Food Myths

The Food Lab lists it's Top 6 Food Myths, and I'm glad to see this one in particular:

Common backyard know-how dictates that burgers and steaks should only be flipped once, half way through cooking. But has anyone ever bothered questioning why we do this? Does it actually create a noticeable improvement in the way your meat comes out?

Turns out the answer is an emphatic no! Flipping your meat multiple times produces meat that's noticeably more evenly cooked (there's about 40% less overcooked meat in a burger flipped every 15 seconds vs. one flipped once), browns just as well (just don't expect distinct hash marks), and to top it all off, ends up cooking in about 2/3rds of the time. Faster and better? You betcha!

Moral of the story: if you see your buddy doing that multiple flip thing, don't get on their case. They're doing good.

At some point in the past few years, probably at the exact same moment it was announced you only cook tuna for a minute, keeping it pink inside, every person in the world heard "you only flip a burger once!" and since then you can't come within 10 feet of a goddam grill without some Joe Q. Burgerfuckingexpert sidling up and braying "you know you're only supposed to flip once, right?"

Grrrrr.