How to make the perfect braai burger

No one likes a dry, tasteless beef patty. With these simple tips you can become one of the few, the proud, the one who can actually grill a hamburger.

Charcoal

Before you dirty your hands with sauces, eggs, meat, and god forbid vegetables, you need to have a clean grill. While gas is easier, charcoal will always leave a better flavour in the meat. Be sure to let your grill pre-heat. This is a crucial step in eliminating hot spots in a charcoal grill, and in providing those perfect grill marks every braai burger should have.

Meat

Beef makes the best hamburgers. While mixing the meat add a little Worcesterchire sauce, onion and or garlic powder, and if the meat is too loose an egg to bind it up. Make sure the meat is well mixed but don’t beat the hell out of it. This is also important to remember when you are forming your patties. You want consistent patties with but you don’t want to squeeze them too tight and ruin the texture of the meat. A pro tip is to indent your patties in the middle with your thumb. This will stop them from becoming UFO shaped on the grill.

Cooking

This is the most important part! It’s important that you pay attention and not over-cook the patties. Avoid this by not letting your grill get too hot and by NOT OVER FLIPPING YOUR BURGERS. Your burger should be flipped once, that’s all that’s enough. Maybe hit them with some seasonings salt on each side but that’s it. Leave it alone. All that liquid coming out and causing flame ups should be oozing into the bun and the cheese.