Everyone loves burgers.
But how do you make a truly delicious burger at home?
We asked Zan Kaufman, founder of Bleecker St Burgers and all-round burger expert, for her tips:
1. First of all, a burger patty only needs 100% beef.
2. To make a good burger at home, all you need is a frying pan and a spatula.
Don't put any oil in your frying pan: "The key thing is to keep your frying pan dry, and make sure it's piping hot before you put the burger into it.
"Then you just need a spatula to flip it. A toaster would be nice for the bun, but that's really all you need. You don't even need salt and pepper shakers, you can just dust it with your hands."
3. The best way to cook your burger is medium rare.
4. The major difference between a good burger and a bad burger is the bun.
5. Skip brioche buns and go for something lighter.
6. Stop your juicy burger from disintegrating by toasting the bun.
7. The best veggie burgers are bean or tofu based – avoid mushrooms!
"There are some pretty amazing veggie burger recipes on the internet. The better ones are mostly bean-based recipes but they tend to take a lot of time, that's the only problem with them. There's a lot of chopping and a lot of binding, but they're worth it in the end, if you're vegetarian."
Avoid mushroom burgers though: "The mushroom burger is just a waste of time. It seems like a lack of originality. You can be really original with veggie burgers. We use tofu, which gives us a clean slate – tofu is pretty much a vehicle for flavour – and it has a really nice texture when you fry it. It picks up a lot of the flavour of our burger sauce, which mimics our cheeseburger."
For vegans, Zan recommends checking the buns rather than just focusing on the patty: "A vegan patty isn't difficult. A lot of those bean-based patties I mentioned earlier are vegan. It's the bun you have to be careful about. Our buns contain milk, so they're not vegan."
8. Avoid shop-bought burgers at all costs.
9. Get your meat from the butcher's.
10. American cheese is the best cheese for burgers.
11. To get your cheese all melty either "cloche" it or swipe it across the pan on to the burger.
12. There IS such a thing as too much cheese.
13. If you're cutting costs, cut back on the toppings, not the meat.
14. Don't be scared of adventurous toppings...as long as you've mastered the basic burger first.
15. Good burger sauce is five parts mayo to one part ketchup and one part mustard.
16. If you're BBQ-ing burgers at home, you should do small batches rather than everything at once.
"The biggest culprit with BBQs is that people cook them for 20 minutes and ruin the burger. If you want to eat a hockey puck, buy a hockey puck – don't cook a burger.
"You sacrifice a little ease of cooking doing your burgers directly on the BBQ, but you can get some great, different flavour from flame-grilling that you can't get on a griddle. If you're really worried about burning your burgers though, put a griddle pan on the BBQ and do it that way.
"My biggest tip for a BBQ would be to just do a few at a time. They don't take long. You can do a couple 113g burgers in five minutes. Just do smaller rounds instead of overloading the grill and overcooking everything."
17. Give up on "lean" or "healthier" burgers.
18. And finally, if you're treating yourself to restaurant burgers, don't be scared to ask questions!
