Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
The Gateway burger at 5 Star Burgers, cooked medium rare
How can you get a medium-rare burger delivered that way?—Troy M., St. Louis
Boy, is this an issue with lovers of mid-rare burgers. The best solution, of course, is to order the burger, whisk it away personally the moment it’s bagged, then go wolf it down at the nearest park.
Otherwise, in a normal delivery or carryout situation, by the time it hits the table, a burger in a to-go box can continue to cook up to one temp level above what was ordered, so a medium rare burger will likely reach medium by the time it's consumed. (Then there’s the question of perceived degrees of doneness, which we addressed years ago with the help Steve Gontram, owner of of Five Star Burgers.
The above questioner followed up by commenting that his “requested medium-rare burgers often arrive well done,” which rankled him to no end. In that case, the burger was either overcooked to begin with or it's been in transit awhile.
And therein lies part of the problem, according to Derek Deaver, owner of Three Kings Public House and self-described “mass deliverer of burgers.” Deaver suggests using a restaurant’s in-house delivery service (if there is one), where the customer stands a better chance of receiving food in a timely manner. In any case, he agrees that cooks need to slightly undercook pickup and delivery burgers by one temp; a requested medium burger, for instance, should be cooked closer to medium-rare, since burgers tend to steam cook in transit. (The process doesn’t work if a requested medium-rare burger is cooked to rare, he notes, hence the questioner’s ongoing conundrum.)
At Five Star, Gontram sells a half-pound burger, which he says will hold its temp in transit better than a lesser weight burger, "providing the travel time is not too long." His secret is blending and grinding the beef in house, which he says makes a difference. "The fat gets better emulsified, creating a juicier burger," he says, "so even our well done burgers are juicy."
Deaver says that “Any honest cook will tell you that nailing burger temps is difficult, even for dine-in tables. And it’s even harder for us now, since most orders are going out the door with delivery times that are all across the board.
"It’s frustrating,” he continues, “You can cook a medium-rare charbroiled burger spot-on perfectly, then put in a box, let it sit for 30 minutes, and it’ll taste like crap no matter what temp it ends up being.”
Courtesy Three Kings Pub
His solution at Three Kings, which was rolled out in June: replacing its roster of thickburgers with a variety of smashburgers—“two 3-ounce Creekstone Farms all-natural, grass fed, grain-finished, Black Angus beef patties,” to be exact.
Deaver say he was already thinking about introducing smashburgers long before the pandemic hit, but the problems with takeout temps "were definitely a deciding factor. A great smashburger still tastes awesome 45 minutes after being put in a to-go box,” he says. “They just hold up better, and that's the name of the game."
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