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Summer is in full swing, meaning the barbecues and grills should be ready and raring to go. No barbecue is complete without burgers sizzling away, and while buying premade patties at the supermarket may be convenient, making them from scratch is even more rewarding.

Adding seasonings can help boost the flavour of the minced beef, but there’s one surprise ingredient you can add to the mix to help make the burgers tender and juicier. Food writer Camille Berry revealed her secret ingredient is something all too familiar at a barbecue. She described the ingredient as a “non-negotiable” when it comes to making burgers from scratch.

Apparently, they even use the trick at culinary school. The key to a juicier burger? Mayonnaise.

Camille wrote for Simply Recipes: “Premade patties may be convenient, but if I’m going through the trouble of setting up my grill, I want the tastiest burgers possible. When I hit the supermarket, I head straight for the ground beef.

“Back at home, I plant the beef in a bowl and break out the seasonings. Then I head to the fridge to grab my secret weapon for the juiciest, most flavorful burgers: mayonnaise.”

How does mayo make burgers juicier

Essentially, by adding mayo, you add fat into the beef mince. Extra fat will make the meat seem juicier, as the mayo will be liquid at a lower temperature.

Mayo can also help the burger achieve a richer brown colour on the outside of the meat. Jeremy Yoder, culinary editor at ThermoWorks, told Simply Recipes: “By displacing water at the burger’s surface with fat rather than boiling the water away, you can heat that fat and therefore brown the meat more evenly because of the additional oil in the mayo.”

Not only will mayo help with the texture and colour of the burgers, it can also help elevate the flavour, too. As vinegar is typically an ingredient found in mayo, it can help bring a slight tang to the beef to balance out the meat’s “natural richness”.

How to add mayo to burgers

You won’t need to add a lot of mayo to the burger mix. Simply add one tablespoon of mayo per pound (approximately 450g) of beef mince.

Incorporate the mayo into the mince gently, as overworking the mince will result “in a dense, tough burger regardless of the ingredients you’re adding”. You can even use mayo when grilling other lean proteins, such as chicken, turkey or game.