The Bold Burger Trick Emeril Lagasse Uses To Pack In Big Flavor

Noam Galai/Getty Images

There are plenty of tips foodies can use to cook like Emeril Lagasse. For instance, he believes fresh citrus can bring just about any dish to life, and that every home cook should have a durable cast iron pot and quality knives in their collection. One of his tastier bits of advice? Stuff your burger patties with punchy, funky blue cheese for a supremely flavorful, moist handheld.

The burger trick is a gem of Lagasse's early TV career. In Season 1, Episode 72 of "Emeril Live," the Food Network show where Lagasse cooked in front of a live studio audience, he prepared his Kicked Up Blue Cheese Stuffed Burgers. In the segment, he placed a patty of blue cheese in the center of a mound of seasoned beef. Then, he molded another meat patty over the cheese, pressing everything together. After he rubbed the stuffed burgers with oil, Lagasse placed them on the grill. "You see how they ... have a tendency of splitting? Don't panic," he assured. Once assembled, he sliced a burger open, revealing a creamy, decadent layer of warm blue cheese in the center. 

The blue cheese stuffed burgers Lagasse made on the show look exceptionally plump. This is because he advises against squishing down the patties while they cook, or you'll risk losing moisture and flavor. He also recommends using top-quality beef with around a 10% fat content and finishing the patties with celery salt right before they hit the heat.

Bhofack2/Getty Images

Filling burger meat with cheese is a decades-old practice that precedes Emeril Lagasse's cooking career. It dates back to the 1950s when the Juicy Lucy was invented in Minneapolis. The key is nailing the proportions of meat and cheese, so that the cheese melts but doesn't completely pour out of the burger at first bite. 

A cheese-stuffed burger patty not only creates a more indulgent, rich sandwich, but it also makes the meat impossibly moist. Melted cheese keeps the beef from drying out, and infuses every crumble of meat with extra juiciness. Lagasse making his blue cheese-stuffed specialty on the "Rachael Ray Show" is proof. The inside turns creamy, molten, and succulent, evident by some cheese spurting out the side of the patty when the burger is pressed into its bun.

A crucial step to stuffing burgers is ensuring that the components cook evenly. Start with cold beef straight from the fridge to make the patties easier to form, keep the fat from melting too early, and prevent the cheese from getting too melty before the outside cooks. The cold fat will also assist the burger in maintaining its shape and size, so you'll end up with uniform patties. And, with a variety like blue cheese, which doesn't liquify when heated, stuffing it in the patty makes for a less messy eating experience, as no molten streams of cheese will pour out of the burger as you dig in.