Having flipped scores of these juicy burgers over the past 30 years, this is my technique. After placing the meat in a bowl, I add just a few shakes of garlic powder, MINCED onion, salt, pepper & some worchestershire sauce.I make about a 5oz patty, first rolling into a FIRM meatball then flattening it to a 1/2" thickness. Over hot coals, I grill it until half cooked, then flip ONCE and continue cooking for just another 2 minutes-being careful NEVER pressing down on the patty with a spatula-as it will seep all of those great juices from the burger. MY favorite burger is to make 2 thinner pattys & place 1 heaping TBS of crumbled bleu cheese on one patty, then top with the other patty & press the edges together. Delish!!

Teresa, I'm glad that you are looking out for me. I think I left ample fat. My first sausage will be with your patty recipe. Earl, Thanks for chiming in with that link. Actually I have read some of your sage advice somewhere?? Kathy, I'll have to practice some more first. I'm still working on mastering my new Weber. That's going well thanks in part to Lakeguy's Grill book and other grill accessories. Annie, Thanks for the recommendation. Jim, I'll check out that link as I'm sure bare bones basics is what I need...ESPECIALLY SINCE I RUINED MY GRINDER THE FIRST DAY OUT!! Yup, I put the workings in the dishwasher. I am diligent about reading directions but in my haste to clean before grand babies came over, I didn't inform myself about cleaning the grinder.

bcskye beat me to it, I was going to say that first you needed to go to Kroger and get some pink slime. (grin) I also grind my own pork and make breakfast sausage, italian sausage, etc. It's easy. I also grind beef and venison if I run out of the ground stuff that I get when I have beef processed. Since Carl retired I have a small Mennonite place do my beef processing, they do a good job and I guarantee they don't have the equipment to process any pink slime. They also let me into the working portion of the facility so I could see it was spotless, in spite of my "surprise" visit. It's run by a father, 2 sons and a daughter and I'm not concerned about what's in my ground meat. Although I don't use much ground meat, the girls do, and when they run out, they raid my freezer. Yeah, go figure. So, if I need a quick batch of ground meat, I put it in the food processor. For some reason I find that I eat less and less ground meat, I was never wild about the texture and now less so. That's one reason I do it in the food processor, it's more minced than ground, if that makes sense. I always have to add fat to my ground meat if I'm going to use it for burgers, it's just so lean that it sticks to the pan. I like butter best for flavor, but use olive oil because it's healthier. anyway, the only tips? The meat works better partially frozen, which has already been mentioned. Don't add too much fat, because you can always add fat after the meat is ground, but you can't take it back out. It's not much trouble, you know what's in there and you have more control over the texture, all good things. Annie

Lisbet, that is an interesting read! The most useful advice seems to be the wet wrap; I'll try that next time. I don't have a frost-free freezer or a vacuum food sealer, but I don't think the problem is freezer-burn, as there's no visible damage. Also, the labels on the meat packages don't say "previously frozen." I'll keep experimenting, especially with the temperature and pan. For many years, I've simply bought a small quantity of ground meat and cooked it the same evening (or perhaps the next day), but recently my supermarket began selling it in vacuum-packed 3-pound packages, so I've been stocking up. I also freeze half-pound blocks of ground beef to use in pasta sauce and other dishes; I flatten them as much as possible before freezing, so they'll thaw quickly in the pan. Maybe I've cooked them at a higher temp than the burgers, but they don't have the rubbery texture when cooked that way. Sue