Brush Burgers With This Simple Ingredient For 10X The Flavor

Burgers are a hard food to resist. They are a barbecue mainstay for a reason, and many folks love upgrading their patties with seasonings. You may already be familiar with the basics — salt and pepper are classics and are Bobby Flay's go-tos for burgers — or store-bought burger seasonings, but there is one unique flavor enhancer that you may have never thought to use: butter. 

Sure, burgers have enough fat on their own to cook, but when you brush the burgers with butter as they cook — or even better, butter-baste them — you infuse them with tons of moisture and flavor that you're just not able to replicate with a standard burger seasoning or by buttering and toasting the buns alone. Besides adding flavor, cooking your burgers with butter will also contribute to the Maillard reaction, as the heat will toast the milk solids and contribute to the savory crust on the exterior of your patties.

You don't need to use a lot of butter to get your point across. If you're making your own homemade smash burgers, for example, add the melted butter to the pan once the patties have been smashed and gently spoon it over them as they cook. You can also add the melted butter with a grill brush; just be sure to coat both sides of the patty. 

The nice thing about this hack is that you can use your butter as a conduit for flavor. As you're melting down your stick, try adding flavorful seasonings like chopped garlic, paprika, and even a dash of Worcestershire sauce. The seasonings will soak into the patty once you add it, and blooming some of them in butter will actually improve their flavor even more. 

There are, of course, some caveats and cases where you may not want to add extra butter to your burger. For example, if you are using a high-fat beef blend, like a 70/30 instead of the ideal 80/20 for stovetop burgers, as you can risk making your burgers too fatty and greasy. If you are using rich toppings, like mayonnaise or aioli, adding extra butteriness to the patty may also not be a good idea. And, of course, there's the obvious risk of flare-ups, which, while they may look cool, can be dangerous. Contain that dripping fat by cooking it in a pan, and don't leave it unattended for long.