Burger Made Better Trick

I saw one of those Food Network stars making burgers last week and I saw one tip you have to try. The chef claimed that when you make your own hamburger patties of ground beef for grilling you could use his trick to keep the thick - disk shaped - patty from turning into a fat - ball shaped - patty.

The advice is to make your patty with an indentation in the center (see photo). That way when the center of the beef patty swells or plumps when you grill it, the burger will revert back to a normal / flatter patty shape that will nicely accommodate a soft bun. Simple enough.

We tried the technique in the BBQ test kitchen and must say were surprised at how well the "indentations" on the test patties disappeared. We probably could have made the dent evendeeper (or on both sides). The control patty ("test" or "not concave" is on the left in the photos) indeed DID expand in the middle... But honestly not enough to bother me.

Another recommendation would be to control yourself and keep from pressing the burger down on the grill with the spatula. I don't know why guys do this but I see it done all the time.

All-in-all the tip is worth while and is good general practice for the next time you're pressing patties.

Bring On The Hot - Or Not - BBQ Trick

There are two worlds of Barbecue lovers. One world loves heat. One world keeps it cool. Here's a quick barbecue trick that tempers or livens up the heat in your next sauce or salsa or whatever you're cooking up with high octane peppers.

Lets start by saying there's no taming peppers like habaneros or scotch bonnets. Scoville units measure the amount of capsaicin in a pepper and habaneros are in the 100,000 to 300,000 range.

A lot of capsaicin is in the white "core" or membrane of the pepper. y scooping out the seeds and white center of the pepper you can cut down the intensity.

Still Too Hot? Another tip is NOT to slug back water to cool off the heat. That will just spread the fun. Milk or Yogurt coat the mouth and that can help slow and block some heat. A good chew of something bland like break or rice can also help pull away the pain.

Worth noting the pain in your mouth is much more pleasant than the burn of other tender tissues. Wash your hands whenever handling peppers. The oils are there even though you may not see them.