Homemade burgers! Who is not clear that they are a hundred times better than the ones we can buy? They are so because we choose the best meat, without preservatives or additives, and we mix it with the ingredients that we like the most, and also because what is done at home always has that extra satisfaction that makes us proud.

Thank you Miriam, author of The Winter Guest , for inviting us to these delicious homemade burgers!

What a pleasure to prepare some good homemade hamburgers, have you ever done it? In my opinion it is very worth it, not only because you have more control over the ingredients, but because you can try all the variations of flavors that you can think of. And I love mincing meat at home with my own mincer , choosing great cuts and trying different combinations.

I think that by preparing burgers at home you can also better appreciate how the different ingredients influence the final taste, as well as their proportions. One becomes aware that the meat, once minced, oxidizes visibly and loses its healthy pink color to take on unpleasant grayish tints (that's why commercial minced meats contain antioxidants). That is why I recommend you to prepare the hamburgers on the same day that you are going to consume them and let the mixture rest just enough for the flavors to settle.

In any case, a hamburger is something so simple that the fundamental thing for it to come out delicious is, as you can imagine, that the quality of the raw material is excellent. Adopt a trusted butcher, I recommend it, of recognized and proven quality, and your burgers will turn out great. If you can afford to add something from a top quality cut, like the sirloin, do not stop doing it. And we will always add some pork fat in the form of bacon or a similar cut to give the mixture smoothness and then help in the browning, when it melts on the grill.

For me, the fundamental ingredients are the ones I give below in the recipe, but there are many variations, from adding beaten egg as in Russian steaks to make it easier for the dough to amalgamate perfectly, to adding various spices, such as nutmeg, herbs, etc., even mustard. Do not cut yourself, experiment and let your hair down.

Ingredients

• 500 g of veal needle
• 150g beef tenderloin
• 1 thick slice of fresh bacon
• 1 garlic
• ¼ onion
• parsley (optional)
• salt to taste
• some virgin olive oil

Elaboration

1. We cut the needle and sirloin meat into strips or pieces that we can easily introduce in the manual mincer (or the KitchenAid mincer if you have the robot).
2. Remove the crust from the pancetta. Peel the garlic and mash it well. Finely chop the onion.
3. We chop all the meat in the mincer, inserting the pieces of bacon with the rest of the meat. Put it in a bowl and mix it with a fork. Add the garlic, onion and parsley if we use it. We mix everything perfectly.
4. We cut pieces of paper about 10 cm to be able to form the hamburgers on them. Place a 10 cm plating ring or other type of mold on the paper and add between ¼ and 1/5 of the prepared mixture, depending on the thickness of the hamburger we prefer. Flatten the surface with your fingers or a spoon and lift the mold. We form all the hamburgers with this procedure until the mixture is finished. You can also use a burger press , with which you will always get the same diameter but also the same thickness, they are easy to unmold and you get to mark the characteristic grooves on the burgers.
5. We heat a good iron grill over high heat. When it is very hot, brush each hamburger with olive oil and put it on the grill. We cook the hamburgers until they are well browned, at least five minutes on each side, although it also depends on the cooking point we prefer.
6. We serve the hamburgers immediately on the buns accompanied by the ingredients that we like the most: lettuce, tomato, onion, caramelized onion, pickles, cheese, etc.