the top bun. This makes the patty easy to remove, and keeps the condiments from soaking into the bun. (As an alternative, pack the comidments separately in adorable stainless steel, half-ounce containers that you’ve bought specifically for this kind of situation.) Wrap the whole thing up nice and tight, place it into a microwave-safe container that’s just the right size for a cozy fit, and take it to work. Nuke the patty with the cheese in the container of on its upturned lid, place the patty back into the bun, and have yourself a nice, homemade burger for lunch at work.
Charcoal Grilled Burgers
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Labor Day! Finally! You may not like our burgers. They are the ONLY thing my husband knows how to cook. He will only use charcoal, plus he uses hickory as well. Each burger is 8 ounces and still mooing! I’m glad you use tomato and lettuce. So good.
My husband would love your husband’s burger. An eight-ouncer! Wow! Of course even as I say that, I know I could easily be happy with a burger that size. I love the idea of hickory. I wouldn’t go so far as the kind of rare that you’re describing. Though I wouldn’t turn it down, I do like a light shade of pink just in the very center.
I think your photograph is a great one for this post — perfectly messy and oozy, as a burger should be. And I love that you used “condiment” as a verb (condiment to your heart’s delight). I shall use it thusly from now on! Sadly for us, in the desert and specifically in our neighborhood, we have restrictions on real charcoal as the fire hazard is also real. So gas grilling it must be. But I also don’t mind a skillet burger — it forms a nice crust! Oh, and love the burger additions. Did you know that Julia Child put a pat of butter in the middle of hers to keep it moist?
I do know the Julia trick. She also suggests grinding your own hamburger meat, which I thought was too much, until I looked up the legal definition of “hamburger.” I do at the very least that it says “beef” or some specific cut of beef in the title on the label, and not “hamburger,” but nonetheless, one of these days I am going to do my own grinding.
I’m with you on the fire hazzard. Early on in my grilling days, I started a dumpster fire and got a stern talking to from a fireman.
Wow – the firemen got involved? yikes!
Not being snobbish, I grind much of my own meat (and poultry) for safety reasons. And I really like how it comes out, especially f I am using it in a ragù – no clumping! I have never tried the Julia trick – I use a combo of chuck and brisket and it stays really most from the (fantastic) fat content! We really try to do 1.3 pound burgers… and always medium rare for us. By the way, I forgot to say that I like your method of making the burgers slightly larger than the buns. I would save that stencil from time to time!
Well, the dumpster was on fire, after all. It first came to my attention when I stepped outside my apartment to see why the fire truck was there, and saw a handful of other residents all pointint to my apartment. Then the fireman came up and told me that I could be fined to cover the cost of them having to put out my fire. I’d grilled the night before, and just assumed that the next morning the coals would be safe to toss. Rookie move. And unwittingly dangerous. I’m far more careful now.
If you’re going to have burgers as thick as you’re describing, and you want them medium rare, I agree with you: it’s a safety thing.
Charcoal all the way here at our house!! I don’t understand grilling on gas myself but that is just my humble opinion. Your burger is making my stomach growl, it looks delish!!
Thank you, Lori!
Che fame a vedere questo super panino, molto invitante!!!
Give in to your temptation!
We don’t even have a grill…the burger looks and sounds excellent!
Make them in a fry pan!
I’m with you on Worchester sauce. I think it’s under-appreciated.
Thank you!
Yum, I can almost smell those delicious burgers from here Jeff. We love a good burger. You go to so much trouble to ensure all the beef rissoles are the same size, with me close enough is good enough with burgers, ha,ha. It is always a very casual meal. I can understand you trying to wring the last bit of joy out of your Summer, I am doing the same with our Winter, it is nearly finished. I also love that you use Worcestershire sauce in your burgers. They must have tasted amazing.
Thanks Pauline. (PS, on my end, both comments looked legit and the addresses appeared to be the same. I nonetheless approved the second one, after stripping away the note.)
Thanks Jeff, I think the weird photo image that came up just worried me. See what happens next time.
I love a good burger, and a charcoal grill (although it might take a bit longer) is the way to go! This sounds like a great Labor Day plan to me. In years past, I would doctor up my burgers with all sorts of stuff – they ended up being meatloaf burgers. Delicious, but too much stuff. I’ve paired down the added ingredients when I make burgers now, and they sound a lot like yours. Well done, sir!
Thanks, David!
Ah yes, the end of summer… it’s a bittersweet time of year. Love the fall but still there’s something a bit wistful about summer coming to an end.
I’m 100% with you on charcoal grilling. I switched to charcoal a few years ago and never looked back. The extra flavor is completely worth the slight extra time and effort involved. Also with you on not taking the bun for granted. A bad/bland bun can really put a dent in your enjoyment and conversely a really excellent (preferably buttered) bun can take a burger from decent to delicious.
The college that I attended used to begin its fall semester at the end of September, which meant that for me, summer extended well past August. For all of my life before and since, I’ve spent Septembers indoors, once unaware of how beautiful Septembers are and then trying to forget, lest it depress me. But I have a few intensely wonderful memories seared into my brain, of wandering through fantastically deserted summer places like beaches, woods, and fields, with the sun still warm enough to feel fantastic on my face, with the added bonus of an inescapable “playing hooky” feeling. I wonder if one day retirement will feel like that.
these look like deliciously simple (in the best way) burgers Jeff. Of course in australia, it ain’t a burger till it has pickled beetroot on it. And probably a ring of pineapple 🙂 Spring has already sprung here and flowers are blooming.
I wish I were facing the beginning of another summer, instead of inevitable winter. Why did it never become obvious until just now that I should spend half of each year in the U.S. and the other half in Australia?
an excellent idea!
Thanks!
These burgers are awesome! Definitely worthy of Labor Day grilling!
Thanks, Caitlin!
I definitely agree with you Jeff in adding worchestershire sauce to home made burgers. Gives them an extra kick. These are great for BBQing!
Thank you, Neil!
We only have a charcoal grill (The Big Green Egg) and it’s always worth the effort. The wonderful smoky flavours the grill brings to the burgers is incomparable to a gas grill. JT has the setup down to a T, it doesn’t really take much longer than waiting for the gas grill to heat up. Your burgers look incredible and juicy. We Canadians grill throughout the winter, as long as we can dig a path through the snow😜
🙂
Nope, I’m not ready to let summer go, and I’m planning to hold on to it for a while at least in terms of recipes. And I’m not refusing this burger either – it looks seriously delicious!
That’s exactly how I felt until the PSL returned a few days ago.