Important: Follow all FDA safety guidelines for hamburgers here.
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How to keep Burgers warm and moist after grilling
Preparing grilled burgers is a simple process but keeping them warm is a challenge even to experienced cooks.
Sometimes you are feeding so many people that you need to grill or cook several batches of burgers, while ensuring that burgers from the first batch remain warm and juicy.
You absolutely do not want to refrigerate the burgers. This is because burgers taste different and are less juicy when reheated.
It is possible to maintain a fresh taste of the burgers even when they won’t be consumed immediately.
What is the best way to keep hamburgers warm? We have three suggestions.
Related: Why are my Burgers Bleeding?
Aluminum tray and foil
One method for keeping your grilled burgers warm and moist is placing an aluminum tray in the oven and set it on the warm setting.
Most ovens have the proper ”keep warm” setting, and it adjusts the temperature automatically to around 125°F.
If your oven lacks the inbuilt setting, adjust the temperature manually at 125 or 150 degrees Farenheit.
Next, remove the aluminum tray as soon as the first batch of burgers is ready. Place the burgers directly on the warm tray as they come out of the oven.
Once the grilled burgers are on the tray, cover them with aluminum foil to reduce heat loss. The foil needs to be fitted over the edges of the tray to keep the heat trapped. Repeat the process with each batch of burgers being placed on the previous batch and covered with aluminum foil.
Radiated heat from the aluminum tray keeps the burgers warm and moist for quite a while – exactly how long depends on the air temperature in the room as well as how well the aluminum foil has been applied.
Keep adding the other burgers, but do it quickly and directly from the grill. They bring a lot of heat that helps to keep the other burgers warm.
You can use an oven safe pot as well, placing aluminum foil between the layers while keeping a lid on the pot or using foil as a lid.
Use a Slow Cooker or Crockpot
Slow cookers can also help in keeping grilled burgers warm and moist. Set the crockpot/slow cooker temperature to “Warm”.
The next step is placing the grilled hamburgers in the crockpot and replace the lid.
Add a small oven-safe bowl at the bottom of the crockpot to keep the burgers fresh for more than an hour. Fill the bowl with water as the steam it will produce keeps the burger moist.
Related: Try Baking Soda in your Hamburger Patties
Try a burger bath
Bratwurst is often cooked in beer, right? Well, your fully cooked grilled burgers can go right into a tasty beer or broth solution too.
To make the bath, fill a grill-safe pan with beer or beef broth, but any other liquid with flavor can work. One or our favorites is to put generous slices of onion in the pan with beer.
Heat the pan and keep it warm over low, direct heat, either on the stove or the grill
As your burgers come off the grill, add them into the burger bath.
The burgers stay warm and moist, and the liquid gives an additional flavor or serves as a sauce later. In our example above with onions, the onions themselves are a delicious topping for the burgers.
Conclusion
These are just three ways of keeping your hamburgers warm. You should always consider some safety precautions when choosing the ideal way to keep the burger patties warm.
Ideally, hamburgers are cooked at a high temperature to destroy harmful bacteria in the ground meat.
The temperature should go up to 160°F, and if you choose to use turkey meat, the temperature should not be less than 165°F.
One crucial rule is never to cook your burgers partially. The partial cooking will likely not kill all of the bacteria present, which will give them a chance to multiply to the point that you cannot kill all of the bacteria when you finish the cooking.
Make sure to use the three methods above with properly cooked and handled hamburgers.
Further Reading: How to Keep Burgers from Shrinking
Check out another great article on this site – The most popular hamburger toppings
