makin' patties: the science of the perfect burger

A little over 2 years ago I got The Man a few attachments for our Kitchenaid Stand Mixer for his birthday. He received the Meat Grinder and Food Slicer attachments, they were placed in a cabinet, still packed up in their boxes, where they sat until.... Last Weekend!

The Man finally broke out the Meat Grinder and we made our own ground beef! It was so much fun that we decided to conduct an experiment...

THE BURGER EXPERIMENT 

Question: What cut of meat or combinations of meat cuts will produce the best tasting burger?

Hypothesis:

The Morning Man: Short Ribs burger would win, due to it's fat content

Ms. Lazybones: I don't know, can we eat burgers now??

Variables:

• Top Sirloin
• Chuck
• Short Ribs

Constants:

• Size
• Tempurature
• Cook Time

Experiment: 

We ground each cut separately and made 1/3 cup patties of each cut by itself, and combinations of Chuck and Sirloin, Ribs and Sirloin, and Chuck and Ribs.

We cooked them all at the same time and tried them one by one.

Here were our findings:

• Top Sirloin: 
• Taste- a bit bland and very dry
• Texture- crumbly and dry dry dry

• Chuck: 
• Taste- great juicy flavor
• Texture- too irregular, occasional gristle/fat

• Short Rib: 
• Taste- like butta', tons of flavor
• Texture- the "silver skin" (which also made it very difficult to put through the grinder) was almost crunchy, the texture is too distracting to enjoy the flavor

• Chuck & Top Sirloin: 
• Taste- great meat flavor, great aftertaste, but just a tad dry
• Texture- spot on! perfect burger texture

• Short Rib & Top Sirloin: 
• Taste- less flavorful than the short rib on its own, the top sirloin sucks it dry
• Texture- very good, more of a true "burger" texture, more homogenous

• Chuck & Short Rib: 
• Taste- on the sweeter side, good amount of juiciness
• Texture- bad crunch, too much gristle and silver skin

Conclusion:
Chuck & Top Sirloin Wins All The Way! And in a 2 to 1 ratio as opposed to 1 to 1 it's even better since the extra chuck is able to combat the dryness of the top sirloin.
Scientifically speaking it was Delicious! Juicy! So Flavorful! Perfect Texture! Yum Yum Yum!

It was so easy and clean up was a breeze, and we will be using our results to make delicious burgers this weekend while our friend Briana is in town!!!



P.S. Using the grinder was really simple!!  We made sure to freeze all the parts before we used it (if it gets too hot it can cook the meat), and cut the meats into cubes so they easily fit in the grinder.