As a dedicated eater of delicious hamburgers in my hometown of Los Angeles, Calif. — the veritable home of the tastiest burgers in world — I lament the serious dearth of palatable burgers here in Ithaca. Despite some big reputations, each burger in Ithaca has its problems: The Pines hasn’t mastered the patty-to-bun ratio, the burgers at Stella’s are far too cloying, and Ruloff’s are seriously arid. The irony is that hamburgers are so easy to make!

In light of this dire situation, I now present four fail-proof steps to create an amazingly awesome burger.

1. A hamburger is all about the bun.

A great bun makes for a great burger. The most important rule to remember when choosing buns is to avoid uncommon routes like ciabatta bread, challah, bagels and bialys. These options seem fun in their unconventionality, but in reality, they are far too much of a liability down the road when things like burger size, density, moisture and patty-to-bun ratio come into play. My best advice is to choose a simple, white bread bun with sesame seeds on top. Grill the bun until the edges tan, and you’re good to go.

2. Ketchup never fails.

If you’re chomping on a dry burger, just add copious amounts of ketchup and you’ll be fine. If you are out of tomatoes, onions and lettuce, just pour on the ketchup to compensate. Forget about the fancy aiolis, mayonnaise and mustards, and stick to the worry-free stand-by, ketchup.

3. Buy lean beef.

It’s very straight forward: the leaner, the better. This leaves your burgers tastier and healthier. Stick by that motto, it’ll turn out for the best.

4. Don’t go crazy.

Feel free to explore with a variety of cheeses — people seem to love goat cheese and blue cheese — or grill some onions, throw on avocados, add some spinach or try out some sprouts. All of these things can be fresh and appealing, but they can also be horrible mistakes. From experience I know that it’s really hard to pull off a bacon, garlic, guacamole and mushroom combo, and I think, in the end, a simple triple threat — patty, ketchup and bun — would have been the best way to go