The Best Burger Loaded with Umami
Our ugly, but incredibly savory, delicious and popular umami loaded burger recipe (umami hamburger) now has an update. This time, it became the ultimate umami loaded cheeseburger, which is updated in the recipe. This recipe has been in our family since the early 1980’s and recipe originally published in 2009.
Family Umami Burger Recipe
For the longest time, we’ve been making the best darn umami hamburger recipe on the face of this earth (insert personal bias.) We’ve never had a specific name for our homemade umami loaded burger recipe until someone tagged it as the “magic meat”, but not as in “mystery meat” or “I can’t tell if this is chicken or beef.” Rather, it was to describe the magical flavor sensations that everyone experienced when they bit into one of our patties. That “magic meat” term described the juicy, flavorful and savory burger patty that everyone fought over. Sometimes the buns were tossed to the side or forgotten because the meat was just so delicious and satisfying.
Watch the video making these Ultimate Umami Hamburgers:
It wasn’t until recently, with all the discussion on Umami (the rich, savory taste in foods) that our umami hamburger recipe was re-named as the hamburger loaded with umami. Our hungry friends were always stumped to figure out the secret ingredient and could never, ever pinpoint that “magic” flavor that made our patties so unique.
It’s the ultimate burger that is so satisfying and savory, no one can eat just one. Make it a double, please. But this umami rich burger recipe isn’t a new invention, nor is it a trendy recipe to keep up with the popularity of umami rich foods. No burger chain should ever make claim or ownership to this savory burger. Many families have been making this for decades before any trendy burger joint capitalized on the idea. This recipe here is a family recipe that started from my Vietnamese-American family back in the early 80’s, in a 2-bedroom apartment, in the middle of Southern California…
our ultimate umami loaded burgers are the highlights of our outdoor gatherings
About Our Umami Hamburgers
Diane –
That Vietnamese family is obviously mine. Growing up in a Vietnamese family of 6 kids who were always hungry and thirsty for more American foods, my parent had to figure out a way to feed their hungry pack of kids. Back then, hamburgers were the “American’s food”, “that sandwich with that big piece of meat in it, with the red and yellow sauces and the sour cucumber slices.” My siblings and I wanted to eat “Ham-buh-guh” all day long and we wanted it NOW.
My parents figured out that it was much more economical to make burgers at home and did exactly that by created their own recipe for the patties. Of course, being Vietnamese, they marinated the beef in the only way they knew how—splash fish sauce to it. Fish sauce is the golden elixir to us Vietnamese, take it away and you drain the blood out of our cuisine. Fish sauce is the fermented salvation from the food gods above, and it’s pure umami brings out the savory depth in all foods.
With their batch of beef, my parents’ splashed fish sauce as the one and only marinade into the burger recipe. With the addition of a little sugar for balance, garlic for more aromatic love and black pepper for bite, their simple recipe has evolved into what our friends call today as “The Ultimate Umami Burger.”
This recipe isn’t unique by any means, especially in a Vietnamese household. I’m certain there are many Vietnamese-American families who splashed their burger meat with fish sauce!
Todd –
I know what a lot of you non-Asian people are thinking, “Fish sauce? Um, hell no.” But wait, my dear skeptics, and listen to my confessional. For many years when I first joined up with my beautiful Asian girlfriend, I avoided fish sauce. Let’s face it, it stinks like something most of us are not used to. It is, after all, fermented anchovies. Mmmm, tasty! Not. At least so I thought, but man, was I ever wrong.
One fine meal while dining on a grilled shrimp ball, I dipped it into the Vietnamese classic Nuoc Cham (Viet Fish Sauce Dip) and I suddenly saw the umami. There was no nasty weird fishiness, instead the fish sauce’s own flavor virtually disappeared and many of the other flavors within the grilled shrimp ball became heightened. Everything was good before, but after the addition of the the fish sauce everything was incredible. I was instantly converted.
Ever since I’ve never hesitated in grabbing for the bottle of fish sauce. It was my brother-in-law, a classic mid-west guy, who dubbed the fish sauce laden ground beef as the “Magic Meat.” It was that damn tasty. And now we have another believer in the umami.
Sure everything will be tasty without the umami adding fish sauce. However, it will be even better with the magic sauce.
Credit to Mom and Dad
Oh btw- our forever family burger recipe was not inspired by any copy-cat burger chains bearing a similar name. This is definitely not an endorsement for anyones burger other than this one that Mom and Dad have been making for decades. Our umami hamburger is way more simple, clean, un-fussy, un-pretntious and way more delicious because the ultimate umami comes from the fish sauce that we’ve been using for decades.
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This recipe was originally published in 2009 and republished in 2015 with updated video.
The Umami Loaded Burger Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. (907 g) Ground Beef
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons (22.5 ml) Fish Sauce (for more daring, savory depth, use 2 tablespoons)
- 2 cloves (2 cloves) Garlic , crushed or fine mince
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) Sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) fresh ground Black Pepper
- 6 (4-6) Hamburger buns (or 8-12 slider buns)
- condiments of your choice and cheese makes it extra decadent and special
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine fish sauce, garlic, sugar and black pepper. Add the marinade to the ground beef and combine until all the ingredients are mixed together well. Refrigerate the beef for at least 30 minutes. We like to allow the beef to marinade overnight in the fridge for optimum flavor, but most of the time don't plan that far ahead. They still always come out great, even with the shorter marinade time.
- Gently form meat into patties for sliders or burgers. Form them to the size of your burger or slider buns.
- Cook on a skillet or grill. If cooking on a grill, make sure to pre-heat the grill and to scrape the grill clean before grilling. It will help minimize the sticking. (1/2 pound patties on a med./high grill take about 3 min. per side for med. rare burger. Heat temp., thickness, etc. all affect cooking times).
- Assemble your burger with your favorite condiments and treat yourself to the cheeseburger version!
I made this recipe for my wife and I 2 days ago. These were possibly the best burgers that we’ve ever had. I just warmed up 2 burgers in toaster oven for leftover lunch and we were less than impressed. That extra fishy flavor that everyone needlessly worries about for the initial cooking was painfully present. Is there a way to reheat these so they turn out better?
Hi Howie, So glad you both enjoyed the recipe! for re-heating we suggest taking it out of the fridge and let it warm up a bit before microwaving. That way you don’t need to microwave as long and hopefully the aromas won’t be as strong. Hope this helps and let us know if this works. We’re sure our readers would love to find out.
I’ve been using this recipe for a few years. Best burgers ever.
We cook for 2-4. Can I freeze the meat with the marinade and thaw it later?
Hello Carla,
Yes you can certainly freeze the meat patties. Then when you’re ready to cook, thaw them first. Enjoy!
Can I skip garlic or add garlic powder instead ?I’m afraid of the garlic flavour in the burger , not sure about it
Hi Dina! Yes, you can use garlic power instead of fresh garlic. Or you can just eliminate the garlic. But the fish sauce is the key to all the flavor!
I made these last weekend. I am a super picky eater and I really liked these burgers. You couldn’t taste the fish sauce. Next time I will use more fish sauce
That’s awesome that you enjoyed the fish sauce Kim! and yay to more fish sauce on your next batch. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe. I actually made my own hamburger from this your recipe. I will refer my friends to your blog so they can know how your flavorful hamburger is made using your recipe. thanks.
Hi there,
I just recently discovered (what I thought on my own) fish sauce in a burger. Up until I put some in my burger recipe, I thought I had stumbled onto something so incredible and secret that I had to jump on the interwebs and see if anyone else had done this and to my surprise (not really) this has been done! My recipe is slightly different than above but, like yours, really makes for a succulent burger. How I stumbled across fish sauce is I ran out of salt and thought, I’ll put soya sauce in to add the salt but I was out of soya sauce! Now, I make A LOT of Vietnamese food, so I had some fish sauce way back in my fridge and thought, why not? I was nervous at first, it’s not like you can taste test raw hamburger mixture and I had made my patties my normal way of pork/beef mixture, garlic, parmesan, p&s, minus the s, + the fs.
Mind blown.
Yummy homemade burgers are the best and this is great recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Simon