Our Guide to the Perfect Burger

Instructions

First things first, the meat. You will need a nice coarse ground beef. At Parson’s Nose we use a cut of steak from the chuck and blend this with a small amount of aged trim from our prime cuts. The chuck steak has a great fat content and benefits from the mincing process and the cuts from the roasting joint to produce a succulent depth of aged, beefy flavour.

Some people go further with the fat content and add a little more to the blend, as well as bone marrow for added richness, when grinding so feel free to speak to our butchers if you want a bespoke blend.  We feel the chuck steak itself is naturally fatty enough to give you that great burger taste.

Once you are happy with the blend, roll your mince in to palm sized balls ready to shape or smash in to patties on the grill. Alternatively let us take the work out of it and buy our delicious burgers direct from the shop.

Whether you are grilling over charcoal, on a gas bbq or in a pan, the same rule applies. You will need an intense heat to create the caramelisation that gives you a delicious crunch, sealing the outside of the burger whilst retaining the juicy goodness inside.

A great tip here is to treat the burger patty just like you would a prime steak. Season the outside generously with cracked black pepper and a good quality coarse sea salt.

Lay the burger patty on the grill (if you have kept your patties as balls this is your chance to smash them down in to burger shapes directly on the grill itself), you will know the temperature is correct if there is an instant sizzle when the meat hits the surface. Let the burger sit for a couple of minutes to allow the surface to caramelise, once you see this occurring it is time to flip.

When the same caramelisation occurs on the other side, flip the burger once more and add two slices of a cheese of your choice. We have opted for Emmental, with it’s nutty, rich flavour complimenting the beef perfectly. Alternatively a nice mature Cheddar will do the job just as well.

Another tip as this point is to use a lid or cloche if you have one available to cover the burger. This allows the cheese to melt whilst lightly steaming the burger, retaining its moist interior.

Now is the time to construct your burger!

Take your bun, butter and lightly toast. Smother the inside with our home made burger sauce (recipe below). Layer the bottom with thinly sliced iceberg lettuce and place your burger on top. Layer a few thinly sliced dill pickles, add another dollop of the burger sauce, put the bun lid on… Consume immediately!

For the burger sauce

1. Combine the tomato ketchup, mayonnaise and English mustard in three equal parts. 
2. Add a dash of dark soy sauce. 
3. Finely dice the dill pickles and add to taste along with a dash of the pickling juice. 
4. Stir the ingredients together in to an even paste and apply liberally to the inside of a toasted burger bun.
   

Did you know we've also got a BBQ box for delivery in London? Shop our BBQ range here.