If you’re looking to upgrade your burger recipe, why not take advice from a storied, Michelin star-earning celebrity chef and TV host? According to Gordon Ramsay, who showed off his burger-making skills on Good Morning America, combining the right cuts of beef is the secret to a restaurant-quality burger. In a 2019 segment filmed in the backyard of his Calabasas, California home, the outspoken chef offered insight into his expert burger-grilling technique, including his beef blend for the perfect burger — a combination of ground brisket, chuck, and short rib.
When you buy meat labeled “ground beef” at the grocery store, it’s typically a combination of various inexpensive trimmings that range from lean to fatty. Ground primal cuts (like brisket, chuck, and ribs) are a better choice for their richer, more pronounced flavor. They’re more expensive, but the price difference is worth it for the juiciest, tastiest, most tender burger imaginable.
While you can typically find ground chuck in grocery stores, you may have to visit your local butcher for the other cuts since they are usually sold whole and not ground. Ask your butcher to grind up the three cuts and see if they’ll blend it for you. Otherwise, you can combine them at home to make your patties. On his YouTube channel, Ramsay suggests binding the meat with egg yolk to ensure they don’t fall apart and because it adds flavor. You can also use a whole egg or just the whites as a binder.
The best cuts and lean meat-to-fat ratio for your burgers
Perfecting your meat blend will give you super flavorful, juicy burgers without a ton of extra unwanted grease. The best burger meat isn’t too lean and or too fatty. A higher fat content will yield an overly oily final product, while not having enough fat will result in a dry, crumbly patty. The ideal ratio is generally agreed to be 80/20 (80% lean meat, 20% fat) for tasty, tender burgers.
Beef brisket is a cut of meat from the lower pectoral muscles of the cow and is considered ideal for barbecuing. Due to its toughness and connective tissue, a full brisket is often slow-cooked on a grill or smoker, but for your burgers, you’ll want to request ground brisket from your butcher. Brisket point (versus the leaner brisket flat) is about 80/20 lean meat to fat, perfect for your Gordon Ramsay-approved burger.
Beef chuck comes from the front part of the cow near its shoulders and also typically has an 80/20 lean meat-to-fat ratio. It is a richly flavored, super beefy-tasting meat often used for burgers and beef stew.
Finally, beef short ribs can come from the chuck, brisket, or nearby plate and rib section of the cow. While you’re probably used to eating these barbecued and on the bone, ground short rib is the perfect addition to your burger blend. Short ribs from the chuck or muscular chest section of the cow tend to have the most flavor.
More Gordon Ramsay tips for the best burger
Gordon Ramsay is a fan of forming and refrigerating his burger patties the day before cooking to get them nice and firm so they don’t fall apart. However, throwing a frozen or cold patty on the grill (or in a pan) is one of the biggest mistakes everyone makes when cooking burgers because, as the “Hell’s Kitchen” host pointed out on Good Morning America, it results in meat that’s dry on the outside and raw in the middle. So, you’ll want to let it come to room temperature before cooking.
Other tips from the celebrity chef include adding a touch of neutral vegetable oil to the patties before cooking, which will help keep them from sticking, and seasoning the patties on all sides — even the edges — with plenty of salt and pepper. He also recommends lightly seasoning them again toward the end of cooking, just before pulling them off the heat.
Another one of Ramsay’s secrets for better burgers: Toward the end of cooking (around two minutes before they’re ready), lightly brush both sides of the patties with butter to boost the flavor. Use regular butter, or get fancy with flavors — the chef recommends making a red wine or chipotle butter. Ramsay adds cheese, but only about 30 seconds before the patties come off (it’s personal preference whether you think American or cheddar cheese is better for burgers), and also emphasizes toasting the buns for texture and structural integrity.
