You get char on the crust with a stone. Maybe not on a cold stone, but in that case let it preheat a bit... just not 800+ degrees preheat.

I see what you mean by light/refined olive oil. I wasn’t familiar with that. I’ll need to give it a try. I live in New Mexico, so while we interestingly enough have our own varieties of wine that I quiet enjoy, we do not have the varieties of olive oil readily available. I really wish we had a Trader Joe’s in the…

The pizza stone eliminates the problems. The “quick and dirty” way to do it is buy some ready made pizzas like Papa Murphy’s, Walmart/Sam’s Fresh Ready Bake or if you have a better brand available to you, buy it and take it home.

I’m glad to discuss it. I appreciate you taking the time to consider my thoughts and reasons why I do it. I would love to use olive oil instead, but it has too low of a smoke point for the kind of rocket hot grilling I do. Now, if I was making smoked steak burgers (which I have done) I would gladly use Olive Oil…

I can certainly relate, except for the grill jockey part. I grill at home and have been interested in it since I was a teenager.

I 100% agree with you about the stabbing and squishing, though. You can use lean meat, just have to have a tiny bit of fat on the outside to help prevent sticking, help it cook properly and you have to be VERY careful to not overcook the burger, otherwise it will dry out. Freshly chopped steak made on clean equipment…

A half pound patty of 80/20 beef is 1.6 ounces of fat. A lean chopped steak burger patty is 0.2 ounces of fat. A light spray of canola oil on either side of the burger adds less than 0.1 ounces of fat. I don’t soak it in the oil. I just don’t want the burger to stick. Lean meat sticks when grilling. The pat of…

Exactly! I put the thin pat of butter on top of the cooked side of the burger after it has been flipped. It renders down into the meat just like you would cook a steak in a cast iron skillet and finish it with a butter baste as it finishes cooking after the flip. Except steak isn’t very porous and isn’t very…

Butter and Beef fat are both high in saturated fats. Butter is an emulsion of water, fat and milk proteins. So, yeah it brings some flavor to the party. I’m also only talking about adding a VERY thin pat of butter for flavor. The spray of canola oil adds a negligible amount of fat. I don’t sit there and drown the…

A light spray of canola oil adds a negligible amount of fat to the outside of the burger. The thin pat of butter (less than 1/8" thick) adds flavor. Butter isn’t just fat. It is an emulsion of fat, water, milk proteins. You are basically basting your burger but adding a thin pat of butter. Any more butter than…

I love Alton Brown, but I would put my steak burger up against any 80/20 burger he could make. AB could outcook me any day of the week with an arm tied behind his back and probably whip me, but not when comparing my lean steak burger to his 80/20 ground beef. In fact, it was AB himself that gave me the idea to use…

You misunderstand the amounts of fat involved. A 1/2 pound patty that is 20% fat is 1.6 ounces of fat. A light spray of canola oil on either side of the patty adds a negligible amount of fat. A small pat of butter (less than 1/8" thick) adds a tiny amount of fat but butter also has water in it AND especially…

Excellent point and I absolutely love cheese stuffed burgers. They can leak, fall apart or drip into the fire... but when done right they are soooo tastey.

A light spray of canola oil on both sides of the burger adds a negligible amount of fat and calories to the burger. If you read the nutrition label on the canola spray and yes, you’re absolutely correct that the canola oil is a better kind of fat healt-wise than the fat in the meat. Butter isn’t much better, but I’m…

If you are going to put salt in your meat, don’t let the meat sit for very long. Salt takes time to extract significant amounts of moisture from the meat. So if you form your patties, with salt included in the meat, and cook them right up, you’ll lose a negligible amount of moisture. I agree with you that I’m…

Now I know you were just trolling my last post. If you understand the Maillard reaction, then you must understand that to do it right and without sticking on a grill you need a bit of fat. Using lean meat lets me choose exactly how much fat is used, where it is placed and add additional flavor. I don’t need 20% fat…

No. There are reasons for it. The canola oil helps prevent sticking. It’s a light spray, adding a negligible amount of fat (literally, read the label... a quick spray adds hardly anything, but it puts the fat on the surface where I want it, not inside the meat.) Butter adds flavor, adds moisture (because butter is…

I use lean meat all the time. My burgers don’t come out dry. I give them a light spray of canola oil before putting them down and I hit them with Worcestershire sauce before flipping, another light spray of canola oil, and then a pat of butter after flipping. I cook them to 145 degrees. My burgers don’t shrink as…

I came here to say just that. I can confirm a pat of butter is indeed the ideal solution. Just don’t make it too big to avoid flareups. I made steak burgers last week. After flipping them I put the pat of butter on. They came out great!

Or you could just carry around one of these. People might look at you funny. Just tell them it’s your spare key: