- Every Way
- Season 1
- Episode 1
Making EVERY Type of Burger (39 Meats)
Released on 11/07/2024
I'm Pitmaster Matt Abdoo,
and I'm about to try 39 burgers,
each with a different meat.
I've got your classic meats, some less conventional ones,
and others even I have never tried before.
This is completely outside
of what I thought a kangaroo would actually taste like.
Which work, which don't,
and what's the best meat to make burgers with?
Let's find out.
[upbeat drum music]
Short rib.
It's got a nice char on the outside of it.
It's probably gonna be a little bit fatty,
a little bit luscious.
You can see how juicy that burger is.
[upbeat drum music]
Oh yeah, packed with beefy flavor.
The short rib is meat that's resting on the bone,
on that rib cage.
Anytime that there's meat resting on the bone of the animal,
those bones add more beefiness flavor
to whatever that muscle is,
and since short rib is resting right upon it,
it's gonna have all that flavor.
The texture is soft. It's luscious.
It's got that nice fattiness to it.
It's really, really good.
[upbeat drum music]
Brisket.
I love brisket as a cut of meat, period.
It's looking plump. It's looking juicy.
[upbeat drum music]
This is a great burger.
I think I have grease dripping down my chin.
The taste of this brisket isn't as beefy
or as luscious as the short rib was,
but it still has a ton of great flavor going on,
and a good fat content to it as well.
The brisket is part of the chest of the cow,
and it's used a lot,
and generally speaking,
most of the muscles that are used a lot on the animal tend
to have more flavor,
but as a downside, they can be tougher.
So what do you do?
Either low and slow cooking methods to 'em,
or you can grind 'em up to make really great burger meat.
It's got great flavor. It's got great texture.
It's super juicy.
Overall, brisket, winner.
[upbeat drum music]
Chuck.
Right out of the gates, I can see that this burger
is nice and juicy.
This is an 80/20 blend,
80% lean, 20% fat.
[upbeat drum music]
It's nice and soft.
It's tender while still having a lot of flavor to it.
I would say 80/20 is probably the perfect ratio
for most burgers being cooked in this method
because it lends itself to being really, really juicy.
When you start getting less than 20% fat,
burgers can tend to dry out.
If you're looking to do something a little healthier
and back out some of the fat,
by all means, you can,
but the less fat you have,
the drier the burger's gonna be.
So this burger is chuck with a 90/10 ratio,
so you can really just look at that burger,
and see that it's not as juicy as the 80/20.
That's because it has that 10% less fat ratio to it.
[upbeat drum music]
I would recommend using a 90/10 ratio
if you're being health conscious,
but you still want to have a hamburger.
But if you're looking to splurge and have a burger,
I would stay within that 80/20 ratio.
[upbeat drum music]
Sirloin.
It's kind of got like that roasty, steaky smell to it,
which would make a lot of sense
since, typically, sirloin is a cut of meat
that'd be used for steak.
[upbeat drum music]
It's got great flavor,
but what's missing in the sirloin is that fat.
It's not as juicy,
and missing that fat's also kind of giving
the ground meat a little bit
of sort of like a grainy texture to it.
Most cattle in America are finished with corn,
which means the last part of their diet,
they're fed a lot of grains or fed a lot of corn.
That corn finish is what really gives
that cattle the ability to put on weight,
to increase the marbling score within that meat itself,
develop that sort of sweet beefy flavor within it,
which ends up grinding to be fattier and juicier.
This isn't my favorite.
It's a little too dry, and it lacks that texture for me.
[upbeat drum music]
Hanger steak.
Hanger steak hangs from below the diaphragm of the cattle.
There's only actually one of them on each animal,
so it's very sought-after,
and it's considered the butcher's cut,
where the butchers would save them for themselves.
[upbeat drum music]
Really great flavor.
It almost has like a little bit,
sort of like a gaminess to it,
which is kind of surprising me a little.
It's got a pretty good juice content into it.
It's not dry.
It's soft. It's luscious.
Hanger steak is making a really great burger.
Although, for the price point
of what you're probably gonna pay for a hanger steak
to be ground up into a hamburger meat,
I'd probably stick with something more short rib,
brisket, or chuck,
'cause you might get better bang for your buck.
Japanese Wagyu.
Wagyu is literally the Japanese word for cattle.
Wagyu cattle are fed luxurious foods,
like the byproducts from making things like sake,
beer, and whiskey.
They're also fed much later on into their lifespan,
so they can develop that really crazy, great marbling,
and fatty flavor and texture to their meat.
Japanese Wagyu typically don't graze as much
because there's not as much land as there is
for American cattle,
and as a result,
they create this really fatty marbling texture to the meat.
Looking at this burger, I'm already a little sad.
This is A5 Japanese Wagyu.
It's the highest grading of Japanese beef that there is,
and you can already see
it's really kind of shrank quite a bit.
It also kind of saddens me to take this luxurious,
top of the line,
best there is in the planet meat,
grind it up, and cook it down into a hamburger meat
because it's really not how it's intended to be consumed.
You can really just see in it,
it's just chunks of fat.
There's no texture to it.
It just looks gristly almost.
I'm sorry, Japanese Wagyu.
[upbeat drum music]
What's very interesting about this bite is it is super rich.
It is super fatty.
I don't even really need to chew it all that much
because the body temperature of my mouth
is like melting the meat as I'm chewing it.
It's kind of like just having a big chunk of fat
from a steak ground up.
I'm not digging it.
The cost of Japanese Wagyu is astronomical.
In Japan, cattle are graded between A, B, and C,
and in those subsects,
they're from five to one.
A5 is the highest rating of Japanese Wagyu
that exists on the market.
It is outrageously expensive.
You can pay hundreds of dollars a pound just for it.
So if you're gonna be spending that much money on it,
don't grind it into a hamburger.
There's too much fat.
It's just gonna melt out,
and what's you're left with is just something that's sad.
Kobe beef.
Kobe beef is still Japanese Wagyu,
and it's thought of as being the creme de la creme
of the best Japanese cattle in the entire country.
It specifically comes from the Hogoto region of Japan,
where they have much more rules
and regulations of how the cattle are grown.
[upbeat drum music]
It's surprisingly really, really juicy.
The flavor of it is really quite spectacular.
It's strange though, as you're eating this,
sort of just the way that the meat cooks up
with that really fattiness to that grind on it.
It's rich and luscious,
but also kind of crumbly at the same time.
When I'm looking to have a burger,
I'm looking for something that holds up together,
has beautiful flavor.
And this, it's just unbalanced.
There's too much fat,
which makes it not eat well as a hamburger.
[upbeat drum music]
American Wagyu.
American Wagyu is gonna be completely different
from the Japanese Wagyu meat
because it's a cross-breed
between a purebred Japanese Wagyu,
and typically an Angus steer
or Angus cattle here in America.
They're also gonna be finished with corn,
so it's gonna develop a different amount of flavor,
and American Wagyu isn't fed
for as long as Japanese cattle are,
so it's never gonna develop as much fat or as much marbling.
[upbeat drum music]
Definitely not as fatty.
Definitely not as rich.
Has more of that traditional hamburger sort of texture
and quality of what most American palates
are gonna recognize and enjoy.
Comparatively to just a typical chopped hamburger meat,
or chuck or round,
it's got a lot more richness to it.
It's got more beefy flavor than just the typical rounds
or cuts of steak or meat.
It just performs better as a burger.
It's a better balance of fat and meat and flavor.
Overall, American Wagyu, for me,
is a sweet spot for a great hamburger.
[upbeat drum music]
Round.
Round's coming from the hind quarter of the cattle,
so those back legs.
What I'm getting moreso than anything off of this
is the aroma.
It's smelling like a really beautiful roast
that Mom's been cooking in her oven all day low and slow.
[upbeat drum music]
Lots of great flavor in this. It's tender.
It's juicier than I thought it would be.
Typically speaking, the round is a little bit
of a leaner part of the muscle on the cow,
and doesn't have as much fat storage.
The less fat, the less moisture,
the less juiciness there's gonna be
in that burger when it's cooked.
But this is eating really well for me right now.
[upbeat drum music]
Turkey.
Turkey is obviously different than any sort of cow
or cattle.
There's not nearly as much fat, or flavor for that matter.
It has more of a dense texture to it
because of that lack of fat.
[upbeat drum music]
Kind of spongy, kind of chewy, kind of bouncy, dry.
Turkey burgers are always going
to cook up drier than traditional cow
or cattle or beef burgers.
There's just not enough fat in turkey
to create that moist texture,
and also you have
to typically cook turkey more than you do ground beef,
and again, the longer you cook something,
the more you're gonna dry it out.
If you're looking for something leaner and healthier,
not a bad option.
[upbeat drum music]
Salmon.
It's got a nice crisp edge from all the fat
that's in that salmon,
from all the oil that's in that salmon.
There's not much juiciness coming out of this at the moment,
and you can see that white protein leaching out.
That's usually an indication
when the salmon has been cooked past its peakness.
[upbeat drum music]
It tastes like oily, fishy fish.
Grinding it up,
cooking it in this matter has made it completely dry.
The texture, for me, is undesirable.
Salmon is a very oily fish.
It's got lots of omega-3s into it,
but unfortunately, when you grind salmon meat
and you cook it,
all that oil leaches out,
and all you're left with is the dry protein that remains.
It just doesn't cook up well into a burger.
[upbeat drum music]
Chicken.
Visually, the caramelization of the proteins
is cooking up nice and golden brown.
It does not look very juicy.
The aroma though does smell like beautiful roasted chicken.
[upbeat drum music]
It's really dry.
There's not enough fat in this to make it,
and to be a texturally enjoyable burger.
Chicken meat is gonna have
a more mild flavor than turkey will.
It's a smaller bird.
The feed that they're gonna have is gonna be different,
so the flavor profile of the meat
is going to be different in that sense.
On its own, this just doesn't hold up.
[upbeat drum music]
Pork.
It's got a lot of juice within it.
Texturally, it looks a little bit more dense
than some of the higher-fat ground beef blends
that we've seen so far.
[upbeat drum music]
Texturally, flavor, that's eating really well.
It's juicy. The texture is tender.
Bun's a great vessel holding it together,
capturing those juices that are in that pork shoulder.
Pork shoulder is one of the most economical cuts of meat.
Pork, in general, pound for pound,
is probably the least expensive protein on the market.
It feeds a lot of people for low cost,
and because of the ratio of the fat to lean
that's in the shoulder,
it just cooks up to be a really great burger.
[upbeat drum music]
Grass-fed beef.
Grass-fed means exactly what it sounds like.
The cows are fed a diet of grass,
primarily from just roaming free range on the pastures.
Typically speaking, it results in a leaner animal.
They're not being finished on grain.
They're not developing as much fat or marbling
as grain-finished cattle will.
This is also organic.
Organic means it's just fed a natural diet
without any additives or antibiotics
or hormones given to it.
Texture is a little bit denser in there,
meaning that it probably didn't have as much fat
as a traditional grain-fed cow would have.
[upbeat drum music]
It's definitely drier than the grain-fed chuck
that we had earlier.
The flavor does also have sort of like a little bit
of a livery, sort of gamey kind of quality to it.
That's probably due to the diet of it eating just grass
and being organic.
For me, this is just missing that fat balance.
It's good, but it's not great.
[upbeat drum music]
Beef blend.
This is a blend of chuck, shoulder clod, and brisket.
Shoulder clod is just a muscle within the chuck
within the shoulder.
It's more of a specific leaner cut carved out
of that big, primal portion of the cattle.
Oh wow, look at that.
[upbeat drum music]
The flavor on that is awesome.
It's what I want in a hamburger.
It's juicy. It's tender.
The texture is spot on.
The right ratio of fat to lean is right in there.
Blends, in general, allow you
to make that perfect balance of what you're looking for
for fatty, lean, richness, flavor.
Getting those cuts from the animals
that you're specifically trying to make,
a specific blend for you,
just ends up creating a really special burger,
and when done right,
can make a great burger all the time.
[upbeat drum music]
Dry-aged beef.
Dry-aged beef is typically taking a large cut
from the cow,
and aging it in a controlled temperature, moisture,
and air environment,
and as that's happening,
moisture is being taken out of the meat
from the drying process.
It's fortifying the flavors within that meat
and the natural enzymes in the meat tend to break it down,
causing it to become really tender.
Smell's got a little funk, but not overwhelming,
but it does have that rich, beefy aroma to it.
[upbeat drum music]
The dry-aging process is really making
that beef flavor kind of punch itself up and shine through.
It does have a little bit of that funk from the dry age,
but in a very pleasant way.
Over time, as the meat is dry aging,
there's gonna be natural molds
and things that sort of grow on that meat
that add to that funky flavor that's happening.
The longer it dry ages,
the more those things can develop,
and result in even funkier flavors.
It's not rotten,
but it's certainly something
that's gonna have that What's going on?
It smells a little funky, to it,
and something that some people really might enjoy.
If you're into that and you like that,
you're probably just gonna end up paying more for it,
and it'll be exactly what you want.
[upbeat drum music]
Venison.
The word venison comes from the Latin word venari,
which translates to hunt,
originally referred to as any game meat, not just deer.
[upbeat drum music]
You do get that mild game flavor in the back,
but it's not overpowering.
It's not too punchy.
It is very lean,
so that fat isn't really coating your mouth in the way
that a traditional beef burger would.
I like that mild liver flavor profile that's coming from it.
If you like that, this venison burger is for you.
[upbeat drum music]
Bison.
Bison, for me, is gonna have lots of similar characteristics
to that of cattle.
A lot of domestic American cattle
is a subset from cross-breeding bison
to where we are today.
[upbeat drum music]
It's actually really good. It's juicy.
It's got good texture to it,
with like a little bit of sweetness behind it too.
The beef flavor is a little bit more mild
while the gamey flavor is a little bit more pronounced.
Bison's high in B12, iron,
and it's protein-rich,
so it does have some redeeming health qualities
over traditional cow,
and it's certainly something that if you wanna eat,
you should give it a try because it tastes really good.
[upbeat drum music]
Lamb.
Lamb is one of the most popular meats worldwide.
However, the average American eats less than one pound
of lamb per year compared to 57 pounds of beef.
I'm half Lebanese, so I grew up eating this.
I mean, this is looking pretty juicy to me already.
This lamb right now has a really great fat content in it.
[upbeat drum music]
It's got a nice mouth feel.
It's coating my mouth really well.
The texture of it is nice and tender.
Lamb definitely has a more punchier flavor than beef,
and it's just a bit more pronounced.
[upbeat drum music]
Elk.
[upbeat drum music]
Oh wow.
Totally different flavor profile
than what I was expecting it to have.
It's very tender.
Like, super tender.
It is a little dry.
There's not a lot of fat in it,
but it has something I can only explain
as sort of like a mild gamey,
sort of fall flavor profile to it,
but super tender.
Like, the meat, it's like melting in your mouth.
It's so tender.
Definitely different, but enjoyably different.
[upbeat drum music]
Italian sausage.
I'm half Lebanese.
I am also half Italian.
Italian sausage is something I am epically familiar with.
It's more of that compact, dense meat.
You can see little chunks of fennel seed.
[upbeat drum music]
That spongy-like meat from the sausage.
That fennel's really jumping up at you.
Getting oregano, I'm getting garlic, some basil maybe.
When you're taking meat and you're turning it into sausage,
you're adding things to it, and you're working it.
We're adding salt.
Salt's gonna break down some of the proteins.
It's gonna leach out some of the moisture.
When you mix it, it's gonna bind it back together,
and hopefully hold the moisture back into it,
but it's also going to completely change the texture,
and you're gonna move away from having fresh pork flavor
to pork flavor that has very strong notes
of whatever those spices
or seasonings that you're adding into it
to make it that sausage.
It doesn't feel like a burger, but it's still delicious.
[upbeat drum music]
Chorizo.
There are two main types of chorizo,
Mexican chorizo and Spanish chorizo.
Spanish chorizo is a cured version of the sausage,
something similar to like a salami that you would have.
This is Mexican chorizo.
It's filled with things like chilies and paprika and garlic.
It's typically coming from the pork shoulder,
so it's gonna have a lot of moisture
and fatty juiciness to it.
[upbeat drum music]
There is a lot of flavor going on
in this particular chorizo.
Recipes can vary from house to house,
from recipe to recipe.
This might be a little too much for me to eat,
all just straight chorizo like this.
But a few bites, I give it a thumbs up.
It's pretty tasty.
[upbeat drum music]
Crab.
Personally, I'm gonna call this a crab cake.
Crab cakes need a binder to hold them together,
something like breadcrumbs or eggs,
unlike ground meat,
which its natural proteins when cooked coagulate
and hold itself together on its own.
[upbeat drum music]
Overall, it's got that beautiful sweetness of the crab.
I love the crunch of that breading
that's on the outside of it.
The texture of crab, in general, is very soft,
and it can flake apart very easily,
so you wanna make sure when you're working with it,
you don't overwork it too much
and shred it too much.
If you shred the crab too much,
it's gonna completely change the texture
and tend to dry out on ya.
[upbeat drum music]
Shrimp.
This is just shrimp.
Shrimp has enough proteins within it
that when it's ground and worked and cooked together,
it's going to hold its own shape.
It's got those speckles of that sort of orangeish,
reddish, pinkish.
Think of the lines on the outside
of shrimp cocktail when you eat it.
[upbeat drum music]
That's kind of weird.
It's very bouncy.
It's very spongy.
The shrimp flavor is very mild.
It's not off-putting at all,
but the texture of this is really undesirable,
to say the least.
[upbeat drum music]
Ostrich.
I have had it as carpaccio and tartare,
but I've never had it really ground
and cooked into a burger form.
[upbeat drum music]
Ostrich is a very lean animal.
It's not gonna have a lot of fat stores the way that cow
or cattle will, and because of that,
it's lacking the fat
that makes a great burger a great burger.
It has sort of a backend note
of a little sweetness back there.
It's certainly not rich and beefy like cow,
but the gaminess of this is sort of overpowering
that sweetness for me.
It's not terrible, but it's also not great.
[upbeat drum music]
Eel.
It has like a fresh fish note to it, but it's not fishy.
It's not nearly as fishy as the salmon burger was.
Eel's typically a fattier fish,
but I don't think it's gonna be oily fatty
like the way salmon is,
so maybe this might cook together.
I have no idea what I'm about to bite into here.
[upbeat drum music]
It's surprisingly, like, sweet.
A fish flavor to it.
Nothing overpowering.
I wish it had maybe some more crunch on the outside of it
to kind of offset the interior texture of it.
Kind of tastes like a big fish stick.
Eel has a much higher fat content than lots of other fish,
but sadly, it's not coming across in that way
as far as the texture or the mouth coating.
Maybe a lot of that oil might have melted out
in the cooking process.
The more I let it sit and develop, the more I'm enjoying it.
It's just missing a little juiciness
or fat to really round it out.
[upbeat drum music]
Alligator.
Kind of smells a little bit like chicken.
[upbeat drum music]
Think of the darkest of dark meat turkey,
and then add a little minerality, brininess behind that,
and that's kind of the flavor I'm getting.
The meat's tender.
It's not like it's tough
or I have to work really hard to get through it,
but there's no sort of redeeming mouth quality.
I would be guessing that this is tail meat,
which is the prime cut of the alligator.
It's gonna be more tender,
but again, even though it's probably the best cut
on the alligator,
it's still hard to get my head wrapped around
that sort of minerality behind it,
that brininess, that saltiness.
It's very interesting. It's just not for me.
[upbeat drum music]
Rabbit.
Rabbits are considered a very sustainable meat
because they have a very good feed-to-meat ratio.
[upbeat drum music]
This has a very almost tough texture to it.
It's taking a lot to chew through.
It's very mild,
resembles something similar to like maybe roasted chicken,
if it had like a little gamey note in the backend of it.
The flavor's not terrible,
but there's really no redeeming quality
into having this like a burger.
When you squeeze it, you can see
the natural juices coming out of this,
so it might make you think it's not gonna eat dry,
but that's just from it being cooked appropriately,
so there is some moisture still left in that ground meat,
but it's not that fat that's gonna coat your mouth
and give you that desirable, beneficial flavor or texture.
It's just meat juices.
[upbeat drum music]
Kangaroo.
There isn't a single kangaroo farm in Australia.
All kangaroo is free-range meat without any hormones,
additives, antibiotics, or anything.
Also, kangaroos are considered to be pests,
so actually, Australians are encouraged to eat them.
Wow, look at that.
I was not expecting the inside of this meat
to look this juicy.
Does have that sort of mild livery-like, gamey aroma to it.
[upbeat drum music]
Really interesting.
It has a very similar flavor to that of the elk
and the bison that we ate earlier.
It's very tender, surprisingly so.
It's quite pleasant.
This is completely outside of what I thought
that kangaroo would actually taste like.
I can see why there's such a thing as kangatarians,
people who are vegetarians,
but eat kangaroo as their only meat.
It's also kind of interesting that the longer that this sits
after it's been cut,
it's almost kind of like drying out in real time.
Maybe that's because of the lack of fat
within the actual meat of the kangaroo,
but it's still juicy.
This totally surprised me.
[upbeat drum music]
Duck.
Duck is a more active bird than compared to turkey
or chicken.
This leads to a higher concentration of myoglobin,
which gives it its darker color.
[upbeat drum music]
The flavor's really great.
It is, however, a little bit dry,
kind of so much so it's a little hard to swallow.
I wish it had a little bit more fat into it
because the flavor is really so good.
Duck have a layer of fat underneath their skin
that helps insulate them in cold water.
However, I don't really think that's coming through here.
Whatever that fat is either wasn't ground up
into this burger,
or it's just not working.
I think there's a reason
why I haven't really seen a duck burger before.
[upbeat drum music]
Wild boar.
In Italy, we call this cinghiale,
and you see it in all different types of form,
from ragus to stews,
but I've never seen it actually ground up for a burger.
Wild boar will basically eat just about anything.
So if you are out there hunting it, be careful,
'cause very often, you can find worms in the meat.
Interesting thing about wild boar.
The female flavor is typically more mild
in that livery, gamey flavor
where the males are gonna be a lot more intense.
The testosterone in the meat,
especially if they're killed in the wild hunt,
kind of makes the flavor really, really intense.
[upbeat drum music]
Surprisingly, it's actually not that dry.
The gamey flavor of it isn't that pronounced.
It's almost like a leaner, more porkier pork.
[upbeat drum music]
Yak.
Oh wow. This doesn't look yak-y at all.
It's kind of got a glisten of some decent fat content.
[upbeat drum music]
Wow, very mild, not overly beefy at all.
I'm not getting that mouth coating from excess
or additional fat within the grind, but it's not dry either.
It has a very enjoyable,
sort of soft-textured sweetness to it.
If this had a little bit more fat in it,
this would be a really great burger.
Very pleasantly surprised with the yak.
[upbeat drum music]
Veal.
The flavor of veal is always going
to be more mild than full, developed beef or cattle or cow.
Lots of times, veal are just on a milk-fed diet,
which gives them the very pale color of their meat
in the internal side of it.
[upbeat drum music]
Oh yeah. Super tender.
Beautiful, subtle, mild beef flavor.
You can definitely see why it would be a concern
to cook it past medium
'cause it's definitely gonna start to dry out on you.
There's just never gonna be enough fat in there
to really take it past that doneness.
Downside is it doesn't have as much beefy flavor.
If you think back to dry age,
why did we dry age the meat?
It was to evaporate some of the moisture
and intensify and punch up that beefy flavor.
Veal is kind of the opposite of that.
It's much more mild and much more mellow.
It's really good.
[upbeat drum music]
Beyond Beef.
Beyond Beef is an incredible creation
that's come about in the last decade or so
that mimics meat flavor
and texture through plant-based proteins.
There's a lot less emissions,
there's a lot less water needed to create it,
and overall it's much better for our environment.
Lot less saturated fats,
and it looks and tastes like beef.
[upbeat drum music]
I mean, it's fascinating.
It tastes like a charred hamburger.
Does it have the exact texture,
does it have the exact flavor of ground beef?
It does not, but if you've never eaten ground beef,
or you don't choose to eat ground beef,
you're never probably gonna know the difference.
The actual texture of itself,
with a crunchy, crispy outside,
and that tender inside is also quite fascinating.
It's like sort of that nutty,
almost edamame-like flavor.
If you don't wanna eat beef,
but you wanna have a great burger,
Beyond Beef is a great option.
[upbeat drum music]
Impossible Beef.
This is another one that's a plant-based meat substitute.
Not seeing a lot of juices coming out of it.
Sometimes if these burgers have a tendency
to cool down too much,
that coconut oil, which mimics that beef fat texture,
can congeal a little bit,
but when they're hot,
they usually gush out just like hot burger meat will.
[upbeat drum music]
Very, very similar texture
and flavor profiles to the Beyond Meat.
Again, you're getting more of that nuttiness,
moreso than beefiness behind it.
It's very hard to tell any sort of key differences
between this and Beyond.
For me, they're exceptionally similar to one another.
[upbeat drum music]
Veggie griller.
This is another meat-like patty that's all plant-based.
It's different from Beyond and Impossible
because it's a preformed patty,
and obviously, it doesn't look the same.
[upbeat drum music]
It's dry.
It doesn't really taste like anything.
Maybe the outside char
is giving it its only redeemable sort of flavor quality
to it.
If this is what you like, more power to you,
but I'm not seeking this out to replace my hamburger.
Mushroom.
[upbeat drum music]
Yep, that's a mushroom.
Looks like a mushroom.
Tastes like a mushroom.
Portobello mushrooms have thick cell walls
that give it its firm texture.
They also have a really high water content,
which helps maintain its dense feel.
I love that this is just a vegetable
that you can put on a bun,
and have something that resembles a burger.
[upbeat drum music]
Black bean.
Definitely see the cross-section
of those black beans on the inside.
Stuff that's holding it all together
is very much just probably mashed up black beans into it.
[upbeat drum music]
It's really starchy.
It's really pasty.
There's no beef-mimicking quality behind this.
The great thing about a black bean burger
is that the binder is the starch within the bean itself.
That bean paste, when it's formed and mixed
into all the other ingredients that are in it,
will hold its shape well enough,
so that you can put it on the grill.
But for me, it's just a mushy texture.
I'd rather seek out one of the other plant-based options
if I'm going that direction.
[upbeat drum music]
Veggie burger.
I'm seeing carrots, zucchini, peas, broccoli,
and it's all kind of bound together
by maybe some of those vegetables being pureed
while keeping some of them sort of coarse and chunky.
[upbeat drum music]
Lots of veggies.
It's a little mushy,
and if you're in the mood to have a lot of vegetables
on a hamburger bun,
this could be the way to go do it.
[bright music]
My top five burgers of the day were chuck, short rib,
dry-aged, blend, and American Wagyu.
Chuck is just that quintessential, iconic ground beef
that makes the most traditional hamburger.
It's a great ratio of lean to fat,
and it cooks up to be a really juicy, flavorful burger.
Short rib, for me, has all that rich,
luscious, beefy flavor.
It's juicy.
It's everything I want in a great burger.
Dry-aged is creating that really rich,
intensified beefy flavor
while also creating a perfect tender bite.
I also like the little bit of funk that goes along with it.
The blend, for me, is just a great way
of getting your perfect blend of rich, fatty,
flavorful, juicy meat,
all combined into the perfect patty.
American Wagyu is just that perfect ratio of fat to lean.
It has incredible flavor.
It's juicy. It's tender.
It's expensive, so it's a real treat.
My two runner-ups were lamb and yak.
Lamb, because it just has that really pronounced,
beautiful, delicious flavor,
and yak, I was just really taken aback.
I was surprised at how good, how juicy,
how flavorful it was,
and that little bit of sweetness behind it
really caught me by surprise.
If you're looking to create that great burger at home,
make sure you're looking for something
that has great beefy flavor, great fat,
and great tenderness,
and you're never gonna be disappointed.
[upbeat music]
Making EVERY Type of Burger (39 Meats)
56 Grilled Cheeses: Which One is Best?
How to Poach Eggs Perfectly
How Joshua Weissman Makes His Perfect Pizza: Every Choice, Every Step
The Best Gravy You'll Ever Make
The Best Chilaquiles You’ll Ever Make (Restaurant-Quality)
4 Levels of Tiramisu: Amateur to Food Scientist
$513 vs $21 Salmon: Pro Chef & Home Cook Swap Ingredients
2 Chefs Try to Make Lobster Thermidor with No Recipe
$272 vs $18 Huevos Rancheros: Pro Chef & Home Cook Swap Ingredients