M. FERRANTE wrote:
> I was watching the Epicurious cooking show on The Travel Channel and
> the chef said that he never commits the ultimate sin of pressing down
> on a hamburger (to rid it of grease) while it is cooking. Do you
> press or no?

A thousand times "no". Pressing down will press out the juice and
you'll have a dry hockey puck. I spent my childhood trying to
understand the "mystery" of hamburgers....how they could smell so
wonderful while cooking and taste like dry beads. My father was the
hamburger cook of the family and he pressed, and pressed, and pressed
the hamburgers. They were so well done and Sahara-dry that they just
about fell apart when tapped with a fork.

> If a person chooses not to press down, then how does one tell if the
> hamburger is done?

After a bit of practice you'll be able to judge the degree of doneness
by the time and temp of the cooking; or you could cut into a burger to
check. Some people can tell by pressing (gently) the burger with a
finger. That technique takes a little practice and some
trial-and-error but it's pretty accurate.

Mac