Rare burgers: yea or nay?

I can definitely get behind the sentiment of ordering rare steaks. I am all about the rare to medium-rare steak. But when it comes to burgers, I cook that baby straight through. In fact, I recently found myself wondering why anyone would want a burger cooked anything less than medium-well.

The first and most obvious reason to cook the dickens out of your burger is food safety. Because it has been ground up, ground beef has more opportunity for having bacteria mixed up inside. Versus whole muscle meat like steak, where bacteria are unlikely to be found inside the cut of meat. Plus, ground beef is often made with less appealing cuts of meat, leftovers, stuff they swept up off the floor, whatevs. (I kid… but not really.)

On a less obvious point you have the textural issue. I like the texture of rare steak. It is tender, whereas overly cooked steak gets tough and rubbery. But to me, undercooked ground beef is just mushy. That's strictly a matter of taste, though. Some people prefer the more tender texture of rare ground beef.

The big factor that leads people to eat rare and medium rare burgers is the moistness. A lean burger that is well done will tend to be quite dry. You can use fattier ground beef and end up with a moister burger, or add in ingredients (like barbecue sauce or grated cheese) to help make it more moist. But if you really want lean meat, and JUST lean meat, but you don't want a dried out hockey puck of a burger, then cooking it medium rare is the way to go.

I personally still don't think I could overcome that "yuck" factor when it comes to burgers. And if my burger is too dry I will happily slather it in sauce. But to each their own!

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons