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If there’s one thing TikTok (and now Reels) has been giving us over the last few years, it’s innumerable, and sometimes alarming food trends. From the pandemic-perfect Dalgona coffee to the current and controversial ‘Girl Dinner’, there’s always something new in the social media archives to talk about. And this week, it’s ‘Water Burgers’.
The trend started snowballing with a video posted to TikTok by user Tbabenailz in which she cooks her hamburger patties in boiling water. Soon the concept was boosted again on Instagram by user Joshua Godfrey (@joshandmomma), an account dedicated to Joshua’s mother’s questionable cooking habits
The concept itself is fairly straightforward. Instead of searing off your hamburger meat patty in oil or on a grill, you immerse it completely in boiling water until it’s cooked through. The technique is meant to retain the moisture of the meat and keep it from drying out.
Users had plenty to say about this concept though and most of them were horrified at the idea of a watery burger. “I’m so disturbed by the fact that there is ZERO seasoning on these patties - let alone - the water bath cooking method,” said one user. Some people however were behind ‘Momma’ and her water burger attempts such as the one user who said, “Not going lie my homeboy mom use to cook her burgers like that, but she used a little bit of water and cooked them in the oven, and she was a damn good cook. Those burgers came out juicy and delicious.”
In reality, this method isn’t something revolutionary or even particularly new as in East Asian, and particularly Chinese cuisine to make juicy dumpling fillings. Even in Western cuisine, adding water or ice cubes to the pan and steaming a burger patty towards the end of the seasoning process is fairly common and sometimes even recommended for a better result.
Some netizens think that the videos, especially the one by Godfrey, are simply an attempt at getting more views by sparking internet outrage. “Y’all know she gets weird recipes and does them to be filmed. No way anyone would just cook a burger in water.” says one user, “They’re making money from this craziness. No hating. But it’s very obvious.”
While it’s true that it takes very little to incite discord among social media comment sections these days, it’s hard to tell whether this new ‘water burger’ trend is simply a hack that’s being misused for views or a genuine attempt at the culinary arts. Either way, it’s sure to keep FoodTok and Foodstagram audiences questioning their sanity for a few days.
