Speaking of burgers, below is what we did on Saturday for my son's 15th birthday. He's the special needs one, and he had a great birthday. On Wednesday my wife and I were both off for Juneteenth, so we took him to Pizza Port Brewing Co in San Clemente. Throw some money at the kids for video games, order some beer, order some pizza, and you're good to go. Then Saturday (his actual birthday) we made these. Pizza and burgers are his two favorite foods, so it was a good couple days.
I'm really enjoying the burger press. This was fresh ground chuck (as opposed to my chuck / brisket point mix), and I form it into 6 oz balls and use the press to form the patties. My oldest and I eat doubles, while my wife and the other two kids just get a single burger. I find with the press that it really helps for uniformity of cooking and that they stay together nicely on the grill, moreso than being hand-formed. Served with tater tots and grilled corn (cut off the cob after grilling) with tarragon butter.
I will say that I went over on the burgers this time, which I wasn't happy about. With the fat content in ground chuck they were still juicy, but not my finest effort. I think the issue was twofold. First, I probably left them on a little too long to get the right level of sear on them (I used the kamado instead of the Blackstone since I was grilling corn). But then, after pulling them off the grill they sat for a little bit while my wife was finishing the tots and I grilled the corn. At the very end while she cut the corn we popped them in the oven, which had just been turned off as the tots were pulled out, to warm up the patties. I think they got a little extra temp into them at that point which didn't help.
Still, a damn fine meal.
