Steal This Easy Butter Tip For The Juiciest Burgers Imaginable

Burgers can be pretty delicious no matter how they're prepared. Even an overdone hockey puck topped with cheese can be satisfying at the friendly barbecue. But, when they're good, moist, and dialed in — without too much prep work — the home chef can feel like they should be in competition for a seat at the table next to Tom Colicchio.

Sure, grinding your own beef at home may be a ticket to delicious burgers that don't require too much seasoning, but that's just not practical for the everyday cook who has too much on their proverbial plate to spend all day on the literal dinner plate. So, to save time on the perfectly juicy burger, all you have to do is add some grated butter to the raw beef before you put it on the grill or searing hot pan. 

There are a number of hacks for a better burger, such as basting it with melted butter as it cooks, but this butter-burger hack is all done in the prep work. It's also super-easy, provided your butter is nice and cool. Some butter adds flavor, of course, but also helps with the science of cooking.

Hamburgers get their classic, delicious flavor thanks to the Maillard reaction, which is what makes proteins brown and caramelize as they cook at high heat with sugar and moisture, both of which are already in burger meat. But butter can be an extra helper to coat beef with more protein. Think of it as a brown butter exterior around every tiny piece of ground beef, improving the caramelization from the inside. More fat from the butter also infuses the patty with more moisture so it doesn't dry out. And all you have to do is grate some butter and mix it with the ground beef.

To use the grated butter trick, start with frozen butter (or at least butter that's hard, like a block of cheddar). Once you have your ground beef and other ingredients ready, grate about 4 tablespoons of butter for every 1 pound of ground beef, then mix it in. A little more butter doesn't hurt, but you want the patties to hold together — don't overload them with milk fat. As in any patty production, don't overwork the ground beef or it gets tough and chewy. Simply incorporate the butter with the other ingredients, and cook as you normally would. It should be juicy and savory, just like a burger should, but with a little extra help from the cold butter infusion.