How to make the ultimate burger

Byron’s Tom Byng helps you make the ultimate burger

Choose a cut of beef from the fore quarter, ideally chuck, and ask your butcher to mince it through a 4mm grinder.

Ingredients

For the hamburger

1.

- 1kg freshly minced beef,

- Sea salt and black pepper,

- 300g mature cheddar cut into 50g slices,

- 12 rashers streaky dry cure bacon, grilled until crispy,

- 6 soft white baps, split in two,

- 1 tbsp vegetable oil,

- Half a red onion, thinly sliced

2.

- Ripe beef tomatoes, sliced,

- Handful of fresh, crisp lettuce

For the Byron sauce

- 2tbsp mayonnaise,

- 1 tbsp tomato ketchup,

- 1 tsp chopped capers,

- 1 tsp chopped gherkins, splash of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper

Method

1. Press the mince into 180g patties. Heat a skillet or, if the weather’s good, your barbecue. Season with sea salt and black pepper.

2. Cook the underside for about three minutes, flip the patties, season again, top with a slice of cheese and cook for another three minutes.

3. Remove the burgers from the barbecue and leave them to rest. Brush the baps with vegetable oil and place on the barbecue, cut-side down, for 30 seconds.

4. Fill each bap with a hamburger, two rashers of bacon, onion, a slice of tomato, lettuce and Byron sauce.

5. Eat with one hand or two — cutlery would be heresy.