The Ideal Beef Ratio When Cooking Stovetop Burgers

Hamburgers cooked in a cast iron pan on the stovetop just taste better. Sure they're great on the grill, but in a cast iron pan, you are assured they will cook evenly and develop that beautiful crust on the outside and remain tender on the inside. That said, when it comes to how to choose the best ground beef for burgers cooked on the stovetop, you may not have considered your options, but you should. What you traditionally use for those backyard barbecues is not necessarily what you want to use when you are making this indoors. 

When selecting the ideal beef ratio for burgers, most aficionados will advocate for 80/20 beef, which means it is 80% lean meat and 20% fat. This ratio has just the right amount of fat for a moist, flavorful, and delicious burger; however, you should reserve 80/20 for the grill and instead use 90/10 for the stovetop. Why switch it up? 

As wonderfully flavorful as that extra 10% of fat is to enhancing the overall taste of the burger, it tends to make the pan exceptionally greasy, which means your burgers are swimming in that grease unnecessarily. Switching to a 90/10 beef that is made from ground sirloin can help limit the excess oil as well as the sizzling splatters that accompany it. This is truly the best ground beef option to use for your stovetop burgers if you want to avoid a greasy mess.

However, if you are worried that 90/10 will produce a burger with a meh taste, you could try a mix instead. For example, you could split the difference and mix 80/20 with your 90/10 to produce an 83/17 mix. This will give you more flavor and a little less oil to clean up. If you want to avoid the hassle of mixing, you could also try an 85/15 ratio.