This One Ingredient Will Keep Your Burgers From Drying Out on the Grill

When it comes to summertime grilling, the stakes are high. The sun is blazing, kids are running wild, everyone is hungry, and all eyes are on you while you tend to an open fire. No big deal, right? While burgers have a reputation for being an easy option to serve when curating a cookout menu, they are incredibly hard to do well, especially at scale. You have hot spots to contend with and flare-ups to manage, knowing that just a couple of minutes separate a perfectly cooked burger from one that looks and tastes more like a hockey puck. That said, in my opinion, the payoff of a perfectly cooked burger is worth the cortisol surge of (wo)manning the grill. One has not experienced true joy until they have nailed a tray of beautifully cooked-medium burgers.

Want to experience this burger bliss for yourself? What if I told you there was a way to ensure you had moist, tender, flavorful, and perfectly seasoned burgers every time, and that it involves a staple you probably already have on hand? 

As the old adage goes, butter makes everything better, especially burgers.

Why Butter Is the Secret to Better Burgers on the Grill

When it comes to burgers, fat equals flavor. While I would love nothing more than grilling up Wagyu beef burgers on the regular, it’s not exactly in line with my budget, especially when my seven-year-old can polish off two burgers on his own. To make my more humble ground beef taste like a burger that might cost $30 at a trendy restaurant, I add frozen grated salted butter to the mix. As a general rule, for one pound of ground beef, I use four tablespoons of butter. I like to use the second smallest holes on the box grater so the butter can be seamlessly worked into the beef before it’s formed into patties. 

I stumbled upon this idea during the pandemic when groceries were complicated to come by. We ended up stocking up on ground beef through a delivery service, and while it was affordable and grass-fed, it was incredibly lean. I first tried the trick of pressing a pat of butter into the center of the burgers before cooking, but it didn’t quite do the job. The center was juicy and flavorful, but I needed a way to permeate the entire burger and give it extra oomph. During our next burger night, I decided to give the frozen grated butter a try, and I haven’t looked back since. I prefer to use salted butter as it adds another layer of seasoning throughout the meat, but unsalted butter will work just as well. 

You can think of the butter as a bit of an insurance policy; while the temperature you cook your burgers to is still super important, the added butter will keep your burgers moist, even if you slightly overcook them. So grab a stick of butter and an instant read thermometer: It’s grilling season!