The Surprising Reason You Might Want To Avoid Making Burgers On The Grill

Close your eyes and visualize this image for a minute: You're sitting down with a cold beverage and a freshly prepared, juicy burger filled with the perfect patty and all the toppings of your choice. Heavenly, right?  It's even better if you know that you've put in the hard work to prepare your meal yourself. As per Serious Eats, some of the things worth remembering when making your own hamburgers are ensuring that you utilize freshly ground beef and choosing the toppings that you personally like instead of falling prey to peer pressure. Think about it: maybe you want to keep things minimal and find it messy when there are too many flavors at work. Or perhaps you love to add plenty of cheese for the best results. You do you!

However, here's another important tip that you should note while preparing hamburgers at home: Don't use a grill. Seriously, you'll be better off without one. According to Bloomberg, this tip has been confirmed by several expert chefs who vouch for other cooking options such as using an cast-iron pan for patties instead.

Why shouldn't you grill your burgers? Chef Gray Brooks told Bloomberg that this option results in wasting a lot of yummy beef fat. Doesn't sound promising, does it? The chef added, "When burgers are seared on a flat top, or in a cast-iron pan, that fat renders out and becomes a cooking medium and helps form a really nice beefy crust." 

As per Eat This, Not That!, you're also likely to lose juice from the meat when you grill your patties instead of using a pan. Simply put, this style of cooking makes your burgers a lot less delicious. A Redditor offered a tip for those looking to perfect their burger recipes. They wrote that they try to use high-quality beef and make slightly bigger patties to "account for shrinkage." In addition, they use a cast-iron pan on a stove top and add the burgers, using seasoning options such as garlic powder and salt. They cook the burgers for about six minutes and add cheese in the last couple of minutes. No grill required.