other things that will add umami are: tomato paste, pureed anchovies, pureed shitake/bella mushrooms, a little soy sauce.
i was thinking of grinding some bacon and adding it into the burgers.
“i was thinking of grinding some bacon and adding it into the burgers.”
Funny coincidence, just got a “Texas Squealer” burger recipe by email from Weber that calls for freezing some bacon, mincing it, and mixing it into the burger meat along with Worchestershire, granulated onion, salt and pepper.
Not tried it yet, kind of wondered if the bacon would get thoroughly cooked. Need to keep excess fat out of my wife’s diet, so usually cook her bacon crispy. Using 10% lean ground beef might be the trick with the bacon to avoid too much fat at the end.
I sauté garlic in butter, salt & pepper, raw egg, and Worcestershire and add it to the ground beef. Don’t get any complaints. I like the idea of the anchovies though.
I’d definitely prefer bacon grease to anchovies for savory, though “mushroom burgers” are well known. I tried putting chopped bacon in burgers, but the variation was so-so. Haven’t tried the tomato paste.
Though it’s a little hard to find, the Korean fermented soy bean paste called Doenjang, or the Japanese Miso, from which soy sauce is derived, also makes a good mix with hamburger. Unfortunately it is fermented in brine, so it is exceptionally salty, which needs to be taken into account.