This article will cover how to fix burgers that are too juicy. Even though many people do enjoy juicy burgers, sometimes they can be so juicy that they run down the hands and drip on the clothes when eating them. This can be a little more than a problem at times.
Here we will cover some cooking methods and techniques to help fix that problem so that it can stop happening.
One method that is commonly used is to just change to a meat for your burgers that has less fat in it. Of course, this may not be a choice for you, or you may not want to do that, which is understandable. Changing to a less fatty meat means that you would be serving leaner and less tasty burgers, right?
Leaner burgers are known to be less flavorful, because they have less fat. They are also tend to be less tender. It is the fat in the meat for the burgers that make them taste better, and they keep the burgers from drying out. So here we will give other solutions that can hopefully fix the problem of juicy burgers. The other solutions that we provide will give you some more leniency to adjust them to your liking when you try them than others. It depends on who you are cooking your burgers for, and personal preferences.
1. Press the juice out of the burger.
One method you can try is to just press the juices out of the burger while they are cooking. Once the inner portion of the meat begins to cook, the fats will begin to melt and release its juice. The juice will begin to seep out of the burger patty on the grill. Before the patty is fully cooked, you can gently press the patty to release more of the juices in the patty.
Based off of how much you press the patty, it will release a certain amount of juice. This option gives you control on how much juice that you want to leave the patty, since you will have full control by how much you press the patty. Of course, use a spatula to do this so you don’t burn yourself, or use a burger press.
2. Cook the burger patty for a longer time.
Cooking the burger patty for a longer period of time will make the patty lose more juice. This again gives some control over the amount of juice that you want in the patty. The more that the burger cooks, the more it will lose its juice. You will have to experiment with the cooking times for this and may have to adjust the temperature that you are cooking the burger when trying this since it will be cooking longer.
The temperature that the patties are cooking at may have to be slightly dropped to prevent the outside of the burger from cooking too fast, as it will be cooking for a longer time. Possibly a slightly longer cooking time might be enough for your burger to become less juicy.
The burger will react like bacon that cooks too long. It will become less juicy the more that it cooks. Experiment with this and see how long you should cook your burgers for to make them less juicy, without making them too dry.
Also, the burgers will shrink too the longer they cook, so be prepared to make your burger patties a little wider in diameter if they are going to be cooking for a lot longer.
3. Use a drying rack.
You can try using a drying rack to let the burger patties set on for 10 minutes. This will allow the juices to finish leaving the burger. However, the problem with this method is that it will make you or your guests have to wait longer before they will be able to enjoy their burger. 10 minutes is a long time for a customer to have to wait for a burger.
This also leaves room for lower quality burgers if the burgers are cooked beforehand to prevent the waiting time from occurring. It means that if these are being served to guests, then there is a possibility of having to waste precooked burgers during downtime of little to no guests at certain hours.
This is an excellent and viable option if you are serving burgers to guests non-stop all throughout the day and want good quality burgers that aren’t too juicy. However, guests will most likely not be happy with waiting an additional ten minutes for burger patties to dry if they are cooked and dried right on the spot.
To use a drying rack, simply set the burger patties on the tray on top of the grates after cooking the patties. The grates are needed in the tray to prevent the burger patties from not drying properly. There has to be air underneath the juicy patties in order for them to properly dry and lose some of the juice.
4. Use a grill designed to drain the juices immediately from the meat while it is cooking.
Fat reducing grills like the George Foreman grills are designed to make meat less greasy or juicy after they are done cooking. Some of them have slanted grill grates that are sloped, which lets the fats drain from the meat more effectively. They also press down on the burger patty to allow these juices to leave the burger more effectively while it is cooking.
5. Cook/make thinner burger patties.
The burger patties you are using might be just too thick. Try making thinner ones to cook. The thicker the burger patty, the more juice will come out of the burger while it is cooking. It will also take longer for the burger to dry when it is like this.
All of these are methods that can be used to make the burger less juicy and messy. Some of these methods can even save the bread used for the burgers from becoming too soggy from all the excessive juice. Every method has its pros and cons, but they do get the job done.
I would advise testing out the methods and experimenting with each to see which one suits you best for your burgers.
