Why YSK: When you cook meat, any water on the surface must first evaporate before much browning can occur. You want to get as much of a Maillard reaction as possible in the limited cooking time you have before the meat reaches the correct internal temperature. Removing the moisture first means that the heat of the cooking surface isn’t wasted on evaporation and can instead interact with the meat to form the complex sugars and proteins of the Maillard reaction.
Sort of. If you’re doing burgers, you don’t usually need to pat it dry, but you also don’t salt it until just before you put it on the pan/grill. Salt still draws out moisture and changes the protein structure especially in ground beef.
But hamburger is definitely different to beefburger? Right? Does anyone actually make hamburgers any more?