Fast Food Style Double Cheeseburger Recipe

Nothing beats a good double cheeseburger! However, if you are trying to recreate that fast food double cheeseburger its not so easy. One of the tricks to doing this right is to make the burger patties yourself and make them just like the fast food joints.  Give this recipe a try this summer.  The kids love it and its fun for the adults, too.

Here's what you'll need:

• Hamburger Buns
• White Onion diced very fine
• Mustard
• Ketchup
• Ground Beef (80% lean)
• Pickles
• Cheddar cheese

First you'll need to make the burger patties. You'll need a digital scale and a burger patty former. For the best taste you need to buy 80% lean ground chuck. McDonalds serves 1/8 pound burger patties for their Bigmacs, cheeseburgers, and double cheeseburgers. Get your digital scale out and wrap it in plastic wrap. This helps keep things clean. Measure out slightly over 2 oz of ground beef in a little ball. I aim for 2 and 1/4 or 2 and 1/8 oz.  If you don’t use a digital scale the world will not end, you’ll just have a harder time making the patties the correct size.

Plop the meat in the patty former and squish it down hard. My patty former is really for 1/4 lb patties, which is a good thing in this case. The 1/4 lb patties are larger and if you've ever grilled burgers that are 80% lean you'll know that they shrink up really bad. Thus, you need to make these patties really flat and thin, so when the burger shrinks on the grill it will be just the size of your bun. One trick I like to do is to grab some cheap wax paper. Cut it up into burger size pieces and layer the patties with the wax paper. This way when you freeze them they won't stick together.  See the included photo.

When you grill these burgers prepare a medium to medium low heat. It is very important to not have high heat or you will burn these burgers really fast. I do 1 min per side over direct heat and then move them off the direct heat until they are done cooking. While the burgers are cooking it is a good idea to sprinkle some salt and pepper on the burgers to season them.  After the burgers are cooked you can then top your burger anyway that you like. However, if you want to try to recreate that McDonalds double cheeseburger, please read on. I worked at McDonalds in 1995 way before college and graduate school and here's what I remember:

Squirt 4 dabs of mustard on the top bun. Then squirt 5 dabs of ketchup in between the mustard spots. Then take the white onion which has been very finely diced and sprinkle on top. Then add two pickles. Put your cheddar cheese on top of each burger patty and you're ready for the next step. 

This may surprise some of you, but at McDonalds, at least back in my day, all of the finished food was put in a microwave just before serving. We would make 6 or 9 double cheeseburgers at a time, wrap them up and slide them into a microwave. The purpose of this was to warm the bun and the toppings and most importantly to melt the cheese! Try it - it is a really nice addition to your meal. I would do maybe 20 seconds per burger.

John is the author of the internet food blog http://www.grilling24x7.com. Check out more grilling recipes and tips at http://www.grilling24x7.com and follow John on Twitter at http://twitter.com/grilling24x7.