Food Porn!: Jack Daniel's Infused Burgers - Page 3

On October 16 2012 15:15 Satisfaktion wrote:
Made these the other night, I don't know if its because I've never made anything that isn't ramen before, I was using a pan on a stove instead of a grill, or if I didn't mix the ingredients right but mine didn't turn out quite like yours. Mine kept falling apart.

On October 13 2012 02:34 ghost_403 wrote:
Also, onions have no place on hamburgers. Blech.

On October 16 2012 15:15 Satisfaktion wrote:
Made these the other night, I don't know if its because I've never made anything that isn't ramen before, I was using a pan on a stove instead of a grill, or if I didn't mix the ingredients right but mine didn't turn out quite like yours. Mine kept falling apart.

On October 17 2012 04:45 ShadowWolf wrote:


Kierpanda touched on this, and I'd experimented and kinda learned as I went with this and found a few things that helped.

It's not generally necessary to pack the burger tightly. All you're trying to accomplish is to get the burger in to roughly the proper shape and the meat bound enough that it doesn't break apart with heat. You can seriously take a bunch of hamburger put it on a cutting board and push it together from the sides using only your hands and, for a basic burger, it will usually come out better. The more you mash it the more you end up something that doesn't look that good. For something that uses a mixture like this, though, you'll absolutely want to give it more time and roll it in to a ball. The biggest reason is that (in my experience), if you don't, you'll end up having one side of the burger with a lot of flavor and the other side none. So basically all you need to do is pack it enough so it molds to a ball using both hands, put it on the board, and then gently push/roll it on one side so you end up with a hamburger shape. There may be pieces or beef sticking out in edges and that's fine!

What makes a hamburger fall apart, especially in a mix like this, is fat content. There's a lot of water floating around in that and not much that will bind it together. At some point, if there is not enough fat, everything will fall apart (and I'm just shortening here) because the gaps between the meat get too large as the water and what fat exists cooks (remember: fat will contract significantly when cooked, this is why you should score the fatty side of a pork chop before cooking!). The recipe doesn't call for adding any type of egg or supplementary fat, so you're probably going to want something that has a decent bit of innate fat. Looking at the burgers in the picture I'd guess he bought 85% lean but it's hard to say since it's not cut through. Generally, people who complain of burgers falling apart have purchased 93% - 97% lean, which definitely won't work. I would stick to the 85% - it's higher fat content, yes, but for something like this you're kind of starting off admitting this isn't your choice on a healthy meal day :-P

The other thing that can affect it falling apart after it's done cooking is using too low of heat. When you're cooking on a stovetop there are a lot of factors that can affect the way the hamburger cooks. I strongly suggest getting a cast iron pan for this purpose because they're stupid cheap (a decent Lodge Logic one that will take a beating without issue is like $15 at target/amazon) and they hold more heat in the pan itself. If you didn't see a nice crust on the outside when the hamburger was done then the heat was too low. Definitely make sure that, with any pan, you follow the pan's heating and cooking instructions. If you don't know them then look them up. Generally, for cast iron and stainless, you want to heat the pan before putting anything in it; http://www.houseboateats.com/2009/12/on-properly-heating-your-pan.html has a great summary of how to do that. For non-stick, most pans suggest that you not over-heat the pan without putting something in it, which makes it more or less not suitable for purposes of cooking meats. The best choices are cast iron or grill in my opinion with stainless being totally viable alternative.

TL;DR: Don't over-mix your meat, use higher fat content meat, cook a higher heat, and buy a cast iron pan if you don't own one.

Hope this was helpful!

On October 17 2012 05:40 kierpanda wrote:


I'd 5 star this post if I could!! :D Good information. Thank you!

ShadowWolf is right: 85% (85/15) ground beef is probably the tastiest (and that is what I used!).
I have tried working with 90/10, but they are definitely not as juicy. They're also more prone to drying out.

If health is a top concern too, I would suggest trying ground bison (buffalo). Bison is much leaner than beef. For these burgers in particular, it's best to put a quick sear on high heat and then immediately reduce the heat to medium/medium-low.

On October 17 2012 06:13 ShadowWolf wrote:

Yeah, in all my text I forgot to mention that this looks great. I have dietary restrictions, so I can't take your recipe as-is but I might try reforming this in to a lower-sodium version and see how it shapes up. Something about adding whiskey to a burger just seems right.

I am also a big fan of 85% :-D I use 90+ for things like meatloaf and the like where I'm probably going to mix with something like pork and an egg so there's more than enough fat to go around.

Ground Bison eh? I had that once at a restaurant but I haven't thought about that - I do recall thinking it was really good but that was more than 3 years ago for sure. That's an interesting take. Does it taste widly different?

To be honest, I'm just kinda getting in to cooking a lot more in the last year or so since I've had to go on a very-low-sodium diet so I'm just kinda getting the hang of things still So far, I pretty much make every meal myself either from scratch or close to it haha.

I've been an avid reader of your blog for a while btw