When restaurants cook their burgers, they will mostly use the same methods and techniques for cooking them for the most part, with some some differences in between. Here we will cover what those techniques and methods are for cooking a burger patty, and how it is done.
Restaurants use many types of grills for cooking their burgers. The most common one that they use for cooking burgers is the flat-top grill. It is the best for using methods for holding in the flavor for burger patties. It also allows versatility when cooking different types of meat that are used for making burgers, besides the traditional beef.
Restaurants always start off with seasoning their burger patty. One side of the patty is seasoned, which will be the same side that will cook first. After this, the other side is seasoned after the burger patty starts cooking on the grill. A simple salt and pepper mix is the most commonly used seasoning for burgers, even in restaurants. They will sprinkle the seasoning on the whole surface of the patty.
Restaurants usually stick with the fatter meats that are not lean when cooking burgers. This allows the burger to be more flavorful and juicy. The amount of fat in the meat is usually atleast 20%. Some restaurants use meat with fat contents of 30% or more. However, burgers that go above a certain amount of fat for its contents tends to not be so suitable for burgers. Meat like this is better enjoyed as steaks.
One of the key things that almost every restaurant uses when cooking their burger patties is searing the outer layer of the burger patty at high heat. Searing the outside of the patty helps to keep the juices inside of the patty while it cooks. Restaurants will usually put their patties on a hotter side of the grill first to cook it faster on the outside, then transition the patty to a less heated side to finish cooking.
Not every restaurant uses the searing method to the degree explained. Some restaurants will cook the burger at 350 degrees Fahrenheit the entire time. The patty is cooked like this until the first side shows some char on the outer surface, then they cook the other side the same way.
Another very common technique used by restaurants is flattening the burger before and/or during the cooking process. This ensures that the burger will be cooked thoroughly and faster within the alloted time for their guests.
Some restaurants flatten their burgers as soon as the burger is placed on the grill to cook. Doing it this way, ensures that the burger will still be juicy after it is done cooking, because the fats have not been melted yet in the meat. The fats will not melt immediately when they are first placed on the heat. It takes some time before the fats and juices begin to bleed out of the burger patty.
This is done for smashburgers, but also just for regular burgers. For smashburgers, a burger press designed for smashburgers is used to smash the burger down on the flat-top grill. For smashburgers, some butter is sometimes placed down on the grill before the burger press is used to smash down the burger on top of the butter.
This method of flattening the burger is said by many to be the best tasting juicy burgers that they have ever had.
Some restaurants will also flatten their burger after it has cooked a little on both sides. This does remove a lot of the juices in the burger, so it isn’t advised to do this if you want juicy burgers. However, many individuals do go to restaurants that do this to their burgers and still enjoy them the most.
Restaurants don’t typically do what most people would do for cooking their own burgers at home. For instance, many establishments cook their burger patties very thin. Some people would disagree with doing this, because they say that the burger doesn’t have enough meat. However, the best burger places (particularly fast food burger restaurants) use this method.
McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Five Guy’s, and many other burger establishments use this method for cooking their burgers. It allows them to cook the fastest burgers without risking the burgers ending up undercooked in the middle. They also use a special burger press tool to do this. This is one of the reasons why they use this technique. Besides using a burger press, some of these restaurants use a panini press grill.
Even though some individuals may enjoy a thicker bigger burger with thicker meat, thinner patties are preferred by many restaurants because of its better usage. The technique of cooking thinner burger patties can also still allow a burger to be made thick with a lot of meat. All the restaurant has to do is simply layer multiple thin patties in the same burger bun.
Many restaurants that make thicker burgers with thin patties have adopted this technique. Their burgers can still have a lot of meat by simply adding in an additional thin burger patty in the burger. This also allows their burgers to be potentially more flavorful too. How restaurants make their burgers more flavor when using this technique, is when they add the American cheese to the top of the thin burger patties after it is almost done cooking on the grill.
Once the cheese is added to the cooked patty, they can stack multiple patties on top of each other with the cheese on top of each patty, which means that when it is placed in the burger, there will be more cheese. It makes the burger have more flavor and feel less meaty, even though the burger can have the same amount of meat as a thicker burger with one thick patty.
A few restaurants cook their burger patties using the assistance of a melting dome. This is a burger tool that is shaped like a bowl, that is placed on top of the burger on a flat-top grill, while it is cooking the entire time. It helps the burger to cook even, and is especially useful for really thick burger patties.
