A hamburger cut in half on a roll on a wooden cutting board

Kelsey Juntwait/Mashed

Warm weather means firing up the grill, and one way to win this grilling season is to turn out ideal burgers that impress your hungry guests every time. The good news is it's not complicated. In our test of a dozen ways to cook hamburgers, a simple method produced perfection on a bun. Heat a grill to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and when it's hot, sear your burgers for three minutes per side, letting the patties rest for five minutes afterward.

This method beat out a variety of others, like smoking, sous vide, and plain old pan-frying. The resulting burger's uniformly charred exterior with a rich, juicy interior impressed the best. After a few minutes on each side, the burger's interior registered 125 degrees Fahrenheit, which increased slightly to a perfect medium-rare cook after resting. Our test found this worked well on a charcoal grill, but this method also works for other types of grills, too.

Although it's not the easiest way to cook a patty, a charcoal grill doesn't involve much specialized equipment beyond the grill and coals. It also doesn't involve any difficult cooking techniques and with a short cook time — though keep an eye on the meat's internal temperature to determine your preferred doneness — it was also relatively fast.

How to create a juicy, medium-rare burger

A pan with raw burger patties next to a bowl of burger rolls on a wooden table

Kelsey Juntwait/Mashed

After making your burger on a grill, you'll notice the beauty of the charred crust, a hallmark of grilling. Why is that? It comes down to the type of heat the grill creates. Charcoal grills create intense radiant heat. That is, warmth coming from the coals themselves contribute to the overall cook, adding to the grill's temperature. Conversely, gas grills rely more heavily on convective heat — circulating hot air – so the crust may not be as picture-perfect due to less heat intensity. This type of heating is common with appliances like ovens, which is why our oven-cooked burgers failed to develop the same consistent crust as the charcoal grill.

High heat on the outside means the crust will develop nicely, but for the perfect interior temperature, resting is essential. That's when carryover cooking happens, meaning that even after the meat is removed from the heat source, its temperature will continue to rise. When grilling burgers, pull them when they're slightly lower than the desired doneness, as they will increase by a few degrees while resting.

A high temperature also means the fat on the outside caramelizes while the fat inside renders and becomes liquid. That's why the charcoal burgers stayed so juicy. So for your next cookout, light up some coals, and don't be afraid to turn that heat up.