Marcus Samuelsson Reveals Why Chopped Beef Beats Ground for Better Burgers

Marcus Samuelsson, the James Beard Award-winning chef and founder of Food Republic, is urging home cooks to abandon pre-ground beef in favor of hand-chopped meat for a superior burger texture. In a recent interview, Samuelsson explained that the mechanical grinding process pulverizes muscle fibers into a dense paste, while chopping preserves a loose, airy structure that sears like “a thousand little steaks” rather than a single compacted patty.

The difference comes down to physics. Industrial grinders force beef through fine plates, shredding proteins so tightly they bind into a rubbery mass when cooked. Chopped beef, by contrast, retains microscopic air pockets between irregularly cut fibers. Those pockets prevent the meat from squeezing into a dense puck on the grill, yielding a lighter bite with a more pronounced crust — the Maillard reaction playing out across exponentially more surface area.

Samuelsson recommends briefly freezing cubed beef — 15 to 30 minutes — before processing. The chill firms the fat and muscle so a food processor’s pulse function produces clean flecks instead of smeared paste. “You want tiny pieces that just barely hold together,” he said. “Not a paste. Not chunks.”

The method also unlocks flavor control impossible with store-bought blends. Cooks can select specific cuts — chuck, brisket, short rib — and trim precisely for an 80/20 lean-to-fat ratio. Fat caps and excess marbling can be rendered separately into tallow for the cooking pan, a technique restaurant kitchens have used for decades.

Because chopped meat resists overworking, it tolerates mix-ins that would toughen ground beef. Samuelsson folds in finely minced mushrooms for moisture without diluting beef flavor, or a single egg yolk per pound for richness and binding. Both integrate with a few gentle turns, no kneading required.

The technique traces to classic French haché preparations and Korean yukhoe, where knife-cut beef showcases texture that grinding erases. Samuelsson’s adaptation brings that principle to the backyard grill, arguing the extra ten minutes of prep transforms a hamburger into something closer to a steak sandwich.

Food Republic’s test kitchen confirmed the method produces patties that hold together on high heat without the springy resistance of overworked ground beef, with crust formation noticeably deeper and more irregular — the hallmark of superior Maillard development.