It’s officially summer, and that means no food is going into my mouth without first hitting the grill: Sweet corn cooked right in its husk with nothing but butter; caramel-sweet, seared peaches on top of vanilla ice cream; tender-crisp asparagus laced with lemon and olive oil; and burgers. So. Many. Effing. Burgers.
While pan-seared and griddle-cooked burgers are obviously delicious, they don’t even come close to the nirvana that is a 1/4lb of pure beefy goodness fresh off the grill. Grills, whether gas or charcoal, are a burger’s soulmate.
The grates sear just enough crispiness into the burger’s exterior, while the grate’s gaps give enough room for excess fat and moisture to drain away. That fat trickles down to the hot coals and makes a smokey sauna, permeating the meat with a heady perfume that tastes like July.
Despite all that theoretical perfection, sometimes summertime burgers suck. Most of my backyard BBQ memories are of burnt, gristly disappointment. The typically distracted (read: drunken) revelry that comes along with grilling doesn’t always make for the best piece of meat.
Our lack of attention leads to overcooking, and overcooking means dry little hockey pucks on your bunz. But ensuring burger success doesn’t mean marooning yourself on fun-sucking grill island -- you just have to take out a little insurance policy in the form of a panade.
A panade is simply a mixture of milk and bread. It’s what makes meatballs and meatloafs tender, and it’s what keeps a grilled burger succulent. The milk brings extra moisture to the party, while the bread crumbs bind it to the meat. More than just keeping burgers juicy, panades create the Maillard reaction.
The Maillard reaction is to burgers what caramelization is to onions. Technically speaking, it’s a non-enzymatic browning process. In layman’s terms: The Maillard reaction is when the amino acids in your food’s proteins do the lambada (the forbidden dance) with sugars over high heat.
The resulting chemical reactions release intensely savory aromas and the toasty, malty flavors that make waffles delicious.
Some Maillard naturally occurs in burgers even without the addition of a panade (think: lovely crunchy grill lines), but meat is too low in carbohydrates to make much happen on its own. Adding the bread and milk boosts the sugar content just enough to maximize the proteins’ Maillard potential and make for an A+ burg.