Recipe: Burgers Re-visited

Last weekend, I had another try at burgers.  The good thing about burgers is that you can get great results with very little time or effort - just some carefully timed preparation and you can have a meal pretty quick.

I followed a similar approach as last time, except rather than the single, larger patties, I went for slimmer, "smashed" patties - but with two in each bun. I also added a cheese slice to the experience.  The end result was agreed to be better than the last attempt, so will modify from here.

There really isn't much to it, but here's the details (quantity for two complete burgers, 4 patties) :

Ingredients

• ~400 grams beef mince - as per previously, exact blends of meat are most often personally guarded secrets, but even just ground braising steak (or chuck)  is a pretty decent option to get started.  This time around I actually just used 15% fat content Aberdeen angus beef, and was still fine
• Salt
• Two rolls - depending on your preference, I go for Brioche burger rolls
• Sauces - I go for yellow mustard on the base and relish/tomato sauce on the top
• Two cheese slices
• Mature cheddar

Method

Pre-head the grill/broiler and a heavy bottomed frying pan on the hob, for about 10 minutes on a high heat.

1. Split the mince into 4 even balls and squash into a patty shape - ideally about the diameter of the bun, it should be pretty slim
   
   
2. Cut the buns in half and lightly toast under the grill (cut side facing the heat)
   
   
3. Sprinkle salt on the top of each of the patties, and depending on the size of your pan put them in salted side face down - ideally I guess two at a time - with a spatula press down on the tops of each patty (for the smashed effect) - cook for a few minutes until nicely browned on the underside
   
   
4. Sprinkle salt on the op of patties and flip & repeat
   
   
5. Once buns are lightly toasted, add a few slices of the cheddar to the top half of the bun and toast further until melted
   
   
6. Apply yellow mustard to inside base of the bun and relish to the top half (the cheese half)
   
   
7. Once patties are nicely browned both sides, place one on the base of the bun, followed by a cheese slice, followed by the top of the bun.
   
   
8. Eat!

Cooking time probably won't take more than 10 minutes, so if you have the buns, cheese and raw patties ready to go at the start, you can get it done pretty efficiently (if not frantically!)

Latest fad #47 : Burgers

Yep. Time for another random fad.  This one is not entirely my fault though, as I did receive a cook book entirely about making burgers at Christmas (a very aesthetically pleasing and readable one at that), so it's to be expected that I give it a try at some point.

There seemed to be quite a craze about home made burgers a few years back. I'm not sure if it was actually a national thing, or just a craze when I was younger/a student that students go through. Anyways, the craze back then was for non-burger burgers. By which I mean, they never actually resembled burgers you might be in a restaurant or burger place. They were typically big oval-ish balls of supermarket mincemeat with, at the very least, chopped onions, eggs and flour added, often lots of other things (herbs, cheese, etc).

Now I have nothing against this brand of home-made burgers, but really, as my tastes (and I suppose my understanding) has evolved, I am more inclined to make burger-burgers. The type that burger joints make, the type that I guess you could say burger-snobs prefer (if you can truly be a snob about something as dirty as a burger?).

There are lots of these burger purists about, on the internet, or in the aforementioned Hamburger Gourmet book, who focus on three things:

1. The only ingredients in your patties should be: beef & salt
2. Everyone has their own "secret" blend of three beef cuts that they use (for some reason, three is the magic number). Kenji over at the FoodLab has a great run down of different beef cuts for burgers along with tasting notes and fat content.
3. Cooking technique is very important - They need to be seared at a high temperature (for the maillard reaction and to hold the patty together)

So I decided to have a pop. Due to a fairly limited choice at my local Waitrose meat counter, and on the basis that I was just testing out the technique, on Kenji's recommendation, I went with the standard chuck mince (no blend here!), which is more commonly braising steak in the UK.

I found it took quite a while to get my pan up to a high enough temperature to effectively sear the patties, I pre-heat for about 10 minutes but still didn't seem as hot as it should be. I will try a different pan next time.  Applying pressure whilst cooking also helps sear quicker (and also helps for a more "smashed" effect burger)

In the end, it tasted pretty good. The problem I have with burgers, is that for all the effort, they just taste like burgers. Now this isn't a bad thing, they are satisfying, warm, soft and definitely fill a need, but they rarely blow you away. Great burgers are great, but run of the mill burgers from half-decent fast food burger places can taste pretty great too..  For me, the magic really lies in the combination of cheese, relish (maybe mustard) and meat wrapped in soft bread soaking up the juices.  So for all the effort you put in, I'm not sure you really a proportional increase in return on your effort.

That said, its actually pretty low effort required, so I will do it again soon. Who knows, maybe this weekend..