Recipe · Bar 7 Beef
Homemade Beef Burgers
Good burgers start with good ground beef and not much else. Gentle handling, a hot grill or pan, and a thermometer are all you need — about twenty minutes from fridge to table.
About 10 minutes prep · 8–10 minutes cooking · makes 4 burgers.
Ingredients
- 680 g (1½ lb) ground beef
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp garlic powder (optional)
- ½ tsp onion powder (optional)
- 4 hamburger buns
- Your favourite toppings: cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, condiments
Instructions
- Place the ground beef in a bowl and sprinkle the salt, pepper and any optional seasonings over it. Mix gently with your hands until just combined — overworking the meat makes dense, tough burgers.
- Divide into 4 equal portions and shape into patties about 2 cm (¾ inch) thick, slightly wider than your buns. Press a shallow dimple into the centre of each patty with your thumb so they cook flat instead of puffing up.
- For grilling: preheat the grill to medium-high and oil the grates. For pan-frying: heat a heavy pan or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat with a thin film of oil.
- Cook the patties about 4–5 minutes per side, flipping once. Avoid pressing them down with the spatula — it squeezes out the juices.
- Check the internal temperature by inserting the thermometer sideways through the edge of each patty so the tip reaches the centre. Ground beef burgers must reach 71°C (160°F) — check each patty individually.
- If adding cheese, place it on the patties during the last minute of cooking and cover briefly to melt.
- Rest the burgers 2–3 minutes, then serve on buns with your favourite toppings.
Cook Burgers Through: 71°C (160°F)
Unlike a whole steak, ground beef can carry bacteria mixed throughout the meat — not just on the surface. That's why Health Canada requires ground beef and hamburgers to reach an internal temperature of 71°C (160°F). Burgers should not be served rare or medium-rare, no matter how good the beef is.
Colour is not a reliable indicator — a burger can look browned before it's safe, or stay slightly pink after it is. Use a thermometer, inserted sideways into the centre of each patty, and check every burger individually.
See Health Canada's safe internal cooking temperatures and our beef cooking temperatures guide for the full chart.
Ground Beef from Our Ranch
Our ground beef comes in 1 lb packages, and every beef box includes plenty of it — raised on our Cariboo ranch near Quesnel, BC.