How to Grill Burgers with Amy Nash

Transcript

Taryn Solie: Hello grillers! It’s your host, Taryn Solie, back with another episode of grilling inspiration for you. This episode is all about one of my favorite foods to grill – burgers. I get to talk with Amy Nash from House of Nash Eats all about burgers and she gives some great tips and tricks for cooking that quintessential bbq food.

Before we get started, if you like listening to the guests I bring on, please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast! I know I say that every time, but it really does help the podcast be seen by others who are interested in food and grilling. Now, let’s get into the episode.

Taryn Solie: Today on the podcast, we have Amy Nash. Amy is the photographer and recipe developer behind House of Nash Eats. She is a former lawyer and adoptive mom who loves sharing family friendly dinner recipes, recipes for the smoker, or grill, decadent desserts, and a modern from scratch approach to comfort food cooking to help others gain more confidence in the kitchen. Many of her recipes are inspired by having lived in different parts of the country and her travels to other places. Amy, welcome to the podcast.

Amy Nash: Hi Taryn, thanks for having me.

Taryn Solie: Yeah. Thank you for being here. I’m looking forward to our conversation today. Well, first I have to say, I’m looking forward to hearing about maybe some of your travels, because I want to know about how you’re traveling with kids.

Um, and then the other thing is I’m really looking forward to our conversation because it’s going to be centered around a very typical grilled food, which is hamburgers. But first, before we get into that, um, I want you to give people a little bit about your food background and grilling background and even travel background.

Amy Nash: Sure. Absolutely. So I grew up, um, the second oldest of five siblings and my mom went back to college to get a master’s degree when I was in high school. And I was, we were living in Nebraska and she would drive two hours each way, three nights a week. Long story short, I was put in charge of cooking dinner for our family of seven, three nights a week, three nights a week during high school.

And so I learned like, really early on, like how to cook for a large family. And I always loved to grill and I just thought it was fun. Like maybe it’s because I liked the flames. I don’t know. But, um, I thought it would be fun to go out there, but when I was a kid, I made all the mistakes grilling. Like dry chicken, dry burgers, like all of it.

And when I grew up and got married, like I just, I wanted, I always loved really good food and I wanted to make my food on the grill taste as good as anything I get from a restaurant or, or could order anywhere. And so I really set out to, like, achieve that and figure out what the tricks are to like making really, really good food on the grill, on the grill.

Taryn Solie: Yeah. Well, that’s quite an early start.

Amy Nash: Yeah, definitely. And then as we, like, as my husband and I, um, we did law school together and we traveled a lot together. And as we have traveled to many different countries and things you see like the different kinds of foods that people make. Whether, um, whether it’s on the grill or not. And we’d come home from our travels and we’d want to like, incorporate some of the flavors, um, of like different places that we had traveled to.

Like, we visited some places in like the Mediterranean in the middle east and we’d come home and like make grilled lamb and use some of those like great flavors. Um, so it was just a lot of, a lot of the recipes and foods that we love are inspired by the flavors of places that we’ve traveled, that we want to bring home with us.

Taryn Solie: Yeah, which is great. Like what- it’s such a fun component of traveling is eating the foods that are kind of, that are known for the- in the place that you’re traveling, um, and then bringing them home and kind of experimenting and like remembering like, oh, remember that great restaurant that we went to that had this lamb that you’re talking about, you know, and then recreating that at home. I love that.

Amy Nash: Yeah. And it’s a great way of experiencing like the culture. Like it’s a very authentic way of traveling and exploring the world.

Taryn Solie: Yes. And your kids- are your kids good eaters on your trips? Cause you, you have two kids, right?

Amy Nash: Right. So we have two girls and they’re two and a half years apart and they are great eaters. Um, I mean we, like every family, there are some things that people just don’t love. Um, but for the most part they’re really good. And when we do travel, which we’ve taken them, um, to more- over a dozen countries and they eat what the local food is. We try really hard to avoid things like burgers and fries, which is funny, cause we’re talking about burgers today.

But when we’re traveling in Cambodia or Thailand we eat curries. And when we’re in Costa Rica, we eat chicken and rice. And when we’re in Europe, we eat, like, the foods that you get in, in Europe. So, um, they, they eat everything. And I think that having that exposure to so many different types of cuisines and flavors and ingredients has helped them actually, become much better eaters.

Taryn Solie: Yeah. That’s so- I know this is like way off topic from what we’re talking about today, but it’s so interesting and I think can even play into, you know, what you’re cooking at home. Like you were just saying where you’re exposing your kids to, and not at, it’s not for every kid, it’s not for every family, but you’re exposing your kids to the different cuisines. And that makes it easier to have maybe more interesting or what are typically thought of as like adult meals at home, on or off the grill.

Amy Nash: Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Taryn Solie: Yeah. So, okay. So we’re gonna, we’re going to totally like topic hop and just go right into hamburgers because that is a food that most kids will eat and it’s kind of the classic, um, grilled food.

Like when you think of like someone having a barbecue, well, or like a cookout, what, what I in the Seattle area call a barbecue, what is not known as a barbecue in the south. That’s a whole different thing, but, um, just like a casual grilling dinner, um, barbecues are – psh, barbecues- hamburgers are one of the main things that people think of. And you have a number of hamburger recipes on your site and you have a lot of really great tips and tricks and just things people should consider when they’re cooking hamburgers. So let’s just like dive right in. Like, what are some of your, what are something you would want somebody to know to cook the best hamburgers that they could?

Amy Nash: Okay. So if, if you really want to make a really good hamburger, like my first tip is to choose the right meat. And I know a lot of people go with the convenience of like the frozen preformed patties that you get from Costco. And I totally get that. And if we’re doing like a big party with just like a bunch of people, we might just go with those. Totally get that. But if you really want a good burger, um, the real secret is like choosing the right meat. It shouldn’t be too, too lean. You actually want a meat that has some more fat to it. So something like 80/20 or 85/15 is kind of like the sweet spot for us.

Taryn Solie: And that’s the percentage of, like, fat to lean content and it’s on the package. Like if anyone is not familiar, it’s on the package at the store when you’re buying it.

Amy Nash: Yeah, absolutely. So that’s what you want to look for. You also want to look for meat that has good color to it, and if you can get freshly ground meat, that’s the best. So I’ll go to the butcher counter and ask for the meat that I want rather than just buying a shrink wrapped package of meat. If I want really, really like fresh tasty burgers.

And you can actually even like, if you really want to get into the nitty gritty of it, you can ask them to grind meat for you and ask for a combination of like sirloin, Chuck and brisket, or some of those, and they’ll go ahead and grind that for you and make like really fresh ground beef for you to use, or you can just use what’s in the butcher case. And as long as you get the right fat content you’ll have like, automatically your burger flavor will improve just by having that fat content.

Taryn Solie: That’s great. What else? What are some other things to consider here?

Amy Nash: Okay. So the other, like the big mistake that I made when I was a kid is whenever I would be in charge of grilling burgers, I would shape my flat patties and I put them on the grill and they, and I’m sure you’ve all seen this. They like suck up into like a ball or like-

Taryn Solie: Yes!

Amy Nash: Yeah. And, and they would get like so thick and I loved the sound of the sizzle when I would press down on them with a spatula. And it like sounds so good, but that’s like the number one mistake that people make when they’re learning how to make burgers, is you think, oh no, it’s getting so big and you press it down with the spatula to flatten it out.

And what that’s doing is it’s actually squeezing out all the juices, all of the moisture from the meat and that’s the flavor and what keeps it so like mouthwatering and juicy. Um, and you’ll end up with a dry burger if you do that.

So here’s like the trick that makes the huge difference. And it’s when you shape your patty, you want to use your fingers to make a little indentation in the center of your patty. And it shouldn’t be a hole, but just like press down a little bit.

So you make a depression and what that does is it makes it so the burger cooks more evenly and it doesn’t come up into like a little puffy ball. It just cooks into a flat patty and it makes such a huge difference. You’ll have better tasting burgers that won’t be as dry. And you won’t be so tempted to squeeze out all the juices when you’re flipping your burgers.

Taryn Solie: Yes, def- and I, I mean, I, I can’t think of a person that that hasn’t happened to. And even like, you do have- the indentation that you make, it does need to be- like you’re right. Not a hole, but like you do need to press into it a little bit. Like it’s not just like a light tap. It’s like a full, like, take your thumb and kind of dig into the burger a little bit because it does- otherwise, it really will make that like, make it much smaller and rounder.

Amy Nash: Yeah, for sure. Your thumb is a great indicator. There should be a, like a noticeable depression in the center of the patty. And the other thing to think about is like your patties, they will shrink up. And so you want to shape your patties so that they’re actually a little bit bigger than the buns you plan to serve them on.

So when you’re shaping out your burger, like you might want to do like a third of a pound of hamburger meat instead of just a quarter pound if your buns are larger. So that you end up with the correct bun-to-burger ratio. I mean, that’s depending on personal preference, of course, but that’s something that I always keep in mind when I’m shaping my hamburger patties.

Taryn Solie: Right. So if you’re feeding a lot of people and you’re trying to make things stretch, get small buns and then you can use less meat and the kind of have a go- spread out a little bit that way.

Amy Nash: Absolutely, for sure. That’s the, that’s the approach I would take.

Taryn Solie: Yeah. Now what about seasoning the meat before you put it on the grill?

Amy Nash: Okay. So I tend to think about burgers a lot like I think about steak and when you’re cooking a good steak, you want to have salt as, um, a flavor enhancer. And I personally tend to only season the outside of my burgers. Lots of people will mix things into the burger and add their seasoning, salt and pepper.

And some of them will use like a binder, like an egg or even breadcrumbs or things like that. Cause they think it will hold the burger together better and it will flavor the meat all the way through. And I get that. But the risk that you run is you tend to overwork the meat when you’re squishing it around, mixing everything together.

And I like to work, my meat as little as possible. So I shape my burger and then I think of it like a steak. And you want to generously season both sides of the burger. I like to use a coarse kosher salt because the larger crystals provide better flavor. And like draw out that like the meatiness and- of the, of the burger, and it will make it jucier, and like a moister- I know that people don’t like that word, but better result to your burger.

Um, and then you can really like the sky’s kind of the limit as far as like the other seasonings that you use on the burger. I think you have to have the salt and the pepper, um, which I use a freshly ground black pepper. But then I’ll grab like my favorite and you can get all kinds of burger seasoning mixes, or you can use like Cajun seasoning or like a Cajun rub or Montreal steak seasoning. Anything that you would put on like a good steak is going to be great on a burger.

Taryn Solie: Yes. Now, what are you- um, because you mentioned the salt, and doing salt and pepper. But what if you have a seasoning that is very salty, you want- I’m, I would think you would want to take that into account and maybe do a little lighter, like pre salting if the seasoning is very heavily, like salted, just be sure and look at that sodium content I’m guessing.

Amy Nash: Yeah, that’s a really great point. Check the ingredient label of any seasoning mix you’re thinking about using, and if salt is the number one ingredient, scale back on the amount of salt that you’re going to be using on your burgers.

Taryn Solie: Yes. I love that. Yes. Okay. So we’ve talked a little bit about like the prep, um, any other like prepping before it- like tips before the burgers go on the grill?

Amy Nash: Um, so a lot of people, especially if you’re doing like a party, burgers for a party, or if you are going to be having a busy night and you want to grill burgers, but you want to prep them, prep them ahead of time.

You can make them in advance and then just cover them with some plastic wrap and keep them in the fridge, so that they’re ready. If I’m doing that approach, I like to pull them out about 15 minutes before I put them on the grill. So usually I’ll just pull them out when I’m getting ready to preheat the grill and let them sit for about 15 minutes so they can kind of warm up just a little bit. So they’re not going totally cold right onto the grill grates. And that will help them be jucier and cook more evenly so that it can cook through, um, without like burning the outside.

Taryn Solie: Right. Where it’s like undercooked on the inside and burnt on the outside that- nobody wants a burger that’s like that.

Amy Nash: That’s absolutely right.

Taryn Solie: So how are you? Because that’s a, that is a great tip. And one of the reasons I think people potentially really like to cook hamburgers, because they are so easy to make beforehand and then just take out and the prep work is already done.

How are you storing them? Do you do, um, like I will sometimes do it where I put a piece of wax paper between each patty and then wrap it all up together. But some people recommend doing it flat. Like how do you typically store it? If you’re like prepping the night before?

Amy Nash: Um, if I’m prepping the night before, I’ll just put like some foil or some wax paper in between the patties and I’ll stack them up on top of each other and there’s no problem. And then just keep them in an airtight container.

Taryn Solie: Yeah. Okay, good. I just want to make sure I was doing it correctly.

Amy Nash: Yeah, yeah, no, that’s totally right. I mean, it’s, it seems like common sense, but like that’s a really great question that a lot of people have, I think.

Taryn Solie: Yeah, for sure. Okay. So now let’s move on to actually grilling the burgers. What are some things people need to keep in mind for that?

Amy Nash: Okay. So the things that I think you really need to know when you’re grilling burgers, is you want the right temperature and you want to know the right amount of time to cook your burger. So first let’s start with temperature and it’s kind of going to depend on, like, um, well, the temperature is going to be the same, whether you’re grilling over charcoal, over a gas grill, or even on a smoker. But you’re kind of going for that medium high to high heat that’s around-

oh, hold on one second. Can you hear that? No. Oh, okay. I’m getting a, an ad popped up. Oh gosh. I hate it. When that happens.

That’s okay. We can, we’ll like get to what get that turned off and then we can we’ll. Circle back. Okay.

Answer again. I can hear again. That was embarrassing. Okay. Okay. Um, I don’t remember what I was saying.

I was talking about like, getting to grilling the burger. Okay. Okay. So if.

So when you’re ready to start grilling the burger, the two things that I think are really important to think about are the grill temperature and how long you cook the gri- the burgers on the grill. So whether you’re grilling over charcoal or gas, or like an electric smoker, you’re going to want medium high to high heat.

So it’s probably going to be around 400 degrees Fahrenheit. And I like to have a thermometer that- like a grilling thermometer. They’re pretty inexpensive. And you can just leave it on your grill. And that will tell you the temperature. Cause I mean, lots of grills come with thermometers attached, but they aren’t always super reliable.

And so I just like to have another one to like, let me know. And you want to preheat your grill so that the grill grates are hot when you put your burgers on them. You don’t want to put them on a cold grill because that’s when they start to stick to the grill grates and you won’t get the great sear marks, like those black lines that like look so beautiful. Um, you, you get those by having the grill grates preheated.

Taryn Solie: And you want to make sure you have clean grates right? Like that’s half of it is to make sure you’re not putting them on dirty, a dirty grill.

Amy Nash: Absolutely. Get your grill brush and make sure to clean them off before you grill anything, not just burgers, right? Like that’s just a good habit to get into. So that you get the best flavor and they release and they don’t, like- whatever you’re grilling, isn’t sticking to your grill grates.

Taryn Solie: Right? Exactly. So then how do you feel about flipping? Because some people really love to flip the burgers.

Amy Nash: Yeah. I mean, that’s fun, right? It makes you feel like you’re doing something and really accomplishing something by flipping those burgers over and over. Um, I really strongly feel like you should only flip the burger one time. So the more you flip it, the more chances it is likely to lose, um, flavor and the juices that are in the meat.

If you just flip it one time, like I said, just like with a steak, if you know how to cook a good steak, you’re only going to flip it one time. So the first time you put it on your surface, you want it to sear. Which is why it’s important to start with that high heat. And what the searing process does is it seals in the juices into the meat, so that when you do flip it, they’re not all going to just pour out.

So you want to like leave it on the grates for long enough so that it sears the bottom of meat and cooks the bottom part of the burger. And then you flip it one time and it will cook the burger the rest of the way. And you can add your cheese right then because you’ll already see the color that you want, that dark grill grate marks on your burger. And you can add the cheese just in the last minute and you don’t need to flip it again. So that’s what I really recommend is just flipping one time.

Taryn Solie: Yes. And are you, um, li- the lid, because this is also a little controversial. Do you keep it open or closed when you’re cooking your hamburgers.

Amy Nash: Okay. So, because burgers are typically grilled over high heat and, um, over the flame, like using direct heat, you don’t need to close the lid. The burger will cook through just from the, the heat of the coals or the gas, whatever you’re using. The reason I close the lid when I’m cooking my burger is really just to melt the cheese. Like, cause we like cheese on our burgers. So we close the lid so that the, the whole grill heats up inside and you put the cheese on and it’s melted in like 60 seconds and that’s it. And so you really can go either way. And I don’t think it’s as big of an issue, which way you decide to do it. But, um, we typically grill with the lid off until we’re about to put the cheese on.

Taryn Solie: Yes. And burgers, for the most part, if you’re, you know, if you are starting with a high grill or a hot grill I should say, then, um, they, they don’t take forever to cook. It’s not something where you need that heat to like lock in. You know, they’ll take a couple of minutes, each side.

Amy Nash: Right. So they’re not super thick and that’s a great point. Like you want to have like an idea of the grilling time for your burgers. And typically if you’re doing like a medium rare burger, so that it’s got a little bit of pink in the middle, you’re talking about like six to seven minutes total for the burger.

So you’ll flip it at about three minutes and cook it on the other side. If you like them a little more well done, then you might be looking at eight minutes for a medium to medium-well burger, like eight to 10 minutes. We tend to do ours, a little pink, just barely pink in the, in the middle. So it’s usually six to seven minutes.

Taryn Solie: Right. So burgers are not something where you can like walk away from the grill and like go make yourself a plate or, you know, like go to the bathroom. You want to pretty much be at the grill and be watching your burgers as they’re cooking.

Amy Nash: Yeah, absolutely. So, and maybe I should’ve mentioned this first, but you want to prep your toppings before you even then start making your burgers have, like-

Taryn Solie: Good point.

Amy Nash: If you’re doing basic toppings, like have your lettuce and your buns and onions and pickles, all of that kind of stuff pulled out and kind of ready to go because burgers- and it’s one of the great things about burgers and why we love them so much. They’re such a fast dinner to prepare and, and they’re really easy.

Because of that, you kind of want to do a little prep work. And if you’re doing like more of a gourmet style burger, you definitely want to prepare like sauces and aiolis and other like special toppings beforehand.

Taryn Solie: Yeah. So this is, this is a great segue because I want to hear what some of your like favorite toppings and favorite burgers that you’ve had are, to give people an idea of like what they can do with a burger.

Amy Nash: Okay. So I think that a lot of like, home-, like people who grill at home tend to like, just stick to like your basic burger, which I totally get and I love. But there are some like, really easy ways to like elevate your burgers and make them like as good or better than any burger you’d get at, like, a fancy restaurant or burger joint, even for like beginner grillers.

So some things that I like to do are think about like your toppings. So we’ll do like an easy homemade aioli, where you mix mayonnaise with like pesto sauce or mayonnaise with some minced garlic or other flavors like that’s in Chipotle peppers. Um, and give yourself like a ton of flavor just in your aioli to top it.

Other things we like to do are like, add like a bacon jam, which is so amazing. And I’ve got a recipe on my site, but you can buy it at stores. Um, or some specialty stores sometimes. So if you ever see like a jar of bacon jam, grab that, because that makes for incredible burgers, especially if you already like bacon on your burgers,

Taryn Solie: Which who doesn’t like bacon on their burger, I mean, oh my gosh. That’s like the best.

Amy Nash: Absolutely. Or just make bacon for your burgers. Right. Quickly, cook up some bacon so that’s ready to go with your other toppings. Um, we love crispy onion strings on our burgers, so we’ll make those. Um, another, like my friends, their favorite burger for me to make is one that I was inspired by a restaurant.

I don’t even remember where I had it, but it was a blueberry bacon burger. And it had this sauce that was kind of like a syrupy- cross between a syrup and a jam. It was made with blueberries and balsamic vinegar. And it’s incredible. You get the savory and the sweet and the tangy sauce with like a classic burger and some like spicy peppery, arugala instead of regular lettuce.

And it like, that burger is unreal. It’s on my site and it’s such a fantastic burger. And that’s the one that I get asked to make more than any other burger. And it’s fun. And it’s, it’s so different to like add fruit to your burger, but that’s what like the blueberry sauce does. And people go crazy for it.

Taryn Solie: That sounds- I would never have thought of that truthfully, like I’ve, I’ve done like grilled pineapple. I think that’s a pretty common fruit to have on top of a burger, but that blueberry sauce sounds amazing.

Amy Nash: Oh yeah, absolutely. And, and I love that you brought up pineapple cause that’s another great, great idea. Like using fruit, like grilled pineapple, avocado, guacamole. I mean all of these great condiments that we love. If you just offer like a couple of those, um, if you’re having a party or even if it’s just your family, you offer a few of those different flavors. And it takes your basic burger and makes it into something just like that everybody just raves about, and they go crazy for it. And it’s fun and it’s exciting and new and different and a food like burgers that we’ve grown up with and most of us have eaten our whole lives, suddenly tastes, like, really interesting and, and amazing. Like gourmet who knew, and it still takes basically the same amount of time.

Taryn Solie: I love that. That’s such a great tip. So then, so, okay. That blueberry burger sounds crazy good. What are some of your family’s favorite burgers to eat either classic or gourmet?

Amy Nash: So in my family, my kids go crazy anytime I make crispy onion strings and offer those for the burgers. Like they just love the crunchies and like the salty, like fried, you know, so that’s definitely a favorite.

Um, and then another favorite thing for them is when I, um, do something other than regular lettuce. So we’ll pile on, like- we love cilantro. I know some people hate it and I, I totally get that, but we love cilantro. So I do a cilantro burger where we just use cilantro in place of lettuce. And it’s, it’s delicious.

Like you can use herbs to really bring out flavors in your burgers. So cilantro, arugula, um, other types of like greens make for a really great burgers that my family loves. Also the aioli that I, that I already mentioned. Um, anytime I, like, I offer a flavored aioli, everything else about the burger can be the same and they just go crazy for that.

Taryn Solie: I love that. Now I read on your site a tip about lettuce in burgers, which I thought was really good. So I wanna, I want you to tell people what that is because I was like, oh, I never even thought of this.

Amy Nash: Okay. Um, so this is something I didn’t even realize until just a couple of years ago, but I tend to like pile my burgers pretty high. They’re pretty big. And when you have a really good juicy burger, if you put your burger right on the bottom button, the bottom bun will get soggy. So if you put lettuce underneath, so you do bun, then lettuce, and then the burger goes on top of the lettuce. It keeps- and then your other toppings on top of that, it keeps the bun from getting soggy and just makes it so much easier to eat. It’s such a simple thing, but try to do that next time. If it really does make a huge difference.

Taryn Solie: Yeah. Yes. I love that. I think that’s such a good idea and it’s just so simple, like how of- how has no one ever thought of this before?

Amy Nash: Well, I think people have, like, I see them assembled like that. It’s just, I never, I never thought to do that. And nobody ever told me that. It’s not something that I read anywhere.

So on my, on my blog, I, I tend to post a lot of burger recipes and I decided I was just going to write up this post about like my burgers 101 and explain like all these things that we’ve kind of talked about it and write it all out because I was getting asked so many questions about burgers from people. And that way I could just point them to like this resource. And when I wrote it down, I realized like, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that written out anywhere. And so it seems basic, but I feel like it makes a big difference.

Taryn Solie: Yes, for sure. And we will link to that, like burgers 101 guide, um, in the show notes page, I think that’s a great resource for people.

And it covers a lot of the things that we’ve talked about. So if you want something that you can look at, that will be a great place to go. Are there any other things Amy, that you want to hit on? Kind of before we start to wrap up.

Amy Nash: Um, I don’t think so. I think-

Taryn Solie: That’s fine. I feel like we’ve covered a lot. We may have hit everything.

Amy Nash: Yeah, I hope so. I would just say like, don’t be scared to get out there and grill those burgers. Like, and I know like for a lot of people, it’s, it’s the husband’s job to grill the burgers, maybe traditionally in a lot of families.

And I say, grab that spatula and get out there. It’s actually like one of my very favorite things to grill and you are armed with knowledge now. Like you will go make burgers for your family and there’ll be like, these are the best burgers we ever had. We want mom to grill the burgers from now. Like I promise.

Taryn Solie: I love that. I love that so much.

Amy Nash: Or maybe don’t do that. If you want your husband to do the grilling.

Taryn Solie: You prep and, and then maybe tell him a few of the things that you’ve learned and then yes. And then your partner can go do the grilling. I love it. Well, this was so fun. I do want to ask you one last question that I ask everyone. And that is what is- besides burgers, what is one of your, either current favorites or like all time, favorite things, um, to grill for your family?

Amy Nash: Um, so we love grilling fish. Like fish is just so good. I’ll do a whole, like a whole fish. And my kids think that’s just the best meal. It’s something we had in Greece where they just grilled the tail and head and everything, the whole fish. The kids love that.

Um, we were just at an Airbnb, um, traveling over Easter in one of the national parks in Southern Utah. And we grilled salmon on the grill for our Easter dinner. And it’s one of the reasons we love staying at Airbnbs. And it was just such a fantastic nontraditional, but delicious Easter dinner. Cause we just love the flavor that the grill adds to fish. It cooks so quickly. It’s just a great protein.

Taryn Solie: Yeah. What, how were you grilling the salmon? Were you doing like Cedar planks or just like straight up on the grill?

Amy Nash: We do it straight on the grill. So I like that approach if I’ve got a large piece of skin on salmon, because you can lay it down, the skin kind of helps hold it together and helps keep it moist and not dry out without the hassle of like a Cedar plank approach to it.

Cedar planks are great too, but yeah. Yeah. I like to do skin on salmon because then you can just throw it on, grill it, flip it and it’s done pretty quickly and it’s pretty easy to do.

Taryn Solie: Yeah, for sure. No, that sounds really good. Well, this was so much fun, Amy. I think this is a great conversation. I’ve learned so much about cooking burgers and serving burgers and so many great ideas. Um, we’ve mentioned a couple of the recipes. We’ll include that in the show notes page, but where else can people go online to connect with you?

Amy Nash: So I am online on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all of the places @HouseOfNashEats and my website is HouseOfNashEats.com. So I, I’m probably, I’m most responsive on Instagram.

That’s where I spend most of my time, but you can find me on any of those places and you can always sign up for my email newsletter. That’s right on my site. You’ll see a, a box where you can subscribe. And I send weekly emails where I give new recipe ideas. And especially as we’re going into grilling season for most people, um, I’ll be sharing a lot of my grilling tips and some of our favorite grilling recipes there.

Taryn Solie: Fantastic. That sounds like a really great resource. So hopefully people go up and sign up for that. I want to say, thank you, Amy so much for coming on the podcast. This has been such a fun conversation.

Amy Nash: Uh, thank you so much for having me Taryn. This was awesome to talk about one of my favorite foods.

Taryn Solie: Are you craving burgers now? I definitely am. And I have to mention, between doing the interview with Amy and having it go live today, I made Amy’s blueberry bacon burger and it was every bit as good as it sounded so I definitely recommend trying it out.

I’ve included the link to that and some of the other recipes that Amy and I discussed on the show notes page. To get to it, you can either visit my recipe website at Hot Pan Kitchen (dot) com and click on podcast in the main menu or just click the link that’s provided on whatever platform you’re listening to this podcast on. Thank you for tuning in today and until next time, keep grilling like a mother.