How to prevent fat splashes when I fry a burger?
The question How do you grill a perfect burger? tells me the best solution is to fry not grill, but I find frying makes such a mess I spend ages cleaning up afterwards.
So I grill burgers using my oven grill, but I think the temperature of my oven grill isn't high enough even at full gas. If I cook burgers long enough to get the outsides nice and caramelised then they are too cooked inside and have gone a bit dry. Even preheating the grill for an extended period doesn't help much. Grilling outside on a barbeque works and doesn't mess up my kitchen but it isn't a practical everyday solution.
So my question is how to cook a perfect burger in my kitchen without making a mess? I'm open to all suggestions, though obviously I already have some ideas and top of the list is to use a George Foreman grill or something similar. Do George Foreman grills get hot enough to cook burgers nice and brown without them going dry?
Best Answer
To make a perfect burger in the kitchen, a hot cast-iron skillet is your best friend.
To keep from making a mess, use one of these:
That's a splatter screen. It allows air to move freely, but keeps grease in the pan and off of your walls.
EDIT: In comments, Cindy Askew recommended the above plus using the cheapest available aluminum foil to protect surrounding areas from the grease and noted that the aluminum foil used in that way can continue to be useful as a disposable spoon/utensil rest. In a sense, this answer being accepted encompasses that comment as a part of this answer.
Pictures about "How to prevent fat splashes when I fry a burger?"
How do you keep hamburger grease from splattering?
I cook hamburgers in a Dutch oven pot with a lid kind of on but not, you tilt it while it's cooking. Also you could pour any grease in a bowl while it's cooking, just wipe off the side if it drips. The grease will get hard and you just throw it away. This helps with splatter and helps brown.How do you keep oil from splattering when frying?
You can create another shield between your juicy burger and your dry bun by spreading a layer of fat like butter, mayo, or another fat-based condiment on your bun. This protects the surface of the bread, preventing the juices from seeping in.How do I keep my burgers from leaking?
Before the oil cooks all the way out but is 80 percent gone flip the patty and add no more than 1/8 a cup of water. This will keep the juice in the burger, keep the bottom from burning and is a great test. Once the water cooks out, flip repeat, and its done.Hamburger Recipes : How to Make Juicy Hamburgers on the Stove Top
More answers regarding how to prevent fat splashes when I fry a burger?
Answer 2
Dutch ovens are great at reducing the splatter from frying. The high vertical sides really cut down on the mess. Chicken fryer pans are quite similar, basically a skillet with comparatively high and vertical sides (or like a shallow dutch oven depending on ones perspective) and are designed to reduce splatter and provide a deeper pool of fat. A chicken fryer pan may still benefit from a splatter guard but the dutch oven can generally be used without one. Keep in mind that the dutch oven must be large enough for cooking implements to reach and manipulate the burgers and, for the same reason, very deep versions should be avoided.
Answer 3
Microwave the patty for about 2 minutes. Heat your cast iron pan (wiped with cooking oil) and stick in the patty. Lid on if you want it "smoked" watch and turn as desired.
Being doing this for YEARS .......
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Valeria Boltneva, Erik Mclean, Anna Tarazevich, Dmitriy Ganin