boatnut
is Blowin Smoke!
Well, there is this guy, in England, named Heston Blumenthal, a chef actually, but, with a real mad scientist approach to classical cuisine. In essence, he want to create food that looks 'normal' but, achieve consistent and superior results. He created something called a granulated burger, the process of which is not widely or completely known. But, there are a couiple of guys in San Francisco, great guys, who may have recreate the process.
They grind their own meat and use a process that does not 'mash' the strands that come from the grinder knives. In essence, they create these long tubes of meat, by pulling the meat away from the grinder and then placing them side by side. It results in a burger that is very porous. Their burgers are never compressed.
I am trying to mimic that while not having to pull out my grinder. Plus, I do not have the right commerical meat grinder that would allow me to achieve this effect. However, this is close enough for backyard work. The theory really is similar to the perched water table I describe. Another way to think of it, have you ever had a coarse sausage where the grind and rendering of the fat left a texture that was both tender and meaty, juicy and flavorful, that is similar to this, yet there is no skin.
I pierced each patty dozens of times, from many directions, while in ball form, then dozens more once pressed. There may have been a hundred holes by the time I was done.
I can see the advantage to a "granulated/un-compressed" burger but wondering when done the mad scientist's way, how it holds together during the flipping process , let alone getting it on the grill??