The Burger Lab: How To Make Surf & Turf Burgers (Bacon- and Lobster-Topped Burgers)

J. Kenji López-Alt

There's not really much to making a perfect Surf N' Turf burger. All you need is some impeccably good beef and lobster and absolutely perfect execution. Easy, right? Here's how.

The burger starts as any other burger does: with really good ground beef. For the best results, you'll want to grind yourself, but barring that, some good freshly ground chuck will do. Check out our Guide to Grilling Great Burgers for some tips on how to maximize flavor and texture in your patties.

Next, we add a big scoop of sweet, tender, lightly dressed lobster salad. Lobster is one of those high-class ingredients that is quite easy to mess up. Accidentally overcook it a smidge, and it turns straight to rubber. We've found that to get the absolute best flavor and texture in a lobster, you should start with a soft shell (and summer is the time to get 'em!) and cook them first with a brief steam, followed by a spell in the oven, where their meat will not only cook gently, but actually intensify in flavor. Check out our Complete Serious Eats Guide to Lobster where we go through all these tips in detail.

With burger and lobster done, you're in the home stretch. From there, all you need is a nicely toasted buttery bun, a swipe of mayo (the natural bridge between lobster and burger), a fat slice of ripe summer tomato, a leaf of lettuce (ok, you can leave this out if you must), and some bacon to tie the thing together.

Like I said. Easy.

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