It's summer, and as much as that means eating cold soup and ice cream, it also means standing outside in the heat, above a hot grill, preparing sizzling food. No food best exemplifies this American seasonal double-act than the hamburger, which is the only foods I can think of that no one, not even the boldest gastromolecular chef, has thought to serve cold. So here's how to do them nice and hot, and perfect each time.

1. Pick your ground meat.

Here's the only ratio you need to remember when you're assembling a burger:

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1.5 pounds of ground meat : 1/2 cup of chopped onion : 1 egg :1 teaspoon soy sauce : 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

And that's it. Choose your favorite ground meat for it. I like a combination of equal parts chuck and veal, and I don't really like turkey. But this will free you up from following others' recipes by wrote and allow you to do something special to you, which is the whole goal of grilling in the first place. Combine them all.

You'll notice it's a little on the wet side. That brings us to our next point.

2. Add herbs.

Add whatever herbs you like (rosemary and thyme here) until the ground meat mixture isn't too eggy. Make sure you don't add too many, or it'll all fall apart.

3. Grill.

Mold them into burger shapes and pop them on your grill. Cook 'em for five minutes on each side, then pop them onto a bun with whatever you like.

We recommend: bread, lettuce, meat patty, fresh sliced pineapple, fresh sliced beets, fried egg, spicy mayo, bread