Posted on 08/30/2014 4:08:45 PM PDT by nickcarraway
That’s what I was going to write.
The scrambled eggs inside the burger cook, holding the juices in, you can’t even smash them out. Whatever spices you add to the scrambled eggs will also be cooked in.
The first thing is to bribe your local butcher enough to pass a 10lb brisket through his meat grinder a couple times to make your ground beef. Trust me.
The best beef/fat blend for burgers is 80/20. However, beef tallow is not the best for flavor. So a trick is to get 90/10 beef, then blend in bacon grease.
It not only has a much better flavor, but is loaded with the “fifth” taste, savory, aka “umami”. It is why bacon is so loved, because only a few foods have a LOT of savory in them, and bacon is one of them.
Other things that can be added to the meat before cooking (not all at once) are liquid steak seasoning, liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce (which also has savory), Tabasco or Louisiana hot sauce, or Hawaiian-style (with pineapple juice) teriyaki sauce.
And after cooking, but still on the skillet or grill, put a pat of butter on each patty and rub it around until it melts.
other things that will add umami are: tomato paste, pureed anchovies, pureed shitake/bella mushrooms, a little soy sauce.
i was thinking of grinding some bacon and adding it into the burgers.
“i was thinking of grinding some bacon and adding it into the burgers.”
Funny coincidence, just got a “Texas Squealer” burger recipe by email from Weber that calls for freezing some bacon, mincing it, and mixing it into the burger meat along with Worchestershire, granulated onion, salt and pepper.
Not tried it yet, kind of wondered if the bacon would get thoroughly cooked. Need to keep excess fat out of my wife’s diet, so usually cook her bacon crispy. Using 10% lean ground beef might be the trick with the bacon to avoid too much fat at the end.
I sauté garlic in butter, salt & pepper, raw egg, and Worcestershire and add it to the ground beef. Don’t get any complaints. I like the idea of the anchovies though.
That Smash Burger has had the good juicy fat smashed out.
Sliders are silly.
I always get the feeling that sliders are preferred by people who really really like bread, and are willing to eat a little bit of beef as well.
I’d definitely prefer bacon grease to anchovies for savory, though “mushroom burgers” are well known. I tried putting chopped bacon in burgers, but the variation was so-so. Haven’t tried the tomato paste.
Though it’s a little hard to find, the Korean fermented soy bean paste called Doenjang, or the Japanese Miso, from which soy sauce is derived, also makes a good mix with hamburger. Unfortunately it is fermented in brine, so it is exceptionally salty, which needs to be taken into account.
The problem with hand shaped patties is they are usually mounded in the middle so the lettuce/tomatoes/pickles fall off. The trick to getting a flat patty is to smoosh a ball of meat between a flat bottomed bowl and a plate or cutting board. Mix the meat and seasonings in the flat bottomed bowl to save a dirty dish.
About the only ground meat here is the 70% and it’s $16 a 5 lb tube. Yikes! It wasn’t that long ago it was $14 for a 10 lb tube.
Stella’s near STRATCOM in Bellevue NE. The best burgers ever! Have to spend extra time in the gym, but it worth it.
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I agree. Every time I see someone doing that, I cringe.
Last fall my nephew came for a visit. He got me to fry our burgers in bacon drippings. That's what I do now, when I'm the cook.
Sat. night I had Cheddar-mushroom burgers.
I buy 1/2 beef from local farmer (grass fed with two weeks of non GMO corn feed right before going to the butcher). About 40% is made into hamburger.
Take two pounds and mix with one pound of Jimmy Dean’s uncured sausage. Saute chopped Vidallia onion, green peppers, salt/pepper/one clove fresh crushed garlic. Mix this into meat with COSTCO organic seasoning to taste. Let stand overnight. Make into patties and cook to med/ med rare. Top with Sharp cheddar. mmm, mmm, mmm
Ground chuck burgers are delicious. I ask the butcher for the trimmed fat cap from Prime Rib. Grind that to a ratio of 70/30. Heaven on a bun!
Stella’s - Ya!
I used to stop in there for lunch, I agree, my only complaint is their frys, I like mine crisp on the outside. But the hamburgers where great.
I like to fry them in bacon grease as well, but blending the grease into the uncooked hamburger makes it even better.
Oddly enough, I learned the trick, after a fashion, from McDonald’s. They get their meat from steers, but they get their fat they use from dairy cattle, then they blend the two together before making frozen patties. This helps guarantee consistency in their cooking process.
However, as I mentioned before, beef fat is not as tasty as is bacon grease, so I get the 90/10 mix, then add in bacon grease until it is about the optimal 80/20 mix.
This would be about 3 Tablespoons of bacon grease.
And do try melting a pat of butter on each cooked burger, as it both enhances the flavor, and gives it a juicy look. It is often done to enhance cooked steaks as well.
(As you might imagine, I use a lot of bacon grease in cooking, so I’m on the lookout for cheap bacon, and just separate the fat from the meat, and render the fat in a large Pyrex bowl, storing it in a glass jar in the fridge.)
I buy all my meat from a local really small grocery store that lives off their old fashioned meat counter. They grind all their own hamburger from quality meat. They sell bacon burger patties and I buy them. Best hamburgers ever.
Nope, you won't, and it is essential to making a great burger. You smash it down as soon as it hits the grill. It hasn't cooked yet and juices are not going to run out. But smashing it makes maximum meat to grill surface area, giving necessary crust.
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