Homemade hamburger patties are completely customizable.

Read on to learn how to season, shape, and cook your patties to perfection.

Meat is naturally a purplish-red color.

Two hamburgers on a serving tray stacked with cheese, lettuce, tomato, and onion

Credit:Caitlin Bensel; Food Styling: Torie Cox

That’s a natural occurrence due to a lack of oxygen reaching the inside of the meat.

Don’t usefully brown or gray meatto make hamburger pattiesdispose of it instead.

Here are a few pointers for how to craft your own patties.

raw ground beef on a white piece of paper

Credit:Caitlin Bensel; Food Styling; Torie Cox

Food Safety

Keeping your hands and surfaces clean is important when making hamburger patties.

Designate a cutting board for making the patties on and verify to dispose of the ground beef packaging.

Wash your hands immediately after you’re finished working with the raw meat.

Southern Living Smashburgers With Secret Sauce on a plate to serve with chips

Credit:Greg Dupree; Food Stylist: Chelsea Zimmer; Prop Stylist: Christine Keely

A Note on Seasoning

Seasoning ground beef for hamburgers is a matter of personal taste.

Purists will say that salt and pepper are all you need for classic hamburger patties.

It’s entirely up to you.

Mississippi Slugburgers

Credit: Caitlin Bensel; Food Styling: Torie Cox

Step 1.

The best way to divide the meat equally is by weight.

Step 2.

One pound of ground beef cut into four equal pieces

Credit: Photography, and prop styling: Caitlin Bensel, Food Styling: Torie Cox

Roll into balls

Form each section of the divided burger meat into balls.

Step 3.

Step 4.

Four equally sized balls of raw ground beef prior to flattening into burger patties

Credit: Photography, and prop styling: Caitlin Bensel, Food Styling: Torie Cox

Store the burgers until cooking time.

After prepping, put the patties on a parchment-lined cookie sheet or plate to prevent sticking.

Cook within one day as you would with unportioned ground beef.

Four hamburger patties, three of equal size and one indented

Credit: Photography, and prop styling: Caitlin Bensel, Food Styling: Torie Cox

Make an indentation in the center of your burger patties, and add an ice cube right before cooking.

Your burgers will cook more evenly and maintain more of their juicy moisture.

When you get done grilling, the ice cube will be long gone.

Four equally sized raw hamburger patties

Credit: Photography, and prop styling: Caitlin Bensel, Food Styling: Torie Cox

Burger Cooking Temperatures

Burgers, like steaks, can be cooked to your preferred doneness.

it’s possible for you to plan ahead and form the meat into patties for another day.

Simply divide and form the meat as usual, and then stack the patties with wax paper between them.

Cast-Iron Skillet Burger

Wrap them in plastic wrap and then in foil before putting them in the freezer.

More Hamburger Recipes

Use the techniques you learned here to make one of these classic burgers: