Hamburger Recipes That Don'T Fall Apart

Backyard barbecues are a very special event. There’s something magical about getting together with friends and family and enjoying some delicious grilled food that’s prepared right in front of you. One of my favorite dishes is a well-made burger, with a delicious homemade patty and plenty of toppings and condiments. 

While it’s pretty hard to screw up lettuce or ketchup, it’s surprisingly easy to screw up a burger. I’ve been at many a barbecue where someone’s lost a patty when it broke apart and fell right between the grates of their grill.

While this isn’t likely to happen with frozen patties, they’re nowhere near as tasty as handmade ground beef with just a hint of seasoning.

Best Veggie Burger

The reason frozen patties don’t fall apart is simple. They’re really cold. The colder your meat is, the more likely it is to stay together. You don’t need to freeze your patties to achieve this effect. What you should do, however, is throw them in the fridge up until you’re totally ready to cook them.

This means that you’ll have to take your ground beef out of the fridge, mix and shape it by hand, and then place the patties on some wax paper and place them in the refrigerator. While it might not seem like your beef gets very warm, your hands actually transfer a lot of heat to the patties while you shape them.

. Add any seasonings to your ground beef (I like mine with just a touch of pepper and a decent amount of salt) and then given the mix a quick stir.

Grillable Veggie Burger

When you’re shaping the patties themselves, don’t go crazy. All you need to do is form a vague burger shape, which shouldn’t take more than a couple of motions. Afterward, remember to throw everything back in the fridge to make sure it’s nice and cold for the grill.

When your burger is cold, it’ll hold together pretty well. When it’s cooked, it’ll be solid and firm. When it’s in between, however,

This way, you’ll fully cook the bottom before you flip it over, meaning that there’ll be plenty of solid, cooked burger holding everything together.

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If you’re totally paranoid, try mixing some egg into your patties. This will make the patties stickier when they’re cold. As the egg cooks, it’ll work as an additional binding agent and hold the burger together.

A lot of chefs don’t think this is necessary (myself included), so we’re keen to skip this step. If you want to add some egg to your burgers, however, go for it! It’s your grill. You can do things the way you want.

You can always cook your burgers in a pan to completely alleviate any worry. On a skillet, the only time your burger can break apart is while you flip it. The rest of the time, it’s completely still. Even if it decides to become totally mushy, the solid bottom of the skillet will hold it in place.

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This obviously won’t work if you’re at a barbecue, but if you’re cooking a smaller number of burgers at home, it’s totally fine to use your range.

Worcestershire sauce might be tasty, but if you add it to your hamburger patties they’re going to get a lot more liquid. Be sure to avoid liquid flavorings and stick with solid ones.

Try spice blends instead or simply add the sauce after you’re done cooking. You’ll still get a flavorful burger, but it’ll stay together as you cook it.

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When you cook them, flip them once and consider using a skillet instead of a grill if you’re still worried. Finally, consider adding an egg to act as a binding agent and keep everything together.

Peter's path through the culinary world has taken a number of unexpected turns. After starting out as a waiter at the age of 16, he was inspired to go to culinary school and learn the tricks of the trade. As he delved deeper, however, his career took a sudden turn when a family friend needed someone to help manage his business. Peter now scratches his culinary itch on the internet by blogging, sharing recipes, and socializing with food enthusiasts worldwide.Going veg doesn’t mean you have to give up burgers. There are lots of plant-based ingredients you can make delicious burgers with. But if you’ve ever had a veggie burger that falls apart while you’re cooking it or when you take the first bite, you know it’s a less than great experience. Burgers made with meat and/or eggs have lots of sticky saturated fats which help them hold together but vegan burgers don’t have this fat so they often fall apart.

Is it possible to keep the saturated fats out of our burgers and still have them hold together? You bet! After a lot of experimentation and a lot of burgers that just didn’t hold up, I finally got a hand on how to keep my veggie burgers from turning into mush.

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As mentioned, eggs help veggie burgers hold together because they have saturated fats. For an eggless burger, use a different type of binder. I like to make a “flax egg” by combining 1 Tbs. ground flax seed and 3 Tbs. warm water and letting it sit until it gels. You can also make this type of egg replacement with chia seeds or psyllium husks. Agar agar gets gelatinous when mixed with an equal amount of water. You can also create a binder by combining cornstarch, tapioca starch or arrowroot powder with warm water.

Besides using an “egg” binder, other sticky ingredients can help hold the burger together. However, some sticky ingredients are also wet so you don’t want to use too much of them. Mashed potatoes, beans, and lentils are sticky as are nut butter, tahini, tomato paste, mustard, barbecue sauce and vegan Worcestershire sauce. Some dry ingredients get sticky get they get wet such as breadcrumbs, flour, oats, rice, quinoa, barley, ground nuts and seeds, spices and cornstarch.

Homemade Hamburger Helper {healthy One Pan Meal}

If your burger mix is too wet, adding these will create a type of paste. You don’t want to use a lot of sticky ingredients though, you want the mixture to hold together but not feel gooey.

Veggies, especially raw veggies, hold a lot of water which will get released during cooking. This is also true for other ingredients such as beans or tofu. This can turn your burger to mush. If a recipe calls for shredded onion, carrots or zucchini, squeeze them dry before adding them to the burger mix. Alternatively, you can cook the veggies or beans before adding them to the mix (make sure to let them cool first). Make sure your tofu has been pressed and drained of excess water.

Keep in mind that some ingredients added for flavors such as ketchup or soy sauce will also add moisture. Always add ingredients a little at a time while checking the texture of the mix.

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You can certainly make your burger mix by hand; I usually do. Make sure all the ingredients are mashed well and chopped finely. Use a potato masher, a fork or your hands. While it’s nice to see and taste the individual ingredients in the burger, pieces that are too big will fall out and keep the burger from holding together. If you use a food processor, process until everything is just combined but don’t turn it into a soup.

The mixture should feel firm and hold together. It shouldn’t be too wet or sticky when you touch it. When you form the patties, the mixture should not stick to your hands too much. If it does, you need more dry ingredients such as flour or breadcrumbs. If the mixture is too dry, it will crumble when you try to make patties. Add more sticky ingredients.

Learn to use your judgment rather than following recipes to the letter. Just because the recipe calls for ½ cup of bbreadcrumbsdoesn’t mean you need to use the whole amount or that you can’t use more. Use your hands. Get a feel for the consistency of the burger mix. Is it holding together well? Does it feel too loose? Sometimes one tablespoon more or less of bread crumbs or flour can make all the difference.

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Most recipes say to make the patties and then refrigerate them. I used to do this and when I would go to make the burgers, they were moist and didn’t hold together well. Being in the fridge adds moisture we don’t want. Refrigerate the whole burger mix in a bowl for 30 minutes or so, bring them out and come close to room temperature and then make the patties when you’re ready to cook them. They will be firmer and hold together better while cooking.

I also used to form my patties by hand. No matter how hard I tried to make even burgers, even scoring the mix and separating it into equal portions, I always ended up with 6 different sized