The Patty Mistake That Makes Burgers Taste Like Cardboard

It's hard to ignore the rich scent of burgers cooking on the grill. Making burgers at home is easy, but a number of factors can influence your burger's flavor and texture, from the fat percentage to the seasoning — and even how much you handle the meat. If your burgers remind you of eating cardboard between two buns, then you could be making the burger mistake of overworking the ground meat. Surprisingly, this can play a big role in making those patties tough.

Ground meat is delicate; you should only touch it as much as you absolutely have to. Handling the burger meat too much causes the meat to release a protein called myosin. If too much myosin gets activated — which can happen the more you shape the patties with your hands — the end result is a chewy, tough burger. Thankfully, there are easy ways to limit how much you handle the patty.

When you're working ground beef by hand, you want to try to prevent or limit the myosin that's released. The best way to do this is to touch the meat as little as possible. The patties will form more easily if they're cold because of the way the colder fat clings together, so keep the meat in the refrigerator until you're ready to shape them — and keep your burger patties chilled until it's time to cook them, too.

To efficiently shape the cold meat into patties, first know the size of your buns. The patties should be slightly larger than the buns because they will shrink a bit while cooking. One tool you could use to ensure evenly shaped patties with very little handling is a burger press. If you don't have one, just form the beef patties by hand. Wet your hands first, which keeps the meat from sticking to them. Then, press the center of the patty with the palm of your hand, and use your fingers on the outside of the patty to shape it into a circle. Make a small crater in the patty's center with your palm, which will prevent it from rising up while cooking. If you're cooking burgers on the stove, dimpling isn't necessary because the heat isn't as strong as a fiery grill. Finally, if the patties get too warm in your hands, chill them in the refrigerator before putting them on the grill, which will help them keep their shape. If you follow those steps, you should get well-textured, delicious patties that taste like beef rather than cardboard.