Although burgers grill well on a grill pan or barbecue they really come into their own when pan-fried as they stay lovely and moist. In the US burgers are cooked on the flat top which for all intents and purposes is the same as pan-frying. Once browned they benefit from a cover for a few minutes to steam through stay moist and melt any cheese that you have going on.

Often confused with saute pan-frying is also not to be confused with shallow frying. Pan-frying involves larger pieces of meat say a steak or chicken breast a very small amount of oil and not too much movement. Essentially it has replaced the overhead grill and is a far moister way of cooking meat.

If you treat a burger with as much respect as you would a steak then you will be well rewarded. See steak. It simply cannot be denied that the best way to eat a burger is in a bun. Made of bread. You can, however, stack them up with fillings and no bun or serve with salad like a steak or choose alternative wrappers like our Skinni burger recipe.

Don't be tempted to continuously squeeze all the life from your burger with a spatula. For some reason we just cannot leave a pan well alone; stirring poking and pushing at will. Pressing down on a burger will just push all of the moisture from it and leave you with an old shoe to eat instead of a delicious meaty treat.