Using an English Muffin as a Burger Bun

I started thinking about this because of putting an English muffin on a burger last week. Something I've done many times, and will do again. I don't mean to imply that such a thing isn't ok. The English muffin is very tasty in this instance. But it isn't perfect. In particular, I'm a stickler for hamburger texture. I think the texture of a burger is paramount, and is often given short shrift. It should be loosely packed. Last week I formed these suckers myself and I packed them fairly loosely. Not too loosely, but loosely. I put quite a few toppings on my burger. First, as mentioned previously, pickles, but also in this case shallots, jalapenos, and 2 slices of Land 'O lakes American. That's a bit to fit on a burger, and my burgers always puff up a bit. I'm still working on that. Your nominal muffin is a bit on the small side, but that's not really the problem.

I toast the muffins, and I place them with the nooks and crannies facing the burger. The burgers I made last week came apart quite a bit. That's not the end of the world, but it doesn't help. They were still quite good though. You might say it's because of all the crap I put on it, or it's because the burger is not flat enough, or too round, or it's not tightly packed enough, or you might say it's because the muffin is too small. But I realized over the past few days that perhaps the main problem is that English muffins aren't really soft, especially when approached from there exterior, as in this case. My teeth aren't sharp enough to pierce the outer crust of the muffin without my jaws applying some pressure. The result is I am squeezing the burger too much. The meat breaks apart and crumbles, and the toppings spill out.

I'm not saying I don't like a burger on a muffin, but I see now there's a good reason why hamburger buns should be soft. I bought some today. I also wonder if placing the nooks and crannies on the outside would help with this. I think it would be a little easier to bite through, probably not easy enough, and I think the interior would tend to slip out.