ground meat

seems to be a theme around these parts. observations from repeated attempts at cooking the same thing:

1. meat cooks faster and tastier on a very hot skillet,
2. ground meat patties plump up in the middle when they are cooked to medium-rare, then flatten out again past medium (though the plumping-up and deflation happens quickly, so can be easy to miss),
3. patties are tastiest when medium rare and allowed to rest for a few minutes off the heat.

ergo: watching like an eagle, cook patties in a very hot skillet til they're plump, then rest them off the heat.