Pan-fried hamburgers, what temperature?

The way to make a proper griddled hamburger:

Start with beef that is between 70/30 and 80/20. You need to use a fatty beef because you are going to be doing a few things that will restrict the amount of juice in the burger and the extra fat will mitigate that.

Season your beef and roll into balls less than 1/4 of a pound. Let the size of your patties be determined by the size of your pan, you need them small enough that once you smash you won't be touching the sides of the pan.

You then want to preheat your pan. You want your pan to be as hot as possible. A commercial griddle can range in heat between 375 F and 650 F, so the temp here can vary quite a bit between places, I find hotter aids crust formation and allows the interior stay closer to medium.

Do not use oil. I can't stress that enough. Your beef will put out plenty and oil will fry the burger instead of allowing a seared crust to develop.

Place your balls of meat on the pan and smash them flat with a spatula. You might need a second spatula to remove the patty from the smashing one, as you lack the space space to heat it like you would on a griddle to prevent sticking. Allow it to cook about two to three minutes, then flip and top with cheese, if desired. Two more minutes and remove.

As an added bonus, you can toast/fry some bread in the beef juices to create a patty melt style burger that will be oozing beefy goodness. You can drop the bread in right after the flip and it will be perfect by the time the patty is done.

For one, don't rough your burger up - do it gently. Don't pack it down so tight that you get hockey pucks and don't flatten the patty with a spatula - you'll press out all that good juicy flavor. Treat it like a steak. When you eat steak you want tender and juicy surely you want the same from your burger.

You'll need a drop of olive oil if you don't have a non stick pan - if you do, don't worry about it. The fat from the burger will create it's own grease anyway.

• Gently make your patty a little bigger than the bun you'll be eating it on, maybe a 1/4 of a inch.
• Get your pan to a haze which is when you can see faint smoke rolling. The water drop technique is a good way to see if it's hot and trust me you'll hear it if it is.

A good 6 oz patty you should cook 4 to 5 minutes on each side. I prefer to cook the meat slowly between a medium high so it locks in more flavor but you can cook on a ridiculous temperature and have it quick. But remember - a great burger only gets flipped once.

• When it starts cooking, wait until you see the sides start to brown - that lets you know it's gold on the bottom and has that crunch you're looking for.
• Flip it, let it go for another minute and throw your cheese on the burger and it cook for another few minutes.

After 10 to 12 minutes you should have a medium burger that will rock your socks off. Another thing is - don't go crazy with stupid seasonings. Salt and pepper my friend and be generous about it. If you want a juicy, crispy burger follow what I just said. Trust me.

For a thin patty, I'd go for a fairly high temp. Medium-high. You need a three step approach. 1. Make sure the pan is hot by shaking a drop of water in the pan. If it evaporates immediately then it's hot. 2. Put some oil in the pan (just coat the bottom). 3. Make sure the oil is hot. When you swirl the pan around and the oil shows ripples, it's hot. Then add the burgers.

The oil is needed for heat transfer.

I prefer to go with Heston Blumenthal's method. Very low heat, thick (say, 2.5-4cm) burgers, and flip every thirty seconds or so. This allows your burgers to baste in their own juices, and slowly develop a gorgeous crust on the outside. I promise you, try this way, and they will be the juiciest burgers you will ever have.