Ed Levine knows good food.  And this Labor Day weekend I plan to cook some burgers for friends and family.

I don’t want to mess this up . . . so he’s going to help. Why on earth would you chance ruining a perfectly great burger???

Here are his warnings against making the 6 most common ways to ruin a burger.

1. Not Sticking to Salt Plus Beef: Use Kosher salt (and pepper!) on both sides of the beef patty before slapping it onto the grill. Salt is a glorious thing for red meat-it draws out the natural juices and helps with the charring. Try to avoid turkey, bison or other alternative meat options, which have a much higher risk of moisture and flavor deficiency. Don’t get crazy here, just stick with beef. Motz even says, “if it’s not beef, it’s not a burger.” Here is Bobby Flay’s recipe for the perfect beef burger.

2. Bad Beef-to-Bun Balance: There’s no hard-and-fast ratio for beef-to-bun balance. It’s like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said in ?Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964) “I know it when I see it.” In the case of beef-to-bun balance, taste it. Beef-to-bun balance all depends on your patty size. If you’re cooking up a thin patty, don’t use a jumbo bun-you don’t want a mouthful of bread and hardly any meat, do you? When in doubt, make your patties bigger or stack a double burger. It’s bettern to err on the side of more meat.

3. Condiment Overload: Building a burger with “everything” is a huge mistake. Avoid the garbage pail approach. In most cases, going beyond onion and ketchup (arguably the most popular condiment) masks the beef taste and creates an absurd flavor profile. Seriously, a pastrami burger? Pastrami is not a condiment. However, we will make one exception for Fatty Melts-when grilled cheeses become condiments.

4. Wasting Precious Burger Juices: If you’re cooking the burgers over a flame, pressing down on them will send the precious meat juices straight into the coals. Those juices are valuable-they belong in your mouth. While it’s very tempting to apply pressure with a spatula, don’t. Unless you want a dry hockey puck. Sometimes they do it on TV, but just close your eyes.

5. Overcooking: This should be a crime recognized by the federal government. For the popular medium-rare, grill the meat exactly three minutes on one side (keeping the grill lid closed) and two minutes on the other. If you’re going to add cheese, let it melt on top for another minute (and keep that cover closed!).  We like our burgers medium rare, so much we’ve even sent them back at restaurants when they go beyond medium.

6. Machine-Formed Patties: If you really want to ruin your burger, try a machine-formed frozen patty! No, don’t. While making every ingredient from scratch is not necessary (see: Heston Blumenthal’s Blumenburger) try to form your own patties from ground chuck (80 percent lean is good) purchased at your nearest market or better yet, butcher.

Photo and excerpt courtesy of food.yahoo.com.

So, a couple of weeks ago I received a question from a reader asking about a recipe for a filet mignon encrusted in bleu cheese.

This, of course, was a new one on me so I posed the question to Super Sister-in-Law Chef  Sandy.

And, as expected, she used to prepare this delectable dish when she toiled in the kitchen of the Ritz-Carlton.

Here, she shares her secrets for making it just like the pros!

(And check out that picture she took — isn’t it to die for???)

Here’s what she has to say . . .

Recently I was asked a question about how to make a bleu cheese crusted filet like someone’s favorite restaurant did it.  There are several ways to do this, depending on the outcome you are looking for.

You can simply cook your steak to desired doneness via any combination of direct and indirect cooking that works for you (sauté/oven, over the hot coals/on the side) and then simply top the steaks with bleu cheese for a moment, just like you would top a cheeseburger, thereby insuring a gooey topping.  Or, you could put the whole thing in a fiery hot oven which would brown the cheese.  My favorite method is the one below. You make a cheese crust, using breadcrumbs, butter and seasonings, in addition to bleu cheese.  You could even add pecans or walnuts to this versatile topping, or substitute another cheese if you like.  Just keep the ratio about ½ breadcrumbs and ½ other stuff.  Plus enough melted butter to hold it together. This mixture is finished on top of the steaks and you get a crunchy, cheesy topping which I think is a great contrast to the very tender steak.

Bleu Cheese Crusted Filet of Beef

2 5-6 oz Tenderloin of Beef Steaks (Filets)

Salt and Pepper

½ cup panko (Japanese style) bread crumbs, or fresh breadcrumbs

1 Tbsp butter

½ tsp garlic or onion salt, or

1 tsp kosher salt, if desired

4 turns fresh ground pepper

1 teaspoon minced fresh herbs, such as rosemary or parsley

½ cups crumbled bleu cheese

1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard

Canola or Peanut Oil, for searing

Allow the steaks to set at room temperature for about 30 minutes to equalize the internal temperature for more even cooking.

Meanwhile, prepare crumb topping:  Combine panko or fresh bread crumbs and cold butter in microwaveable bowl.  Season with flavored salt or kosher salt and pepper.  Heat on high in microwave until butter melts, stirring every 30 seconds to distribute the browned crumbs.  Remove from microwave, allow to cool for a few seconds and add the herbs and bleu cheese.  Use a fork to distribute the bleu cheese into the crumbs without making it into a paste.  Taste for seasoning, set aside.

Preheat oven to 500°F.

Just before searing, season the filets with salt and pepper.

To sear the meat, preheat shallow sided sauté or frying pan over medium high heat until it is very hot.  Add 1 teaspoon canola oil and heat until the oil is shimmering.  Without crowding them, carefully add the steaks to the hot pan.  Do not move them for about 90 seconds, in order to ensure a nice crust.  Using tongs, carefully brown all sides of the steak, each time allowing the crust to form before disturbing the steaks.

When well-seared, remove steaks to an open baking pan to rest until the final cooking.

Everything may be prepared ahead up until this point, as much as a day in advance.  Allow steaks to come to room temperature if they are cooked ahead and refrigerated.

When you are about 10 minutes out from serving time, finish the steaks in the preheated oven. The time this will take will depend on the doneness you desire and the thickness of your steaks.  For the 6-oz filet pictured, which was a traditionally shaped (i.e. tall) filet, prepared medium rare, about 8 minutes of total oven time was required.

First, put the steaks into the oven for 5 minutes without topping.  Then remove from the oven and carefully brush mustard onto steaks to allow the crumb mixture to adhere. Just a thin coat — you may not need all of it, depending on the surface area to cover.  Then simply divide the crumb mixture over the steaks and return to the oven.  Watch carefully, they will burn quickly.  Check after 2 minutes; my steaks took about 3 minutes to get the topping brown and bubbly.

Allow the steaks to rest a minute as you prepare the plates for service, then serve and enjoy!

Kathy Maister over at StartCooking.com has some good advice on cooking a great steak.

I always listen up when someone with experience gives me some pointers. Saves me the aggravation of making the same mistakes. It’s how we EVOLVE, people. Right?

Kathy tells us here the best ways to fry, oven roast and grill your steaks. And pay particular attention to the comments from others at the end. Some of them contain some real gems. People are so creative!

Try them out and see what YOU think!

Photo courtesy of StartCooking.com.