29 Next-Level Hamburger Recipes For Juicy Patties, Crisp Edges, and Melty Cheese

How do you like your hamburger? Plain, with ketchup? Loaded up with cheese and bacon? Slathered with Hatch chile salsa? The ultimate summer cookout staple, hamburgers were first introduced to the American public in 1904 at the St. Louis World’s Fair. Fast-forward 120 years, and what started as a simple patty-on-bun combo has become a cultural phenomenon, available stuffed, smashed, stacked, and topped with every ingredient under the sun. But behind every great burger, you’ll find the same essential ingredients and fundamental techniques. 

Vegetarian versions aside, the most important element of any burger is the meat. A high-quality butcher-shop burger blend (typically a mix of brisket, chuck, and ribeye) with a lean to fat ratio of 80/20 delivers the ideal balance of meaty flavor and juiciness. “Always use fresh ground beef,” says George Motz, burger historian and chef-owner of Hamburger America in New York City. Freshly ground meat — ideally ground the same day you’ll cook it — has a loose texture that, when shaped into patties using a gentle hand, will result in supple, melt-in-your-mouth burgers. Purchasing beef that has been pressed into a tube or mashed into a mound is a sure way to end up with tough patties. 

Timely seasoning is also key. Cookbook author J. Kenji López-Alt discovered that mixing salt into the patties denatures the proteins, which results in a dense, bouncy, sausage-like texture. Seasoning only the exterior of the patties — and doing so just before they hit the heat — gives you a tender, juicy patty.

Heat is your final factor: The thinner the patty, the hotter the grill should be. Smash burgers cook quickly and need a smoking hot surface to form their crisped, scraggly edges, while thick tavern-style burgers require moderate heat to nail the perfect medium-rare center. Some purists believe that a burger must be cooked on the grill, but we found a cast-iron griddle or skillet — which provides the surface area to encourage caramelization while also trapping the drippings and preventing flare-ups — yields better-tasting burgers. (Pro tip: The pool of residual drippings on the griddle is liquid gold, superb for toasting buns or sautéing vegetables.)

Read on for some of our all-time favorite hamburger recipes, from Bloody Mary–inspired burgers (horseradish, Worcestershire, and all) to our ultimate burger, which blends five — five! — different cuts of meat before being simply topped with ketchup, mustard, lettuce, and tomatoes.