The Canned Meat You Need For Easy Flavor Bomb Burgers

While we often think of burgers as humble cuisine that professional chefs would mock as plebeian, many of them hold fierce opinions about what makes them exceptional. According to Bobby Flay, your burger needs crunch, and Alton Brown makes crispy and juicy patties by deep frying them. But there is one alteration to this quintessential cookout fare that few celebrity chefs employ, and it might just be the game-changer you need to get you out of a burger rut. 

Instead of wasting your money on Wagyu beef for burgers, grab a can of Spam on your next trip to the grocery store. I can hear it now: the appalled cries of "blasphemy!" and "sacrilege!" spawned from the offensive notion of adding canned meat to an iconic classic. But before anyone has a meltdown over using this often misunderstood protein to elevate a burger, hear me out.

Once regarded as an inexpensive way to feed your family during the Great Depression, Spam has been making a comeback as of late, and for good reason. The almost spongy texture is what throws many people off this overlooked meat, but when grilled or fried, the outside firms up with a welcome crust while retaining a tender bite in the middle. The one-of-a-kind salty and savory pork flavor blows the somewhat tame nature of plain ground beef out of the water. It also meshes with just about anything you can imagine putting on a burger, giving folks the opportunity to create a delightfully unique meal.

The terrific thing about using Spam in a burger is that there are a multitude of ways to do it. The simplest way to incorporate Spam is to cut the canned meat into thin slices and fry it up like strips of bacon. It won't have the characteristic smokiness of the classic burger topping, but it will add that salty, savory flavor that complements the beef and cheese. If you're feeling spicy, you can season it with chili powder before cooking it or top it with a bit of sriracha. You can also balance the savory nature of the canned meat with sweeter ingredients such as brown sugar and maple syrup.

If you want to get really cheffy, grind Spam and ground beef in a food processor and form patties with the mix. You can incorporate onions, hard-boiled eggs, and cheese into the patties for extra flavor. Give them a hard sear — smash burger style — or pop them under the broiler for a few minutes to achieve a crisp on the patty that's hard to get with just ground beef alone.

Of course, you can also just take a thick slice of Spam and use it as a substitute for a ground beef patty. Most commonly, folks turn the canned meat into a Hawaiian-inspired burger by topping it with ingredients like grilled pineapple and red onion. Giving the burger more of an Asian theme by glazing the Spam with a Korean BBQ sauce or hoisin and finishing it off with pickled cucumbers or even some kimchi works just as well, if not better.