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The question How do you grill a perfect burger? tells me the best solution is to fry not grill, but I find frying makes such a mess I spend ages cleaning up afterwards.

So I grill burgers using my oven grill, but I think the temperature of my oven grill isn't high enough even at full gas. If I cook burgers long enough to get the outsides nice and caramelised then they are too cooked inside and have gone a bit dry. Even preheating the grill for an extended period doesn't help much. Grilling outside on a barbeque works and doesn't mess up my kitchen but it isn't a practical everyday solution.

So my question is how to cook a perfect burger in my kitchen without making a mess? I'm open to all suggestions, though obviously I already have some ideas and top of the list is to use a George Foreman grill or something similar. Do George Foreman grills get hot enough to cook burgers nice and brown without them going dry?

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John Rennie
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4 Answers4

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To make a perfect burger in the kitchen, a hot cast-iron skillet is your best friend.

To keep from making a mess, use one of these:

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That's a splatter screen. It allows air to move freely, but keeps grease in the pan and off of your walls.

EDIT: In comments, Cindy Askew recommended the above plus using the cheapest available aluminum foil to protect surrounding areas from the grease and noted that the aluminum foil used in that way can continue to be useful as a disposable spoon/utensil rest. In a sense, this answer being accepted encompasses that comment as a part of this answer.

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Jolenealaska
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Dutch ovens are great at reducing the splatter from frying. The high vertical sides really cut down on the mess. Chicken fryer pans are quite similar, basically a skillet with comparatively high and vertical sides (or like a shallow dutch oven depending on ones perspective) and are designed to reduce splatter and provide a deeper pool of fat. A chicken fryer pan may still benefit from a splatter guard but the dutch oven can generally be used without one. Keep in mind that the dutch oven must be large enough for cooking implements to reach and manipulate the burgers and, for the same reason, very deep versions should be avoided.

user1801105
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Cast iron (well-seasoned) and a lid (any lid), plus your kitchen fan to catch the fatty steam. Splatter screens don't work in my experience. A lid is really the only way that works for me to minimize splatter. Use tongs instead of a spatula to flip to further reduce splatter.

Get the pan hot with a little oil that is starting to smoke. Gently add the burger. Cover and cook for a minute or so to brown, flip with tongs and cook for another minute to brown.

John
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Microwave the patty for about 2 minutes. Heat your cast iron pan (wiped with cooking oil) and stick in the patty. Lid on if you want it "smoked" watch and turn as desired.

Being doing this for YEARS .......

Patrick Doe
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