Made a new basic burger tonight which was mad simple, and i was able to focus on customized ingredient toppings for Lori and I. Found a writeup in one of my grilling books about adding a couple teaspoons of ketchup to the raw meat, along with salt and pepper. I shaped these as usual with a thumb imprint in the middle to get a flatter burger after cooked:

I thought I'd use some bacon as a topping, but the fat content was out of control on the boar's head bacon i picked up at the butcher. So i sliced as much off as i could, and ended up with strips to cook like this:

And even more gross looking is what i had left over:

But a lightbulb went off and i thought i could use the fat to oil the grill grates:

Great idea. These burgers never even attempted to stick to the grates. Super easy to rotate for grill marks and flip. Once the burgers were done (about 5 minutes per side), i started layering. On a grill toasted brioche hamburger bun bottom i started with some bacon strips:

Then the burger:

And then the variations. I opted for blue cheese, arugula, and raw red onion:

Lori opted for american, mixed greens, tomato, raw red onion, and avocado:

These two pics are perhaps the most staged and self-conscious food pics I've taken to date. But man, these were some solid burgers. Not the absolute best ones yet... still overcooked a bit. I have to remember to cut the time down. Should have done for 7-8 minutes total i think instead of 10. Lori ended up thinking she liked my classic worcestershire/oregano combo better than this ketchup mix... which made sense for her toppings. Mine with the blue cheese needed something more basic and i think this was the right mix. Fun burgers to make though. I loved the process as usual.