The Umami-Boosting Topping You Should Be Adding To Burgers

You can certainly craft a mouth-watering burger using only meat and bread, but as Alton Brown notes, a pickle topping can make or break the dish. After all, the tangy, juicy composition of a preserved vegetable slices through the fatty beef, making it an easy vessel to impart vibrancy. And while cucumber pickles or perhaps pickled jalapeños are the classic go-to, you can also turn to kimchi for a complex, acidic, spicy, and umami-boosting upgrade.

Integrating the topping's easy — simply drain the cabbage and lay it atop the beef. The resultant flavor upgrade is wondrous and adds layers of complexity to such a simple dish, especially since kimchi comes in many varieties. Grab a jar of the classic Napa cabbage baechu, considering the level of spice and duration of fermentation to please your palate — the longer it ages, the more sour it gets. Or you could even opt for the milder white baek variety, which is free from pepper and instead delivers allium-flavored notes. Dependably, though, the fermented topping offers a delicious dose of savory flavors, often augmented through the use of fish, oyster, or soy sauce.

It's a flavor palate ideal for a burger, recalling the classic Korean pairing of kimchi with grilled meats like bulgogi or kalbi, just reimagined in American form. Kimchi's umami enhances the beef's savoriness, all the while delectably contrasting with crunch, heat, and acid. So sample the pairing for yourself — it might just become your new burger go-to.

There's already flavor-packed potential in layering kimchi onto a burger straight from the jar, but you can also expand the concept into a more throughout kimchi-flavored burger. For instance, kimchi is also delicious when cooked, meaning you could even chop the foodstuff and integrate it into the beef patty itself. Such a technique not only flavors the burger in every bite, but also increases the moisture of the patties, resulting in a mouth-watering result.

You can further enhance the concept by incorporating kimchi into other elements, too. Mix the remaining kimchi juice with mayo and optional flavorings like gochujang or vinegar, and you'll have a flavorful aioli. The condiment's a perfect addition to a bite-sized bulgogi burger, a spin that trades beef patties for Korean barbecued beef.

Alternatively, substitute beef for ground pork — an extremely popular protein in Korean cuisine — thereby creating an even richer meat-kimchi pairing. And for another Korean touch, serve the burger as a lettuce wrap, in a nod to a lettuce wrap dish called ssambap. Kimchi shines just as well alongside vegetables, meat, or bread, evincing its burger-topping success.