Creative Modern Dinner Ideas for Busy Home Cooks

There is no end to the variety of scrumptious hamburgers you can make, but here are 12 that will make your mouth water.

J. Kenji Lpez-Alt writes a column for The New York Times on food and science, and he establishes dishes and appears in videos for NYT Cooking. He is likewise the developer and host of Kenji's Cooking Program on YouTube.

Credit ... Adam CentrellaAs an expert chef, food author and cookbook author, I've spent the last two years of my career rigorously researching and checking dishes, methods and extensively accepted kitchen knowledge to determine the whys of cooking. Over this time, I've run numerous burger joints and even wrote a month-to-month column for Serious Eats called the Hamburger Lab, in which I separated and evaluated every possible variable that can affect the taste and texture of a hamburger.

Here are the most crucial suggestions I have actually found for optimizing your burger experience, whether in the yard or the cooking area. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Steps for Perfect Restaurant-Style Fries

In bread, this can be a good idea, but with burgers, overhandling can create an unwanted thick texture. (Integrating extenders, like eggs or breadcrumbs, or additional spices, like onions and herbs, likewise forces you to strain the meat and sidetrack from the beef flavor, so avoid it.) Salting the beyond your patties keeps their texture loose and tender.

Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Salt breaks down muscle proteins and assists them to connect more easily. This is an excellent thing in sausages, which ought to have a company texture, but with burgers, you want looseness. A burger should be tender, with plenty of pockets for juices and rendered fat to collect.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

Whether you're making a huge hamburger on the grill or a crisp-edged smash hamburger on a frying pan, browning is flavor, and high heat is essential. For thicker grilled or griddled burgers, wait until your pan or grill is hot before adding the patties, and prepare them till they're well browned on both sides.

This takes full advantage of flavor while preserving juiciness. Do not let your patties sit around on the cutting board (or even worse, a steam table). Hamburgers are at their best fresh from the fire, before any juices have had an opportunity to leak out.

Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Steps to Perfect the Ideal Griddle Burger

Upgraded May 7, 2026, 8:42 a.m. CTI've constantly been a hamburger lover. If there were any little melty American cheese leavings stuck on the wrapper, I 'd drag my french fries through them (I still do this).

Catch me on the best day and I may confess that a cheeseburger is my preferred food. Even if you do, it's most likely we don't have the exact same concept of what makes the perfect hamburger.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

I kept some old favorites, added some brand-new ones and continued to leave off the ones I know people like but I simply. Possibly I haven't tried your favorite hamburger. Perhaps I'm out to get you (simply joking).

Let me share with you what makes the ideal burger for me. Let's start with the patty.

When I bite in, I require to see a little shimmer, some sparkling from the beef and maybe a little grease diminishing the sides. When I see a smashburger on the menu, I always go with a double patty. Smashburger or not, the patty should be seared to help secure the juices, but not too crusty.