Forget Topping Your Burger With Ketchup — Put It Inside The Patty Instead

It's one of the most iconic burger condiments and toppings, so why limit ketchup to just on top of your burger patty? Try putting a squeeze of the iconic red sauce directly into the patty mixture the next time you're making burgers; this distributes its sweet, tangy tomato flavor throughout the meat, giving every bite a deeper hit. Plus, it can also make the burger that little bit juicier. 

There are recipes from ketchup brands and food bloggers alike that use about 1-3 tablespoons of ketchup per 1 pound of ground beef in their burger mixtures, combining it with seasonings before shaping the patties, so it just comes down to how much ketchup you like. There's one thing to bear in mind, though: Too much liquid in the form of ketchup may make the mixture too wet, making it difficult to get the patties into the right shape. Try starting off with just 1 tablespoon, mixing it in with the seasonings, and assess if you'd like to add more next time. This trick also works with plant-based burgers.

There's a genuine difference in taste when you put a sauce on top of a burger versus putting it inside. On the surface of the patty, or spread onto the bun, ketchup gives you a concentrated burst of its sweet acidity. But, when you mix it into the meat, that flavor spreads out through the burger (an idea that applies to burger seasonings more generally). 

Since most popular ketchup brands have ingredient lists that also contain sugar and vinegar, it brings more than just the taste of tomato to the burger. To make this work, keep the patties quite thick, and cook them to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. And, of course, feel free to still drizzle some ketchup on top of the finished stack. There are many foods to avoid adding ketchup to, but burgers are definitely not one of them.

There is a long-standing tradition of putting other ingredients inside burgers. Most famously, there is the cheese-filled Juicy Lucy, but there are other "inside out" burgers, which stuff ingredients such as bacon, chorizo, and caramalized onions into the center before the patties are cooked. Sauces aren't unheard of either; many recipes add BBQ sauce, Buffalo sauce, and there are even burgers with peanut butter mixed into the beef.