There is a surprisingly thin line between the beautiful burgers seen in television commercials and the dry, not-so-beefy meat discs you might just end up with atop your own stove or grill at home. Starting with the best protein ratio for a juicier burger — with a fat content hovering somewhere around 20% — is a great start, but it isn’t a guarantee of sizzling success. Proper use of a meat thermometer will also help keep you from overcooking those perfectly formed patties to maintain tenderness. And the addition of compound butter is like extra credit for all of that burger homework.
Compound butter takes all the creamy, near-sweetness of a plain old stick and marries it with other ingredients like herbs and spices. You can also make a surprisingly simple butter at home as your base, of course, but those additions are the star in this case. When the amalgamation fills or tops your burgers before they meet the heat, the fat will keep them moist as they cook, and the mix-ins will begin to impart their own flavor. You can make a little indentation to accommodate about a tablespoon of the improved churned dairy product, and either leave it to melt into the meat on one side, or fold the raw patty over and reshape it so that the butter moistens the interior as it melts. You can even hide some under a blanket of cheese or melt a medallion over the top of your finished burger. Best of all, you can create something as simple or fanciful as you wish.
The tastiest compound butter combinations for better burgers
Look to both classic and novel burger toppings for your compound butter inspiration. The allium family, which includes onions, shallots, and leeks, is a familiar and favorable place to start. To match the beef’s richness, try incorporating the caramelized kind for a deeply sweet and nutty finish, or using freshly chopped ramps or chive flowers for a subtly sharp onion flavor. Freshly diced pickled jalapeños or peppers of a similar heat quotient will bring in a nice, tangy kick. And even if you plan to cloak everything with cheese, you can still sneak even more into the burger via your compound butter. A funky blue cheese compound butter creates a particularly perky-tasting burger, recalling far fancier steakhouse preparations. You’ll just want to source the softest blue cheese variety you can find for maximum meltability.
Regardless of your augmentations, you’ll want to soften the butter to room temperature (do not melt), and fold the ingredients into the butter in a bowl with a fork before chilling to set. You can form it all back into something closer to a stick if you wish, but it isn’t at all necessary in this case. It can also be tempting to go over the top when the objective is packing in flavor, but about 2 tablespoons of your extra ingredient per stick (or half cup) of butter will be plenty. Anything more and you risk diluting the blend and losing the silken, juicy quality that the butter should impart.
