Banish burger blahs by tucking savory surprises inside patties

Before you toss the usual burgers on the grill this summer. Before you endure the usual groans from bored burger eaters among family and friends. Do this: Stuff it.

Yep, surprise those blasé about burgers, and up your grilling game by tucking a chunk of cheese, a spoonful of sauteed mushrooms or some chopped, grilled red pepper — and more — inside a burger patty before grilling.

The lowdown on stuffings — a few from Sam Zien:

o Pesto, goat cheese: “Beautiful inside lamb, great inside beef.”

o Sauteed red onion, barbecue sauce, American cheese torn into small pieces.

o Feta, red onion, fresh mint: Chop red onion and fresh mint. Mix with ground lamb, salt and pepper. Tuck chunk of feta in middle.

o Mushrooms: “Sauteed, with a little kosher salt, pepper and maybe a little vermouth or soy sauce at end.”

Think about stuffed burgers the way cookbook author Sam Zien does: “For me, it’s like a little party. Surprise! Here I am. You didn’t think there was going to be a piece of feta inside.”

The stuffed burger, Zien adds, “has always been an old-school kind of concept.”

And a good, reliable one, we might add. The surprise factor has worked every time someone bites into a plump sausage orb dubbed a Scotch egg and finds a hard-cooked egg inside.

And it worked every time your granny tucked a hard-cooked egg or cheese into the middle of the family meatloaf only to elicit giggles from children when the cooked loaf was sliced.

Why, the stuffed burger has long held a place of honor on menus across the country, from the Minneapolis-St. Paul eateries boasting the cheese-stuffed burger called, variously, a “juicy lucy” or “jucy lucy,” to New York’s Stumble Inn, where five stuffed burgers have helped build its reputation. And cookware stores boast stuffed-burger-making gadgets.

“I love putting things inside (burgers) because certain things inside definitely help with the moistness of a burger,” says Zien, who likes stuffed burgers so much he included a recipe in his latest book, “Just Grill This!” (Wiley, $19.95); put a few in his previous cookbooks; and prepared them on his TV cooking show in his San Diego hometown.

He steers clear of wacky concepts, though, recalling when “chefs went wild with it and they started putting foie gras and truffles and maniac stuff like that inside. … That’s why God invented restaurants for that kind of food, right?

“Mere mortals at home have a different task in front of us and a different budget.”

But before you tackle the inside job, he offers a few burger-making caveats, including buying the right ground beef for grilling which, for Zien, means a mix of 20 percent fat and 80 percent lean.

“People go to the store and see fat content and freak out and it scares them into buying a package of ground beef that has absolutely no fat in it. Then you need to make up for flavor and juiciness in many other ways,” he says.

Zien’s next caveat? Go easy on handling the meat. “I like the natural-looking shape,” says Zien. “Who cares what the shape is? Make it the shape of your Uncle Leon’s head, as long as it’s an even thickness.”

Stuffing can be done two ways. “Make one. Lay the stuff on top — keep it about a half-inch away from sides — then put the other patty on top and squeeze the edges together.” Or form a patty, make an indentation with your thumb, stuff and seal.

Blue Cheese Stuffed Burgers

Prep: 15 minutes. Cook: 6-8 minutes. Servings: 4-6.

Note: Adapted from Sam Zien’s “Just Grill This!”

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

1 teaspoon seasoning salt

2 ounces blue cheese crumbles

2 tablespoons butter, softened

Olive oil

Freshly ground pepper

4 to 6 pretzel rolls or other buns, toasted

Mix beef and seasoning salt in a bowl. Form into 4 or 6 burgers. Combine blue cheese and butter in a small bowl; mix well. Make an indentation in middle of each burger with your thumb; fill with some blue cheese mix. Fold burger around the mix; seal well.

Lightly oil each patty; season with pepper. Heat grill to medium-high. Cook burgers, 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. Serve on toasted buns.

Nutrition information: Per serving (for 4 burgers): 479 calories, 48 percent of calories from fat, 25 g fat, 12 g saturated fat, 130 mg cholesterol, 22 g carbs, 39 g protein, 828 mg sodium, 1 g fiber.