Recipes, guides and kitchen know-how. Mostly useful, occasionally silly.
Homemade Burger Recipe - Five Ingredients, Not Ninety
Five ingredients: 20% fat beef mince, salt, pepper, a bun and a slice of cheese. Weigh it, dent it, chill it, salt it at the last second and cook it through in a hot pan. No egg, no breadcrumbs, and 85 fewer ingredients than Gousto's fast food stunt.
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- Prep15 min
- Chill1 hr
- Cook12 min
- Serves4
- Calories~570
Calories are approximate, per serving, worked out from the ingredients. Brands and portion sizes vary.
This homemade burger recipe needs five things: beef mince with 20% fat, salt, pepper, a bun and a slice of cheese. No egg, no breadcrumbs, no onion squashed into the mix.
Back in January, the recipe box company Gousto built what it called "the UK's most addictive burger" to show what goes into fast food. A bacon cheeseburger, fries and a milkshake. Ninety ingredients. Over 2,100 calories. Then it refused to sell it.
Mine has five ingredients. One of them is salt. Aaron counted them twice. Then laminated the list.
I went through the chefs (James Martin, Jamie Oliver, Heston Blumenthal, Hawksmoor's Richard Turner), the burger places (Honest Burgers, MEATliquor), America's Test Kitchen's salt experiments, Kenji López-Alt's Food Lab and a pile of reader comments on the UK's most-rated recipes. Then I kept what the good ones agree on. This is the homemade burger recipe UK chefs actually cook. Just with more jokes.
The short version: weigh it, shape it loosely, dent the middle, chill it, salt it at the last second, cook it hot and cook it through. That's the whole secret. The rest is me talking.
Word association with Ayden: I said "burger". He said "bun". I said "well done". He said "thank you". That's when I knew I'd won.
What's actually in a fast food burger?
A lot more than beef. Gousto's meal - a bacon cheeseburger, fries and a vanilla and strawberry milkshake - had 90 ingredients between them, and every part was ultra-processed.
Gousto says it packed in over 2,100 calories, 165% of your daily salt and more than three times the daily limit for sugar. Its dietitian, Clare Thornton-Wood, built it around the "bliss point" of sugar, salt and fat that keeps you going back for more.
It was a stunt. Gousto said selling it "felt immoral", and it came with research Gousto commissioned from the Bloomsbury Policy Lab putting the cost of fast food and ultra-processed food to the health service at around £67bn a year. FoodNavigator's write-up of the stunt is here.
For scale, the NHS says adults should have no more than 6g of salt a day - about a level teaspoon. The NHS salt guide has the numbers for children too.
To be fair to the humble takeaway, the NHS also says it isn't yet clear whether it's the processing itself or the fat, salt and sugar that does the damage. Either way, I can tell you exactly what's in mine. It's beef. With some salt on.
Isaac asked what the other 85 ingredients were for. Nobody could tell him. He went back to his book.
What you need
For 4 thick burgers
- 680g beef mince with 20% fat - chuck if your butcher has it. Not lean. Lean is how you get a hockey puck.
- About 1 tsp sea salt flakes, for the outside only, at the very last minute
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 4 soft burger buns, seeded or brioche
- 4 cheese slices - the melty burger kind. Cheddar sweats. It's had a long day.
Toppings (optional, and not counted)
Toppings are a matter of personal conscience. Erin's list was longer than Gousto's.
- Crisp lettuce, sliced tomato and thinly sliced red onion
- Sliced gherkins - the sharpness cuts through the fat
- Ketchup, mustard, or the quick burger sauce from my smash burger recipe
Kit
- A heavy frying pan - cast iron is best, because it stays hot when the burgers go in
- A cast iron burger press, for flattening each patty to an even thickness (a flat-bottomed saucepan will do at a push)
- Kitchen scales, a tray lined with baking paper and a fish slice
- A meat thermometer if you have one. Here's how to use a meat thermometer without stabbing dinner to death.
How to make a homemade burger
Step 1 - Weigh it and roll it loosely
- Keep the mince in the fridge until you need it. Cold fat stays in the burger; warm fat smears onto your hands.
- Split it into four 170g portions. Weigh them, so they all cook in the same time.
- Roll each one into a loose ball. Don't squeeze, knead or mix anything in.
The more you handle mince, the tougher and denser it gets. Treat it like a sleeping baby. Or Aaron after a shift.
Step 2 - Flatten it and dent the middle
- Put a ball on baking paper and press it gently with the burger press into a disc about 2cm thick. Press, don't smash - this one's meant to stay thick.
- Make it a bit wider than your bun, because it shrinks as it cooks.
- Push your thumb into the middle to make a shallow dent, about 6mm deep.
The dent stops the burger puffing up into a ball. As the outside cooks, it tightens and pushes the middle up. The thumb dent is the one bit of DIY I'm qualified for.
Step 3 - Chill them for an hour
- Lay the patties on the lined tray, cover them and put them in the fridge for about 1 hour.
- You can do this up to a day ahead. Keep them covered, on a low shelf, below 5C.
Cold patties hold their shape, flip without falling apart and get longer to brown before the middle overcooks. Patty-ence is a virtue. Eesha has a lot of it. Up to a point. The point is about three.
Step 4 - Salt them, then cook them hot
- Heat the heavy pan over medium-high heat until it just starts to smoke. A 20% fat burger doesn't need oil; add a few drops if your pan is prone to sticking.
- Only now, season both sides of each patty generously with salt and pepper.
- Put them in, dent side up, and leave them alone for 4-5 minutes until a dark crust forms and they release from the pan.
- Flip once, turn the heat down to medium and cook for another 4-5 minutes.
- They're done when they're steaming hot all the way through with no pink in the middle, and the juices run clear. With a thermometer, look for 75C in the centre.
Don't press them down in the pan. All that sizzle is your burger's juice leaving the building. Leave it. I know. Leave it.
Salt the outside, at the last second - never in the mix. America's Test Kitchen cooked three batches: salt mixed in, salt on 30 minutes early, and salt on just before cooking. Mixed in came out dense and springy like a sausage. Thirty minutes early dried the surface. Only the last-minute batch was tender and juicy. Salt dissolves a protein in the meat that sets bouncy when it cooks. Salt late, or it's a sausage. Harsh, but fair.
Step 5 - Cheese, rest, toast and build
- For the last minute of cooking, lay a cheese slice on each burger and cover the pan with a lid or a metal bowl so it melts.
- Lift the burgers onto a plate and let them rest for 2-3 minutes.
- Meanwhile, put the buns cut side down in the hot pan for about a minute until golden. A toasted bun doesn't go soggy.
- Build: bottom bun, sauce, lettuce, burger, tomato, onion, gherkins, lid. Or any order you like. It's your burger. Erin's is in the order Erin says.
What temperature should a burger be cooked to?
At home in the UK, cook burgers all the way through: 70C in the centre for 2 minutes, or 75C for 30 seconds.
Those are the Food Standards Agency's numbers. Steak can be pink because the bacteria sit on the outside and get seared off. Mincing spreads them through the whole burger, so the middle has to get hot too. The FSA's burger advice is here.
Restaurants can serve pink burgers only under strict controls that a home kitchen can't match. Children, over-65s, pregnant women and anyone with a weakened immune system should always have them well done.
You'll see medium-rare temperatures in American recipes. They don't apply to a burger made at home here. Well done is the only option. Which, as my school reports said, is a first.
Do you need egg or breadcrumbs in burgers?
No. With 20% fat beef, the burger holds together on its own.
Egg and breadcrumbs turn up in a lot of British family recipes - Mary Berry's, Jamie Oliver's "cracking burger", the Tesco classic. Binders help leaner mince and thinner patties hold together, which is what those recipes are built around.
For a thick, juicy burger, the chefs leave them out. James Martin uses beef, salt and pepper. So does Jamie Oliver's ultimate British burger. Bobby Flay's line is that you're making a hamburger, not a meatloaf.
Gordon Ramsay does add a touch of egg and chills his patties overnight. When a US food site ranked twelve celebrity chef burgers on what home cooks said about them, his came last for tasting like meatloaf. Somebody tell him. Not me. I've seen the programmes.
If your burgers keep falling apart, the fix is colder mince, a firmer press and the chill in step 3 - not a binder.
What's the secret to the best homemade burger recipe ever?
Fat, cold, salt late, leave it alone. Four things, and none of them is an ingredient you have to buy.
- Fat: 20% fat mince. Burgers lose about 30% of their weight as they cook, and a lean one has nothing left to lose but moisture.
- Cold: cold mince, cold hands, chilled patties
- Salt late: on the outside, seconds before the pan
- Leave it alone: no pressing, no poking, no lifting the edge to "just check"
Flipping is the one place the experts argue. Heston Blumenthal flips every 15-20 seconds; a 2022 maths study found frequent flipping cooks a burger up to about 29% faster. Flipping once gives a better crust. I flip once. Aaron flips every 15 seconds. He says it's science. I say it's nerves.
If it goes wrong
It puffed up into a ball? The outside tightened as it cooked and pushed the middle up.
Fix: Press a 6mm dent into the middle with your thumb before it goes in, and keep it to 2cm thick. Meatballs are a different post. Possibly a different family.
It fell apart in the pan? Usually the mince was too warm, packed too loosely, or flipped before the crust formed.
Fix: Chill the patties for the full hour, press them a little firmer, and only flip once they lift off the pan easily. Aaron says falling apart is just a phase. A puff pastry phase, in his case.
Dry and tough? Lean mince, too much handling, or salt went in too early.
Fix: Use 20% fat mince, handle it as little as possible and salt the outside only, seconds before cooking. Tough love works on children. Not on mince.
It shrank to half the bun? Burgers lose around 30% of their weight as the fat and water cook out.
Fix: Shape each patty a little wider than the bun and press in the dent. It'll come back to bun size. It's not you. It's thermodynamics.
Burnt outside, raw in the middle? The pan was too hot for too long, or the patty was too thick.
Fix: Start on medium-high, turn down to medium after the flip, cover with a lid for the last minute and check for 75C in the centre. Charred on the outside, raw in the middle. I've met people like that.
Stuck to the pan? The pan wasn't hot enough, or it was flipped too soon.
Fix: Heat it until it just smokes, add a few drops of oil if your pan is a sticker, and wait for the crust to release on its own. Stick with it. The burger won't.
Questions people actually ask
Can you freeze homemade burgers?
Yes - freeze the raw patties with a square of baking paper between each one. Defrost them in the fridge and cook them as normal. Label them. Frozen burgers and frozen hash browns look identical at 7am.
How far ahead can you make burger patties?
Up to a day ahead, covered in the fridge. Salt them only when you're about to cook.
How thick should a homemade burger be?
About 2cm, from roughly 170g of mince. Thicker than that and the outside burns before the middle is safely cooked. Thinner, and you're making a smash burger.
What's the best mince for a homemade beef burger recipe?
Beef mince with about 20% fat - chuck is ideal. The packet will say the fat percentage. Most chefs use 15-20%; anything leaner tends to cook up dry.
What does Gordon Ramsay put in his burgers?
A mix of chuck, brisket and beef mince, with a touch of egg. He shapes them the day before so they hold together, then brushes them with butter near the end. The butter we'll allow. The egg we've discussed.
Smash or thick?
Thick is a pub burger: one juicy 170g patty with a crust. Smash is thin, crispy and lacy, two to a bun.
Both are worth making. For the thin one, here's my smash burger recipe, where the burger press gets to do some proper smashing. And if you want to know what you're saving by making either at home, see the Smash Burger Index. Spoiler: quite a lot. You could buy a burger press with it. Just saying.
Oliver would like it noted that a pinch of chilli flakes on the patty is "the sixth ingredient nobody asked for". Somebody asked. It was me.
That's it. Five ingredients. Weigh, shape, dent, chill, salt, cook, rest.
Now go and flip something.
