Burgers topped with griddled onions and sliced cheese
Hyperion
Onions for this perfect burger are made by caramelizing them with butter and red pepper flakes.

It's the July Fourth weekend. You could grill salmon or lamb kabobs, but you know what you want: the perfect burger.

Recently, barbecue chef extraordinaire Adam Perry Lang taught NPR's David Greene how to make that perfect burger while toiling over a George Foreman Grill in NPR's mail loading dock.

"You know when you hit a good burger," says Lang, who wrote Serious Barbecue: Smoke, Char, Baste, & Brush Your Way to Great Outdoor Cooking. "This really makes the ultimate burger."

But the ultimate burger takes a lot more than throwing a few beef patties on the grill and toasting some hamburger buns. The meat itself is a three-part formula: Chuck gives it body, sirloin and brisket provide depth of flavor, and the brisket also adds that stick-to-your-ribs feeling.

While it might be intimidating to try a complex burger recipe, Lang says the key is to organize.

"You go in, you get the stuff ready, read through the recipe — glance through it, and then just go for it," Lang says. "You really can't screw it up."

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