Photo by kalleboo, www.flickr.com/photos/kalleboo/2825052120/

Hamburgers are one of my favorite foods from the grill, so I decided to ask my email newsletter subscribers what their favorite tips where.  I have some tips for grilling juicy hamburgers, but I knew that my readers had great tips as well.  This is part of a new Outdoor Cooking Magic Question of the Month Series.  I'll ask a question each month, gather the responses, add some of my thoughts, and share the results with you.  As always, if you have additional comments, please leave them in the comment section below.  We'd love to hear from you.

Most of the tips that I got shared ideas for what to mix in with the ground beef to make delicious hamburgers:

1. To make a real fast flavorful hamburger, add some Pace Chunky Sauce and then form your patties and grill (Chuck)
2. Mix ranch dip and jalapenos in with the ground beef (Vince)
3. Make it simple!  Salt and pepper, and make a small dimple in the middle (Robert)
4. Use 80-85% lean, use a hamburger press, season with Montreal Steak Seasoning, and cook on low heat.  Spray the grill with Pam, turn up the heat, then turn it down after you get the burgers on (Gary)
5. Mix chopped onions, salt, pepper, and a cube of cheese in the middle.  Add some ground pork to the ground beef for some extra flavor (Mike)
6. Mix ground pork with the ground beef, add finely chopped onions that have been fried, season with barbecue spices and pepper and leave in fridge for 30 minutes.  Grill until juices appear, then turn.  Leave for three minutes, then  serve (Gustav from South Africa)
7. Use 50% ground beef, 30% ground pork, and 20% ground lamb (George)
8. Use 80% lean ground beef, no pink slime. Salt, pepper and garlic powder after you gently from the patties.  Make a depression in the center, like a fat thumb print. Grill over hot coals, wood embers or propane. Slice a sweet large onion into 3/8 of an inch thick slices, lightly oiled or sprayed with Pam and place them on the grill first. Grill one side of the onion--don't cook the onion all the way through.  Grill the burgers to taste, toast the buns, ketchup on the bottom bun, then onion (grill side faces burger), top of the burger, your choice: tomato, lettuce and mayo on the top bun. Or you can use mustard instead of mayo. Pickles, of course, would be on the onion side and cheese can go either way (Kit)
9. Use venison but it's too lean for good burgers. so add one tablespoon of canola oil to 1 lb ground venison for burgers and meatloafs. Works like a charm.  If you are concerned about cholesterol you can also do this--buy the leanest ground beef at the store and add the canola oil just as with the venison (Walt)
10. Try lots of different flavor combos in my burgers--from dry ranch or italian dressing or soup mixes & sauces like Dale's and Heinz 57 to stuffed burgers to mixing meats like venison & bacon (Jennifer)

Great suggestions!  I've never thought of some of these, some I'm anxious to try them.

Randy sent me some other great suggestions:

Make sure the meat has some fat in it, at least 85% lean.  The leaner meat will just result in dry burgers.  Make the burgers flat.  They don't have to be thin, but need to have the same thickness all the way around.  (Scott-you can help this by using your thumb to make depression in the middle--helps burgers cook more evenly.  Start with a hot grill-the meat should sizzle when it hits the grill.  Don't squish the hamburger during grilling!   It's just pressing all the juices out.  Salt and pepper are the only spices you really need (of course, others up above will disagree with this!).

Finally, Grady has some great suggestions, but I'm going to leave them to the newsletter (which I am late getting out).  He does "real" outdoor cooking as he does it out on the range, as he packs mules and horses through the mountains of Utah, Wyoming, and adjoining states.  I have a feeling that he has some GREAT outdoor cooking ideas!

Well that's just about all of the wonderful suggestions that I got from my readers.  If you are subscribed to my email list, look for the Outdoor Cooking Magic Question of the Month and share your knowledge with all of us.  If you aren't subscribed, why not do that now?  You can sign up at the form just below this post, or in the upper right hand corner.

Thanks for your participation!