If you too often find yourself wondering how much salt per pound of ground beef for burgers you should add, then this is a great article for you. If you have ever pondered this question it’s because you have wondered if using your own homemade burger seasoning and combination of spices can up your burger game. Right? Well don’t worry, I was in the same boat as you are when I started making my own homemade burgers.
Salting Ground Beef | The Burger Lab
WARNING: This article contains graphic images of burgers being smashed, maimed, cut, tortured, and otherwise destroyed. The material is not suitable for children, pregnant women, or individuals who show an undue degree of compassion for ground beef.
DISCLAIMER: Before I get any comments along the lines of, “ugh—why are all those burgers overcooked? I’m a tough guy and like my meat bloody rare,” I’d like you to know that this week, I’m bending to the wills of several readers who requested more coverage of medium-and-beyond burgers. This one’s for you guys.
With all that fine print out of the way, start by taking a look at the two burgers below, then tell me which one you’d rather eat.
Both of these burgers were made from the same cut of beef (chuck eye) from the same cow (Bessie), cut and trimmed the same way, ground on the same grinder (KitchenAid) with the same die at the same temperature (3/16-inch, well chilled), formed with the same hands (mine) to the same weight and size (5 ounces, 4.5-inches across), cooked in the same skillet (cast iron) at the same temperature (ripping hot) for the same amount of time (4 minutes total), and sliced open with the same knife (very sharp).
So why does option left look and taste like a tender, juicy, well-textured beauty, and option right, like a solid, rubbery object that would look more at home on an alien autopsy table?
It all has to do with this:
NaCl—regular old table salt.
Before the explanation, let’s step back a bit.
Methods for Salting Burger Patties
” So shouldn’t a burger be better if you season the meat before forming the patties?”
When it comes to seasoning, burger cooks fall into two camps: those that season only the exterior of the patty just before cooking, and those that work the salt and pepper right into the meat. I’ve always been a member of the first camp—it’s just the way I was taught to make burgers, and I’ve blindly followed the method since then. Then I got to thinking: French training emphasizes the importance of seasoning every component of a dish so that every bite is well-seasoned. So shouldn’t a burger be better if you season the meat before forming the patties? Or better yet, even before it’s ground so that the salt is evenly distributed throughout the entire burger instead of concentrated on the exterior? Could all those other burger cooks actually be right?
This week I decided to test the matter scientifically by running three different patties through a gantlet of tests—tests that it truly pained a burgerphile like myself to witness. Fortunately, the final results settled the issue in my mind once and for all.
We’ve already seen the magic that salt can do to meat proteins in our turkey brining story; now let’s take a look at what it can do to burgers. The three groups of patties I formed were all made from 100% ground chuck, which I bought as a single roast and treated the following ways:
- Patty 1: Seasoned only on the exterior just before cooking.
- Patty 2: Seasoned by tossing the ground meat and sauce in a metal bowl before forming the patties.
- Patty 3: Seasoned by salting the cubes of beef before passing them through the grinder and forming patties.
Just to reiterate, each testing group was treated exactly the same with the exception of the point at which they get salted. The amount of salt was the same: 1 teaspoon kosher salt (the equivalent of 1/2 teaspoon table salt, or 2% by weight) per 5-ounce patty.
Now, on to the testing:
Test 1: Grind Strand Length
On the left is what batches one and two (neither of which are salted until some point after being ground) look like as they exit the die on the grinder. On the right is batch three, which was ground after being salted.
Already, the difference is quite clear. While the grind on the left is made up of little pieces of meat no more than a half-inch long or so, the salted grind forms long worms of beef—up to three inches or longer!
Just as salt dissolves some of the meat proteins on the exterior of a hunk of turkey or pork in a brine, salt will dissolve the proteins on a cube of beef. Once dissolved, the proteins can much more easily cross-link with each other. Essentially, the meat becomes more “sticky” to itself, allowing it to stick together and form these long strands.
Test 2: Patty Structure
For the next test, I formed the beef into 5-ounce, 4.5-inch wide patties. At this point, note that prior to forming the patties, batch two had salt added to the bowl of ground beef, which was worked into the meat via gentle tossing. I tossed batches one and three in their bowls in the exact same manner that I tossed batch two in order to eliminate any variables and ensure that any differences in texture are solely a function of the salt and not of the mechanical action of working the salt into the meat.
After forming the patties, I gently lifted each one and draped them over a wooden rod 3/8-inch wide, and 1/2-inch high.
Again, the difference is clear:
- Patty 1 started to split apart, reveling a loose interior with not much internal cohesion.
- Patty 2 also started to split apart, but just barely—it is much more supple and cohesive.
- Patty 3 showed no signs of splitting. The surface of the patty remained completely intact, despite being pressed out by half an inch.
“the result is a patty with a much more resilient, tight structure”
Here’s a pretty close approximation of a burger’s structure: try to imaging the patty as being made up of hundreds of tiny balls of beef. Each one of these balls of beef is covered in strips of velcro (exposed proteins), most of which are closed up, but some of which are open. The exposed pieces of velcro help one piece of meat stick to the other, lending the burgers a bit of cohesion. Salt causes many more of these strips of velcro to open up (it dissolves proteins), creating many more sticky surfaces, and making it much easier for them to stick to each. The balls stick together more closely and tightly, and the result is a patty with a much more resilient, tight structure.
Up to this point, it was clear to me that deciding when to salt your meat makes a huge difference, but as of yet, I’m still unsure which way is better. Do I want more cohesion in my burgers? Would the extra support perhaps help fat stay locked into the patty as it cooks, or give it a better mouthfeel as I chew it?
On to the carnage:
Test 3: Blunt Impact (I.E. Smashing to Bits)
Ideally, I would have built a set of robotic teeth to chew these burgers with the exact same force to determine how tough they are, or at the very least, I should have chewed them myself, but I figured for the sake of my sanity and the stomachs of readers, I should find a more photo-friendly method of testing.
To that end, I dropped a 6.5 pound LeCreuset Dutch oven from a height of two feet directly onto each patty after slicing them in half to examine their internal structure. For the record, this is an awful lot of impact. It should give a pretty good indication of how the patties are going to break down in your mouth.
N.B.: You are advised to drape your kitchen in protective plastic before attempting to recreate this experiment at home. Juices will fly.
- Patty 1 was completely splattered. Juice hit walls, aprons, and forearms three feet away. Tenderness rating: high.
- Patty 2 was mildly misshapen. It could still be picked up in a single intact piece. Tenderness rating: moderate.
- Patty 3 showed no visible deformation. A small amount of splattered juices, but it was almost as if the pot bounced right back off of it. Tenderness rating: low.
Conclusion
So what’s the moral of the story? Unless you like your burgers with the resilient bouncy texture of a sausage, refrain from getting the meat anywhere near the salt until just before you cook it. In a way, this totally makes sense. Sausage meat is seasoned well before grinding in order to perform this very function: breaking down the meat proteins to form a tighter, more cohesive structure.
A burger’s joy lies on the other end of the spectrum. A loose, coarse, open structure is a desirable characteristic, allowing the meat to break down into small pieces in your mouth, while providing plenty of hiding spots for hot juices to collect inside the patty, ready to gush and dribble out the moment you bite into it.
Still want more evidence? Take a final look at the same two burgers from the beginning of the story, this time head-on.
Not salted until just before cooking = loose, tender meat.
Salted before forming the patties = resilient, sausage-like texture. Great for charcuterie, but sorry monsieurs, it just won’t fly here in America.
I claim a conclusive victory for the “salt just before cooking” camp, and as a reward for making it through all those photos of wasted burgers, I leave you with the following porn:
How Much Kosher Salt Per One Pound Of Hamburger?
Freshly ground pepper adds body to beef and is an excellent complement. Per pound of ground beef, use 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper.
Is It Possible To Use Kosher Salt On Hamburgers?
Season the burger patty lightly with kosher salt. “I want to keep things simple, therefore avoid pepper and sea salt because pepper has a strong flavor and sea salt contains moisture.” When it comes to cooking the perfect burger, timing is essential.
How Salty Should My Burger Be?
The amount of salt per 5-ounce burger was the same: 1 teaspoon kosher salt (equal to 1/2 teaspoon table salt, or 2% by weight).
How Much Salt Should I Use When Cooking Meat?
Most foods, like the avocado, will have a recommended seasoning range. Learning the ranges for various foods will assist speed up the cooking process.
It’s also worth remembering that few natural foods come pre-seasoned with sodium. Yes, bacon, anchovies, capers, and other salty foods include sodium, but the vast majority of meats and vegetables will require seasoning.
This is easily accomplished by seasoning the various elements before and during the cooking process. By seasoning the various elements before and during the cooking process, you’ll be mostly there by the time you’re ready to eat, and you’ll probably use less salt overall when the individual elements are properly seasoned along the way.
Here are some popular salt ranges to remember for this. Once you start using a few of these ranges and creating your own, the whole procedure will become second nature.
The first ingredient is meat, which requires 12 tablespoons of salt per pound of raw meat seasoned before cooking.
If using less than a pound of vegetables, just add a pinch of salt!
1 teaspoon of salt per quart is a good beginning point for soups and sauces, however this is largely depending on the recipe.
How Much Salt Should I Use When Cooking Beef?
Kitchn recommends using one teaspoon of salt per pound of steak to properly season it from the outside. Bon Apptit recommends applying just enough salt to coat the steak nicely without allowing many coats of salt to build up on the flesh for those who want to eyeball it. Keep in mind that this is only for seasoning the steak’s exterior. For many people, seasoning the inside of the steak is also necessary. However, you should be aware that not all salts are made equal. That’s why knowing which type of salt to use on which section of the steak is crucial.
Should I Season The Burger Patties With Salt?
Minimal handling of the ground meat and lightly forming it into patties are essential for the optimum soft, open texture in beef or turkey burgers. But it’s just as crucial whenand whereyou salt the meat before cooking.
We seasoned the ground beef in three different ways: We salted the meat before shaping the patties in the first batch so that some of the salt was incorporated into the interior. We shaped the patties in the second batch and salted them on the outside 30 minutes before cooking. We seasoned the patties immediately before cooking the third batch. We discovered that the salted burgers had a hard, almost sharp texture that was closer to sausage than any of us would have preferred. (The salt works rapidly; even if a burger waits for only a minute or two before cooking, it makes a difference.) The patties that had been salted on the outside and rested for 30 minutes had a soft core but a dry and springy surface where the salt had come into touch with the flesh. We enjoyed the texture of only the burgers that were seasoned on the exterior and at the last minute.
What’s the matter? Salt draws water out of and dissolves some meat proteins, forcing them to bind insoluble proteins together, which is beneficial for sausages but bad for a tender burger. So don’t salt your burgers until right before they go on the grill or pan.
How Much Salt Should A Pound Of Ground Beef Have?
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Kosher salt per quart for soups, stocks, sauces, and gravies Reduce the amount of table salt to 1-1/8 teaspoon per quart if using.
- 3/4 to 1 teaspoon Kosher salt per pound for raw meats, poultry, fish, and seafood. Reduce the amount of table salt used per pound to 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon.
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt (or 3/4 teaspoon table salt) per quart of water for salting pasta water 4 quarts of water per pound of pasta is a general rule of thumb (4 teaspoons Kosher salt).
Important note: When using pre-prepared components like store-bought broth, sauces, or seasoned meats, these proportions do not apply.
A Pound Of Ground Beef Has How Many Teaspoons Of Salt?
Per pound of ground beef, use roughly 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt. Freshly ground pepper adds body to beef and is an excellent complement.
How Much Salt Per Pound Of Ground Beef For Burgers?
Freshly ground pepper adds body to steak and is an excellent complement. Per pound of ground beef, use roughly 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper.
In A Pound Of Steak, How Much Salt Do You Use?
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Kosher salt per quart for soups, stocks, sauces, and gravies Reduce the amount of table salt to 1-1/8 teaspoon per quart if using.
- 3/4 to 1 teaspoon Kosher salt per pound for raw meats, poultry, fish, and seafood. Reduce the amount of table salt used per pound to 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon.
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt (or 3/4 teaspoon table salt) per quart of water for salting pasta water 4 quarts per pound of pasta is a good rule of thumb for water quantity (4 teaspoons Kosher salt).
Important note: When using pre-prepared components like store-bought broth, sauces, or seasoned meats, these proportions do not apply.
Should You Season Your Burgers With Salt?
So, what is the story’s moral? If you don’t want your burgers to have the robust bouncy feel of a sausage, keep the meat away from the salt until right before cooking. In some ways, this makes perfect sense. The meat proteins in sausage are broken down to form a tighter, more cohesive structure, which is why it’s seasoned properly before grinding.
Is It Necessary To Salt Hamburgers Before Grilling?
A large burger calls for a large amount of taste, but that doesn’t mean you have to go crazy with the spice. Sauted onions in the patties aren’t necessary when working with high-quality beef, and the same is true for raw onions. Egg, bread crumbs, cumin, garlic powder, taco spice, and other ingredients should be left out. People, this isn’t a meatloaf! Don’t skimp on the salt and pepper, though. Season one side of the burger with salt and pepper before placing it, seasoned side down, on the grill. Season the opposite side of the burger before flipping it.
Is It Necessary To Season Ground Beef For Burgers?
The procedures for creating burgers appear straightforward: Form ground beef into patties and cook according to your preference. You don’t need any special seasonings because you’re not creating meatloaf or meatballs with the ground meat – just salt and pepper.
A Teaspoon Of Salt Contains How Many Milligrams?
Consider that 1 teaspoon of table salt contains 2,325 milligrams (mg) of sodium, which is a mix of sodium and chloride. That’s somewhat more than the 2,300 mg daily limit set by health experts.
How Do You Know How Much Salt To Put In Your Food?
There are a variety of methods for determining the sodium (salt) level of food, each with its own set of benefits and drawbacks. When creating a quality assurance plan, deciding which approach to utilize is crucial.
The cost of the equipment, the level of accuracy sought, and the skill level of the individual performing the test are all factors to consider when deciding on the best procedure. The following are the most frequent methods for detecting sodium salt content:
Method 1: Refractometry
The refractive index is used to determine the salt content of a substance. By shining a light through a prism into a sample and observing how it bends, the refractive index can be measured. The critical angle of a sample is determined by refractometers. The critical angle is the point at which all light is internally reflected and no light is refracted.
Sugar, propylene glycol, gelatin, and salt are just a few of the factors that can be determined using refractometry.
The influence of density and temperature on the refractive index for a specific measured parameter is the basis for each refractometer. The refractive index is transformed to a measurement unit like percent Brix (sugar soluble solids) or percent salt.
Is It True That Salt Dries Out Ground Beef?
Minimal handling of the ground meat and loosely forming it into patties are important to achieving the optimum tender, open texture in beef or turkey burgers. But it’s just as crucial whenand whereyou salt the meat before cooking.
We seasoned the ground beef in three different ways: We salted the meat before shaping the patties in the first batch so that some of the salt was incorporated into the interior. We shaped the patties in the second batch and salted them on the outside 30 minutes before cooking. We seasoned the patties immediately before cooking the third batch. We discovered that the salted burgers had a hard, almost sharp texture that was closer to sausage than any of us would have preferred. (The salt works rapidly; even if a burger waits for only a minute or two before cooking, it makes a difference.) The patties that had been salted on the outside and rested for 30 minutes had a soft core but a dry and springy surface where the salt had come into touch with the flesh. We enjoyed the texture of only the burgers that were seasoned on the exterior and at the last minute.
What exactly is going on? Salt draws water out of and dissolves some meat proteins, forcing them to bind insoluble proteins together, which is beneficial for sausages but bad for a tender burger. So don’t salt your burgers until right before they go on the grill or pan.
For Burgers, What Kind Of Salt Do You Use?
Season the burger patty lightly with kosher salt. “I want to keep things simple, therefore avoid pepper and sea salt because pepper has a strong flavor and sea salt has moisture.”
Is It Necessary To Salt Ground Beef Before Browning?
3) When the edges of the burger are crisp, separate it with a spatula and flip it in parts. Brown the opposite side, then split into piecesthe goal is to get a full brown on both sides. Then season everything generously with saltground meat is notoriously fatty, so you’ll need a couple of nice pinches to make it sing. This will provide you with the flavor, texture, and juice factor that will propel you to the top of the ground beef game.
Should You Season Your Burgers With Seasoning?
As a result, your burgers aren’t very tender. So, if you want the greatest burgers, don’t do anything to the meat before shaping it into patties. Don’t throw it in a bowl with seasonings not even salt and pepper and stir it up. Anything other than salt and pepper, such as eggs, onions, or herbs, falls under this category.