HAMBURGER. A cooked hamburger should be flat, but most people’s grilled hamburgers come out oval-shaped (higher in the center and lower at the edges) and shrunken so they are a lot smaller than the bun. Nobody likes hamburgers like that. There are several reasons this happens.

1. The hamburger patty was oval shaped to begin with. If you are forming ground beef into hamburgers with your hands, it is easy for them to come out oval shaped. Make sure your patties are really flat or dimple them in the center with your fingertips.

2. The grill was too hot. Meat shrinks when it is cooked too quickly.

3. Your ground beef had too much fat in it. The cheapest ground beef can be over 30% fat. The best ratio for hamburgers is 80/20. That’s 20% fat.

Also, don’t buy oversized buns. Bigger isn’t better. A lot of hamburger buns are ridiculously too big. Ideally, a hamburger should be the same size as the bun.