[amdelamar]

The amount of salt in photo #6 is too much salt. Its very easy to over-salt anything and ruin it. Better to under-salt until you gain enough experience with judging how much you actually need.

As for putting the meat grinder in the freezer, I'd like to know if restaurants do that or not. Because I highly doubt it. Seems very silly.

[MisterBastahrd]

> The amount of salt in photo #6 is too much salt.

Except that's not true. It's perfectly seasoned. Whenever you cook meat, especially if you're grilling it, you need to season well because half of your seasoning isn't going to remain on the meat.

[antisthenes]

That is:

1. Only true if there's copious amounts of oil to absorb the seasoning. Otherwise it might get absorbed by the rendered fat of the burger. Sometimes 50% or more of it gets lost, sometimes less.

2. It is better to underseason than overseason. If you overseason, you end up with an inedible salt mess. If you underseason, all it takes is a quick sprinkle before you eat it.

That being said, I think the picture in #6 looks perfectly fine. I'd use a dash more of pepper though.

[MisterBastahrd]

I honestly don't understand seasoning a burger with pepper before grilling. By the time you're done, most of the flavor has been obliterated by the heat.

[mkj]

That doesn't seem to make sense, isn't salt insoluble in oil?

[bvisness]

In a video on Kenji's YouTube channel, he and his sous chef at Wursthall went through their sausage-making process, and they talked about how when they grind meat for sausages, they make sure the grinder parts and plates are in the freezer for at least an hour before grinding. (The video is entitled "Let Me Show You Erik's Sausage Room", at about 7:45.)

[matthewmacleod]

I’d argue that is quite under-salted - in my experience, beef in particular needs more salt than you’d perhaps expect!

I’d lose the pepper though. Each to their own, but I find that peppering just results in a burger that tastes of burned pepper.

[zbentley]

Just one anecdotal data point, but when I worked in a kitchen a very long time ago we would wheel the meat grinder and it's attached table into the walk-in in between uses, after cleaning. We only used it a few times a day so this was no great chore.

[fknorangesite]

> Seems very silly.

It is not, for all the reasons listed. You get much better texture when everything is cold, because you are actually grinding/cutting the meat, rather than squeezing and smearing it.

[julianlam]

Why not? If anything, it's less impractical, if only because restaurants usually have large walk-in freezers.