How do you grill a perfect burger?

Honestly, don't grill.

Don't run away!

Hamburgers were originally cooked in pans, not on grills. One of the reasons for this is thta with grilling you lose any fat and moisture that comes out of the burger.

So I use Heston Blumenthal's method now. While I tend to ignore the preparation elements (I have neither the time nor the money to hand-grind my burgers with a specific ratio of this cut to that cut to the other cut), the cooking method is flawless:

Make your burgers.

Over very low heat, place a pan with just a little oil (or bacon/duck fat, which is lovely). introduce burgers to pan. As soon as they release easily from the surface, flip. Thirty seconds later, flip. Repeat until cooked through. (fifteen to twentyish minutes).

This will give you the juiciest, most tender burgers you have ever had in your life. I promise. Essentially what you're doing is basting the burgers in their own fat.

Alternatively, if you have an immersion circulator, cook your burgers sous vide and then just mark on the grill when done. I've had burgers done this way and they are excellent.

Burgers will flare on the grill--that's all the fat (and therefore flavour) being squeezed out by the action of cooking and burning away.

When grilling burgers, or any meat for that matter, flare-ups are the mortal enemy of good food. My first bit of advice would be to disabuse yourself of the notion that you will grill a perfect burger on a gas grill. Good? Yes. Perfect? No. The problem with cooking on a gas grill is that flare-ups are unavoidable. There is always a good oxygen supply that will cause the fuel you're adding via the fat from the meat to burn brilliantly.

I use a Weber kettle grill with a cast iron grate, and here's what I do.

1. Segregate the hot coals to one half of the grill.
2. Allow the grill to get nice and hot.
3. Put the burgers directly over the coals, and put the lid on the grill.
4. Wait 30 seconds, then give each burger a quarter turn. Spin the grate 180 degrees, so the burgers are now on the "cool" side.
5. Allow the burgers to cook for 2-5 minutes (depending on the level of doneness you or your audience wants).
6. Flip the burgers, putting each patty on the "hot" side, and close the lid.
7. Repeat steps 4 and 5. After this put your cheese on, if desired, and close the lid to let the cheese melt.

It takes some practice, but this does produce a nice burger. You have virtually no chance of flare-ups, you get good initial heat to allow some Maillard reaction to take place, and you allow the residual heat of the grate and grill to do the rest of the cooking, while the fat from the burgers drip away.

You could modify this process for a gas grill, probably, but it may involve a bit more doing.

My take/thoughts:

The over-smokiness may be an indication that it's time to do a thorough grill cleaning with soap and warm water, especially in the burner/heat-diffuser area (not the grate--see daniel's comment below for that). Additionally, it's good to do some simple cleaning and lubrication of the grate before and after each use. Before: Grill brush (brass if you've got porcelain) and vegetable oil (consider oil with a high smoke point). After: oil again to soften the what the food left behind.

Preheat the grill. It also helps to have thick, heat-retaining grating. Once you've achieved temperature, you can turn the flames down a bit. The residual heat in the grate should give you a good sear (grill lines) with less flare-up. I also try to preserve the pre-heated air by expediting the placement of food-stuffs.

Make sure you're keeping your grill cover down. This allows the top side to cook a bit at the same time as the flame-side. It may also suffocate some would-be flare-ups.

Try mixing some panade into your raw meat. For whatever reason, a little bread paste results in juicier cooked meat e.g., meatloaf. For a pound of pre-cook burgers, I use approximately:

• The bread interior from one or two white hamburger buns
• Equal parts buttermilk and steak sauce (or maybe worcestershire?)--enough of the combined liquid to make the bread into a paste.

Not directly meat-related but I also like to have toasted buns that don't absorb too much grease. The key there is to serve the buns shortly before pulling the burgers off so that people have time to dress 'em with assorted condiments/veggies.

I always salt and pepper and use a light coating of Avocado oil over the entire 1/2 lb. burger, (the avocado oil has a 550 f smoke point),then put it on a red hot Weber Gas grills, cast iron grates, and sear it for 2 minutes each side,enough direct heat, I then place a Broiler tray directly on the grills grates and place the burger on it, then lower the grills temp. To 375 F, season the burger, and allow to cook for app. 8 to 10 minutes that's all decided by my instant read thermometer. I usually end up with a medium rare burger,at about 145 F core temp. Between the as hot as you can get it searing,on direct heat and the softer cooking on indirect heat, it produces a perfect Burger everytime !

The smoke is unavoidable, sorry.

Flare-ups are also unavoidable. Small flare-ups can be ignored; if there's a big one, just move the meat away from that spot until it goes away. Or close the lid for a few seconds to cut off the oxygen supply. Some people like to use a squirt bottle of water to douse the flare-ups; this works, but I personally don't think it's necessary.

Do not use lean beef. You need fat for a tasty burger.

My grilling method:

1. Preheat grill to highest temperature.
2. Assemble burgers (adding bread/milk mixture as described above).
3. Make sure the entire assembly is close to room temperature before grilling.
4. Turn grill down (low).
5. Add burgers, leaving a few inches between patties.
6. Flip early, and flip often (as soon as burgers separate from the grill).

I rarely see flareups on any grill I work with. Mostly this has to do with flipping often (sacrilege, I know, but it works), and keeping the patty from releasing it's greasy goodness.