The Pepper Mistake You Might Be Making When Seasoning Burgers

The only thing better than a burger fresh off the grill is a burger that's been seasoned at home. Taking charge of the spices, seasonings, and overall flavor of your burgers makes a huge impact you'll certainly notice. You should absolutely get creative with your seasoning blend and techniques, but there are a few rules you'll want to follow to avoid making basic seasoning mistakes. One such rule has to do with the two most popular seasonings out there: salt and pepper. While you'll want to salt your patties before they hit the grill or the stove, you should avoid cracking black pepper over the top. Instead, wait to pepper them until they're done cooking. Otherwise, you might end up with a bitter-tasting burger.

This tip might sound strange, since salt and pepper tend to go hand-in-hand. However, there's a good reason why you should skip out on the pepper until your burgers have been cooked to your preference. According to butcher Pat LeFrieda, who wrote a guest post on Andrew Zimmern's blog, the pepper becomes a little bitter once you've seared the burgers. This is because when pepper comes in contact with a heat source, the volatile flavors that exist in each peppercorn are released, creating that bitter taste LeFrieda refers to. This same rule applies when you're cooking a steak. To get the most out of your fresh cracked pepper, and to avoid bitterness, you'll want to add it after the steak is done cooking. 

While LeFrieda suggests adding pepper to your burger once it's fresh off the grill, Bobby Flay actually recommends the opposite. In a clip from his show, Bobby Flay's Barbecue Addiction, he shares a recipe for his classic burgers. In it, he seasons them with a simple mix of salt and freshly ground pepper. He adds this seasoning after he's shaped the burger meat into patties but before they've hit the heat, noting that the two create flavor and help form a crust on the exterior of the burgers. Our easy smash burger recipe calls for the same — as do many other recipes for simple burgers — so which method is best? 

Ultimately, there isn't a "right" way, and it comes down to your preferences. If you've got a barbecue coming up and you're planning on seasoning and grilling burgers, it's a good idea to do a test round first to decide whether you want to add pepper before or after grilling your burgers. You might realize you're sensitive to the bitter-tasting peppery flavor like LeFrieda, but you may also decide to channel your inner Bobby Flay and add both. At the end of the day, a hand-seasoned burger is better than a store-bought, frozen beef burger, so whatever you decide to do, we're sure it will be delicious.