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The Butcher

Peas and carrots, Forrest and Jenny, peanut butter and jelly, and most importantly, Burgers and Buns. All legendary couples.

Simply put, if you begin with a great patty, and use a fresh homemade bun, you can stop there. With nothing else, you’re already a winner. Taking the burger further to legendary status is easy after you have the two key components.

I am a butcher. I’ll stick to the meaty parts and leave the bun part to Greg. He’s a bread wizard.

There are as many opinions on what makes a great burger patty as there are leaves on a tree. I think it comes down to three key factors: source, fat content, and grind.

I source grass-fed and finished beef for my burgers. It makes me feel good knowing the animal was naturally fed and had a pretty good life. No hormones, antibiotics, or any of that other stuff I don’t want to eat. Besides, grass fed and finished beef (no feed lot, no grain) has an amazing flavor. When you start with great beef, there’s really no need to jazz it up with anything other than salt and pepper. Like a ripe tomato, they’re delicious as-is, whereas a tomato in winter is going to need serious work even to get it to “OK.”

Fat content controls the flavor and juice of a burger. Simply put, if a grind is too lean (90 percent or more), a burger will taste dry, tough, and pretty bland. A grind that is too fatty (30 percent or more), will eat greasy, and good luck trying to cook these on a grill. (Good-bye eyebrows.) At my butcher shop, V. Miller Meats (shameless plug), we shoot for 80/20. This allows the burgers to be flavorful, cook easily, and taste great. We start the blend with about 50 percent chuck for a good base (chuck is naturally about 25 percent fat), and add various trimmings from the morning butchery action. This usually includes sirloin (lean), rib eye (fatty), and other delicious bits from all over the animal—always shooting for that 80/20 percentage.

The grind and patty processes are overlooked all too often. I have very few absolutes in my world, but one of them is grinding beef only once. This allows for the burger to still have a meaty texture, and for the fat to cook into the burger, and not fireball on the grill. One way you can tell if your beef has been ground more than once is to ask. Butchers love to chat about this stuff. What’s in the grind today (remember fat content)? When was this ground (freshness counts)? How many times was it ground? If more than once, it tells me the fat is likely to break out when I cook the burger. If the butcher seems disturbed or annoyed by your questions, maybe go looking for a new butcher. When making the patty, I find a ring mold works great. I put down parchment paper and lightly pat the beef into the mold. Lightly packing the meat makes a little more delicate patty, and gives a great meaty mouth-feel to your burger.

I hope this helps. I hope you dig this book. Greg has been a great partner in crime on many meaty top-secret projects, and you’ve never seen a bunch of butchers swoon like when he comes into the shop with a batch of “tester buns.”

Eric V. Miller

V. Miller Meats Craft Butchery