Burgers are the best comfort food, whether you want them as a quick snack or a hearty meal.
However, if you’re making burgers at home, you might find yourself spending the entire time trying to figure out how to keep the patties from falling apart!
But now is the time to determine the appropriate response to this. Your burgers may fall apart for a variety of reasons, but there are also simple methods to stop that from happening.
Burgers need the proper cooking temperature, fresh ground meat, expert patty preparation, and some binding agents to stay together and not fall apart.
Continue reading if you want to learn more about how to make burgers stick together rather than giving up on your incredible burger-making abilities.
What You Need to Know About Making Hamburger Patties Stick Together
You might not know this, but hamburger meat isn’t actually that sticky on its own. In fact, the beef will probably fall apart if you simply form it into a patty and place it on your grill.
However, there are techniques for making your hamburger patties adhere to one another. These solutions frequently only call for adding one more ingredient to your hamburger meat.
Depending on what you have on hand, your personal preferences, and any dietary restrictions you might have at home, the ingredients can change. Continue reading to discover more about how to bind hamburger patties.
How to Make Hamburger Patties Stick Together (5 Methods)
There are numerous techniques for ensuring that your hamburger patties adhere to one another. To determine which one works best in your home, we advise trying one or more.
Method 1: Raw Egg
An excellent binding ingredient is raw egg, which is also very easy to use. Add a raw egg (or two, depending on how many burgers you are making) to the bowl with the spices as you prepare your ground beef for the hamburger press.
When you mix it with the hamburger meat (using your hands), you’ll notice that the meat is sticking to both your hands and itself.
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Method 2: Bread Crumbs
The only issue with breadcrumbs is that they take a traditionally gluten-free food and add gluten, making them a less-than-ideal binding agent. Some chefs even claim that they can make burgers that are juicier using breadcrumbs.
But if no one in your family is allergic to gluten, get a container of regular or Italian bread crumbs, add half a cup, and combine it with your raw beef using your hands. You can add more as needed. You can also use gluten-free breadcrumbs, but from our experience, they won’t significantly improve the binding issue.
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Method 3: Flax Seeds
Flax seeds can be used in your burgers and are excellent at binding foods together, especially baked goods. Make sure to include 3 teaspoons of warm water when you add flax seeds to raw ground beef.
You only need about one tablespoon of flax seeds (along with the aforementioned water) to bind a pound of ground beef into burgers, so if you’re worried about changing the flavor of your ground beef, don’t worry too much.
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Method 4: 80/20 and Chill
We comprehend that the idea of including ingredients in your hamburger meat may not appeal to you. The only way to ensure that the burgers will remain together in this situation is to buy meat that has enough fat to keep the meat bound and chill it before cooking it.
These burgers should hold together as they cook if you buy 80/20 ground beef, form it into patties, and chill it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes before grilling it. However, since this approach isn’t foolproof, we advise using one of the other approaches.
This last method is a bit unconventional, but it works. We recommend using shredded cheddar cheese for the best results.
Meat needs a source of protein and fat to stay together. A cup of cheddar cheese added to your ground beef should help keep the burgers together and give them a mouthwatering cheese flavor.
We advised experimenting with a small sample of your burger batch to make sure you like the flavor before making a large quantity of these cheesy burgers because this is one of the few methods we listed that will change the flavor of your burgers. The cheese in these burgers can make your grill a little messy, so we also advise cooking them on foil or another protective sheet.
Related >> How Long To Grill Burgers
Tips for Making Hamburger Patties Stick Together
After learning all the techniques, let’s discuss some advice to make your hamburger patties without a hitch.
Don’t Salt Immediately
Even though we do advise seasoning your burgers, salt can occasionally reduce how well the meat can bind, particularly if it is lean. You may want to delay salting your hamburgers if you aren’t using an egg or breadcrumbs.
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Form Burgers on Cold Equipment
You should make sure that all of your equipment is cold as you form the burgers if your burgers are held together by cheese (or if you are attempting the non-additive method), which may seem a little silly. As you work, this will prevent the natural fat from melting.
Avoid working directly over a stove or oven where the ambient heat may affect your burger-forming process by using a cold metal press or pan (you can even chill it before using).
Related >> How To Use a Hamburger Press
Mix and Match Methods
The cheese and egg method is a favorite in our house if you’re not sure which binding technique to employ. We add an egg as well as half a cup of cheddar or blue cheese. We enjoy the flavor and don’t have to later add cheese to the patties because of it. The egg holds everything together and really contributes to the nice crust on the burgers. We strongly advise combining different approaches to find what you like!
Stack Burgers Using Butcher Paper
As you form your burgers, place them on butcher paper so you can easily place them in your fridge. While you want your burgers to stick in their burger shape, the last thing you want them to do is stick to one another. We don’t advise staking your homemade burgers like you would frozen ones because the results are typically poor.
Related >> How To Grill Frozen Burgers
One Last Tip
Check out our guide on preventing your burgers from falling apart if you’ve tried everything and they still won’t stay together.
Tips for Seasoning Burgers
When all there is in it is ground beef, it can get a little boring. Here are the burger seasoning combinations we use on a daily basis in our home, but even if you don’t use one of the binding methods, we recommend you at least add some seasonings to your burger to make them pop!
Basic: Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder (our go-to!)
Salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne (very little), or use a substitute southwest seasoning in place of the cayenne.
Savory: A small amount of Worcestershire sauce, along with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper.
Sweet: (Consider it served with BBQ sauce and pineapples.) Salt, pepper, a tiny bit of brown sugar, paprika, and onion powder
Burgers with cheese: salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder (we suggest using cheddar cheese and an egg binder).
If creating your own seasoning doesn’t sound appealing to you, don’t worry. A variety of brands sell seasonings that are simple to mix with ground beef and an egg to create delicious burgers.
How to Keep Hamburgers From Falling Apart
FAQ
How do you keep ground beef from falling apart?
Chia seeds work as a great egg replacer. The equivalent of one egg is two tablespoons of chia seeds soaked in three tablespoons of water.
How do you make hamburger meat stay together?
Egg helps to keep the patty together. On the other hand, using something chuck steak, coarsely minced with 1% salt can also bind without an egg